Ephesians pt6 - The Greatness Of God's Power For Us

You're very welcome to today's Triumph Church podcast.

We pray that you enjoy the message.

When we read Scripture, it's really good for us to have an

understanding of what's going on in that letter.

You know, the apostle Paul is writing, you know, a letter.

We call it Ephesians because he's writing to the church in

Ephesus, right? And he's writing a lot of

different things. And, and it's important for us

to know a lot of different things about that.

Like what is, what is the Apostle Paul writing into?

What is the culture of the time? You know, these are things that

help us be able to interpret accurately what it is that an

author is writing and helps us, helps us interpret Scripture

accurately. So we're not coming up with some

really weird doctrine or, or theology, but understanding the

culture of what's going on in a book like Ephesians, Colossians,

Philippians, like wherever it is that we're reading,

understanding the culture of the time that the author was writing

to helps us interpret things accurately.

So I don't want to take a a little bit of time because

Ephesians isn't a really amazing book and we've been talking

about a lot of just fantastic things that the Lord has done in

Ephesians chapter, right? But when we understand the

culture and what the apostle Paul is actually writing into

things kind of take a a little different perspective and kind

of come a little more to life. So let's look really briefly at

some of the culture in Ephesus. All right, Ephesus was a well

known center of Pagan worship, might not have known that it was

home of a famous temple of Artemis, named after a goddess

of fertility. And people travelled from all

over to come and view this temple that was an

archaeological just or architectural just masterpiece.

It was beautiful. It's an amazing temple, you

know, but it wasn't a good temple.

It was named after a goddess of fertility in Ephesus was a

center of demonic and religious activity and practices.

Ephesus was fascinated with spiritual power.

You know, things were happening there constantly.

Regularly there's idle making was a thriving industry.

Magic arts and occult practices were common.

And spiritually, Ephesus was saturated with superstition,

with fear of spirits and devotion to false gods.

It was a place where demonic activity and practices were

prevalent and feared. And when you read the books of

One and Two Timothy, these were written to Timothy, who Paul had

had instilled as the pastor of the Ephesian church, right?

Did you know that One and Two Timothy, Paul was writing to

Timothy, who he instilled as the pastor of the Ephesian church

there? And you might recall Paul

writing this in Two Timothy chapter 1 and verse 7.

It's a great scripture says, for God has not given us a spirit of

fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

You ever read that before? Well, this is what the apostle

Paul is writing into because here you have Timothy is, is

pastoring this congregation and there's like really crazy

demonic things going on in Ephesus.

You know, people were, were bound by fear.

Christians were, were intimidated.

You know, it was a, it was just a, a crazy spiritual place.

So the apostle Paul is writing Timothy, who's leading this

church, saying you have not been given a spirit of fear, but

you've been given a spirit of power and of love and of a sound

mind. Paul's letter to the believers

in Ephesus wasn't to sympathize with them, right, but to help

them understand the incredible greatness of God's power towards

those who believe. He prays in verse 17 that we had

read earlier that God would give to them the spirit of wisdom in

revelation in the knowledge of him and in verse 18 that that

the eyes of their understanding would be enlightened.

And the entirety of of chapter 1 really is Paul dropping this

mother lode of what God has given us right and empowered us

with through Jesus. We've looked at chapter 1 and

verses one through 18 and this morning we're going to finish

this chapter with verses 19 through 20.

So if you brought your Bibles, you can turn to Ephesians

chapter one, verse 19 through 23.

We're going to read through those and they'll also be on the

screen here. If you, if you don't have a your

Bible or a device where you can look at that, Ephesians 119, it

says, I also pray that you will understand the incredible

greatness of God's power for us who believe him.

This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead

and seated him at the right hand or the right, the place of honor

at God's right hand in the heavenly realms.

Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or

anything else, not only in this world but also in the world to

come. God has put all things under the

authority of Christ and he has made him head over all things

for the benefit of the church. And in verse 23, and the church

is his body. It is made full and complete by

Christ who fills all things everywhere with himself.

That's some amazing scripture, isn't it, man?

You read through Ephesians chapter 1 and it's just like

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

just one thing after another, you know, it's just like these

these massive waves coming in, hitting the shore.

It's so amazing. But just like the the church in

Ephesus, many of us may not realize like who we are in

Christ in what he has given us. But when the eyes of our

understanding is enlightened, when God's given us the spirit

of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, you begin to

realize really the immensity. And that's what the apostle Paul

is presenting us here in Ephesians chapter 1, the

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

immensity of what Christ has done for you.

And this leads us to our my first point this morning that

you need revelation of the power already for you.

God's power is ready for you just like he has that, you know,

there was that vascular surgeon and its entire staff on standby,

right? God's there.

Just stand by just waiting, right?

You need me. Yeah.

OK, Bam, he's right there. You need revelation of the power

already for you. So the first half of chapter 1

is Paul sharing what God purposed to do and what he has

purpose to give us through Christ.

But then in verse 19, the apostle Paul drops this absolute

bomb. Ephesians 119 says, I also pray

that you will understand the incredible greatness of God's

power for us who believe God is so invested into you that He

predetermined to adopt you into his family, sending Jesus to

open this door for you so that his power could be leveraged in

your life. Just let that percolate for a

minute. Here's what I want you to see

this morning. It's first that God's power is

for you, right put up. Verse 9 is still there.

Yep, The incredible greatness of God's power is for us.

His power is for you. For you.

God's power, not my power, not your power, not your neighbor's

power, not the government's power.

God's power is for you. Let that sink in.

The incredible greatness of God's power, it says, is for

those who believe. This is why John says in 1 John

1 John 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4 four. He says you are of God, little

children, and have overcome them because he who is in you is

greater than he who is in the world.

God's power is for you, and it's greater than anything or anyone

or any entity, any demon, any devil, any religion in this

world. Nothing has greater power than

God. The incredible greatness of

God's power is for those who believe.

And when you surrender your life to the Lord, who is it that God

sent to abide in you to empower you?

Jesus said this in John 14 verse 16 and 17.

John 14:16

He says, and I will pray to the Father, and He will give you

another helper that He may abide with you forever.

And in verse 17 it says the Spirit of truth, whom the world

cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows him,

but you know him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

Jesus is talking about the born again experience, the Holy

Spirit coming to abide within you.

The Apostle Paul says in One Corinthians chapter 3 and

chapter 6 that we have become the temple of the Holy Spirit,

that he now dwells within us. And because He dwells within us,

This is why John says greater is he who is in you than he who is

in the world. You have the third person of the

Godhead, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, right?

You have the Holy Spirit indwelling you, abiding with

you, living with you. And what comes with the third

person of the Godhead? God's power for you.

He's present in your life every single day and in every

situation that you find yourself in, He's there and His power is

for you. Paul says that in verse 19, that

the incredible greatness of God's power is working for us

who believe and listen. Faith isn't pretending or

denying the truth, right? Faith is choosing instead to

agree with what is true. It's aligning your thoughts and

your words with the truth of God's Word, with God, instead of

the natural circumstance you might find yourself in.

It's believing that God, supernatural is well able to

override and alter any natural situation that we find ourselves

in in our lives because God is greater.

Do you agree with that? God is greater, Greater is he

who was in you than anything else that is in this world.

Anything, anyone, any situation, whatever situation you find

yourself in, the incredible greatness of God's power is for

those who what believe. It's all it takes.

You know, there's a great scripture, Mark 11, verse 22

Mark 11:22

through through 24, right? Jesus says begins by telling his

disciples have faith in God, right?

believe in God. And if you then speak to this

mountain, what will happen? Well, some of us have these

amazing massive mountains in our lives that we're facing.

We're looking at and we're like, I don't know how God is going to

be able to deal with this situation.

Well, listen, that's none of your business.

Don't try to be God for God. Let him deal with all the

details of how that situation is going to be sorted.

We just had this wonderful testimony this morning about how

God is sorting out all these details that Natasha and Andre

could not have been able to do on their own.

Right. You ever been to the hospital,

any hospital here in Dublin, Like things move at a snail's

pace, right? Just try to get a room.

We had this 80 year old guy, he had some, some health issues and

he, he went to at our church in Limerick there.

He went to the hospital there and they didn't have any space

for him. They didn't even have space on a

Gurney in a hall. You know where they put them.

They put them in a broom closet on a chair.

OK, It is a miracle that Andre was able to get right in, had

staff waiting for him, right? Was able to get a bed, was able

to get moved to the vascular ward and all these things just

happening. Hello.

God's incredible greatness of God's power is for you.

This brings me to my second point this morning, that it's

the same power that raised Jesus from the dead.

In Ephesians chapter 1, verse 19, the apostle Paul tells us

Ephesians 1:19

just how colossal this this power really is.

For you at the end of verse 19, you know all the, the, the

chapters and the verses. You know this was originally

written as a letter. You know, people put in the the

chapters and the verses for easy reference for us, right?

I don't think they really did it very well on on this one because

the end of verse 19 really is part of a verse 20 there.

But put up verse 19 there says this is the same mighty power in

verse 20 that raised Christ from the dead and seated him at the

place of honor at God's right hand in heavenly realms.

This is so wild. Like really, Apostle Paul is

saying that the power that is for you, the incredible

greatness of God's power, that is for those who believe.

He's saying that this is the same mighty power that raised

Christ from the dead. That is the power that's for

you. What circumstance or situation

are you facing? Are you dead?

If you're dead, raise your hand, all right?

Because this is the same power that rose Christ from the dead,

right? So if it can happen for Christ

and can happen for you, right? No one raised their hand.

It's good. It's hard to raise your hand

when you're dead. Paul prays that you will

understand the incredible greatness of God's power force,

right? And then he says that this is

the same power that rose Jesus from the dead.

Paul's making a a very amazing connection here, isn't he?

That the very same mighty power that rose Jesus from the dead

and obliterated the devil's power over death, hell and the

grave. That that very same mighty power

is for you. Incredible greatness of God's

power is for us who believe. I've talked about this word

power before. It's been a little while.

I love talking about it because it's just a fun word.

Here again is the Greek word dunamis.

Dunamis is the the word that we get dynamite from, right?

It's explosive power, it's miraculous power, it's strength,

it's violence. Have you ever witnessed an

explosion? Have you ever been around an

explosion? It's violent, isn't it?

It's powerful. If you go to see like these,

these firework displays, you know, sometimes, you know, like

one day I'd, I think it'd be cool to go to London on New

Year's Eve. It's probably a pretty crazy

time to go. But the firework display is, is

just fantastic. You see over the London Eye and

everything just, and then they do the finale and it's just like

this, just massive, Like it looks like hundreds of fireworks

just going off. You know, if you've ever been

around where fireworks are going off, sometimes you can feel like

the, the explosion, you can feel it on your, on your chest, like

right. Like it's powerful.

The end of World War 2 ended with two violent explosions, 2

violent bombs, right? And they were so violent, so

massive, so powerful that no one wants to see anything like that

ever again, right? This is that Greek word,

dunamis, powerful, violent. The incredible greatness of

God's dunamis is for you. There's nothing that can stand

against that. Absolutely nothing.

This really isn't a fair fight. Just to let you know everything

like if you were to weigh things on a scale, all right, God's

power, all right, and everything in the world, the devil like

whatever it is, everything like on the other scale, like gods

would just there is there like it's it's not even any

comparison at all. There is nothing, no one,

anything that is more powerful than God.

In verse 21 through 23, let me say this really quick, this

violence that Paul is stating, this power is dunamis.

He's saying that the demonic power that the believers in

Ephesus were encountering were no match against the incredible

greatness of God's dunamis towards those who believe.

So when you're reading in Ephesians here, like, you

understand what it is that the apostle Paul is writing into the

culture that he's writing into the things that the believers,

the Christians in Ephesus we're having to deal with like every

single day, fear and intimidation and demonic power

being demonstrated in that city. And the apostle Paul is saying

you have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power of

dunamis. He who is in you, greater is he

who's in you than anything going on around you in Ephesus or

anywhere else in the world. So in Ephesians chapter 1 verses

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

2021 through 23. And the last point is Jesus

changes the way that we fight our battles.

You know, we had done a a series on Ephesians chapter, chapter 6

a little while back about the weapons of our warfare, the

things that God has given us to fight these spiritual battles,

right? But Jesus changed the way we

fight before, before Jesus, no one had any way really to to

fight these battles. We were trying to do it in our

own power, in our own own own own ability.

But Jesus changed everything in verse 21 it says, and now he is

far above. Any ruler or authority or power

or leader or anything else? Is there anything that's

excluded there? Is there anything that you can

think of that's more powerful than God?

Does anyone have anything? He is now far above any ruler or

authority or power or leader or anything else, not only in this

world but also in the world to come.

So he's saying, listen, as far in the future as you can think

of, there will never, ever, ever, ever be anything more

powerful than Jesus. He's been placed far above and

verse 22 God has put all things under the authority of Christ

and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the

church. And the church is his body.

It is made full and complete by Christ who fills all things

everywhere with himself. Now let me ask you, if I were to

stand on something, I'm going to stand on my Bible, is that OK?

Right. We're supposed to stand on the

word, right? And that was so.

I have my head right? I have my my body, right?

And if this has been placed underneath the head, then where

else is it underneath? It's underneath the body too,

isn't it? Right where you're the body?

Christ is the head, and you are the body.

You've been placed through Christ by him, not by your own

efforts, right, but by Christ through Christ.

You've been placed far above anything else.

What is it in your life that is above you?

Any need, any attack, anything? Is that above you?

No, it's not. You've been placed far above it

through Christ. That's the position you're being

positioned. Everything that that Jesus has

done is about positioning you. You've been adopted into his

family, right? You've been positioned in the

family of God. And if the devil ever tries to,

when he comes to try to steal, to kill and cause destruction in

a life, he's picking on a family member of God, our heavenly

Father. And the God our heavenly Father

doesn't take that too kindly. You're his child.

So when Paul says that Jesus is far above everything, far above

means that there is no equal right?

There is no rival power, no demon, no authority, no

sickness, no disease, no need. Nothing outranks him.

This is what the apostle Paul is saying.

The incredible greatness of God's power for those who

believe Jesus changes the way we fight our battles because as

adopted children of God, we no longer fight in our power,

right, but we are positioned in Christ that the incredible

greatness of God's power is for us who believe.

This is why the apostle Paul is in this prayer is saying, I pray

that you would have the spirit of wisdom and revelation of Him,

that the eyes of your understanding would be

enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling,

right? It's all about position, but we

have to know where it is we are positioned.

Christ is the head and we are the body.

Greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world.

Jesus is the King of kings in the Lord of Lords.

Like that's not just a title. Jesus is the Lord of every

earthly Lord. He is the king of every earthly

king, every government, every power, everything.

He is Lord and he is king. And no matter what this world

tries to do and tries to rise up.

I was just reading a a scripture the other day about how the Lord

laughs at the world and these governments who are trying to

rise up against him and cast him off, right?

Like their Lord, like their king.

And God just laughs, right? Because they have no power.

They have no authority, right? None of them do.

Jesus is given authority far above.

He has no equal. He has no rival.

I want you to have in your mind and understand there's that

scripture in Psalm 23, right? Yeah, though I walk through the

valley of the shadow of death. But I will fear no evil, right?

How can you walk in that place? You're walking through the

valley of death. That's a pretty wild valley to

be passing through, isn't it? But while you're going through

that kind of situation in your life, you can fear no evil.

You have this peace that surpasses all understanding.

Why? Because God is with you.

The incredible greatness of His power is working for you on your

behalf. If you'll just believe in Him,

Believe in Him, trust Him, expect from him that as a child

of God adopted into his family, right?

And we talked about this a number of weeks ago, adopted

into his family that there are rights and privileges that you

now have through Christ. And the apostle Paul is

presenting these all through Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

And he has this prayer that he prays for the the church in

Ephesus and for the broader church that you would have the

eyes of your understanding would be enlightened that you would

know what it is that Christ has done for you.

The power that he's been given to you, the power that that is

for you. When you have a revelation of

that, you will start to like live your life completely

different and everyone will take notice around you.

Because when everyone else is freaking out, right?

And you're just the picture of calm right?

Here you are, Andre on a hospital bed and he's assuring

the surgeon, right? Oh, you've got this.

You're going to do a great job. She just like what you know.

But when you're walking in the peace of God, that surpasses all

understanding When you understand that the power of God

is for you in any circumstance or any situation that you find

yourself in. Man, we're so thankful that God

intervenes on our behalf, aren't we?

Because that incredible power, that supernatural can completely

alter and overcome anything in our natural Amen.

Do you believe that? So what scripture says in

Philippians chapter 2, verse 9 and 10, we'll close with this

Philippians 2:9

Scripture. It says, therefore God elevated

him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name

above all other names. And then at the name of Jesus

every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the

earth. So here's what I want you to

take away this morning. The point of what Paul is saying

in Ephesians chapter 1 is that you are far more secure,

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

empowered, and positioned in Christ than you realize, and the

revelation of this truth will completely change and alter your

life. Amen.

Thank you for listening to the Triumph Church podcast this

week. If it was a blessing to you,

share it with someone you know. For more information on Triumph

Church, you can visit us at www.triumphchurch.ie.