INTRODUCTION
Two weeks ago it was Easter Sunday. So, do you suppose that we’ve now said goodbye to Easter until next year? Well, we haven’t! The season of Easter doesn’t FINISH on Easter Sunday! It actually STARTS on Easter Sunday and continues for seven weeks after that. That means that it’s fine for me to continue with Easter themes for a bit longer! Today, I thought I would go to a passage which refers to the resurrection. It’s Ephesians 1:15-23.
But before we take a look at this passage, let’s remember that we have already had one talk about the resurrection and what it means. On Easter Sunday, we looked at 1 Corinthians 15. I looked especially at the first two verses and the last verse. In verses one and two, Paul talks about ‘the gospel … by which you are being saved, if you HOLD FAST to the word I preached to you’. Paul wants to encourage the Christians in Corinth to HOLD FAST. He then starts to talk about Jesus’ resurrection – and he talks about it for a long time. 1 Corinthians 15 is 58 verses long!
At the start of the chapter, Paul urged the Christians in Corinth to HOLD FAST. At the end of the chapter, he writes ‘THEREFORE, my beloved brothers…’ THEREFORE means, ‘in view of all that I’ve been saying about the resurrection’, ‘Therefore, be steadfast, immovable’ – that’s much the same as ‘HOLD FAST’. Then Paul adds, ‘always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain’ [1 Corinthians 15:58].
Why should we HOLD FAST? Because we have a wonderful future if we do. We can all be tempted to give up. But because there’s such a prize at the end, because there’s a resurrection, it’s worth keeping going, completing the course.
And also because there’s a resurrection, there’s every reason to work hard. Our work has value. If we’re engaged in the work of the Lord, it can transform people’s situations ETERNALLY!
That’s what we looked at on Easter Sunday. So, one thing the resurrection means is that we should stand firm and work hard. It’s a good message. It’s logical. I don’t want to seem unhappy. But something a little more encouraging would be nice! The passage in Ephesians which we’re going to look at today comes into that category.
There’s a kind of movie called an ‘inheritance movie’. The basic premise is that someone suddenly becomes rich beyond their wildest dreams – and they try to get their heads around that fact. ‘Mr Deeds’ is a movie like that. Mr Deeds is the owner of a pizzeria. Then he inherits $40 billion from his deceased uncle. Life changes completely for him and he realises that he has the power to impact people’s lives in a way he never had before.
In Ephesians 1, Paul says that as Christians we’re in a similar situation. But there are differences. Mr Deeds came into money. Christians have come into power. Mr Deeds grasped how wealthy he’d become. But lots of Christians don’t understand the power that is available to them.
THE PASSAGE
Let’s now take a look at the passage. It is, I think, a bit difficult to digest! In Ephesians 1, Paul wrote a couple of REALLY long sentences. Verses 3-14 are all one sentence in the Greek. That’s an EXTREMELY long sentence! But verses 15-21 – the passage we’re looking at – are also one sentence in Greek. That’s also quite long!
The UK government is trying to promote ‘Plain English’ in its communications. I don’t think they would approve of such a long sentence! But I don’t think it’s actually too bad. Let’s take a look. I’m going to use the ESV, the ‘English Standard Version.’ Let’s start from verse 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…’
Paul is praying for the Ephesians.
‘…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…’
If I was a member of the church in Ephesus and I read Paul’s letter I would be very happy that Paul is praying this for me! It’s a great model for us to use as we pray for each other!
Paul’s theme is the Ephesians’ knowledge of God. His prayer is that God would give them a spirit of wisdom and of revelation and that ‘the eyes of their hearts’ would be enlightened. We don’t come to a knowledge of God with scientific instruments. We need God’s help.
Now Paul lists three things he’s praying that the Ephesians would know:
‘that you may know what is THE HOPE to which he has called you’ – HOPE is the first.
‘what are the riches of HIS GLORIOUS INHERITANCE in the saints’ – OUR INHERITANCE is the second.
‘and what is the immeasurable greatness of HIS POWER towards us who believe’ – POWER is the third. I’m going to give special attention to this in a moment.
‘according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ WHEN HE RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD…’
Paul compares the power God has for us who believe to the power God employed to raise Jesus from the dead! That’s a lot of power!
‘and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places…’
It wasn’t simply the power to raise Jesus from the dead but the power to seat him at God’s right hand!
‘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 – in case you didn’t know – God’s right hand is an extraordinarily exalted position!
GOD’S POWER
I hope that gives us an idea of what Paul is talking about in this long sentence.
In the inheritance movie, someone comes into great wealth. That’s the case for the Ephesians. In the inheritance movie, the person who has inherited the wealth looks disbelieving for a while and then realises it’s true.
But in the case of the Ephesians, Paul suspects that they don’t really understand what they have received. So Paul prays that God would help the Ephesians in their knowledge of him. Then he continues, ‘THAT YOU MAY KNOW…’ He wants the Ephesians to know something, or actually, three things. They are, their hope, their inheritance, and God’s power that’s available to them.
Paul isn’t praying that God would GIVE the Ephesians power. God’s power is already available to them. They have it. Paul is praying that they would know what they’ve got.
I’m now going to look at the third of those things: GOD’S POWER. I want to make three points. First, God’s power is AMAZING. Second, God’s power is TOWARDS US. Third, we receive God’s power by BELIEF.
GOD’S POWER IS AMAZING
Paul tells us, about as strongly and clearly as it’s possible to say anything, that God’s power that’s available for us who believe IS AMAZING.
First, Paul describes God’s power. It’s immeasurable. It’s in a league of its own. The Greek word for power is ‘dynameos’ from which we get the word dynamite.
Then he gives an example. He says, ‘That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms.’ So, is that a lot of power? It’s certainly beyond the power of human doctors to bring someone back to life who has been dead for three days. That means that it’s a lot of power. But it’s actually even cooler than that.
As I was preparing today’s talk, I looked at a sermon on this passage by someone called Laurence Veinott. Veinott quoted a theologian called F.F. Bruce. Bruce had written:
‘If the death of Christ is the supreme demonstration of the love of God … the resurrection of Christ is the supreme demonstration of his power.’
Do you get the idea? To describe how amazing God’s power is, Paul has picked on the supreme example of God's power: raising Jesus from the dead.
But Veinott wasn’t convinced. He said to himself, ‘Well, what about creation in Genesis 1? That was a pretty big demonstration of God’s power. He spoke and created all things out of nothing. Wasn't that greater than even Christ's resurrection?’
But then Veinott thought about it some more and decided that Bruce was right. Christ’s resurrection IS the greatest demonstration of God’s power ever. The reason is that God didn’t simply raise Jesus from the dead in the way that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. God raised Jesus into a completely new order of reality. In Colossians, Paul writes that Jesus ‘is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead’ [Colossians 1:18]. Jesus was the first person to be raised from the dead and given a new resurrection body, fit for the life of the world to come. God didn’t simply raise Jesus. He transformed him. So, Veinott agreed with Bruce. Jesus’ resurrection is the supreme demonstration of God’s power.
GOD’S POWER IS TOWARDS US
‘OK’, we say, ‘God’s power is amazing. We know that. But does it help me?’ Absolutely! ‘God’s power IS TOWARDS US’, Paul writes – just so we’re in no doubt!
But how can that possibly be? How can WE experience the power which raised Jesus from the dead? Someone called Alexander MacLaren, a 19th century Baptist minister, explained it as follows. I’m paraphrasing. He said, we are united with Christ. He is the vine; we are the branches. He is the head; we are the members. So, what is true of him is true of us.
That’s just what the Bible says. Paul wrote, ‘If we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his’ [Romans 6:5]. We share in his glory too. Jesus said, ‘The glory that you have given me I have given to them’ [John 17:22].
Because we're united with Christ, what applies to Christ applies to us. That is why God’s power that raised Jesus from the dead and seated him at God’s right hand is available to us.
MacLaren continued: ‘If we want to know what the Divine Power can make of us, let us turn to look with the eye of faith upon what it has made of Jesus Christ.’
The first two things Paul prayed for the Christians in Ephesus were that they would know the hope to which God had called them and their inheritance. But would their hope be fulfilled? Would the Ephesians enjoy their inheritance? And will we? We often feel so weak, we are so often defeated.
That is why the third thing in Paul’s list – God’s power – is so important. Maclaren wrote that it’s God’s power, ‘which alone can fulfil the hope and bring the inheritance.’
Of course, we need God’s help to know – know in the sense of experiencing it – this amazing power.
WE EXPERIENCE GOD’S POWER WHEN WE DEMONSTRATE FAITH
Paul prayed that the Christians in Ephesus would know God’s immeasurable power towards us WHO BELIEVE. To experience God’s power we have to believe. David ventured forth against Goliath because he believed. Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt and into a wilderness because he believed. Belief motivates us to attempt great things for God. When we do so, we find that God provides for us.
Paul wrote that God told him that his power is made perfect in weakness. There are times when we feel that a particular task is completely beyond us. We don’t have the strength, the capacity to do it, and we know it. That is often the point when we go to Jesus and say, ‘Lord, this is totally beyond me.’ And that is the point when we know – know in the sense of experience – Jesus’ power, sustaining us.
TAKE-AWAYS
My first takeaway is that Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians is a great example for us. We can pray for each other and Paul prayed for the Ephesians. We can pray for members of Rosebery Park, that we would know our hope, our inheritance and God’s power.
My second takeaway – and this is really the important point – is that our knowledge of God’s power should give us confidence.
It gives us confidence to do things. People who have a lot of money generally spend it. They don’t necessarily spend it wisely, but they use it. You and I may think we don’t have a lot of resources but Paul is saying that we do! We have God’s immeasurable power available to us. That knowledge should give us confidence to venture forth, to step out in faith, to resist temptation, to stand firm in times of trial, to witness to our faith. It also gives us confidence for the future. God raised Jesus from the dead; he will do the same for us.
Talk given at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Bournemouth, UK, 1st May 2022
