We're celebrating a very strange birthday and the life of the
church. We are celebrating this year at
the 17 hundredth anniversary of the first ecumenical council of
the church. And that's, it's not, not a big
one, but you know, 1700 years. It's like Raphael said, this
faith is very old. And the Ecumenical Council is
significant because what makes it ecumenical is in the early
church there was a gathering of a group of people to look at
some doctrine, to consider some doctrine, and every pastor in
the world was invited. That's what made it ecumenical.
So they had this council in modern Turkey engaging in a
theological dialogue. And it's a big deal because in
325, when they got together, Christianity had been illegal.
I mean, until that time, truly, and the Roman Empire, it was
illegal to be a Christian. And there's all kinds of
persecution until a very important date, 3/13, when you
have the the Edict of Milan from Constantine.
And all of a sudden, for the first time, Christianity is
legal and we can start to talk about theology openly.
And it took them just a few years.
At 325, all the pastors in the world are brought together and
the church wants to answer the question, what does it mean that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God? And they did this at the Council
of Nicaea in 325. And what came out of that
council was the creed that we read, that we read together
earlier. And we don't often recite
creeds. We probably ought to do it more,
showing just that we're not the first people to believe these
things. But so far as these creeds are
helping us understand the Bible, faithful summaries of the Bible,
we we accept them. We read them.
And I want to bring you to one line of this creed that we read
this morning to emphasize it. It says he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
So for the last 1700 years, the universal church, that Catholic,
in that sense, Catholic means universal.
This universal church has been confessing the session of Jesus
Christ. You'll know what that means in a
minute. We're we're confessing that
Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of God the Father.
Just a few years later after this Nicene Creed came out,
there was another creed, the Apostles Creed that came out as
a something to confess when when new believers that new believers
could confess at their baptism. And this Apostles Creed is just
twelve of the most important doctrines as that exist as a
summary of our faith. And one of those 12 is familiar.
It says he ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of
God the Father. You go within another 100 years.
The Athanasian Creed, which was a creed that summarized faithful
Trinitarian theology, says this. He rose again on the third day
from the dead, ascended into heaven and sit at the right hand
of the Father Almighty. And the Athanasian Creed puts
that sitting down as the climactic position.
And so this doctrine that we speak little of in the Church is
known as the session of Jesus. Session is from the Latin word
cessio, which means a sitting. It's very fancy complicated
concept. If if you're if if your meeting
is in session, if Congress is in session, it means everyone is
sitting down, engaging in business, ready to engage in
business for Jesus. It represents his enthronement.
It means that he is sitting down not in any chair, but on the
throne of David, his father, of which his Kingdom will know no
end. It's the power and the glory and
the majesty and the sovereignty and the dominion of the God man,
Jesus Christ. So if, if you've seen the the
House of David series on Amazon, there's a very climactic part of
that of that series where the, the, it's the series or the
episode ends with for the first time, you see someone sitting
down on the throne of Saul, which would become the throne of
David. And it's this climactic thing
because he's been in in the throne room and all these people
are in and out of the throne room.
But there's a difference between being in the throne room and
being the one seated on the throne.
Big difference. And you see David for the first
time sitting and establishing that eternal throne.
And we even go back to our Scripture reading this morning
in Psalm 110. What's the most quoted Old
Testament passage in the New Testament, Psalm 110, The Lord
said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies
your footstool. The Lord said to my Lord.
And so there he is, though there's only one who sits on the
throne. It's a position of authority and
dominion and rule. And Scripture teaches that in
heaven there is a throne room and there is a throne, and it's
above all other Thrones. It's high and lifted up.
It's the seat of absolute authority and rule.
And Ephesians 119 to 23 wants you to teach.
Teaches us above all else that Jesus Christ is seated on that
throne. That is the the premier teaching
of this passage. He's seated in exaltation and
glory. He's seated having completed the
work of redemption. He sat down.
He's seated with all authority in heaven and on earth.
And it's teaching even in verse 19 that his being seated is
demonstrating the immeasurable greatness of his power.
And if you'll turn to Ephesians 119 to 23, we're going to finish
this prayer of Paul that's directed toward a host of
Ephesian churches. And if you remember back to last
week, in verses 15 to 18, Paul's praying for this church.
And he's really only praying for one thing.
He says, I'm praying that you might know God better, that you
would understand and know him not even just intellectually,
but experientially, that you might know God.
And as he puts forth that request, he says it really comes
in three separate requests that you would know God.
But he says that you would know the hope of your calling.
And then he says that you might know his glorious riches or the
inheritance of his riches in the Saints.
And then as you move to this, this is the the the bulk of it,
the thrust of it. He says that you might know,
verse 19, the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us
who believe. And so by bringing up this Third
Point, He's showing that not every spiritual benefit and
spiritual blessing that we have in Christ is in the future.
We always talk about the future. All your pain, all your
suffering, all your tears are going to be wiped away.
There's an inheritance. You are His on that day.
He is yours on that day. He's the guarantee of it.
He's your seal. But then he says, no, there is
spiritual blessing that's here and now.
There are resources that are available to you as a Christian
now. And he says He wants you to know
the immeasurable greatness of God's power at work in you.
And read with me Ephesians 119 to 23, and we'll read about it,
Paul says, and tying on this, this final aspect of his prayer.
And what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us
who believe according to the working of his great might, that
He worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and
seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places?
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 you put all things under his
feet, and gave him as head over all things to the church, which
is his body, the fullness of him who fills All in all.
So this is about the immeasurable greatness of his
power. And he says God's power is
displayed primarily in three places, according to this
passage. The first one is in creation.
If you're taking notes, the first way that we see God's
power and made visible is in creation.
The second one is in Jesus Christ in and through him.
And really there's two places you see his power displayed in
the resurrection and you see his power displayed in his session.
And really that's his authority and his power on display.
And then the third finally says you'll see his power displayed.
You see it in his church in creation and in Christ and in
his church. And we turn first to how his
power was revealed in creation. The immediate context of of this
prayer is Ephesians 1/3 to 14. All of that theology is
connected here. And he wants you to understand
that this power is made available through union with
Jesus Christ. That is your attachment.
You are placed in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.
It's the work of God's Holy Spirit.
It comes to us in other passages.
Acts 18 says you will receive power from on high when what
happens when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.
A very famous passage, Second Timothy 17 of 1.
You can live your life around that says for God gave us a
spirit not of fear, but of power and of love and of self-control,
of self-discipline. That's how it manifests itself,
power and love and self-control. And what Paul's teaching is that
the same work of God that was there in the beginning when he
created everything visible and invisible by the word of his
power from nothing, the same power is what raised Jesus
Christ from the dead. It's that same power that by
which he ascended into heaven and was seated at the right hand
of God the Father as a Co ruler. And it's the same power he's
going to emphasize that is that it is at work in you the
believer. It's at work in us as a local
body. And it's a power that is
impossible to measure. It's limitless.
It's boundless. He uses this word.
It's immeasurable. Literally in the original, it's
Hooper ball on it's to to throw beyond a mark is what it means
literally it means to throw beyond the mark.
And and metaphorically what that would mean is to excel or to
exceed or to go beyond, to surpass.
And Paul takes that word immeasurable and he couples it
with the word megathos, which means greatness or magnitude.
And you put them together. We say this is we translate it
the immeasurable greatness of his power, not measurable by any
human instrument or comprehension.
And Paul says in these 5 verses, it's on display again primarily
in three ways, particular in particularly in three ways in
creation, in Christ, and in the church.
And in verses 19 to 20, Paul's overwhelming you with a sense of
this power. And he's going to do that by
giving you 4 different words for power.
In the original, he's he runs out of vocabulary before he runs
out of awe and wonder at the majesty and the power of God.
And as he heaps up this vocabulary, he's giving you a
sense of his omnipotence. And he's he's either alluding to
or directly quoting what the Old Testament authors were doing
with these same words. They're using every word for
power in the Hebrew that exists in succession to give you a
sense of God's all powerful. You compare the language of
Ephesians 119 to Psalm 147. You can write these down and
read them in their context later.
Isaiah 40 verse 26, Psalm 147, compare them to Ephesians 119
and Psalm. Isaiah 40 says lift up your eyes
on high and see who created these.
He actually wants you to do that.
When it when it's dark and you're with your life group
tonight, you all can go outside and stand on your porch and look
up and see. And he says, who created these?
Meaning the heavenly bodies, this vast expansive universe.
Did you create it? Did one of your buddies create
it? No, he says, by the greatness of
God's might, and because he is strong in power, not one is
missing. He's heaping up these words for
power. The same's true in Psalm 1474HE
determines the number of the stars.
This is important as well. He gives to every star and
celestial body and name. He's abundant in power, great as
our Lord. His understanding is beyond
measures. It's the same construction, the
same comparable words between the Old and New Testament that
are trying to impress on you the same thing.
What is the Old Testament emphasizing God's doing with His
power in these verses? It's it's his creation.
It's revealing his power in creation that he created all
things from nothing in an instant.
He's creating the heavens and the earth.
He's putting his glory on display.
He's fulfilling Genesis 114 where God says not only let
there be light, but let there be lights in the expanse of the
heavens as he put all of those galaxies in this universe
together. And as you keep reading Psalm
147, there's more. What else does God do with the
immeasurable greatness of his power?
It says He heals the broken hearted.
He binds up the wounds of the hurting.
He lifts up the humble. He casts the wicked to the
ground. This is what God does with his
power and it gives our response in the Psalm.
What are we to do with? How do we respond to this great
power of God? It says you sing, you sing, and
Thanksgiving you sing and you give thanks to Him and you
recognize that He is all powerful and He directs this
creating, wound binding, broken heart, healing power toward us
who believe. And you see something in these
two passages alongside God's powerful work at creation.
It says in both of these that God is the namer.
God is a naming God and naming something, even parents, as you
name your children as you name something, it's displaying among
other things, your dominion over that thing.
I mean, when God gave Adam and he was able to name all of the
animals, he's giving them dominion over all of this
creation. And you see that it's God who
changes names. You have a given name like
Abraham and God says, no, I name you Abraham, Sarah, you are
Sarah Jacob, I name you Israel. It comes to the New Testament
Jesus Christ as God takes names. He says you were you are now
Peter talking to Simon and he talks to the James and John.
He says now you are bow and urgess you are sons of Thunder.
He changes names and interesting that in our passage, if you look
to verse 21 of Ephesians 1, you see that God names others.
Nobody names God and his name is above every name.
Verse 21 says above every name that is named, not only in this
age, but the one to come, and we recognize God's name is not we
don't give God a name, He reveals it to us.
He has a name. We don't name him, He reveals
it. And when Moses says he asks him
what his name is, he says, who shall I tell Egypt sent me?
Who shall I tell them sent me? And he says, you tell them I am
sent me. And he's tying his name because
his name only is tied to being itself, power itself.
He is omnipotent. He is all powerful.
We we confess in classical Christian doctrine that God is
not becoming anything. He's pure actuality.
He's not becoming powerful. He's not becoming.
He is. That's why his name is I am.
And Jesus is putting himself in this divine eternal fullness of
being in power. He says in John 858 before
Abraham was I am saying that I am this God, I am all powerful
for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be
glory forever and ever. Amen.
And he first demonstrates God, first demonstrates the
immeasurable greatness of his power in creation.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism, question 9.
I love it how it takes that work of creation and it it attaches
this word power to it. What is the work of creation?
It was on to say the work of creation is God's making all
things of nothing by the word of His power in the space of six
days, and all very good. It emphasizes He did this by the
word of His power. And we say rhetorically, what
kind of power is required to generate all things visible and
all things invisible in an instant, to take all that there
is and to bring it into existence from nothing.
And the answer is immeasurable power, unfathomable,
immeasurable by any human instrumentation or
comprehension. And Paul is revealing that by
giving you 4 words in the original 4 different words for
power. He starts with dunamis,
overwhelming you with this. Dunamis is a Greek word that
means the ability or capacity of acting, Meaning we say this all
the time and we're going to continue to say that God not
only wields or possesses authority, He exercises His
authority through Providence in this world.
He doesn't just have a will for this world, He enacts it.
That's beautiful because He has this plan that He's revealed in
Ephesians 3 to 14, a plan that began in eternity past, a plan
for creation, a plan for recreation, a plan for
redemption, a plan to have you inherit all that He's given to
you. And He has not only the plan,
but the power to bring it to pass.
And you've already seen him do his plan of creation.
He's already begun to redeem his church and expand his Kingdom.
And so we have every confidence as a church to say he can bring
us. If God is for us, who can be
against us? He can bring us into that final
state. He uses this word dunamis.
That's the first, wielding his authority with power, ability,
or the capacity of acting. And then he moves to the word
Kratos, which means he has strength or he has might even
it's reflected in our word democracy or autocracy or
theocracy. Chrissy is Kratos, meaning the
right to rule or reign. It's strength or might and
dominion and rule and mastery. He goes on to use the word
iscas, which means an inherent strength that's possessed.
And then the fourth word is the word inergea, which means to
work or produce or to affect. And he marshals all of these
words to enforce the idea of God's not only his abundant
power, but his available power to his church.
And he overwhelms you with this idea of power.
And then amazingly, he tells you where all this power is
directed. All of this.
Where does he direct that power? He says right here toward us who
believe he's focusing it in and through his church.
His power flows from him through us.
You are like a light bulb. Scripture says his.
The immeasurable greatness of his power is directed toward you
and you become the light of the world.
His power is revealed in creation and then secondly, his
power is revealed in Jesus Christ.
And as you look toward verse 20, he says that His power is not
only displayed in the work of creation, but in Christ when He
was raised from the dead. Look at the end of verse 19 into
verse 20. It says, according to the
working of His great might, that He worked in Christ when he
raised Him from the dead. And we confess that when He was
raised from the dead, He was raised in power.
We say that because this is what Scripture teaches.
Romans 14 And He was declared to be the Son of God in power by
His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.
And that's a that's a beautiful thought when you pair it with
first Corinthians 614 where it says, and God raised the Lord
and will also raise up his church in power on the last day.
You say, how do we why do we have confidence to know he's
going to raise us on the last day?
Because he's already done it. We've seen his power in Christ
and he says, and in the same way he was the firstfruits, I've
demonstrated my power. And now you have every promise,
every confidence to know I will raise you on the last day.
And this is one of the reasons why many in the church believe
that that specific grave cloth that was found in history, the
Shroud of Turin, is actually the cloth of Jesus Christ because
there's a unique imprint on it where it seems as if there's
radiation coming from inside the grave cloth.
And whether you believe it's the actual grave cloth of, of Jesus
or not is burial cloth or not, this is what we would expect to
see some kind of unexplainable power, the evidence of an
unexplainable power in this world.
And the resurrection required this level of power.
And we say, why? Because death feels like, seems
to us to be an unconquerable force.
And yet Paul says in First Corinthians 15, if Christ has
not been raised, your faith is in vain.
Our faith would be in vain because it would mean that there
would be some kind of force that's stronger than our God and
our Lord of glory. And, and by this miraculous
resurrection accompanied by angels, accompanied by the
rolling away of the stone, we see his power at work.
And the resurrection demonstrates so many things at
once. It's, it's incredible that it
shows that God actually has the power and the authority and the
capacity to reverse the curse of Adam so that all of the, the
sickness and all of the, the, the evil that we see in the
world, God has already begun to overcome it.
He's already shown he has authority over it.
He can reverse the curse, the resurrection, showing that God
has the power to defeat sin. Again in first Corinthians 15,
he says where O death is your victory?
Where O death is your sting? The sting of death is sin and
the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, he's given
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus had the power to fulfill the law perfectly on our behalf.
The resurrection goes on to demonstrate that God has power
even over death and hell, so that this can be our song where
we say death, where is your victory?
Death, where is your sting? Creation demonstrates God's
power. Recreation demonstrates God's
power that He can take away your heart of stone and give you a
heart of flesh. He can conform you into the
character of Christ. Resurrection is a demonstration
of His power, as Jesus was the first fruits from the grave.
And all this is teaching that Jesus has overcome the world,
breaking the grip of death's dominion and defeating sin and
death and hell. And then he takes it's in the
same sentence. He takes this power of God's
resurrection and he attaches it as all of our creeds have done,
following this verse. He attaches it to the work and
the power of God's or Jesus Christ's session.
He's sitting down, he says, and the same sentence He raised him
from the dead, verse 20 and seated him at his right hand in
the heavenly places. And so we want to move on now to
verses 21 to 23. And while you're going to verses
21 to 23, you see 3 1/2 out of our 5 verses are emphasizing
Jesus being seated at the right hand of God the Father.
This is a premier doctrine of your faith and one of the 12 of
the Apostles Creed. Jesus sat down, He was
enthroned, and he wants you to know.
Paul prays that you might know he's he's praying that you might
understand and know not only the power of his resurrection, but
he's saying the power of his session.
Let's read verses 28 to 23 again.
This is the power that that he worked in Christ, when he raised
him from the dead, and seated him at his right hand in the
heavenly places, far above all rule and authority, and power
and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in
this age, but in the one that is to come.
And he put all things under his feet, and gave him as head over
all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him
who fills All in all. The Westminster divines asked
the question of how is Jesus exalted?
This is the climactic position of these creeds and of this
text. How is Jesus exalted in his
sitting down at the right hand of God the Father?
And I love this. They answer it so specifically.
Christ is exalted in his sitting at the right hand of God, in
that as God man, he's advanced to the highest favour with God
the Father with all fullness of joy, with all fullness of glory
and with power over all things in heaven and earth, seated in
the fullness of joy and in the fullness of power and authority.
This was, we knew this from the second that he was made
Incarnate when he came and we hear his name, his precious name
for the first time as the Angel Gabriel appears to Mary and he
says you're going to call his name Jesus.
That same Angel says he will be great.
He will be called the Son of the Most High and the Lord will give
to him the throne of his Father David and of his Kingdom.
There will be no wind. So when Jesus sits down, he's
being given and and fulfillment to all this prophecy.
He's being given the throne of his father David.
And when he sits down at the right hand of God, it's not like
Jesus sits down at God's right hand and it's like he's somehow
over there somehow less than when he sits at the right hand
of God. That means he's Co reigning with
God. It means you go back and you
read Isaiah 6 and it's it's Jesus and it's God the Father.
It's called in Revelation 22 the throne of God and of the Lamb,
right? They are Co Regents.
They are Co reigning. It's one God and it's his
throne. We call it the session of Jesus
Christ. And it's a position
representing, according to Paul first, it's a position
representing the immeasurable greatness of his power.
And it says it's it's representative also of the
completion of his work of redemption.
Hebrews 10/12 says when Christ had offered for all time a
single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of
God the Father. And the only time in Scripture
you see Him standing back up is to receive His Saints into
glory, as He does with Stephen. He stands up as the gospel is
visualized. He stands up to receive His
church. It represents also His
exaltation and His ultimate glory.
Philippians 29 to 11. For he has exalted him and given
him the name that is above every name, so the name of Jesus
Christ. Every knee shall bow, and every
tongue shall swear fealty both on earth and under the earth.
They shall swear that Jesus Christ.
They shall confess that Jesus Christ is Yahweh to the glory of
God the Father, ultimate exaltation and glory.
And finally, it represents His authority where he's actively
ruling and reigning over all kings of the earth.
And the kings of the earth now, Psalm 2 says they set themselves
against the king and against his anointed, against the Lord and
his anointed. And the one who sits in heaven
laughs, and it's a laugh of derision.
He says, As for me, I have set my king in Zion, my holy hill
and that's the significance of this our God, we say our God
reigns. Jesus is alive.
He's interceding for us. He doesn't just possess
authority, He wields it. First Corinthians 15.
He's reigning until he has put all enemies under his feet.
He has a definitive plan that it called in the the first part of
this chapter that this mystery that was yet to be revealed to
his Saints, and yet it has been revealed to us things that
angels long to look at. It's been recorded for us
through Paul and our scriptures. And again, when he comes to this
prayer, we see that not only does God have the plan again, he
has the power to bring it to pass.
This is why we pray, Lord, save my save my friends, save my
family member. We, we, we pray to Him knowing
that he can answer our prayers, that he can save, that he can
execute with His power. You can compare it to the power
of a nation. It's one thing if a nation has
authority. It's another if they have a
military arm where they can use that power and wield that power.
We say that God has not only the authority, but the power.
It says what he does with it. Exodus 15, He defends us in the
Song of Moses. It says he triumphed.
He triumphed gloriously. The horse and rider, He is
thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my
song. He has become my salvation.
The Lord is our strength. The Lord executes justice.
That's what His throne is for. How do I know that?
Psalm 97 He always sits in throne forever.
He has established His throne for justice.
He's wielding His power. What do we call it when God
wields His power? It's Providence.
He has a plan for the world. He sees it come to pass.
Authority is the right to act. Power is the ability to act.
Jesus has both. And our president, every time a
president is elected, he becomes the commander in chief.
You go to Article 2, Section two of our Constitution.
It says the president shall be the commander in chief of the
army, in the Navy of the United States.
I love what follows. It says three times in that
section. He shall have power.
He shall have power and those
that live in the United States don't always like when the
president exercises his power, but every time he does it, it
reminds us it's his to wield right.
And so this is God's to wield. He has the right and the ability
to use his power. We say as a church, we confess
the Lord reigns. He reigns not in theory, but he
reigns in reality and in practice.
And where He directs this power brings us to our third and final
point. His power is revealed in His
church, verse 19. His prayer is that we might know
the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe.
Verses 20 to 21. He seated Him at the right hand
in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and
power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not
only in this age, but the age to come.
So if you don't feel like God's power is being displayed in you,
you're in good company. I didn't feel like God's power
was displayed in me when I woke up this morning.
Couldn't wake up rather this morning and I'm groggy and I'm a
little bit sick. Maybe that's you or your bones
creak. Do you feel like the
immeasurable greatness of His power is being revealed in you?
I think one of the greatest times I've seen God's power.
It doesn't come like we we think it should come.
The greatest sermon I ever preached was on no notice to 7
widows in a retirement home because his power was revealed.
I remember sitting in my car coming to the Lord of glory
saying God, you know this has been a week above all weeks.
I have not had time to make this sermon that I'm going to deliver
to this your church. I need you Lord to work in and
through me. I have 5 minutes God work in and
through me and that was the greatest sermon I ever preached.
I know you have stories just like that.
He took this small little offering that I had and he
multiplied it and he took my humility and he, he made it
something beautiful and great. He showed and revealed his power
to me. It's if, if you don't feel like
you are great and powerful, you're in good company with the
Ephesian church. If you remember, they were weak,
they were marginalized, they were persecuted, they felt
worthless. And this is what our human
nature, it doesn't lift us up. Our own nature tears us down and
we, we, we tend toward feelings of worthlessness and
marginalization. We feel weak, and I want you to
give you some perspective to remember that the Ephesian
believers felt powerless. And in their context, they were
under Rome, which was the greatest power that had ever
ruled until that time, the greatest power ever.
And as we read the words of Paul to the Ephesians, we're reading
in 2025 when we read about the Roman Empire in history books,
because they have come and gone and God's Kingdom has spread all
over the face of the earth. It's a glorious thought.
It's it's present, it's alive, it's active, it's expanding with
energy and force. And God is marshaling the
resources and faith of 2.3 billion Christians in this
world. That's the power of God, that he
would not only convert them, but shepherd them in his Providence
so that he could expand this Kingdom.
His power is not like a great storm that you can see.
It's not like Jupiter where you see the little storm and it's
represents the power that's contained there.
It's like a seed that is sown. It's it's like a little leaven
that God has put into the earth and it has expanded over the the
entire earth. It's like a mustard seed, the
smallest of the seeds that God has sowed in this world.
And now it is expanded against the the will of kings and
governments and earthly powers and spiritual principalities.
This Kingdom of God has expanded into every country, tribe,
tongue, and nation of the world. That's the power of God.
And you see the church explicitly named in verses 22 to
23. Our passage continues.
He has put all things under his feet and gave him as head over
all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him
who fills All in all. So the final place you see God's
power is in this in in you, you the believer in us, this local
body. And John Piper once was
addressing non believers or believers about no addressing
non believers about believers. He says, have you ever met a
believer? You who say, I don't like
believers. I just want to hang out with my
non Christian friends. They're more fun anyway, he
says, have you ever actually met a believer?
Have you ever actually met not a churchgoer, have you ever
actually met somebody who has bowed their knee and given their
life to Jesus Christ and seen the power and the energy that
comes off of a fully surrendered person?
He says, I, I challenge you, if you're an unbeliever, consider,
do you, have you ever really met a Christian?
And Paul's saying there's a supernatural power that is
displayed in them that the world can see.
It's not, you can't measure it, but it's there.
It's being displayed in them. It makes them different.
Jesus calls it salt. He says in believers there's a
certain preserving influence and power, and he calls it light.
He says there's a certain exposing and revealing influence
that comes from the church and that didn't come from you.
That preserving influence didn't come from you.
That light doesn't come from you, it comes from somewhere.
And it's the power of God at work in you, in and through you.
And if you don't see the power of God at work, it's because
you're looking in the wrong places.
We want to see God in our flesh, in miracles, in the miraculous
demonstrations of God's strength.
We want to see red seas divided and armies consumed.
And we want to see fire called down from heaven.
But that's not where God's power is displayed.
Very rarely is it displayed in healings, in the calling down of
fire. Luke 954, the disciples wanted
to see power. And when Jesus is preaching,
they're expecting revival and revival doesn't come.
And so they say, Jesus, if, if we can't see power and revival,
can we have the power of Elijah and by our word fire come down
from heaven? And do you remember what Jesus
says to the disciples? He rebukes them because the
power of the Holy Spirit in this church is is very infrequently
like a great storm. It's like a seed.
It's internal and it's transformative.
And as we go through the rest of Ephesians, we finished Ephesians
one this morning. And as you go through the rest
of Ephesians, Paul shows you this is what the power of God
produces. This is what it looks like.
It looks like chapter 2, verse 10, and the accomplishing of
good works that God has written for you to walk in from all
eternity. Chapter 2, verses 14 to 16, it
looks like overcoming racism, impartiality and living in unity
with people that are different from you.
Chapter 4, verses 2 to 3, it's, it's power is displayed.
God's power is displayed in developing patience and humility
and gentleness. Chapter 4, verse 7, it's in
serving the body according to the gifts that God has given.
So we, we thank God that he's given John Burgess the ability
to cook and we're going to go enjoy that or Allison the, the,
the gift of singing. Did anybody enjoy that?
That's the power of God. It's the the power to resist.
Chapter 4, verse 25, a whole host of vices and he names some
sexual immorality, greed, lying, anger, rage, stealing, filthy
language and crude joking, alcohol and substance abuse.
We have power over these things. Chapter 5 verses one to two, we
resist self centeredness and live in a way that reflects the
the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ.
Chapter 5, verses 22, it's in loving your children well you
can see the power of God displayed and loving your spouse
well. You can see the power of God
displayed in overcoming all obstacles that your family
encounters to the glory of God. Chapter 6, verse 12, it's in
resisting power and influence of all the demonic forces in the
world. And we say even Satan himself
will flee from the power of God's word.
Ian Hamilton goes on and says there's a whole host of examples
you can read throughout Scripture that shows you the
power of God and Joseph, the power to overcome temptation and
the apostles, How to live without compromise and without
fear, to live in self-control. How to live without broken or
with broken hopes and dreams, How to overcome indwelling sin,
how to resist evil forces, how to live virtuous lives, how to
manifest the love of God in the world.
I know you've all heard the song in Christ Alone by Stuart
Townend. He shows you what the power of
God is. He says no guilt in life, No
Fear and death. This is the power of God in me,
not just great miracles and no guilt in life, No Fear and
death. This is the power of Christ, the
immeasurable greatness of his power.
If you want to see the greatness of his power, he says look to
creation. It's there.
You could see what he's capable of.
If you want to see God's power, look, look back at the
resurrection of Jesus Christ and what it means for you, and look
at the session that he ascended into heaven and sat down at the
right hand of God the Father. He says that's the power that is
at work in you, the believer. And so Jesus's application of
that is so let your light shine. Let your light shine so men
might see and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
And to sum all of this up, I want to echo the rhetorical
words of Paul first in Romans 821 where he says, if God is for
you, who can be against you? Do you get a sense of that after
reading this passage? I wanted to end with a quote
from John Owen talking about the the session, the majesty, the
glory, the power of Jesus Christ.
He says quote. Thus is he glorious on his
throne, which is at the right hand of the majesty on high,
glorious in his Commission, which is all power in heaven and
on earth, glorious in his name, a name above every name, Lord of
Lords and King of kings, glorious in his scepter.
The scepter of righteousness is the scepter of His Kingdom,
glorious, and His attendants. His Chariots are 20,000, even
thousands of angels among them. He rides on the heavens and
sends out the voice of His strength, attended with 10,000 *
10,000 of His holy ones, glorious.
In His subjects, all creatures in heaven and on earth, nothing
is left that is not put in subjection to Him.
Glorious in His way of rule and the administration of His
Kingdom. Full of sweetness, efficacy,
power, serenity, holiness, righteousness and grace and and
toward His elect, but of terror, vengeance and certain
destruction toward the rebellious angels and men.
Glorious in the issue of His Kingdom, when every knee shall
bow before Him, and all shall stand before His judgement seat.
And what little portion of His glory is that we have pointed
to? This is the beloved of the
Church, It's head, it's husband. This is He with we with whom we
have communion. Please pray with me, Church.
Lord, we confess you now as Lord Jesus, you are Yahweh, You are
the 1 seated with all power and with all rule and with all
dominion, and we gladly and willingly bow our knee to you,
and we confess Jesus Christ is Yahweh, to the glory of God the
Father. If there, if there is any in
this room that has not been impressed with the sense of
power and majesty that you have, that has not bowed the knee to
you, then, Lord, we pray to you that you would draw them by the
power of Your Holy Spirit this morning to understand that You
are He of whom the Scriptures are written.
And we pray that for the rest of us that we might know better the
hope of Our Calling, the glorious inheritance of you and
the Saints, our inheritance of you as your Saints, Lord, and
this the immeasurable greatness of your power.
Lord, we have so many resources, so much power available to us.
Lord, thank you for this, but help us to tap into this, to
pray your Spirit down, that you would fill us, that we would be
salt and light to the world. God, we love you.
Demonstrate, please your power in us this week to the praise of
your glorious grace. Amen.
Thanks for listening. To learn more about Heritage
Church or if you'd like to respond to this sermon, visit
our website at www.heritageshawnee.org.