04-Ephesians: “Stop Living Powerless: The Power That Raised Christ Lives in You” | Ephesians 1:19-23

Well, last week we ended on a promise that we could stop living broke. But how? Because we we were reminded that we who are followers of Christ are chosen. We're adopted. We're accepted.

We're redeemed. And we are sealed. And that we have a hope of a future prepared place. We have a hope of a new body and an inheritance that cannot and will not fade along with riches that God's going to spend eternity unpacking for us. We were told to walk in the light that we've already been given and to stop ignoring GPS, God's positioning system in our lives.

But here's a question that continues to linger. Promises are only worth as much as the one who makes that promise. I don't know if you've ever thought about that. You know, you've had people promise you and you're like, "Okay." Right? So, if the king who guarantees our inheritance can't back it up, every word from last week collapses from truth into just wishful thinking.

Collapses into just a vain hope. So this morning, Paul is going to continue. He's not just going to stop and move on to something else. He's going to continue. He's going to double down on last week, and he's going to continue to pray, turning the spotlight from what we've inherited to the one whose power secures every bit of what it is that we have inherited.

So, if you've ever wondered whether any of this stuff is real, whether not any of this Christian stuff is real, today is your morning because today we're going to see that we can stop living powerless. Now, to begin, we're going to reread verses 15 and 18 from last week where we read this. Therefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding, being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches is of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. And now we continue that thought into verse 19. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe according to the working of his mighty power?

Now, at the center of last week's message was this idea that we should stop living broke. This idea that we don't have to live ashamed because of where we came from. ashamed of what maybe we've done in the past. Ashamed to stand in the presence of God because we're morally or spiritually bankrupt when the reality is for the believer that all of those things that once were have passed away. We don't have to be and we are not defined by those things anymore. Christ addressed all of those things on the cross.

Christ addressed all of those concerns when he went into the grave and he burst forth from the grave. Anything and everything that separated us from God, those things have been dealt with. Amen. They are our past. They are not our present.

They are not our future. We are no longer defined by those things. Instead, we now share in his inheritance. We share in the riches of his glory. But none of that again means anything unless the one who assured us, who has made the claims, is able to actually secure those things for us. he that unless those things are actually able to be counted as legitimate.

I mean, I can can approach many of you. I'm not going to ask for a show of hands, but my guess is there's probably more than enough debt in this room. Some of it lower interest, some of it high interest that exists in this room. Someone raised their hand. We're not going to point them out.

But the thing is, I could approach you. I could approach all of you. Just say, "Don't worry guys, I got you. I got all your debt. All of it. low interest, high interest, credit cards, cars, houses, I got all of it.

And all of you would have reason to go, "Yeah, I'm not sure he's got that." We saw what he makes. I'm not sure that could happen. But Paul here in verse 19 begins showing the Ephesians and us that the one in whom they believe is more than capable of addressing and covering all of the promises that he's made. And he does so by emphasizing again and again that Jesus is the one who holds, has, and actively demonstrates his power. And this is what I mean.

In this singular verse, Paul begins to open up the Greek thesaurus. That that one's hard for me to say even after all these years, the Greek thesaurus about power and and works on hitting it from every single angle. And so here in verse 19, we see that there's this exceeding power towards us according to the working of his mighty power. Now, if you look at it very quickly, it looks like there's only these two instances of power. And and it's the context that helps us understand what each of these means.

Because these two uses of the word power, though they're power in English, there's more to them than that. That first one, the greatness of his power towards us in English, gives us this impression that there's this pool of power that's available there. It It's not power that's been activated yet. It's power that has potential. And and maybe you know what I'm talking about.

You ever meet that person or maybe this was you whereas people said like oh they had so much potential if they would just use that potential for good they could do so much good in this world they could accomplish so much in this world I I think we all know those individuals and again maybe that was you that was that and that's this idea literally what Paul is using here is this word dynamis where we get our word dynamite Now, what does dynamite do? What can it do? Boom. But when it's just in this little stick, it's just a wad of potential. It needs something to come along and light its fuse to let it get going.

So God here, what we're told is has this enormous collection of power. Literally, God has an infinite store of power. Let me Okay, this is important for us to understand. I need you to not just say yes, Pastor Chris. God has an infinite store of power.

I need you to believe that because it changes how we address what's coming next. Does God have an infinite store of power? Do you believe that? Are you living as though you believe that? Now, I'm looking up at the screen, so I'm not looking at any of you because again, it's really easy for us to say this.

It's a whole other thing to actually live this. Okay, we're continue on. And this power is being allocated towards those who believe. This is not just power that is sitting idle. It is power that has been set aside for everyone who believes.

Now you might go like, "Well, there's millions of people." And again, this is where I challenge because sometimes we our God's too small. Some of you have been here for a long time. You'll have you'll hear me say, "Your God's too small." Because we'll do this too with prayers. It's like, "Well, God doesn't have time for my prayers." Nonsense. God has time for every prayer.

In the same way that God has more than enough power stored up, an infinite power amount of power stored up for how many people towards us who believe? Everyone who believes that is our God. But what use again is this infinite pool of power if it goes unused. I I thought about this now. You guys know we're we're trying to build an expansion out here.

We we want to see this expansion build out here and and obviously we we've got a decent amount of money about 33% of the money we need for that but imagine if we had and I don't know again I don't know this could be the case I'd really laugh if this was the case but I thought it's like what if there were 10 multi-millionaires in this room I volunteer Yeah. Yeah. For those of you who didn't hear that online, someone volunteered to be a multi-millionaire. But imagine we have 10 multi-millionaires in this room. What use is that money if it's not being activated for the kingdom?

Right? In the same way, what use is it of if all of you in here were the best evangelists ever in the history of the world, but you never actually used it? What what's the use of all of the gifts and all of the talents and all of the things that God has given us? You know, time, talent, treasure. We talk about what is what is the use of all of that stuff if it's not actually being used potential unused is effectively useless, right?

It's effectively useless. So Paul continues and moves on to the next power. And no, it's not that second one that you thought. It's actually this word working. Now most of us know what it is to work.

We make jokes about what real work is and what's not real work. You know, bluecollar folks are like those white collar people. They don't know what it is to work and vice versa, right? We love to make jokes about those things. We talk about manual jobs versus jet desk jobs.

But when we look at work next to our previous word, a potential power, it takes on a different meaning. Because what happens is is that power that was potential becomes power that is realized. It becomes power that has been activated. And this here this word working is this word energia. Now what does that look like to you?

Energy. That's where we get our word energy. It's operative. It's effectual working. It's power that has been activated.

It is now power that is flowing. It's kind of like if I had a 9volt battery here, right? This is that first dynamus. If I stick it to my tongue, it becomes eneria, right? Those of you that know what I'm talking about.

Don't kids, don't try that one at home. Okay? So, this is power that's not just potential. Again, it's been activated. So what Paul has done in just a few words is communicate that God who's poured out to the believer the riches of his glory, the the assurance of his inheritance, not only has this huge pool of power at his disposal, but he is able and he is prepared to actively use that power.

But again, Paul's not done. There's more power to discuss as we continue on because Paul is now going to bring up this word mighty. Now, when you hear the word mighty, what do you think of buddy? Strong. Okay, we got strong.

Depending on your generation, you might think of some of these. Now, some of you are like, "Well, that first one doesn't look like Mighty Mouse. It wouldn't let me do Mighty Mouse, but I'm just going to call it out right now because those Mighty Morphin Power Rangers look a lot like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers." Am I not? Am I wrong? And of course, we have Thor over here.

But all of these, you got Mighty Mouse, you got the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, you got the mighty Thor. This picture of some form of strength. And this is the idea that that Paul is trying to convey here. This mighty again is another form of power. But this power is distinct from the other two.

This one Paul again breaking up this thesaurus is now using this word cratto which is power that overcomes resistance. This is power that overcomes resistance. But we need to make a distinction here. This is really interesting. See whereas Dynamus and and uh Eneria can be used of believers is never used of believers in the Bible.

And this should tell you something and this is very relevant for us because how many of you think when you've got something resisting you in your life, some kind of difficulty that's going on in your life, you take on responsibility yourself. It is my job to overcome this thing. Now what changes when you suddenly recognize that there's this power, this overwhelming power that overcomes resistance that is attributed and given to God alone. Doesn't it change something when you recognize it's not your job to overcome the resistance in your life, but instead it is God's job to overcome resistance. Suddenly when we have that come into our mind, when we recognize when we face those trials, when we face those tribulations, when we face those difficulties, when we face those seemingly overwhelming odds and we recognize that our God is that mighty God who comes along and can overcome those things, suddenly the peace of God which surpasses all understanding that can guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus suddenly becomes a reality.

Amen. Because how many times have we read something like this and said, "God, I don't even know how that's possible." He's like, "It's possible through me because I am the one who extends to you that peace. Because I am the one who overcomes all of those odds. I am the one who says you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. I can you can do all things through Christ who overcomes all of those obstacles in your life." Suddenly, when we read things like Romans 8:38 and we question, right? to many of us in this room even still, even though we've been talking about this for weeks, even we talked about it over the years, those of you that have been around for years, that we cannot lose that which he gave us, right?

This inheritance, you cannot lose it. I constantly have people, in fact, this happened a couple weeks ago. Em and I were having a conversation with someone on YouTube. I put up the short just emphasizing the fact that you cannot lose your salvation because he secured it, right? And we talked about that.

What's the comment? Except if you backslide like no even if you backslide this is because he overcomes all those obstacles including our stupid right that we can be persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth now what's this this last part nor any other created thing let me ask you a question are you created am I created okay shall be able. So no created thing, you, me, or otherwise shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Suddenly again when we face these overwhelming odds in our lives including our own stupid, including our own defiance, our God overcomes those those things. Amen.

And this is further affirmed when we read our fourth reference to power iscus which is this possessed strength this inherent force. In other words, God possesses infinite power and he is prepared to use it on our behalf. Our God willingly pours out his power to us. This God who spoke the universe into existence says I want to pour out my power for you. Not just a little bit of power, a massive mega amount of power.

And the thing is, this is the thing that's amazing. Okay, again, it's not a fraction. Paul continues and says, "Which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead." Are you understanding the implication of what was just said there? The power that raised Jesus from the dead is not in part given to you. It is not in a slice given to you.

The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is given to each and every one of us. You want to know how it is that God can transform your life, my life, even the life of that person out there that you're like, you're you're like, there is no way. It's because the power that raised Christ from the dead comes and inhabits that situation, overcomes those odds with the potential, the activated potential, the overwhelming potential, the the confirmed potential in our in our God. He worked this through Christ. But it goes beyond is God not only raised Jesus from the dead.

We continue he seated him. He seated him at the right hand. Now most of us know this phrase right hand. We say someone is your right hand man. Right?

This is my right-hand man. What do we mean by that? This is like my trusted person. This is my confidant of anyone and everyone else in this world. this is the person that I know is going to get whatever that thing happens to be done right so you could have a right hand man at work you could have a right-hand man somewhere else in your life but this is a person that you trust to accomplish a thing now for Paul's audience this would have carried even more weight what was being communicated Jesus shares the father's authority this is what Paul is communicating to his audience this isn't just a trust trusted confidant. This is someone who has been extended power in authority.

This is not a subordinate situation. Jesus has co-regency. Jesus has co-ruule. Jesus has equal power with the father. This is what Paul is communicating here in this moment.

And he is there to execute the father's rule. The right hand is working and is active. Now, this seems to conflict with some of the the the imagery that is there that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God and yet he's working. But what you're going to see is even as Jesus is sitting, he's doing more work than any of us could ever dream. Now, we've already discussed that might Kratos that power that can only be exercised by God is something that's beyond humanity.

But this might this power the father father possesses is also extended to the son. It's extended to Jesus because again they're co-equal in nature. The father and the son are indeed one. But being mightier than humans really isn't that big of a deal. It's not a big that big of a challenge.

I mean you might think that you're pretty special in your sphere of influence. But when you think about even the size of the state, the size of the nation, the size of the continent, the size of the planet, the scenes of the solar system and the galaxy in the universe, it's like weird not even specs. Especially when you consider that God spoke everything into existence. So that really doesn't say a whole lot. It's like, oh well, God's greater than me.

I mean, it's like, okay, that's not what affirms the promise that we have. So Paul continues on that the father and the son are far how far above all principality, all power, all might and dominion in every name that is named. Not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. The father and the son we are told are far above. What the first thing is we have this word principality.

This is that that idea of being a first rank, the originating position. So Paul's communicating it doesn't matter if it's one of your gods. So in this case, Artemis was in Ephesus or Diana, far above Diana, far above any of the Greek or Roman gods, far above any of the gods, far above anyone else who might claim a position of authority. God is far above them. And then this idea of this power, any other power, someone who has the license to act, someone who is given the right to act, Paul is just saying, look, it doesn't matter who this person is.

So far above anybody else who thinks that they are mighty. Anybody else who thinks that they are powerful in any way, far above any of them, far above anyone else who claims ownership, any of the emperors, any of the kings, far above any of these individuals. Paul is saying it doesn't matter what you think it is. Anything that you think is powerful and over you and controls land, controls the world, controls the seasons, any of these things that you think have power, the father and the son are far above these. And then he continues on and he says, and it's not just in the right now.

This is not only in this age, like right now, anything to come. There will never be any entity that will ever exceed the father or the son. They are forever seated in glory and far above anyone else. Now, let me ask you a question. What is Christ over?

Everything. All things. Does that sound familiar? Our God's got all the things. And and we should not think that this is strange because we remember that Paul wrote Ephesus while he was in prison at the same time that same prison imprisonment that he wrote Colossians as well.

So this is in his mind that Jesus is indeed above all things. And so he continues on and says that he put thing all things under his feet. Now when you hear this line I mean what what do you imagine? I mean, when I thought of this, I just thought of somebody on their hands and knees acting like an ottoman or something, like a foottool. I mean, you might remember this from Psalm 110.

The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies a foottool." And so, this is kind of the picture. I'm like, "Okay, well, that's kind of demeaning." I mean, we might remember that back in this time they didn't have a lot of sanitations. Feet could be pretty disgusting. And this idea that I have to be somebody's foottool uh is not the the greatest picture in the world. But this is so much more what Paul is trying to convey here.

This takes it to another level. And this is something that is it's going to be hard for us probably to to to think about. What Paul is doing here is he's evoking this idea that Jesus while he's sitting here in his throne, has his enemies at his feet, and he has his foot to their throat. Does that not communicate something a little more powerful? And this is something that his audience would have known whether they were Jews or Greeks.

I want to read this from Joshua 10. So it was that when they brought out those kings to Joshua that Joshua called for all the men of Israel and said to the captains and the men of war who went with him, "Come near. Put your feet on the necks of these kings." And they drew near and put their feet on their necks. Now this is for the Jews that may have been part of the church in Ephesus at this point, but this is something that was very common for the Romans as well. When generals would conquer, say, a tribe of barbarians, they would parade them out.

They would throw to the ground and they would put their foot on their neck. Caesars would do the same thing. In fact, some of them would commemorate these acts with coinage that would be in circulation where you would see the act of some ruler being tossed to the ground and their foot on their throat. Let me ask you a question. If someone has their foot to your throat, what do they have?

Complete power over you. Complete subjection over you. All of creation that has rebelled against our God is completely subjected to our king. All of creation that is in complete and absolute rebellion is completely subjected to our king. There is no power in all of creation that can stand against our king.

And so when you start asking yourself, is it possible that this inheritance can be secured by Christ? Yes, absolutely easily. Now with all things in subjection to the son, we that we know that he gave him head over all things to the church. Now in English, this reads a little bit weird, but let me see if I can unpack this just a little bit for you. So Jesus has the rebellious creation under his foot, but all of creation hasn't been subjugated for someone else to rule.

It's been subjugated for him to rule. So he is the one who has subjugated through his death, burial, and resurrection. Everything has been subjugated to him and he now sits enthroned. But what does this have to do with the church? Well, the church is his body.

It is his. It has a special place that's outside of the rest of creation. So whereas we were once enemies of God, when we confessed and believed, we became something else. We became something other, something set apart in all of creation. We became part of his body.

As we will see later, we became part of his bride. Now, as his body and as his bride, we share in the fullness of him who fills all in all. Now again this is in stark contrast to the rest of creation which is his enemy. Rather here the church is not under his boot. Instead the church is showered with his blessings.

That is the role that we have here. And so this picture that you've seen is of this God who sacrificed everything so that we could have relationship with him and willingly pours out and just extends such great blessing upon us and affirms all of us. Now as we close this morning, I want to remind us of what Paul has done. He's taken these four Greek words for power. Dynamus, this raw pool of power, energia, the pool that is put to work.

Kratos, that strength that overcomes every obstacle. Iniscus, possessed and ready. He's reminded us that the only one who wields such power, the power that emptied the tomb, has directed that same power towards us. The same hand that raised Jesus is the same hand that seated him at the right hand of the father. Far above every principality, power, every might, every dominion.

Every rival authority lies at his feet. You know, our society loves to try and put the enemy at level with our God. Family, it's not even close. It's hopelessly laughable. The enemy stands no chance against our God.

And the one who reigns over all has been given as head of the church. His body of which we are believers as part. And so this week I want to encourage us to live as though this is true. I I want this to get past the pastor said a thing and I thought it was cool and I thought it was funny when he said this thing and I thought it was funny that thing didn't look anything like Mighty Mouse. But I want us to think about what it is that I've actually said, what Paul has said here.

And I want us to actually start living as though this is true. So let's stop carrying what we've never been asked to carry. Too many of us carry things that are not ours to carry. The heavy weights and the burdens that you're bearing right now, those are not yours to carry. Those are for our king to carry. whatever they may be, we need to give these over to the one who possesses that power to overcome everything.

And and I want us to take an opportunity, and this is weird. I'm going to give you the ability to preach the truth back into your own hearts, right? What do I mean by that? When fear arises, I want you to name the empty tomb out loud. I don't know how often you think about that, but when you're going through whatever it is that's vexing you this week, I want you to name that empty tomb because the same God who raised Jesus from the dead is the God who showers that same power upon you.

So, when you're facing that fear this week, you just remember that that power is right there available to you. And and I don't have the slide for it, but it's one of my favorite verses in Acts 18. And you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. Right? When you believed, you receive the Holy Spirit.

You receive that third member of the Trinity. You receive God himself who comes and says you are the temple of the Holy Spirit. So when you think that you're alone, you're not alone. You are not needing to go and somewhere else to tap into power. You don't have to give me a phone call, though you could.

You don't need to come into the church and come down here and think that the power is here. No. If you're a believer in Christ, the power lives inside you. Amen. He came and he set up shop.

There is nothing more holy about this building. God is only in this building when his people are here. Amen. So again, let's preach the resurrection resurrection back into our hearts. Let's remind ourselves of the same power the race raised Christ from the dead again lives in us.

And finally, may we all live like those whose head whose Lord sits on the throne. The thing is we get caught up by all the nonsense in this world. And one of the things as I'm getting older, and I know some of you think I'm hopelessly old and ancient, some of you think I'm like super young. But the thing I continue to realize is this world is out of its mind. It it doesn't matter where you go.

Like some of you that are young, you're like, "Ah, the world's never been this bad." No, it's been this bad and worse. It just has. And it always seems like it's out of control. It's a bucking bronco. And there's really nothing that we can do about it cuz there's not.

But the one who has Kratos can. And even if he allows nonsense to continue on for a period of time, we recognize that he holds us in his hands. And that even if everything that that we possess, which is not ours to begin with, right, that he gave to us, look, if he chooses to reallocate that somewhere else, that's for him. But then we trust and recognize that he's got us because he's got all the things, right? And we have again that peace, that peace that surpasses all understanding, that guards our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus the King.

And all God's people said, "Amen." Amen. Let's pray. Father God, again, thank you for the truth of just the unbelievable power that you possess. We can't even hope to understand what it is that you possess. The fact that you raised people from the dead.

The fact that you were raised from the dead to new life. The fact that you sit at the right hand of the father in heaven. The fact that that you were there at the beginning of creation and instrumental in all of creation coming into existence. We cannot even fathom that. But Lord, I do pray that you would give us what we need to find our peace in you. that you would you would give us what we need to live as though these truths are indeed true in our lives and that we would be forever desiring to share that to any and all who would listen that you might call many to yourself and we pray this in Jesus name.

Amen.