His Power for Us Who Believe
Ephesians 1: 15 – 23
Introduction: The kind of power that changes everything…
My dad used to tell a story about an old Georgia redneck who would routinely head out into the swamp and return with a boat full of fish—more than anyone could conceivably catch, even in a long day of fishing with rod and reel. Well, in the course of time, his exceptional good luck caught the attention of local authorities who sent out a game warden, undercover, to see what was going on. So, one morning, just as the old man was getting ready to leave the dock, he was approached by this young stranger who wondered if he might come along for the day and take a lesson.
Now the old man suspected from the beginning that something was up, but he allowed the young man to accompany him anyway, and a few moments later, the boat was headed out into the swamp at top speed.
Later, when they had arrived at a point distant enough from civilization that the young warden began to worry about his own safety, the old man turned off the engine and said, “I think this oughta do for today, don’t you agree?” Eager by this time to please, the warden nodded vigorously while the old man pulled a big old cigar from the pocket of his fishing vest, lit it, and puffed furiously ‘til the end glowed bright with heat. Then, the younger man watched in amazement as his companion removed a stick of dynamite with a medium length fuse from yet another pocket. Immediately, the secret to the good old boys luck was evident.
“What in the world are you doing?” exclaimed the young warden. “You can’t fish with dynamite! That’s a violation of more laws than I can count.”
“Yup. I ‘spect that’s true,” said his companion. But then he lit the fuse on the end of his cigar and held it for a moment as he waited for it to burn down closer to the dynamite.
By then the warden was practically in a frenzy—desperately looking for some way of escape even as he shouted at the old man, “You just can’t do this! It’s completely illegal.”
“Yup. I s’pose so,” said the old man; and with that he handed the dynamite to the young warden at the last possible moment and said calmly, “Now, do you wanna talk, or fish?”
And we are left to imagine the impact on the ecosystem as the game warden tosses the dynamite away, wreaking havoc on the local fishery.
Of course, in truth, dynamite is nothing to play with. I mean, it looks innocuous enough to the untrained eye, I suppose—just a cardboard tube with a piece of string hanging out one end. But when used as intended, it can release a power that is all disproportionate to its size. But that’s why it’s called “dynamite”. The name itself is practically a transliteration of the Greek word for power—dunamis—the very word that is used here in Ephesians to speak of the power that God exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his own right hand “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion…” You see, that power—the power of God—like dynamite, contains an energy which, when released, changes everything.
It certainly did in the case of Christ. He was dead—truly dead—he’d been in the tomb for three days and three nights when God lit the fuse and unleashed the power of his own Holy Spirit to bring life out of death, to break the power of sin, and in fact, to “make all things new” and ultimately, that’s the message of Easter, Ascension Day and also of Pentecost. The power of the living God—the power that inevitably changes everything it touches—has been loosed in our world.
More specifically, the message of Ephesians is not only has this power been turned loose in our world; this power that changes everything has been turned loose in our lives. You see, the focus of this amazing little letter has been on God from almost the very first verse; but the focus, in particular (as we saw last Sunday) has been on the amazing ways in which God has blessed his people “in Christ”: (verse 7) in him we have the forgiveness of sin; (verse 11) in him we were chosen—we have an inheritance, having been predestined according to the plan of God; and (verse 13) in him—that is, in Christ—we have been marked with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee in the here and now of the eternal life which is ours already in Christ. Paul tells his readers that God has done all of these things for his people in Christ and then, even as he prays that God would open our eyes to see it, he writes that all that has been done has been done in us by the “working of his great strength” in accordance with the very same power that he exercised in Christ “when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his own right hand in the heavenly places…”
And here’s where chapter one and chapter two come together, and this is why I read the text in the way that I did this morning…take a look at that with me if you will. Paul writes, beginning in verse 15,
For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion…
Now, watch as Paul connects the Theological to the practical. He wrote,
That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,
Then, in the opening verses of chapter two…
[And] you were dead in your transgressions and sins…But…God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ…6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
You see? Christ was dead, but God, by his power, made him alive and raised him up; and you were dead, but God, by that same power has made you alive and has raised you up and seated you with Christ in the heavenly realm.
Of course, the one event is of far greater significance than the other, at least from a cosmic perspective, but the scriptures are telling us that the power is the same. The power that is at work in us is the same power that brought Jesus out of the tomb and raised him to the right hand of the Father.
And truly, the need is just as certain. Spiritually speaking we were cut off from God; dead—truly dead—in our sin. As John Calvin wrote,
“If we attend carefully to what the apostle says…the meaning is clear…[He] says that they were dead…He does not mean simply that they were in danger of death; but he declares that it was a real and present death under which they labored. As spiritual death is nothing else than the alienation of the soul from God, we are all born as dead men, and we live as dead men…”
And Calvin goes on:
“[Those] who are eager to seize every opportunity of undervaluing the grace of God, say, that while we are out of Christ, we are half dead.”
So, with all the optimism of Miracle Max in The Princess Bride, they say, “We’re only mostly dead, and mostly dead is partly alive.”
But the teacher objects.
“[W]e are not at liberty to set aside the declarations of our Lard and of the Apostle Paul, that, while we remain in Adam, we are entirely devoid of life…and that out of Christ we are altogether dead, because sin, the cause of death reigns in us.”
But by the power of God (the same power that raised Christ up and seated him at God’s right hand), we have been “made alive” in Christ. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.” We have been made alive toward God and alive in Christ.
More still, the Power of God Raises Us Up Together with Christ. And this is not merely repeating the first point for emphasis. Ephesians says,
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, 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, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
So, when he says, “and raised us up with him…” in this context, Paul’s not speaking of being raised up from the dead. He’s saying that we’ve been “raised up with Christ and seated with him in heavenly places.” One commentary on this passage notes that this is such a bold figure of speech that the temptation comes to leave it in the rarefied atmosphere of pious rhetoric. But by God’s own word, not only are we now risen with Christ, we are now seated with him in the heavenly realm. Not only have we been given the hope of a future resurrection to be followed by eternal life in the presence of God, we have already been welcomed into his presence and in Christ, we are seated at his own right hand.
And where is this blessing—where is this heaven on earth to be found? Well, we can hedge or evade the question; we can name it so-called “positional truth” and then point out that while it’s true in the now, it’s certainly not intended to be our experience in the now; but I don’t think that’s God intent here. Everything that we’ve learned of him so far in the letter to the Ephesians would lead us to the conclusion that God is not stingy regarding his grace. He lavishes it upon his people. In fact, that’s the expressed intent of the prayer here at the end of chapter one and the beginning of chapter two. Remember,
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 a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in 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 in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe,
No, it is the purpose of the author here to persuade us—indeed he prays that God himself would persuade us that these blessings are not only for the fullness of the kingdom, but that they are also for the here and now and, also to persuade us that The Power of God is Experienced by his people “in Christ”
Which is not to say that God’s power is simply on display, as if we are intended to look at Christ and to understand that one day God will do in us all that he has done in him. Rather, it is to say that the power of God is experienced right here, right now, in Christ.
I think that this is one side of the Ascension that is often overlooked, because we preach and we read from the Gospels and the book of Acts that when the 40 days were over, Jesus was caught up into heaven and seated at the right hand of God and that is true. But in a way, we act like those disciples in the story who after Jesus was hidden from their sight by a cloud stood there, looking into the sky and wondering when he would return, as if the ascension meant that he was gone, and there was little else to do but wait for his return.
Of course, at that point, angels appeared, stood beside them and said,
“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
So there is that promise; one day, Jesus will return.
But there was another promise made at about the same time. Jesus himself said, “I am with you always, to the very end of the ages.”
So it was not his intent that we think of the Ascension as the event which has separated us from our Savior. Rather, it was God’s intent for us to understand that since we are in Christ, and Christ is in us, we are now where he is now—seated with him at the Father’s right hand in heavenly places—and he is now where we are now, for we are his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
This is the power, the dunamis, the dynamite of God, at work in us, his people in Christ Jesus.
May we pray.
