Battle Ready: "Knowing God's Power": Ephesians 1:19-21 Pastor Daniel Reese

Good morning.

The Ever-Bible Ephesians 1 is where we'll be.

Last Sunday, we spent some time looking over Paul's prayer

to the church in Ephesus in 15 through 19,

where he prays that we would know God first with our heads,

with wisdom and revelation that leads to a full knowledge of him,

that leads to a full understanding of him.

And then secondly, with our hearts,

where Paul asked God that the eyes of our hearts

would be enlightened.

So that we would know the hope, right?

So that we would understand that we are God's inheritance,

and we would understand God's power.

The last part of chapter one elaborates

on this final request that we would know God better.

But to summarize the passage, let's start in verse 15.

I know it's covered it, but let's fill the passage.

So here we go, 15.

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith

in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints,

I do not cease to give thanks for you,

remembering you in my prayers,

that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,

the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom

and of revelation and the knowledge of him.

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

to the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness

of his power towards us who will leave,

according to the work in his great might.

Verse 20 is where we're at today,

that he who he worked in Christ,

when he raised him from the dead,

and 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 in the age to come.

Let's talk about God's power this morning.

There's at least three things

that we need to know about God's power.

The first one is, it's God's power for us.

Before jumping into the description of power,

we need to first recognize

that this power is for us.

We need to see all Paul is about to say,

about the power of God as being available to us,

purpose for us to live in, and to know.

As we walk through the rest of this passage,

we need to constantly keep in mind

that in the power Paul is describing

is for us to who believes.

We have to keep that in mind.

The second part of verse 19 begins

with the description of God's power.

Have you ever listened to someone

try to describe something they're really,

really excited about?

Something that has completely amazed them?

It was great.

It was awesome.

It was incredible, amazing, unbelievable.

We use those words when we're describing something like that.

We kind of pile up words, one on top of the other,

in order to try to convey our sense of excitement

about that particular thing.

Paul does the same thing in the second part of verse 19.

He starts thinking about the power of God,

and I think he gets excited,

and he starts to pile up words to describe it.

We lose some of that sense in the building excitement

in our translations.

The words there are power and might and strength,

and exerted and used,

but we miss the building of the sense of enthusiasm.

If you ever read the message,

the translation, the message,

it captures this feeling a little more.

Verse 19 says,

Oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us,

who trust in him, endless energy, boundless strength.

There is an exuberance here,

an excitement as the topic shifts

to describing the power of God for us.

The second thing is we see his power demonstrated,

and that overflows into verse 20,

where God's power is demonstrated in two ways.

The two greatest examples of the power of God

are found in verse 20,

that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead

and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places.

We see his power shown when Jesus is resurrected.

The first example of the incomparably great power

is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

How much power did that take?

Remember that Jesus' resurrection was far different

than from when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.

Lazarus' resurrection was temporary.

He still would have died a second time,

but in Jesus, we do not have a temporary defeat

over the power of death,

but a permanent defeat over the power of death.

In the resurrection of Jesus, we have eternal life,

a resurrected body,

a deliverance from the permanence

and hopelessness of death.

The power of God which raised Jesus Christ from the dead

is a victory.

It earned a permanent hope in a new order.

It provided a bridge back into relationship with God,

and gives us hope for all of eternity,

all because God raised Jesus from the dead.

The moment of Jesus' resurrection

is a great turning point in history.

From a low desperate point where it seemed that hope was dead,

Jesus' claim to be God's son is in doubt,

and it shifts to one of victory and triumph of God's

incredible power over Satan and over death.

Remember Paul's assertion is that that same power

is for us.

We also see Jesus exalted.

The second example of this incomparably great power

for us is the exaltation of Christ.

Seated at the right hand of God right now.

We don't talk as much about this aspect

of what Jesus did for us as we do about Jesus' death

and resurrection, but it's very common in scriptures

for the reign of Jesus to be linked to his death

and resurrection.

It simply completes the process.

Jesus died, God raised him from the dead,

and now he is enthroned in heaven.

But it is critical for our understanding

in what is happening now, that who is in control?

What's Jesus' role and what that means for us?

The remaining verses elaborate on this idea

of the reign of Christ, and it's spelled out for us

what it means to have Jesus be exalted.

I love how Paul, the excitement of Paul,

about the power of God directly points back to Jesus.

Think of all that Paul had done in his ministry.

Think about all the stories.

He had seen people healed in miraculous ways.

He had been shipwrecked and delivered from that.

He had been bitten by a poisonous snake

and delivered from that.

He had cast out demons.

One time, Paul preached on and on and on.

A young man fell asleep, fell out a window to his death,

and Paul raised him from the dead.

If that happens to you here,

give an answer to that now.

What is it?

Acts 19 tells us, while Paul was in Ephesus,

God was doing extraordinary miracles through Paul,

that even the handkerchiefs and the aprons that he had touched

were taken to the sick and their illnesses were cured,

and the evil spirits had left them.

But here in this passage, when he gets caught up

Does he list all those miracles? No, he talks about Jesus. Was he not excited about those

miracles? Did he downplay them or try to explain them away or minimize them? Absolutely not.

It's just that held up against the resurrection of Christ, those pale in comparison. What Paul,

it's focused on Christ. It leads to Christ. It exalts Christ. It points people to Christ. That is

the point of the power of God to exalt Christ and lift him up and to recognize that Jesus is ruler

of all. Remember, Paul wasn't a follower of Jesus during Jesus' life on earth. He wasn't there when

Jesus taught, when he died, when he was resurrected. Though he did meet the risen Lord on the road to

Damascus, he is much more like us in that he heard about Jesus from someone else secondhand.

And yet still he is focused on the cross and the exaltation of Jesus as the ultimate demonstration

of the power of God. Do you see this model for us? When we see God move in power around and through

us, it has to take us to Jesus. It has to exalt Jesus. It has to proclaim Jesus to the world.

It's not about us. Not about the things God has done through us as if we are so great and so spiritual.

The power of God is for us. The purpose of knowing that power is to bring us to Jesus and keep us there.

We also see power in action. Jesus' reign in heaven is the topic of verses 21 through 22,

where we see the power of God through our reigning Lord Jesus in action. We see he has power over

all spiritual beings. This one would have been encouraging to the people of Ephesus and all the

other cities that this letter was written to. Because they lived in a highly spiritual culture,

we know that there was a lot of magic practice at Ephesus. We know that the temple to a goddess

named Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and there was a lot of spiritual

rituals and sorcery and divination. The words rule, authority, power, and dominion refer to

spiritual forces. It's made clear in Ephesians 6. Note that Paul claims Jesus is not only stronger,

but he is far above. He's far above. Hopefully this is encouraging to you also. We need have no fear

because Jesus, whom we know and love and serve, is far above any spiritual force. Jesus reigns. Stay

focused on him and know him and know that he is stronger. He's more powerful than any rule,

authority, power, or dominion, demon, or temptation to sin. He's over all of it. He's stronger than

all of it. Use your imagination for a minute. Can you do that? Yes. Thank you. Think of yourself

as living in an apartment building. You live there under a landlord who has made your life miserable.

He charges you an exorbitant amount of rent. When you can't pay the rent, he loans you money at a

fearful rate of interest to get you even further into debt. He barges into your apartment at all

hours of the day and night, wrecks your place up, then he charges you extra for not maintaining the

premises. Your life is miserable. Then comes someone who says, I've taken over this apartment

building. I've purchased it. You can live here as long as you like for free. The rent is paid up.

I'm going to live in this building with you in the manager's apartment. What a joy that would be,

right? You are saved. You are delivered out of the clutches of the old landlord. But what happens?

You hardly have time to rejoice in your newfound freedom when a knock comes out the door. And

there he is, right? The old landlord. Mean, glowering, demanding as ever. He has come for the rent.

What do you do? Do you pay him? Of course you don't pay him. Do you go out and pop him in the face?

No, he's bigger than you. You confidently tell him you're going to have to take that up with the

new landlord. He may bellow. He may threaten. He may intimidate. He may scow. And you just quietly

tell him, take it up with the new landlord. He may come back to you a dozen times with all sorts

of threats and arguments, waving legal looking documents in your face. And simply, and you simply

tell him once again, you have to take it up with the new landlord. In the end, he has to and he

knows it. He just hopes that he can bluff and threaten and deceive you into doubting that the

new landlord will really take care of things. Now, this is the situation of the Christian. Once Christ

has delivered you from the power of sin and the devil, you can depend on it. That old landlord will

soon come knocking back at your door. And what is your defense? How do you keep him from getting

the upper hand on you again? You send him to the new landlord. You send him to Jesus. When Jesus

Christ truly takes charge of our minds, bringing every thought captive to him, we become spiritually

invincible. We operate with supernatural power. We walk under God's complete control. What would our

church look like if each of us believed and lived the fact that we, the church, the body of Christ,

are filled with all the fullness of Christ? What will we look like? What would it feel like? What

would our priorities be? How would we care for one another? I'm not suggesting that we're a long way

off from that. In fact, I think there are many ways as a church that we do live and believe this.

But there are some ways where we do not. There are some ways in which we are focused just on the

human institution and forget about the spiritual reality. Some ways that we focus on our needs and

wants rather than letting God be in control. I believe this verse calls us to an extremely high

view of the church and calls us to ensure that Jesus is Lord and that we keep him as the head

over everything. It is in the church that God has chosen to reveal his power. The church is full

with the fullness of him who fills everything in every way so that we can know God's power. So all

divine power, all divine glory is found in Christ is also found in the church. It's found in you.

It's found in me. Because of this, he has the power to change lives. I began by asking us to keep in

mind that all this description of the power in God comes out of Paul's prayer that we would know

this incomparable great power for us who believe. Talking about the power of God for many is one of

those things that's a little outside our comfort zone. Actually, I guess it's not as much talking

about the power of God as much as thinking about encountering it. Maybe that's where we tend to

get a little nervous. I think the root of that is fear. More specifically, a fear that you and I

will no longer be in control. That we might end up looking silly or foolish or undignified. I wonder

if we avoid God's power because we're really not sure that what's going to happen. And we're afraid

to let Jesus be the Lord and to be the one in control. We have some misconceptions, some powerful

misconceptions that keep us from knowing the power of God. We think it has to be manifest in some

weird supernatural way that is strange and obscure that will make us look like total fools, that it's

going to humiliate us. We assume it will be painful. We will begin, we will believe that it's

going to marginalize us, pushing us to the lunatic fringe of society. Some of that comes from really

bad accusations. Some of that comes from really bad teaching, from potentially what you've seen on

TV. Maybe you've even had some negative experiences with people who talk about the power of God. Well,

I want to say this and I need you to hear me, that those misconceptions are exactly that. False ideas

of what God wants to and needs to do when we let Him be in control. So what are the right ideas?

Scripture clearly teaches that when we are open to God, when we are open to letting Him be in

control and us seeking to be obedient, the result will be the fullest life possible. Maybe it will

be strange, maybe it will be miraculous, maybe it will be supernatural, maybe someone will think

that you and I are fools, or maybe we will just live lives of quiet, yet powerful obedience until

the end of our lives. But regardless, it will be full. It will be powerful. Jesus said, I have come

that you might have life and have it in the full. Acts 1-8 says that we will receive power to be the

witnesses of Christ. Paul taught that the result of a spirit controlled life is love, joy, peace,

patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self control. God's power is for us. Studying the life

of Christ is incredibly instructive when we are thinking about God's power and how people respond.

At the beginning, the miracles, the signs and wonders, if you will, were attractive. People

wanted to be around Jesus. They invited Him to all the parties. They listened to His sermons. The

power of God was attractive. But then there was a shift. Jesus began to teach some things that were

uncomfortable. He began to talk about repentance. He said, He said He was the Son of God. He said

that if anyone wanted to follow Him, they had to surrender everything. They had to leave their

father and mother. They had to take up their cross daily. In John 6, right after Jesus had fed

the 5,000, a bunch of people chased Jesus to the other side of the lake, looking for more

miracles, looking for another free lunch. Jesus said, I am the bread of life. And He started

talking about them eating His flesh, right? And they grumbled and they went away. Until the very

end, even most of Jesus' closest disciples deserted Him at the cross. What's my point?

The power of God in Christ has as His only purpose to bring us to Christ and to change our lives

and make us more like Jesus. And sometimes that's a hard road, but it is a road to the fullest

life possible. There is a reason we call the demonstrations of the power of God, signs and

wonders. There's a reason for that. They are signs because they point to Jesus and His kingdom

reign. They validate Ephesians 1, 20 through 22 by demonstrating that Jesus is in control and is

directly active in the world today. But that is the main point. It is not the signs, but what they

point to. It's not the miracles, but the source. We wonder, not at the manifestations, but at Jesus

whom they glorify. I believe as strongly as I can that the purpose of the power of God is to change

lives. It is to remake us in Christ's image. And honestly, I don't care how God chooses to do that.

I am more excited by evidence and growth. Growth and love more so than I am about the manifestation

of power. I am far more affected by the testimony of someone whose life has been changed by God

than by the method God uses to change it. I don't care so much how God chooses to speak or move or

display his power as far as I'm concerned that it is totally and completely up to him. What I care

about is that people grow in love for God and grow in love for each other. What I care about is that

our lives are changed to be more obedient and more Christ-like and more empowered to live effectively

in this world. I welcome and I embrace any means that God chooses to do this. My prayer for us each

and every week is that God will be free to move and to work however he chooses to draw us closer to

himself. I know I shed a lot this morning but I need to say one more thing. In our quick fix, pill-

popping culture, we want and expect the power of God to be instantaneous, to fix whatever is wrong

immediately and miraculously. And sometimes it does, but the purpose of the power of God is to change

our lives to make us more like Jesus. And that kind of inward transformation sometimes, it takes time.

It takes the power of God working overtime to conform us to Christ's image. It's like planting a

garden more so than flipping a switch. The results are measured in lifetimes, not an instance. So my

question is what is holding you back from experiencing more of the power of God? What is

keeping you from allowing him to be the Lord of your life just like he is over all of creation?

I urge you this morning to no longer hold back, to allow God to open the eyes of your heart,

to know the power of God which raised Christ from the dead and seated him at God's right hand in

the heavenly realms. That you would surrender control to him. That we would see the fullness of

his power active in this place. We need to forget about all the bad representations we've had of

God's power being manifested around us. And we need to be willing to surrender to that. We need to be

willing to surrender to the power that is available to each and every one of us. So I'm going to pray

for us. And I don't care how he does it. I don't care how he moves in this place. But I hope he does.

And I pray he does. That's pray. Father God, I pray right now that your spirit will freely move

around us. That it will freely speak to us. God, I pray that you will eliminate any pride that we

have in this place. That you will eliminate any misconception of control that we think we have.

God, I pray that we will have it in our minds that you are the new landlord. And every lie,

every thought, every misconception is sent back to you because you have rule over all of it.

God, help us walk in freedom. Help us walk in knowing that you are God over all. Help us walk

in knowing that every thought we have can be taken captive in you. That you can renew our mind.

And so God, we pray that your spirit and your power will be evidence in this place.

That's in your name, we pray. Amen.