Ephesians ā Wayne Barber/Part 19
By: Dr. Wayne Barber; ©1999 |
Dr. Barber explains how Godās power, revealed in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, can impact our lives. |
Ephesians 1:18-20
That We Might Know His Power ā Part 1
Will you turn with me to Ephesians chapter 1? I want to preach a message entitled, āThat We Might Know His Power.ā
Now heās writing, as an apostle, to a group of people with whom he has spent three years of his life. He has just poured out his heart to them. He planted seed, and now heās seeing them come up. He has such a desire for these Ephesian believers.
Look at verse 18. He says, āI pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you might knowā¦ā Now I want to stop right there. Paul wants them to know someĀthing. He says, āI want you to be flooded with light in your inner man. I want you to see it as revealed by God Himself. Iāve got a burden that you know it deep inside of your life.ā
The first thing he wants them to know, which we looked at in verse 18, is āthe hope of His calling.ā This involves everything about our salvation. Verses 3 through 14 tell us of all the marvelous things that God has done. The word āhopeā there always speaks of earnest expectation. Itās never uncertain when it comes to a believer. Itās something he expects and knows is certain in his life. He sees that receiving Jesus Christ is more than an end in itself.
Thatās why I John emphasizes whatās going on now, not just what went on back then. Paul is saying to them, āListen, the hope of your calling helps you realize that it is the beĀginning, not an end in itself.ā It involves everything Godās going to do from A to Z when it comes to our salvation. To the believer who understands this, the hope of His calling means that tomorrow heās going to be more like Jesus than he was today. It means that tomorrow heās going to be filled more and more with the fullness of God. He doesnāt get more of God, but he gives more of himself to God. By doing that he realizes more of God. That means heāll be transformed into Christās image from moment to moment. Itās a proĀcess.
You know, you hear people say, āGod loves you just like you are.ā Yes and No. Yes, He understands you and unconditionally loves you. No, Heās not satisfied with us like we are. He wants us to be conformed into the image of Christ Jesus. Thatās a part of the process of our salvation. One day we will have a glorified body, and weāll be like Him. Second Corinthians 3:18 says, āBut we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.ā In I John chapter 3 and verse 2 says, āBeloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.ā
Salvation is just the beginning. Then you begin to grow up as true sons of God, and youāre conformed into His image, with the ultimate conformity being when He glorifies our body. Believers who donāt understand the hope of their calling are people who donāt underĀstand life and the difficulties of life. They donāt understand what to expect and what to look forward to in their calling. You see, a believer who understands heās growing up and that this is a process and that there are things yet to come, understands that God is in control. He orchestrates events in his life. Difficulties come, and difficulties go, but those things are used as tools by God Himself to shape them and conform them into the image of Christ.
When we understand the hope of our calling we understand that life works for us. It does not work against us. Not to understand it is to be a person most miserable, filled with a life of unwanted circumstances and never seeming to understand what the resurrection of Jesus really can mean. Paul says, āI want you to know. I pray that you know what is the hope of your calling.ā
The second thing he mentions there in verse 18 is not just the hope of His calling. He says he wants them to know āwhat are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.āā Weāve looked at three possible meanings of that. First, he could be saying, āI pray that you might understand all of the riches that are yours because youāre a joint-heir with Christ.ā Remember, weāre shareholders of all thatās promised to Him. We get a portion of it as a part of our salvation. Thatās so marvelous! Could he be saying, āI pray that you might understand the riches of what you have in Christā? Certainly that would be true. Is that what heās saying though?
Second, we looked at the possibility he may be praying and saying, āI want you to know that you are His inheritance.ā Thatās a beautiful thought. Jesus is my inheritance as a believer. Iām also His inheritance. Itās hard to understand. Deuteronomy says Israel was Godās portion. First Peter says we are a peculiar people, a people of Godās own possesĀsion. Could he be saying that we are now to glorify Him in our life on this earth?
The third possibility is, he could be pointing to all thatās coming one day. Heās talking about everything thatās coming. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard whatās left, whatās reserved for us in heaven. We have the earnest of His inheritance. We donāt have a clue yet as to whatās coming. All the victories we have in the Holy Spirit today are nothing compared to the riches of whatās coming one day.
I think all those things must be involved in what heās saying, but I think it goes back to possibly we are His possession. If Iām living in the hope of my calling, and I know that every day Godās wanting to conform me more and more into His image, then all of a sudden Iām able to realize the riches of bringing recognition to that by the way that I live so that others around me can see, not who I am, but whose I am. It begins to make sense that these all tie together.
We need to remember that we are to bring recognition to Him daily that others can look at us and say, āHe is the property of Jesus because he just lives for Him. He doesnāt live for anybody else.ā The church is Christās body. It is Christās bride on earth. We are to show forth His glory in the sense that we die daily. John the Baptist said, āI must decrease so that He might increase in my life that others might see the identification I have with Him, that I am His possession.ā
Well, thatās all review. I want to move on. Look at verse 19. He wants them to be filled with understanding. He wants the light to be turned on in their life. It says in verse 19 he wants them to know āwhat is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who beĀlieve.ā
Now I want to share something with you. Some of you have tried to live the best you can for Jesus this past year. Somehow it hasnāt quite clicked in your mind yet as to what this is all about. Somehow youāve grown discouraged because it hasnāt worked in your marriage. It hasnāt worked in your job. It hasnāt worked in other situations. Maybe you came this morning as a very disappointed and a very discouraged believer of the Lord Jesus Christ. You donāt understand your hope and the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. Maybe youāve tried it in your own strength, but now you think that His deĀmands are a little too high. Maybe you want to stand up and shake your fist and say, āI canāt live the Christian life.ā If youāre saying that, youāre finally at the point that maybe you can understand you were never designed to live it. You canāt, and God never said you could. But He can, and He always said He would. Itās something thatās not taught. Itās something that is caught.
Now folks, I want to tell you something. He gave us power to do what He told us to do. If we were left to do this on our own, then why did He die in the first place? The Pharisees could have worked their way right into heaven. They couldnāt do it. Jesus pointed at a Pharisee one day and said, āIf your righteousness is not greater than theirs, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.ā Itās not by doing good deeds. You canāt work your way in. You do not have the ability to produce the things that only God can do in your life.
To me, thatās why Paul puts this third point where he puts it. You need to know the surpassing power that He has towards you who believe. There are three words in that verse. We will only look at one of them now.
āWhat is the surpassing greatness of His powerā¦ā Thatās the first one. Then he says, āā¦toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strengthā¦ā Thatās the second word. āā¦of His mightā¦ā Thatās the third word. All three of those words are beautiful words. This time weāll look at the word āpower.ā āā¦the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.ā
Once people understand what Paul wants them to understand about His power then the Christian life becomes a little different in their perspective. Paul said in Philippians 1:6, āā¦He who began, he that began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.ā The word āperfectā means He will carry it to its fullest conclusion. Itās not what I can do for Him. It ās what He alone can do through me. Until you see that, youāre going to work yourself to death and misunderstand that the hope of your calling and His inheritance in the saints are made possible by the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.
First of all then, His power is unsurpassed. The word for āpowerā is the word dunamis. Itās the word from which we get two words. One of them confuses a lot of folks when you use it. Thatās the word dynamite. To a lot of people thatās just a big explosion, then everyĀthing settles and is gone. Dunamis means āthe ability to accomplish something.ā Thatās what power is. Oh folks, you canāt accomplish it. I canāt accomplish it. Thatās why he says, āI want you to know His power. Heās the one who accomplishes it.ā Youāve just got to learn to appropriate that in your life.
The other word is more meaningful. It is the word dynamo. Thereās a difference in dynamite and dynamo. Dynamo doesnāt make as much noise. Itās just as powerful, but itās continuous. Itās constantly there. It never stops. It continues day by day, moment by moment. I like that better. You get the idea from dynamite of its unique ability, but you get the idea from dynamo of the consistency of this word dunamis which means āpower to accomplish something.ā Itās not something you can do. Itās something outside of yourself.
Do we realize that the surpassing greatness of His power is toward us? Where was this power that heās talking about here demonstrated? Look in verse 20: āā¦which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead.ā Heās talking about the resurĀrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Itās something we can experience. Itās something Christ does in us and through us. He accomplishes something we cannot accomplish ourselves.
Boy, when you think of the resurrection of Jesus, wouldnāt you like to have been with them that morning when the ladies went there and saw those two angels? They came running back to John and Peter. Then John and Peter came running back to the tomb.
Peter couldnāt help himself. He just ran on inside and said, āWhere did He go?ā It says in Matthew, Mark and Luke they had mixed emotions. They were excited, and yet they were confused. One of the Gospels says they were afraid. They had mixed emotions. They didnāt know what to think about this whole thing. The miracle was absolutely incredible. A person coming back from the dead was something the mind just could not grasp that.
Not only that, He had told them He was going to do it. He told them He would see them on the other side. He had to be either a lunatic or something else. These men beĀlieved Him, but even though they believed Him when He did it, they still couldnāt quite grasp it all.
Acts 2:24 says, āAnd God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.ā He put an end to the agony of death. Death could not hold Him down. It appears that the Lord Jesus dismissed His own human spirit. They didnāt have to break the bones in His body to make Him suffocate on the cross. He dismissed His own human spirit. God-man died on that cross, and God-man raised Himself from the dead. The miracle, His resurrection power.
Paul says it can be in you, and it can be in me. We can experience that on our ownIn other words, out of the deadness of my life He brings newness of life. What heās talking about here is the person of Jesus manifesting Himself in you and me. He told Martha, āI am the resurrection and the life.ā āIām the one who can bring out what youāre not. I can put in what ought to be. I can transform you. I can do what you cannot do. I can accomplish what you cannot accomplish.ā The unsurpassed power of God was demonstrated when Christ arose from the dead, conquering death and conquering sin.
Look at the verse. The verse shows us the condition of this thing. Why is it some people donāt seem to understand that power? It says, āā¦what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward usā¦ā Now watch the last phrase. Who what? āā¦who believe.ā Thatās not in the perfect tense, āwho once believed.ā Itās not in the aorist tense, āwho believed at one point in time.ā Itās a present participle which means āwe believe and keep on believing and keep on believing and keep on believing.ā
Who are the people who keep on believing? Theyāre the people who keep on obeying and trusting what God says in this Word. Donāt tell somebody you believe in Jesus if youāre not willing to obey what He says. Thatās the bottom line of what belief is all about. I can talk about how I believe. Talk is cheap. Watch how I live. That will show you what I beĀlieve. What Iām willing to obey determines what I believe in my spirit.
So who realizes the power of God? Itās those who are willing to obey what He says. As I was praying over this passage a thought came to my mind. You may be thinking, āIt just doesnāt work in my life. Iām not experiencing that. Whatās wrong with me? I canāt forgive. Thereās somebody in my life who has done me wrong, and Iām bitter. I think Iāve got a right to be bitter.ā Theyāre just miserable as a Christian.
You may have a financial problem, and itās so great itās overwhelming. You canāt seem to solve it. The harder you try, the deeper you get instead of coming out of it. Or maybe youāre in a situation to where you have a lustful problem. Itās just eating you up and driving you down. You canāt get out from under it. āWhatās wrong with me?ā you say.
May I ask you some questions? Number one, have you identified what it is thatās defeating you? Have you put it into a category where you can understand what it is that causes you the biggest problem in your life?
Number two, have you looked in Scripture to find out what God says about that? Letās put it in an area of relationships. You know God said, āBe at peace with one another.ā God says, āForgive one another.ā The word āforgiveā is the word that means āto do an act of grace, do something they donāt deserve, let them loose.ā Have you looked to see what God has to say about it? I find that 90% of the people that have problems in these areas never bother to see what God says about it. If weāre going to experience His power weāve got to get in tune with His Word. Once we get into His Word He tells us clearly what He thinks about it.
Then number three, once youāve identified the problem, and once youāve identified what God said to do, have you done it in your life? Have you purposed in your heart to forgive your brother who caused you all that problem? Have you purposed in your heart to lay down your hatchet, bury it under the blood of Jesus and not pick it up again and trust God to take it from there? Have you trusted Him to do something in you thatās far beyond what you could do yourself? Have you trusted God to manifest Himself in your life? Once you choose to do it, once you choose to obey His Word, then God will manifest His power and His life behind you. Heāll put something there that wasnāt there before. People will look at it, and theyāll know itās not you. Itās got to be Jesus in you.
Whatās wrong with us? We make up our minds that we canāt get out from under our problems. Thatās ridiculous. We can. The same place we met Jesus at the cross is where we stay daily. If Iāve got a problem with my flesh I run to that cross. I bow down at that cross, and I say, āGod, this is sin in my life. Iāve looked in your Word. I have transgressed your will, and God, I ask You to forgive me.ā At that very moment some of that resurrection power begins to spill into your life.
Are you experiencing Godās resurrection power in your life? Is He transforming you daily? Is He the one conforming you in the image of Christ Jesus? Does your wife look at you and say, āHey, you know, somethingās going on in your life. I know one thing. Itās not you because I know you. Thereās something different about your life today.ā Thatās the resurrected power of Jesus working in your life.
Paul says I want you to know the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who can believe and continue and continue and continue and continue to believe. We trust Him. We obey Him. He takes the rest of it and does what we could never have done.
Oh folks, we must know the resurrected power of the Lord Jesus Christ and what He does in newness of life that we could not do ourselves so that we might walk in the hope of His calling, so that we might demonstrate the riches of His glory in His inheritance in the saints. We canāt do it without that power. Heās provided it for us. Are you walking and living in it?