The Immeasurable Greatness of God's Power

Well, good morning.

I think it's fitting for us to begin with a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, You are good and wonderful.

Thank You for these songs and these reminders today of Your goodness to us in Christ.

God, I would just pray now that You would give us a spirit of wisdom and of revelation and knowledge of You

that You would make known the immeasurable greatness of Your power to Your church today.

I ask it in Christ's name and for His glory alone. Amen.

I think as human beings we are a little bit awed by power.

A tree fell on our house a couple years ago and I was able to acquire a chainsaw.

I was pretty impressed by the power of this thing to just slice through this hard wood.

I think of the athletic competitions and the power displayed by a defensive lineman

as he sheds the double team and gets into the backfield to trample on the quarterback.

Or Usain Bolt, the fastest man in the world as he wins yet another gold medal in a sprint at the Summer Olympics.

I think of the power that's demonstrated in nature.

Waves crashing against the shoreline of Lake Michigan.

Thunderstorms.

The electricity of the lightning, if you've ever been close enough to experience that.

The rumbling of thunder itself.

And then there's times when nature kind of even acts in a stronger way

and it devastates creation with earthquakes and tornadoes.

But this passage that we're looking at today in Ephesians chapter 2,

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

there's an even greater power on display.

One that just trumps all natural types of power imaginable.

In fact, you could combine them all together and you still wouldn't even begin to touch on how great a power this is.

It's a supernatural power.

It's a spectacular power.

And it's worth considering together again this morning.

Of course, I'm talking about the power of God.

And the way that the Apostle Paul is going to set this out for us today, I believe, is ultimately to drive at this.

If you could take away one belief, if you could leave here with one thought, it would be this.

That salvation is the display of the immeasurable greatness of God's power exercised for you.

It's God's spiritual muscle flexing for us.

It's a display of unimaginable strength.

Salvation is the immeasurable greatness of God's power exercised for you.

So let me read this for us.

If you haven't turned there, we're going to be in Ephesians 2, verses 1 to 10.

Ephesians 2:1–10

This is God's word to us.

Paul writes,

And we're by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

So just to give us a little bit of context about where we find ourselves,

of course, Mike preached through this book a couple years ago,

and you may be wondering, well, why are we back in Ephesians today?

It seemed good to us to, in the midst of some hard passages of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount,

talking about the exceeding sinfulness of sin,

to be reminded this morning of our great salvation.

And so, Paul starts out his letter by affirming his apostolic authority,

and then he goes right into these spiritual blessings.

In fact, we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

That's how chapter 1 starts, and he outlines them.

The Father is at work.

The Son is at work in redemption.

The Holy Spirit sealing us until our inheritance is possessed by us.

And then he starts praying for this church in Ephesus,

and the height of his prayer, he's saying,

God, give this church, give this people a spirit of wisdom and of revelation and knowledge of you.

Enlighten the eyes of their hearts.

And then he says,

so that they know the hope to which they're called,

that they know the glorious inheritance,

and then this one here in verse 19,

what is the immeasurable greatness of God's power toward us who believe.

And he unpacks that by talking about Jesus and his resurrection and his ascension,

his lordship over all dominions and authorities,

his headship over the church,

and then in further description of the great immeasurable power of God,

we come to our chapter 2, verses 1 to 10.

That's why I say that God wants us to see that salvation is the immeasurable greatness of his power extended to us.

And so Paul is going to be very clear in this passage.

There's three parts to his argument.

We're just going to follow straight down the page and see them all,

hopefully very clearly this morning.

So part one is the powerlessness of man in our hopeless condition.

We see that in the first three verses.

We see immediately in verse 1,

and you are dead.

It's worse than we could have ever imagined, friends.

There's no apparent way forward.

There's no recovering from this.

Dead.

Corpses.

Spiritual corpses.

Not dying.

Not sick.

100% dead.

In trespasses and sins.

Paul's redundancy in speaking of it this way is to outline the comprehensive moral evil

in which humanity finds ourselves.

In other words, he's talking about, cumulatively, the intentional boundary crossings,

the misstepping of God's laws.

He's talking about falling short of God's standard in spite of our best efforts.

He's talking about our active wrongdoings and our passive misgivings.

He's talking about the sins that we commit and the goods that we omit.

All-inclusive.

This deadness he speaks of is a spiritual alienation from God.

Severed relationship with our Creator.

But there's more.

In verse 2 and 3, we see that not only are we dead in sins,

but we're enslaved to this evil's triple threat.

The world, Satan, and the flesh.

If you look in verse 2, we see that we were once walking in these trespasses and sins,

following the course of this world,

following the prince of the power of the air,

the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.

This walking Paul speaks of is not a pleasant stroll,

and it's not as if we've got this nice, spick-and-span clean outfit,

and we're kind of tiptoeing through a bunch of sin, trying not to get dirty.

No, we're immersed in it.

This is our lifestyle, apart from Christ.

Marching in step with a corrupt world,

living life according to society's moral failure,

arrogance, mockery of God,

indifferent to sin,

promoting self,

trying to preserve self,

trying to exalt self.

It's, of course,

marred by evil.

And it seems most likely that Paul connects this purposefully to this prince of the power of the air,

found at the end of verse 2 there.

Of course, this is Satan,

and it's probably best not to think so much of his power here,

but of his domain.

It's the territory of the air that this demonic angel is ruling over.

This realm of the air,

it's a little bit tricky to understand,

but basically what it seems like Paul is saying is that

he's not a tangible body on earth,

but he's neither in the heavenly places in authority,

but he's in kind of this in-between world of spiritual darkness,

and it's impacting directly everything that takes place on this earth.

Notice that Paul says,

now at work.

And I think we can extend that now up to today, obviously,

without much question.

Satan still roams and rules over those who are apart from Christ to this day.

But just to make sure that we're not the unwilling victims in this situation,

Paul continues in verse 3,

that we once lived in the passions of our flesh.

Notice that he's no longer saying just you, Ephesians,

but now we.

Paul begins including himself in this depraved situation

because it's true not just of the immoral,

but of the religious elites as well.

Again, Paul needs to be understood here that when he says lived,

in verse 3,

he's not talking about just being simply in a proximity

with these sons of disobedience,

but again,

conducting our lives in a manner corresponding

to their current manner of living.

We were lusting after the fleshly passions,

actively carrying them out in corrupt desires,

body and mind,

thoughts and actions.

Verse 3 here rejects the notion of being an innocent victim

in this game of sin.

And it puts all of the ultimate responsibility upon us.

It portrays dead people in step with a fallen world

and enslaved to the devil.

I think it's probably, of course,

easy for us to see this reality

when we think of the big sins, right,

and the ways that sin just is rampant.

It's violence, adultery, drunkenness,

drug abuse, theft, murder.

But it raises a question for us.

How can Paul then, this Hebrew of Hebrews,

this one who says under the law is blameless

and really means that in Philippians,

how can he include himself in this?

As I think about it,

I realize that Paul as easily condemns moralism

and religion as he does blatant, outright,

immoral behavior.

See, moralism, religion,

they don't save either.

And they're equally condemning for a man.

Think of Jesus addressing the Pharisees

in any place in the Gospels

and how quickly he points to their lack of righteousness,

even though they're the expert law keepers.

Think of even the Sermon on the Mount

when Jesus says,

unless your righteousness exceeds that

of the scribes and Pharisees,

you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Well, no, these religious elites

have this mentality that

no savior is required for me.

My works speak for themselves.

It's self-righteousness,

self-justification,

and ultimately pride,

which, interestingly enough,

is the downfall of this prince

of the domain of the air.

Tim Keller is really helpful

in kind of unpacking this for us

in a book that he wrote

on the parable of the prodigal son.

And he writes how

it should probably be more

of the parable of the prodigal sons,

plural,

because both of these young men

are equally corrupt

and debased before their father.

The young son squanders his inheritance

and runs off.

The elder brother stays close by.

Listen to what Tim Keller writes

about this older brother.

What did the older son want?

If we think about it,

we realize that he wanted

the same thing as his brother.

He was just as resentful of the father

as was the younger son.

He, too, wanted the father's goods

rather than the father himself.

The older brother stayed close

and never disobeyed.

That was his way to get control.

His unspoken demand is,

I have never disobeyed you.

Now you have to do things in my life

the way I want them to be done.

I hope you hear in that

the sense of entitlement,

the attempt to manipulate

a sovereign God

and the desire to control

the outcome

by doing good things.

Paul seems to say here

that this is

the depraved

and reprehensible motivation

behind all religious effort.

It's not as obvious, perhaps,

as the eat and drink and be merry,

but it's equally condemnable

before God.

Unfortunately, the situation

gets worse before we move on

to the good news.

We see the last statement

of verse 3

that we not only were dead

and enslaved,

but by nature

were children of wrath

like the rest of mankind.

This is a huge concept

to try and unpack

in a really brief moment,

but basically,

we need to consider

a couple of things here.

What Paul is saying

is,

as naturally as eagles soar

and as lions roar,

part of our spiritual DNA

as Adam's descendants

is incurring wrath

by our nature.

Romans 5 sort of unpacks this

in verses 12 to 21.

The basic idea is that

sin comes in through Adam,

through one man,

death through that sin,

and then death spreads

to everyone

because everyone has sinned.

One trespass,

one trespass

leads to death

for all people.

I don't know about you,

but I tend to take offense

at this statement

that by my nature,

from my first breath

to my last,

I deserve wrath.

This is terribly offensive,

yet it's biblical.

It's right here.

By our nature,

we are deserving

of God's righteous anger

and judgment for sin.

We are active rebels,

substandard performers,

and we deserve wrath.

So let me encourage you

this morning,

don't get caught up

trying to see

who the better dead guy is.

This isn't an opportunity

to say,

well,

better than that guy

over there.

This isn't a,

you know,

that's what religion does,

right?

That's what morality does.

Paul's leveling it.

Like everyone.

Universal human condition.

It's right in front of us here.

This is intended

to sober us,

and it's intended

to humble us.

That,

brother,

sister,

your spiritual condition,

apart from Christ,

it's hard to admit

and even more impossible

to reconcile,

but we are hopeless,

dead men and women

awaiting judgment.

enslavement,

enslaved by the triad

of evil,

heaping up wrath

for ourselves.

But God.

But God.

Amazingly,

Paul does not

leave us there,

and even more amazingly,

neither does God.

Most importantly,

neither does God.

The beginning of verse 4

begins the second section

of this chapter,

of these verses,

and probably begins

with my two favorite

words of the Bible.

But God.

It seems here

that Paul knows

right at the outset

of verse 4

that he needs to

ward off any objections

to what he's about to say

before getting

to what God does.

So,

he gives two reasons

for why God does

what he does.

See that in verse 4?

But God,

being rich in mercy

because of the great love

with which he loved us.

If we continue there

just to the beginning

of verse 5,

even when we are dead

in trespasses.

This mercy

is a concept

that he's talking about

this kindness

expressed towards

someone in need.

It's kind of

simplifying a little bit

considering what we just read,

but that's the mercy

that Paul's writing about

and the thing

that is so sweet

to me about it

is how unexpected

this mercy is.

Great love for enemies,

rebels,

and failures.

A mercy

expressed to those

in need.

Paul says,

hold on.

Wrath

is not the whole

image

of my God.

let me tell you

about his compassion

and his love.

He's rich in mercy.

He does not wish

that any should perish.

He's loving,

he's enough loving

of his enemies

to take action

for them.

Friends,

isn't this why

we worship him

and adore him

and gather here

to sing his praises?

Because he's a merciful God,

a loving God.

God.

So then Paul,

after giving these reasons,

goes on to talk about

the activity of God

when he forgave us

the end, right?

No.

What does he say

in verse 5 and 6?

Made us alive

together with Christ

by grace you have been saved

and raised us up with him

and seated us with him

in the heavenly places

in Christ Jesus.

Forgiveness.

Salvation is

no less certainly

than forgiveness,

but oh,

it is so much more.

It radically changes

our entire position

before a holy

and righteous God.

From children of wrath

to made alive,

new spiritual birth

in Christ,

raised with him

and exalted

into the heavenly places,

positioned with him

and John Stott

remarks that

certainly that means

that there's thrones

for us

to be seated in.

And you notice

how what Paul says here,

it undoes

the effects

of verses 1 to 3.

It undoes

the deadness.

Dead people

made alive,

got that one checked off.

In this

worldly realm,

this course

of an evil world,

under the influence

of a demonic

spirit of the air,

done away with,

exalted to the heavenly places,

above that domain

of the air,

no more satanic power

over us.

Enslavement?

Nope.

Thrones in heaven.

And certainly,

no wrath

when we are united

with the sinless

Son of God.

It's a new existence,

a new identity,

a new domain.

This is Paul

unpacking what

Colossians 1.13

says so succinctly,

that he has delivered us

from the domain

of darkness

and transferred us

to the kingdom

of his beloved Son.

No longer children

of wrath.

A new nature

in Christ,

adopted sons

and daughters

of the King.

Friends,

make no mistake,

this is a current

spiritual reality.

If you're in Christ,

this is now

currently true.

So this,

of course,

changes how we view

ourselves

and one another.

Positionally found

with Christ

now,

forever,

for all eternity.

This is what's

most true

about us.

And not only

should it change

how we view

ourselves

and each other,

but it should make

us long

for the future

when God fulfills

this

once and for all.

Notice in these

verses that

four times

Jesus is mentioned.

In verse 5 and 6,

made us alive

together with Christ.

Verse 6,

raised us up

with Him,

seated us

with Him

in the heavenly

places in Christ

Jesus.

This assumes

some things

about our Savior.

He's alive,

He's exalted,

He's reigning

over all rule

and authority,

and He's our

only hope.

Paul's not

quite done

describing

God's

actions.

Verse 7

gives us

the purpose

behind them.

This is so amazing.

Look at it.

So that in the

coming ages,

He might show

the immeasurable

riches of His

grace and

kindness toward us

in Christ Jesus.

God purposes

to save us

in this

grand

scale,

epic

salvation

so that in the

coming ages,

the immeasurable

greatness of

His power

would manifest

itself in the

immeasurable

riches of His

grace toward us.

It's aimed at us

forever.

What do we do

with this?

I mean,

we don't just get

to witness the

grace of God.

We're the

recipients,

the goal of His

grace for

eternity.

Dead,

enslaved,

and destined

for wrath,

usurped by

God's mercy,

love,

grace,

and kindness

in Christ.

Thanks be to

God.

One final move

in Paul's

argument here,

verses 8-10.

Kind of think of

these as the

contractual terms

of this salvation.

I imagine a

businessman who's

just heard the

Apostle Paul kind

of outline this

salvation,

the great things

that Christ has

done,

the great power

that God has

demonstrated in

resurrecting Him

and us with Him,

seating Him and

us in the

heavenly places,

and asking,

kind of like that,

Paul.

It sounds pretty

good.

You know,

reach in for his

pocketbook.

How much do I owe

you?

You know,

do you have a

payment plan?

What do I got to

do to get this?

Paul's at,

shh,

grace.

Grace.

Grace.

Grace.

Grace.

Grace.

Grace.

Grace.

Grace.

Grace.

You want to know

the terms of the

contract?

Grace.

If you're asking

today, how do you

get it?

How do you get the

salvation?

It's by grace.

It's by accepting

the gift of God.

No other way.

There's no other

terms.

There's no fine

print.

There's no clean

yourself up and then

come get the grace.

Just receive it.

Receive it.

Ephesians 2, 8, and 9

are a couple of my

first ever, you know,

memory verses as I

was growing as a

Christian and I think

that's great.

They're so good,

right?

But it hasn't been

until recently that

I've started seeing

how they function in

Paul's argument in

this passage.

These verses, 8

through 10, are

really supporting

what's come before

it in verses 4 to

7.

They're strengthening

Paul's argument as

he talks about

salvation.

And I think they do

it in this way that

they're trying to

ward off the

questions that seem

to be looking to

make salvation too

good to be true.

I mean, how can

salvation really

truly exist?

How can this be the

way it is for

children of wrath?

Paul says, grace.

By grace you've been

saved through faith.

This is not a

result of works.

It's not your own

doing.

It's the gift of God.

Not a result of work

so that no one may

boast for his

workmanship.

I love what Charles

Spurgeon says.

He writes simply

that where grace

exists, it reigns.

It rules.

It owns.

It has no rivals.

It reigns.

That's why Paul goes

there.

He intends to

silence the doubters

and humble the

recipients.

Notice back in

verse 5 that he

already interjected

this grace into his

tale of salvation.

He can't contain

himself.

It's just this

outburst of joy to

say, it's all grace.

It's all grace.

And now he comes

back to it in these

final three verses.

Let's make sure we're

clear on what this

grace is.

It's freely given

unmerited favor.

It's not earned.

It's not purchased.

It can't be bartered

for.

It's gifted to

undeserving people.

And it's not an abstract,

warm, and fuzzy kind of

thing like we tend to

apply to terms today.

I love pizza.

No.

Concrete,

objective,

historical reality.

The grace of God here

points to the person and

work of Jesus Christ.

salvation,

friends,

is not just the reality

of our union with

Jesus,

our being raised with

him and seated with

him,

but it's because of his

work on behalf of

sinners.

Jesus becoming a man.

We sang this song.

Thanks, brother.

We sang this song.

Perfect obedience to

the Father.

No shortcomings,

no failures,

no missteps,

no nothing,

but perfect obedience.

Dying on a cross

on behalf of sinners.

Taking the wrath of God

that we deserve by our

very nature on himself.

Raised from the dead.

Exalted to God's right

hand.

Now the ruling and

reigning king over all

the powers that be in the

whole universe.

That's the grace Paul's

getting at here.

That's his way of saying,

Jesus, you're saved.

By grace,

you've been saved.

Paul keeps a source

before us, right?

Verse 8,

Not you,

God.

Those words

butt up against each

other in the original.

Not you,

of God the gift.

That's kind of how it

reads.

It's his gift.

And it's not a result

of works.

It's not general,

morally upright behavior

that earns this salvation

or accomplishes it

in any way.

That's why there's no

boasting, right?

When we're rightly

contrasting verses 1-3

with verses 4-7,

boasting is done away with.

There's no room for it.

God initiates,

and God works

from beginning to end

to accomplish salvation

for us

in Christ.

So God wants the credit

he deserves.

Dead people aren't working

for salvation.

They're working for wrath.

So boasting in anything

other than in Jesus

shows a radical

misunderstanding

of what this gospel

is about.

Maybe you're asking yourself,

what about faith?

I see that.

Verse 8,

you've been saved

by grace

through faith.

Here's how that faith

comes into play.

It's taking the objective,

historical reality

of God's grace

in Christ

and receiving it

personally

for yourself.

It's taking what is

objectively true

and saying,

I believe that

and I hope in that

and I trust in that

forever and ever.

That's how faith works

alongside the grace

of God.

Faith saves insofar

as it clings to Jesus

and trusts in God's grace.

and finally we see

verse 10.

This is so good.

Paul writes,

yet another strengthening

point

to prove

what he has just said

in verses 8 and 9.

We are his workmanship

created in Christ Jesus

for good works

which God prepared

beforehand

that we should walk

in them.

It's Paul's last

and final effort

here in this passage

to communicate

God did it.

We are his work.

This word is beautiful.

It talks of

the NIV

if you have that

in front of you

it talks about

handiwork.

Think of

craftsmanship

but more importantly

it's creation.

God is taking

something

that has

no form

no substance

no goodness

and making

something new.

We see that, right?

Created in Christ Jesus.

Created.

Not sort of just

not just resurrected

not just made new

created.

This is the 2 Corinthians

5.17

notion that

whoever is in Christ

is a new creation.

This is

like a spiritualized

Genesis 1.

In the beginning

of salvation

God created

alive

spiritual

men and women

who were once

dead in their

trespasses and sins.

Jesus here

is seen

as the

craftsman's

tool.

It's his

salvific work

that creates

the new

and living

people of God.

So Christian

if you're here

today and you're

looking for

purpose

here it is.

This verse

tells us

created in Christ

for good works.

For good works.

It's why we are

made alive

with Christ.

It's why

we were raised

from the dead

given new life

saved

for good works.

not works

that save

us

but works

that carry

out God's

new purpose

for living

people in

Christ.

If you want

to study

kind of what

these look

like I invite

you to

read over

chapters 4,

5,

and 6.

If you remember

Mike made a

great point

as he was

going through

this book

on the

number of

times that

you see

walk,

walk,

walk.

Because that's

how this

passage in

chapter 10

ends that

we should

walk in

them.

Chapter 4,

the beginning,

it doesn't

give us

specific good

works but it

tells us how

they should be

characterized,

what kind of

heart should be

applied to

these.

Humility and

gentleness,

patience,

bearing with

one another in

love,

and eager to

maintain the

unity of the

spirit and the

bond of peace.

There's good

works for each

and every one

of us in this

room who is a

Christian.

God's prepared

us for them.

I love this

last word,

walk,

because it

adequately

bookends this

section.

It illustrates

how far as the

people of God

we have come.

Following a

hopeless course

of the world,

enslaved by

Satan,

living for

fleshly desires,

rejecting God

and awaiting

judgment,

walking in all

of that,

made alive in

Christ,

rescued by

objective,

historical

grace,

unexpected

kindness

shown to

us,

transferred into

the kingdom of

Jesus Christ

and created

anew for good

works.

grace.

So now,

we walk not

in sin,

but in good

works,

not to earn

our salvation,

but in

gratitude for

God's free

and gracious

gift.

Brothers and

sisters,

this is your

salvation.

This surely

is the

immeasurable

greatness of

God's power

extended to

us.

Let's pray.

God, it is

impossible to

overstate the

goodness of

this word.

I pray for

all of us that

it would season

our lives in a

way that's

pleasing to

you.

God, would you

help us by

faith to

receive this,

rejoice in

this each and

every day?

Would you

help us to

walk in the

good works you

have for us?

Thank you for

this morning.

Thank you for

your word.

We praise your

name through

Jesus.

Amen.