The Immeasurable Greatness of His Power

We're celebrating a very strange birthday and the life of the

church. We are celebrating this year at

the 17 hundredth anniversary of the first ecumenical council of

the church. And that's, it's not, not a big

one, but you know, 1700 years. It's like Raphael said, this

faith is very old. And the Ecumenical Council is

significant because what makes it ecumenical is in the early

church there was a gathering of a group of people to look at

some doctrine, to consider some doctrine, and every pastor in

the world was invited. That's what made it ecumenical.

So they had this council in modern Turkey engaging in a

theological dialogue. And it's a big deal because in

325, when they got together, Christianity had been illegal.

I mean, until that time, truly, and the Roman Empire, it was

illegal to be a Christian. And there's all kinds of

persecution until a very important date, 3/13, when you

have the the Edict of Milan from Constantine.

And all of a sudden, for the first time, Christianity is

legal and we can start to talk about theology openly.

And it took them just a few years.

At 325, all the pastors in the world are brought together and

the church wants to answer the question, what does it mean that

Jesus Christ is the Son of God? And they did this at the Council

of Nicaea in 325. And what came out of that

council was the creed that we read, that we read together

earlier. And we don't often recite

creeds. We probably ought to do it more,

showing just that we're not the first people to believe these

things. But so far as these creeds are

helping us understand the Bible, faithful summaries of the Bible,

we we accept them. We read them.

And I want to bring you to one line of this creed that we read

this morning to emphasize it. It says he ascended into heaven

and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

So for the last 1700 years, the universal church, that Catholic,

in that sense, Catholic means universal.

This universal church has been confessing the session of Jesus

Christ. You'll know what that means in a

minute. We're we're confessing that

Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of God the Father.

Just a few years later after this Nicene Creed came out,

there was another creed, the Apostles Creed that came out as

a something to confess when when new believers that new believers

could confess at their baptism. And this Apostles Creed is just

twelve of the most important doctrines as that exist as a

summary of our faith. And one of those 12 is familiar.

It says he ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of

God the Father. You go within another 100 years.

The Athanasian Creed, which was a creed that summarized faithful

Trinitarian theology, says this. He rose again on the third day

from the dead, ascended into heaven and sit at the right hand

of the Father Almighty. And the Athanasian Creed puts

that sitting down as the climactic position.

And so this doctrine that we speak little of in the Church is

known as the session of Jesus. Session is from the Latin word

cessio, which means a sitting. It's very fancy complicated

concept. If if you're if if your meeting

is in session, if Congress is in session, it means everyone is

sitting down, engaging in business, ready to engage in

business for Jesus. It represents his enthronement.

It means that he is sitting down not in any chair, but on the

throne of David, his father, of which his Kingdom will know no

end. It's the power and the glory and

the majesty and the sovereignty and the dominion of the God man,

Jesus Christ. So if, if you've seen the the

House of David series on Amazon, there's a very climactic part of

that of that series where the, the, it's the series or the

episode ends with for the first time, you see someone sitting

down on the throne of Saul, which would become the throne of

David. And it's this climactic thing

because he's been in in the throne room and all these people

are in and out of the throne room.

But there's a difference between being in the throne room and

being the one seated on the throne.

Big difference. And you see David for the first

time sitting and establishing that eternal throne.

And we even go back to our Scripture reading this morning

in Psalm 110. What's the most quoted Old

Testament passage in the New Testament, Psalm 110, The Lord

said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies

your footstool. The Lord said to my Lord.

And so there he is, though there's only one who sits on the

throne. It's a position of authority and

dominion and rule. And Scripture teaches that in

heaven there is a throne room and there is a throne, and it's

above all other Thrones. It's high and lifted up.

It's the seat of absolute authority and rule.

And Ephesians 119 to 23 wants you to teach.

Teaches us above all else that Jesus Christ is seated on that

throne. That is the the premier teaching

of this passage. He's seated in exaltation and

glory. He's seated having completed the

work of redemption. He sat down.

He's seated with all authority in heaven and on earth.

And it's teaching even in verse 19 that his being seated is

demonstrating the immeasurable greatness of his power.

And if you'll turn to Ephesians 119 to 23, we're going to finish

this prayer of Paul that's directed toward a host of

Ephesian churches. And if you remember back to last

week, in verses 15 to 18, Paul's praying for this church.

And he's really only praying for one thing.

He says, I'm praying that you might know God better, that you

would understand and know him not even just intellectually,

but experientially, that you might know God.

And as he puts forth that request, he says it really comes

in three separate requests that you would know God.

But he says that you would know the hope of your calling.

And then he says that you might know his glorious riches or the

inheritance of his riches in the Saints.

And then as you move to this, this is the the the bulk of it,

the thrust of it. He says that you might know,

verse 19, the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us

who believe. And so by bringing up this Third

Point, He's showing that not every spiritual benefit and

spiritual blessing that we have in Christ is in the future.

We always talk about the future. All your pain, all your

suffering, all your tears are going to be wiped away.

There's an inheritance. You are His on that day.

He is yours on that day. He's the guarantee of it.

He's your seal. But then he says, no, there is

spiritual blessing that's here and now.

There are resources that are available to you as a Christian

now. And he says He wants you to know

the immeasurable greatness of God's power at work in you.

And read with me Ephesians 119 to 23, and we'll read about it,

Paul says, and tying on this, this final aspect of his prayer.

And what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us

who believe according to the working of his great might, that

He worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and

seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places?

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 you put all things under his

feet, and gave him as head over all things to the church, which

is his body, the fullness of him who fills All in all.

So this is about the immeasurable greatness of his

power. And he says God's power is

displayed primarily in three places, according to this

passage. The first one is in creation.

If you're taking notes, the first way that we see God's

power and made visible is in creation.

The second one is in Jesus Christ in and through him.

And really there's two places you see his power displayed in

the resurrection and you see his power displayed in his session.

And really that's his authority and his power on display.

And then the third finally says you'll see his power displayed.

You see it in his church in creation and in Christ and in

his church. And we turn first to how his

power was revealed in creation. The immediate context of of this

prayer is Ephesians 1/3 to 14. All of that theology is

connected here. And he wants you to understand

that this power is made available through union with

Jesus Christ. That is your attachment.

You are placed in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

It's the work of God's Holy Spirit.

It comes to us in other passages.

Acts 18 says you will receive power from on high when what

happens when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.

A very famous passage, Second Timothy 17 of 1.

You can live your life around that says for God gave us a

spirit not of fear, but of power and of love and of self-control,

of self-discipline. That's how it manifests itself,

power and love and self-control. And what Paul's teaching is that

the same work of God that was there in the beginning when he

created everything visible and invisible by the word of his

power from nothing, the same power is what raised Jesus

Christ from the dead. It's that same power that by

which he ascended into heaven and was seated at the right hand

of God the Father as a Co ruler. And it's the same power he's

going to emphasize that is that it is at work in you the

believer. It's at work in us as a local

body. And it's a power that is

impossible to measure. It's limitless.

It's boundless. He uses this word.

It's immeasurable. Literally in the original, it's

Hooper ball on it's to to throw beyond a mark is what it means

literally it means to throw beyond the mark.

And and metaphorically what that would mean is to excel or to

exceed or to go beyond, to surpass.

And Paul takes that word immeasurable and he couples it

with the word megathos, which means greatness or magnitude.

And you put them together. We say this is we translate it

the immeasurable greatness of his power, not measurable by any

human instrument or comprehension.

And Paul says in these 5 verses, it's on display again primarily

in three ways, particular in particularly in three ways in

creation, in Christ, and in the church.

And in verses 19 to 20, Paul's overwhelming you with a sense of

this power. And he's going to do that by

giving you 4 different words for power.

In the original, he's he runs out of vocabulary before he runs

out of awe and wonder at the majesty and the power of God.

And as he heaps up this vocabulary, he's giving you a

sense of his omnipotence. And he's he's either alluding to

or directly quoting what the Old Testament authors were doing

with these same words. They're using every word for

power in the Hebrew that exists in succession to give you a

sense of God's all powerful. You compare the language of

Ephesians 119 to Psalm 147. You can write these down and

read them in their context later.

Isaiah 40 verse 26, Psalm 147, compare them to Ephesians 119

Isaiah 40:26

and Psalm. Isaiah 40 says lift up your eyes

on high and see who created these.

He actually wants you to do that.

When it when it's dark and you're with your life group

tonight, you all can go outside and stand on your porch and look

up and see. And he says, who created these?

Meaning the heavenly bodies, this vast expansive universe.

Did you create it? Did one of your buddies create

it? No, he says, by the greatness of

God's might, and because he is strong in power, not one is

missing. He's heaping up these words for

power. The same's true in Psalm 1474HE

determines the number of the stars.

This is important as well. He gives to every star and

celestial body and name. He's abundant in power, great as

our Lord. His understanding is beyond

measures. It's the same construction, the

same comparable words between the Old and New Testament that

are trying to impress on you the same thing.

What is the Old Testament emphasizing God's doing with His

power in these verses? It's it's his creation.

It's revealing his power in creation that he created all

things from nothing in an instant.

He's creating the heavens and the earth.

He's putting his glory on display.

He's fulfilling Genesis 114 where God says not only let

there be light, but let there be lights in the expanse of the

heavens as he put all of those galaxies in this universe

together. And as you keep reading Psalm

147, there's more. What else does God do with the

immeasurable greatness of his power?

It says He heals the broken hearted.

He binds up the wounds of the hurting.

He lifts up the humble. He casts the wicked to the

ground. This is what God does with his

power and it gives our response in the Psalm.

What are we to do with? How do we respond to this great

power of God? It says you sing, you sing, and

Thanksgiving you sing and you give thanks to Him and you

recognize that He is all powerful and He directs this

creating, wound binding, broken heart, healing power toward us

who believe. And you see something in these

two passages alongside God's powerful work at creation.

It says in both of these that God is the namer.

God is a naming God and naming something, even parents, as you

name your children as you name something, it's displaying among

other things, your dominion over that thing.

I mean, when God gave Adam and he was able to name all of the

animals, he's giving them dominion over all of this

creation. And you see that it's God who

changes names. You have a given name like

Abraham and God says, no, I name you Abraham, Sarah, you are

Sarah Jacob, I name you Israel. It comes to the New Testament

Jesus Christ as God takes names. He says you were you are now

Peter talking to Simon and he talks to the James and John.

He says now you are bow and urgess you are sons of Thunder.

He changes names and interesting that in our passage, if you look

to verse 21 of Ephesians 1, you see that God names others.

Nobody names God and his name is above every name.

Verse 21 says above every name that is named, not only in this

age, but the one to come, and we recognize God's name is not we

don't give God a name, He reveals it to us.

He has a name. We don't name him, He reveals

it. And when Moses says he asks him

what his name is, he says, who shall I tell Egypt sent me?

Who shall I tell them sent me? And he says, you tell them I am

sent me. And he's tying his name because

his name only is tied to being itself, power itself.

He is omnipotent. He is all powerful.

We we confess in classical Christian doctrine that God is

not becoming anything. He's pure actuality.

He's not becoming powerful. He's not becoming.

He is. That's why his name is I am.

And Jesus is putting himself in this divine eternal fullness of

being in power. He says in John 858 before

Abraham was I am saying that I am this God, I am all powerful

for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be

glory forever and ever. Amen.

And he first demonstrates God, first demonstrates the

immeasurable greatness of his power in creation.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism, question 9.

I love it how it takes that work of creation and it it attaches

this word power to it. What is the work of creation?

It was on to say the work of creation is God's making all

things of nothing by the word of His power in the space of six

days, and all very good. It emphasizes He did this by the

word of His power. And we say rhetorically, what

kind of power is required to generate all things visible and

all things invisible in an instant, to take all that there

is and to bring it into existence from nothing.

And the answer is immeasurable power, unfathomable,

immeasurable by any human instrumentation or

comprehension. And Paul is revealing that by

giving you 4 words in the original 4 different words for

power. He starts with dunamis,

overwhelming you with this. Dunamis is a Greek word that

means the ability or capacity of acting, Meaning we say this all

the time and we're going to continue to say that God not

only wields or possesses authority, He exercises His

authority through Providence in this world.

He doesn't just have a will for this world, He enacts it.

That's beautiful because He has this plan that He's revealed in

Ephesians 3 to 14, a plan that began in eternity past, a plan

for creation, a plan for recreation, a plan for

redemption, a plan to have you inherit all that He's given to

you. And He has not only the plan,

but the power to bring it to pass.

And you've already seen him do his plan of creation.

He's already begun to redeem his church and expand his Kingdom.

And so we have every confidence as a church to say he can bring

us. If God is for us, who can be

against us? He can bring us into that final

state. He uses this word dunamis.

That's the first, wielding his authority with power, ability,

or the capacity of acting. And then he moves to the word

Kratos, which means he has strength or he has might even

it's reflected in our word democracy or autocracy or

theocracy. Chrissy is Kratos, meaning the

right to rule or reign. It's strength or might and

dominion and rule and mastery. He goes on to use the word

iscas, which means an inherent strength that's possessed.

And then the fourth word is the word inergea, which means to

work or produce or to affect. And he marshals all of these

words to enforce the idea of God's not only his abundant

power, but his available power to his church.

And he overwhelms you with this idea of power.

And then amazingly, he tells you where all this power is

directed. All of this.

Where does he direct that power? He says right here toward us who

believe he's focusing it in and through his church.

His power flows from him through us.

You are like a light bulb. Scripture says his.

The immeasurable greatness of his power is directed toward you

and you become the light of the world.

His power is revealed in creation and then secondly, his

power is revealed in Jesus Christ.

And as you look toward verse 20, he says that His power is not

only displayed in the work of creation, but in Christ when He

was raised from the dead. Look at the end of verse 19 into

verse 20. It says, according to the

working of His great might, that He worked in Christ when he

raised Him from the dead. And we confess that when He was

raised from the dead, He was raised in power.

We say that because this is what Scripture teaches.

Romans 14 And He was declared to be the Son of God in power by

His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.

And that's a that's a beautiful thought when you pair it with

first Corinthians 614 where it says, and God raised the Lord

and will also raise up his church in power on the last day.

You say, how do we why do we have confidence to know he's

going to raise us on the last day?

Because he's already done it. We've seen his power in Christ

and he says, and in the same way he was the firstfruits, I've

demonstrated my power. And now you have every promise,

every confidence to know I will raise you on the last day.

And this is one of the reasons why many in the church believe

that that specific grave cloth that was found in history, the

Shroud of Turin, is actually the cloth of Jesus Christ because

there's a unique imprint on it where it seems as if there's

radiation coming from inside the grave cloth.

And whether you believe it's the actual grave cloth of, of Jesus

or not is burial cloth or not, this is what we would expect to

see some kind of unexplainable power, the evidence of an

unexplainable power in this world.

And the resurrection required this level of power.

And we say, why? Because death feels like, seems

to us to be an unconquerable force.

And yet Paul says in First Corinthians 15, if Christ has

not been raised, your faith is in vain.

Our faith would be in vain because it would mean that there

would be some kind of force that's stronger than our God and

our Lord of glory. And, and by this miraculous

resurrection accompanied by angels, accompanied by the

rolling away of the stone, we see his power at work.

And the resurrection demonstrates so many things at

once. It's, it's incredible that it

shows that God actually has the power and the authority and the

capacity to reverse the curse of Adam so that all of the, the

sickness and all of the, the, the evil that we see in the

world, God has already begun to overcome it.

He's already shown he has authority over it.

He can reverse the curse, the resurrection, showing that God

has the power to defeat sin. Again in first Corinthians 15,

he says where O death is your victory?

Where O death is your sting? The sting of death is sin and

the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, he's given

us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus had the power to fulfill the law perfectly on our behalf.

The resurrection goes on to demonstrate that God has power

even over death and hell, so that this can be our song where

we say death, where is your victory?

Death, where is your sting? Creation demonstrates God's

power. Recreation demonstrates God's

power that He can take away your heart of stone and give you a

heart of flesh. He can conform you into the

character of Christ. Resurrection is a demonstration

of His power, as Jesus was the first fruits from the grave.

And all this is teaching that Jesus has overcome the world,

breaking the grip of death's dominion and defeating sin and

death and hell. And then he takes it's in the

same sentence. He takes this power of God's

resurrection and he attaches it as all of our creeds have done,

following this verse. He attaches it to the work and

the power of God's or Jesus Christ's session.

He's sitting down, he says, and the same sentence He raised him

from the dead, verse 20 and seated him at his right hand in

the heavenly places. And so we want to move on now to

verses 21 to 23. And while you're going to verses

21 to 23, you see 3 1/2 out of our 5 verses are emphasizing

Jesus being seated at the right hand of God the Father.

This is a premier doctrine of your faith and one of the 12 of

the Apostles Creed. Jesus sat down, He was

enthroned, and he wants you to know.

Paul prays that you might know he's he's praying that you might

understand and know not only the power of his resurrection, but

he's saying the power of his session.

Let's read verses 28 to 23 again.

This is the power that that he worked in Christ, when he raised

him from the dead, and seated him at his right hand in the

heavenly places, far above all rule and authority, and power

and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in

this age, but in the one that is to come.

And he put all things under his feet, and gave him as head over

all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him

who fills All in all. The Westminster divines asked

the question of how is Jesus exalted?

This is the climactic position of these creeds and of this

text. How is Jesus exalted in his

sitting down at the right hand of God the Father?

And I love this. They answer it so specifically.

Christ is exalted in his sitting at the right hand of God, in

that as God man, he's advanced to the highest favour with God

the Father with all fullness of joy, with all fullness of glory

and with power over all things in heaven and earth, seated in

the fullness of joy and in the fullness of power and authority.

This was, we knew this from the second that he was made

Incarnate when he came and we hear his name, his precious name

for the first time as the Angel Gabriel appears to Mary and he

says you're going to call his name Jesus.

That same Angel says he will be great.

He will be called the Son of the Most High and the Lord will give

to him the throne of his Father David and of his Kingdom.

There will be no wind. So when Jesus sits down, he's

being given and and fulfillment to all this prophecy.

He's being given the throne of his father David.

And when he sits down at the right hand of God, it's not like

Jesus sits down at God's right hand and it's like he's somehow

over there somehow less than when he sits at the right hand

of God. That means he's Co reigning with

God. It means you go back and you

read Isaiah 6 and it's it's Jesus and it's God the Father.

It's called in Revelation 22 the throne of God and of the Lamb,

right? They are Co Regents.

They are Co reigning. It's one God and it's his

throne. We call it the session of Jesus

Christ. And it's a position

representing, according to Paul first, it's a position

representing the immeasurable greatness of his power.

And it says it's it's representative also of the

completion of his work of redemption.

Hebrews 10/12 says when Christ had offered for all time a

single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of

God the Father. And the only time in Scripture

you see Him standing back up is to receive His Saints into

glory, as He does with Stephen. He stands up as the gospel is

visualized. He stands up to receive His

church. It represents also His

exaltation and His ultimate glory.

Philippians 29 to 11. For he has exalted him and given

him the name that is above every name, so the name of Jesus

Christ. Every knee shall bow, and every

tongue shall swear fealty both on earth and under the earth.

They shall swear that Jesus Christ.

They shall confess that Jesus Christ is Yahweh to the glory of

God the Father, ultimate exaltation and glory.

And finally, it represents His authority where he's actively

ruling and reigning over all kings of the earth.

And the kings of the earth now, Psalm 2 says they set themselves

against the king and against his anointed, against the Lord and

his anointed. And the one who sits in heaven

laughs, and it's a laugh of derision.

He says, As for me, I have set my king in Zion, my holy hill

and that's the significance of this our God, we say our God

reigns. Jesus is alive.

He's interceding for us. He doesn't just possess

authority, He wields it. First Corinthians 15.

He's reigning until he has put all enemies under his feet.

He has a definitive plan that it called in the the first part of

this chapter that this mystery that was yet to be revealed to

his Saints, and yet it has been revealed to us things that

angels long to look at. It's been recorded for us

through Paul and our scriptures. And again, when he comes to this

prayer, we see that not only does God have the plan again, he

has the power to bring it to pass.

This is why we pray, Lord, save my save my friends, save my

family member. We, we, we pray to Him knowing

that he can answer our prayers, that he can save, that he can

execute with His power. You can compare it to the power

of a nation. It's one thing if a nation has

authority. It's another if they have a

military arm where they can use that power and wield that power.

We say that God has not only the authority, but the power.

It says what he does with it. Exodus 15, He defends us in the

Song of Moses. It says he triumphed.

He triumphed gloriously. The horse and rider, He is

thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my

song. He has become my salvation.

The Lord is our strength. The Lord executes justice.

That's what His throne is for. How do I know that?

Psalm 97 He always sits in throne forever.

He has established His throne for justice.

He's wielding His power. What do we call it when God

wields His power? It's Providence.

He has a plan for the world. He sees it come to pass.

Authority is the right to act. Power is the ability to act.

Jesus has both. And our president, every time a

president is elected, he becomes the commander in chief.

You go to Article 2, Section two of our Constitution.

It says the president shall be the commander in chief of the

army, in the Navy of the United States.

I love what follows. It says three times in that

section. He shall have power.

He shall have power. He shall have power and those

that live in the United States don't always like when the

president exercises his power, but every time he does it, it

reminds us it's his to wield right.

And so this is God's to wield. He has the right and the ability

to use his power. We say as a church, we confess

the Lord reigns. He reigns not in theory, but he

reigns in reality and in practice.

And where He directs this power brings us to our third and final

point. His power is revealed in His

church, verse 19. His prayer is that we might know

the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe.

Verses 20 to 21. He seated Him at the right hand

in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and

power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not

only in this age, but the age to come.

So if you don't feel like God's power is being displayed in you,

you're in good company. I didn't feel like God's power

was displayed in me when I woke up this morning.

Couldn't wake up rather this morning and I'm groggy and I'm a

little bit sick. Maybe that's you or your bones

creak. Do you feel like the

immeasurable greatness of His power is being revealed in you?

I think one of the greatest times I've seen God's power.

It doesn't come like we we think it should come.

The greatest sermon I ever preached was on no notice to 7

widows in a retirement home because his power was revealed.

I remember sitting in my car coming to the Lord of glory

saying God, you know this has been a week above all weeks.

I have not had time to make this sermon that I'm going to deliver

to this your church. I need you Lord to work in and

through me. I have 5 minutes God work in and

through me and that was the greatest sermon I ever preached.

I know you have stories just like that.

He took this small little offering that I had and he

multiplied it and he took my humility and he, he made it

something beautiful and great. He showed and revealed his power

to me. It's if, if you don't feel like

you are great and powerful, you're in good company with the

Ephesian church. If you remember, they were weak,

they were marginalized, they were persecuted, they felt

worthless. And this is what our human

nature, it doesn't lift us up. Our own nature tears us down and

we, we, we tend toward feelings of worthlessness and

marginalization. We feel weak, and I want you to

give you some perspective to remember that the Ephesian

believers felt powerless. And in their context, they were

under Rome, which was the greatest power that had ever

ruled until that time, the greatest power ever.

And as we read the words of Paul to the Ephesians, we're reading

in 2025 when we read about the Roman Empire in history books,

because they have come and gone and God's Kingdom has spread all

over the face of the earth. It's a glorious thought.

It's it's present, it's alive, it's active, it's expanding with

energy and force. And God is marshaling the

resources and faith of 2.3 billion Christians in this

world. That's the power of God, that he

would not only convert them, but shepherd them in his Providence

so that he could expand this Kingdom.

His power is not like a great storm that you can see.

It's not like Jupiter where you see the little storm and it's

represents the power that's contained there.

It's like a seed that is sown. It's it's like a little leaven

that God has put into the earth and it has expanded over the the

entire earth. It's like a mustard seed, the

smallest of the seeds that God has sowed in this world.

And now it is expanded against the the will of kings and

governments and earthly powers and spiritual principalities.

This Kingdom of God has expanded into every country, tribe,

tongue, and nation of the world. That's the power of God.

And you see the church explicitly named in verses 22 to

23. Our passage continues.

He has put all things under his feet and gave him as head over

all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him

who fills All in all. So the final place you see God's

power is in this in in you, you the believer in us, this local

body. And John Piper once was

addressing non believers or believers about no addressing

non believers about believers. He says, have you ever met a

believer? You who say, I don't like

believers. I just want to hang out with my

non Christian friends. They're more fun anyway, he

says, have you ever actually met a believer?

Have you ever actually met not a churchgoer, have you ever

actually met somebody who has bowed their knee and given their

life to Jesus Christ and seen the power and the energy that

comes off of a fully surrendered person?

He says, I, I challenge you, if you're an unbeliever, consider,

do you, have you ever really met a Christian?

And Paul's saying there's a supernatural power that is

displayed in them that the world can see.

It's not, you can't measure it, but it's there.

It's being displayed in them. It makes them different.

Jesus calls it salt. He says in believers there's a

certain preserving influence and power, and he calls it light.

He says there's a certain exposing and revealing influence

that comes from the church and that didn't come from you.

That preserving influence didn't come from you.

That light doesn't come from you, it comes from somewhere.

And it's the power of God at work in you, in and through you.

And if you don't see the power of God at work, it's because

you're looking in the wrong places.

We want to see God in our flesh, in miracles, in the miraculous

demonstrations of God's strength.

We want to see red seas divided and armies consumed.

And we want to see fire called down from heaven.

But that's not where God's power is displayed.

Very rarely is it displayed in healings, in the calling down of

fire. Luke 954, the disciples wanted

to see power. And when Jesus is preaching,

they're expecting revival and revival doesn't come.

And so they say, Jesus, if, if we can't see power and revival,

can we have the power of Elijah and by our word fire come down

from heaven? And do you remember what Jesus

says to the disciples? He rebukes them because the

power of the Holy Spirit in this church is is very infrequently

like a great storm. It's like a seed.

It's internal and it's transformative.

And as we go through the rest of Ephesians, we finished Ephesians

one this morning. And as you go through the rest

of Ephesians, Paul shows you this is what the power of God

produces. This is what it looks like.

It looks like chapter 2, verse 10, and the accomplishing of

good works that God has written for you to walk in from all

eternity. Chapter 2, verses 14 to 16, it

looks like overcoming racism, impartiality and living in unity

with people that are different from you.

Chapter 4, verses 2 to 3, it's, it's power is displayed.

God's power is displayed in developing patience and humility

and gentleness. Chapter 4, verse 7, it's in

serving the body according to the gifts that God has given.

So we, we thank God that he's given John Burgess the ability

to cook and we're going to go enjoy that or Allison the, the,

the gift of singing. Did anybody enjoy that?

That's the power of God. It's the the power to resist.

Chapter 4, verse 25, a whole host of vices and he names some

sexual immorality, greed, lying, anger, rage, stealing, filthy

language and crude joking, alcohol and substance abuse.

We have power over these things. Chapter 5 verses one to two, we

resist self centeredness and live in a way that reflects the

the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ.

Chapter 5, verses 22, it's in loving your children well you

can see the power of God displayed and loving your spouse

well. You can see the power of God

displayed in overcoming all obstacles that your family

encounters to the glory of God. Chapter 6, verse 12, it's in

resisting power and influence of all the demonic forces in the

world. And we say even Satan himself

will flee from the power of God's word.

Ian Hamilton goes on and says there's a whole host of examples

you can read throughout Scripture that shows you the

power of God and Joseph, the power to overcome temptation and

the apostles, How to live without compromise and without

fear, to live in self-control. How to live without broken or

with broken hopes and dreams, How to overcome indwelling sin,

how to resist evil forces, how to live virtuous lives, how to

manifest the love of God in the world.

I know you've all heard the song in Christ Alone by Stuart

Townend. He shows you what the power of

God is. He says no guilt in life, No

Fear and death. This is the power of God in me,

not just great miracles and no guilt in life, No Fear and

death. This is the power of Christ, the

immeasurable greatness of his power.

If you want to see the greatness of his power, he says look to

creation. It's there.

You could see what he's capable of.

If you want to see God's power, look, look back at the

resurrection of Jesus Christ and what it means for you, and look

at the session that he ascended into heaven and sat down at the

right hand of God the Father. He says that's the power that is

at work in you, the believer. And so Jesus's application of

that is so let your light shine. Let your light shine so men

might see and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

And to sum all of this up, I want to echo the rhetorical

words of Paul first in Romans 821 where he says, if God is for

you, who can be against you? Do you get a sense of that after

reading this passage? I wanted to end with a quote

from John Owen talking about the the session, the majesty, the

glory, the power of Jesus Christ.

He says quote. Thus is he glorious on his

throne, which is at the right hand of the majesty on high,

glorious in his Commission, which is all power in heaven and

on earth, glorious in his name, a name above every name, Lord of

Lords and King of kings, glorious in his scepter.

The scepter of righteousness is the scepter of His Kingdom,

glorious, and His attendants. His Chariots are 20,000, even

thousands of angels among them. He rides on the heavens and

sends out the voice of His strength, attended with 10,000 *

10,000 of His holy ones, glorious.

In His subjects, all creatures in heaven and on earth, nothing

is left that is not put in subjection to Him.

Glorious in His way of rule and the administration of His

Kingdom. Full of sweetness, efficacy,

power, serenity, holiness, righteousness and grace and and

toward His elect, but of terror, vengeance and certain

destruction toward the rebellious angels and men.

Glorious in the issue of His Kingdom, when every knee shall

bow before Him, and all shall stand before His judgement seat.

And what little portion of His glory is that we have pointed

to? This is the beloved of the

Church, It's head, it's husband. This is He with we with whom we

have communion. Please pray with me, Church.

Lord, we confess you now as Lord Jesus, you are Yahweh, You are

the 1 seated with all power and with all rule and with all

dominion, and we gladly and willingly bow our knee to you,

and we confess Jesus Christ is Yahweh, to the glory of God the

Father. If there, if there is any in

this room that has not been impressed with the sense of

power and majesty that you have, that has not bowed the knee to

you, then, Lord, we pray to you that you would draw them by the

power of Your Holy Spirit this morning to understand that You

are He of whom the Scriptures are written.

And we pray that for the rest of us that we might know better the

hope of Our Calling, the glorious inheritance of you and

the Saints, our inheritance of you as your Saints, Lord, and

this the immeasurable greatness of your power.

Lord, we have so many resources, so much power available to us.

Lord, thank you for this, but help us to tap into this, to

pray your Spirit down, that you would fill us, that we would be

salt and light to the world. God, we love you.

Demonstrate, please your power in us this week to the praise of

your glorious grace. Amen.

Thanks for listening. To learn more about Heritage

Church or if you'd like to respond to this sermon, visit

our website at www.heritageshawnee.org.