The Greatness Of His Power

THE GREATNESS OF HIS POWER

Sunday July 02, 2000 A.M.

Ephesians 1:19-20

19 I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power

20 that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.

Now we need to consider the greatness of His power which enables us to do these things.

If you or I were to try to fulfill any one command in our own power, then all we can say is, "Unclean, unclean."

We find we are not capable within ourselves; we are dead in trespasses and sin.

This means that we have no ability in our own strength.

By nature we have no love and have become enemies of God and our neighbor.

So we are not able to fulfill these commands in our own strength.

Our text says it is the exceeding greatness of His power towards those of us who believe, "...according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead."

It takes the unction and power of the Holy Spirit to raise us unto a newness of life.

The resurrection of Christ is the symbol of us being raised out of the powers of hell and spiritual death, under the power and servitude of sin, to be able to walk in a newness of life.

This takes the same creative and almighty power of God which it took to raise Jesus Christ from the grave.

Ephesians 2:1

1 Once you were dead, doomed forever because of your many sins.

In our carnal state we have no capacity of any kind to show love.

The bitterness, enmity, and rebellion that are in the heart of man by nature is the result of the fall in sin.

When we try to love one another as Jesus loved us, we find we come so short.

We need the power and the grace of God to raise us out of this deadness and into the newness of life that Christ might be formed in us.

It is by the resurrecting power of God that He raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead to sit at His right hand.

Notice that God raised Jesus not only to sit in heavenly places but far above all principality and power.

Ephesians 2:5-6

5 that even while we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s special favor(grace) that you have been saved!)

6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ, and we are seated with him in the heavenly realms—all because we are one with Christ Jesus.

Then we become raised above the power of sin.

It is only in the resurrection power that we become raised above the power of Satan, sin, and our own evil nature.

As we look at our text in its context, the Apostle Paul speaks to the church of the Ephesians about the work of grace.

It is all of grace; it is the grace of God which gives us new desires and instills the love of God in our heart.

It is the grace of God which gives us the power to come above the controlling power of sin.

You and I can hear with the natural ear, but there is no power in that, it still leaves us spiritually dead; it was the power of the Word of Jesus, we see in, John 11:43

43 Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” that brought about the resurrection of Lazarus out of the grave.

Ephesians 1:12-14

12 God’s purpose was that we who were the first to trust in Christ should praise our glorious God.

13 And now you also have heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago.

14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us everything he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. This is just one more reason for us to praise our glorious God.

Look again and see that Paul is teaching us the chronology of the work of grace.

It is through the Word. ROMANS 10:17 says, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

It is when the Word is heard by the effectual application of the Holy Spirit that faith comes into exercise.

As the work of grace is worked in the soul by the Holy Spirit, faith is put into exercise.

Then we begin to know what it is to love one another and delight to do the will of God.