Resurrection Power's Magnitude

This morning we'll be taking a look at this passage in Ephesians 1 because it has a focus on the resurrection that I think is really important for us to take a look at. It's what is the magnitude of the resurrection's power. What we're going to be doing is dividing up that passage into three verses.

So now one of the things we want to point out here because we're going into a passage that is broken up into a number of sentences in the original Greek text, verses 3 through 14 of Ephesians chapter 1, is one continuous sentence. If Paul were getting graded based on typical English grammar, we'd give him some sort of a major point reduction for a run-on sentence. He really did it. As a matter of fact, we made the point some time back Paul actually holds the world's record for the longest Greek sentence in any Greek literature at verses 3 through 14. Verses 15 through 23, the end of the chapter, gets the second prize because it's the second longest sentence in any of Greek literature.

So that's the one we'll be looking at here this morning. English translations tend to break this up into separate sentences just for the sake of our reading things in English, because it's a little hard to track. And so that's the pattern you see most of them. We're going to be dividing our particular passage into three sections and recognizing that these sentences have been placed in there for ease of English reading. What we're going to be looking at in this portion is the focus upon the magnitude of the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. And for a particular reason, we'll see in a little bit. So here's our passage here.

Let's take a look at the first part of it. Paul says, For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you, and your love for the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers. From this point on, What Paul does through the rest of the chapter describes what he is praying about for the believers there at the church at Ephesus.

What he wants them to understand and to understand fully and in depth and learn to apply in their lives. Not just to understand from an intellectual standpoint, And matter of fact, as we will see here shortly, they've already been presented these truths. This is not the first time that they've been given this thought. They've already been presented these truths. He wants them to sink in. He wants them to have a depth of understanding. He wants them to live it. That's what he's talking about here.

Alright, now we get into this next section here, verses 17 and the first part of verse 18. He says, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. I pray that is one of those places where they've inserted something in the English in order to break it up into sentences, in order for it to make sense. But it is implied from verse 16, so it's not a foreign idea to the passage.

That's added just to allow for the English translation. The King James here, for heart, has understanding, and the idea, of course, is conveyed there. The basic idea is cardias, We have our English words in the medical realm of the heart, and that's really what it's pointing to, the heart. Now, the eyes of your heart being enlightened, it's interesting.

Here's a metaphor. The idea of that referring to the inner person is actually something that comes from the Jewish and the Old Testament traditions that Paul would have been well familiar with, and especially the Jews that Paul was writing to that would be at the church at Ephesus. They would understand that well. It's interesting in reading through literature of the time, Paul appears to be the one who originated the idea of eyes in our heart, this mixed metaphor. So we have this kind of unusual little illustration there. That's Paul's idea. Apparently he originated that. We can't find it anywhere else.

Finally, this King James has for may be, as being, this is a perfect passive participle. Now, this is not what he means by perfectly passive. But what is he talking about? It is a completed past action built into the word enlightened. The idea being not that they are completely unenlightened, but he says, you've already been enlightened, I want it to sink in. That's what he's trying to tell them. It's already happened in the past, it's going to have results in the future, and I want it to have its results in the future, is what he's telling them.

This being enlightened is this photizo, okay? Here's Norm down here taking photizos, right? No, photizo, and it's our word we use for photos, photographs, all the places where we use that word related to it. It's a perfect passive verb as well, not perfectly passive like the kitty cat though.

Now, among the Greek religious background, to come to complete, you know, or a greater spiritual understanding, they would use that word, so the people of a Greek background would understand what Paul meant. To come to a greater spiritual understanding. He wanted them to have a greater spiritual understanding based on the understanding they'd already been given. Those of the Greek background understand it well. And then there were the Jews among them. Petitsa was used in the Greek version of the Old Testament to describe any insights from God or from the presence of God himself. So both the Jews and the Greeks would understand. Now we have this word to know, so that you will know, Edo here, to know by perception.

This is also a perfect passive. So again, the idea is it's conveying something that they've already had passed on to them. He wants that to have continuing and future impact. He doesn't want them to just sit on the knowledge and say, oh yeah, I know that intellectually. He wants it to sink in. He wants them to live it. He wants them to understand it with depth. That's what he's striving for here. So it has the idea, the eyes of your heart having been enlightened, that enlightenment needs to grow into full development, so that you have been made to know. He wants that knowing to grow into full development, to full understanding, that they appropriate that for their own lives. That's what he's getting at.

Paul desires that what has already been revealed to them, remember in Acts 20, he told the elders from Ephesus, I have given you, he says, I stayed there for three years, the whole counsel of God. You've gotten this news already. I've told you before. I want it to sink in. I want you to have a depth of understanding. I want you to know what it looks like to live this out. That's what he's telling them. And what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward?

One of the things that we point out here, this toward, the Greek word is ice, and it has nothing to do with that frozen water stuff. Sometimes more pronounced ace, in order to get the idea across. The idea is into. He doesn't just talk about his power sort of thrown in our general direction. Watch out, here comes the power. It's not just something in our general direction, it's something that explicitly is into us. It is God's doing that is into us. It isn't just an accident. Oops, I just got some into me.

No, it is God's intent explicitly. That's what He's laid out. So, what? Alright. Say what? What is the hope of His calling? He wants them to understand that. What is the hope? The resurrection. What are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints? Why is there any riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints? Because of the resurrection.

And what's the focus we're looking at today? What is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe? And what does He compare that to? We'll take a look at that here in a minute. That's the focal point. Let's take a look at this surpassing greatness.

The Greek there is hooperballomegathos. I hope you never get that disease. Hooperballomegathos, it means overthrown greatness, kind of of this idea. It's like something being thrown with intense power, way overthrown, overthrown with great intensity.

You could look at it like this. Now, you know, Jack used to fly these airliners. You know how sometimes the airliners, they'll put the seatbelt sign on and they'll bounce around a little bit? That's because they're dodging baseballs. Jack can tell you about that. I'm sure I have lots of stories. Anyway, that's what this is. It's overthrown greatness. It is way, way beyond the target. It is completely out of scale with anything that we can comprehend. Maybe even this far out of scale. We'll see. Now, so the surpassing greatness, this huperballo, that prefix is hyper, which describes me in third grade. So the English prefix hyper, and then ballo is the source of our English word ball, right?

Paul is conveying this idea. Paul is conveying that the power directed toward, and remember that isn't just sort of in our general direction, but into. If you're a believer here this morning, This power is into you. Toward us as believers is very overwhelmingly, super-astronomically, mind-bogglingly great. Get this. Paul is conveying that the power directed toward us as believers is very overwhelmingly, super-astronomically, mind-bogglingly great. Massive power. You need to know that he has more than just a little bit bigger than the average human perception of big. Really big. Like this. Well, even bigger than that. Imagine the diaper changes. Anyway.

These are in this passage, the these are is actually one of those places that's not in the Greek text. Why is it there? It's not that the idea isn't there at all. It's just in order to break it up into English sentences, right? So it's just for the sake of the English sentence. If you take it out, that's kind of what you get. And, but he says in accordance with, now that word there means consistent with or as defined by, okay? Kata is the Greek word, and it's the word of definition.

He uses this to give us the insights into the meaning of the surpassing greatness of this power into us. If you're a believer here this morning, here is the comparison point coming on how big is this power that is directed into you as a believer. What's the magnitude of it? He's about to tell us. Until this point, we understand that God the Father has directed this surpassing greatness of this power into us who believe, but we don't know how big. What is it? What's the magnitude?

Now, we've got some words here, and interestingly, he used several words that all have some variation on the idea of power and energizing. Here's one, dunamis. We get our word similarly from dynamite. It doesn't mean that he blows us up. Isn't that good? Okay. the working, energeia, and you may recognize we have our word energy that comes from that same source. We'll take a look at that in a minute. Strength is kratos, might is iskos, and brought about is energeo, the verb form of energeia. Now, let's take a look at a few of these words. You have this on your handout. By the way, if you're visiting with us here, there's the page number on your handout, page three.

Energia is built within it, the energizing or working in, by design, by God's intent. He doesn't want to just kind of throw some stuff at us or say, look, I want you to do this stuff. See all this stuff in the Bible? I want you to do it and give it your best shot. No, it's this in-working that is His intent and design. His working in and through you is exactly what He has in mind from the beginning.

This is the putting into action kind of word. It's not that the idea that, oh, I have power that's just sort of there. It is power that is in action, in motion. We could compare it to a car stepping on the gas. It's not that I have this powerful engine and it's not that I have a tank full of gas.

Isn't that nice? It is the car moving. It is action. It's things happening. It's that power in motion. The ability is not only there, but on top of that, Action has put that ability in motion. It's ability in motion. Brought about, which is energeo, is the verb form of that same thing. Here's another word, strength, kratos. Now, you know kratos, that's an Olympic sport, see? Just like this. Ready for kratos? All right. No, forget that. I'm pulling your leg. All right. Strength, kratos, is inherent power.

It's inherent power in existing and exercising dominion, power that is the Lord's because of who He is. It is because of who He is that that power is there and is His. It is a word only used of God in the New Testament. It's not a power that even high political or military people had. It is a word used of God Himself.

Now, the next one is ischus, and you might think of something like this. That's not what it's about either. is a power that is able to overcome resistance. You ever heard somebody come up to you with a question, can God create a rock that he can't lift or something of that sort? That's obviously logically impossible. But here is the power. This is the power that is able to overcome any resistance. There is no place at which God's power has a stopping point. The aspect of God's power is the characteristic of God inherently because of who He is. You've seen all kinds of Greek and perhaps you say that's enough Greek, it's all Greek to me. You can play Greek Scrabble here if you like.

What does it take for you to be impressed by power? Maybe it's a dishwasher that's a turbo dishwasher. Maybe that really impresses you with power. Maybe for you it takes something like this. Nice Olympic event, got a couple years to wait for that to happen. Maybe getting in a machine that goes like this and throws hot rubber in the air and lots of white smoke. Maybe that impresses you, that's fine. Or maybe for you it takes something a little bit more vertical and that's okay too. If that's what it takes to get you impressed about something being powerful.

Or maybe an astronomical scale is really what you need in order to get the impressed by power. Something like this. Here's the sun, see that little flare off in the lower left-hand corner there? Here's the size of Earth. Maybe that's impressive as to power.

Or maybe nothing that the sun has to offer or even the solar system has to offer is enough. Maybe it takes something even more for you to get the idea of power. But what Paul wants to get across to us is none of those are anywhere near close enough. None of those are big enough, as impressive as those might be.

The kind of power that he wants the believers to understand that God has directed into them is the unparalleled magnitude and quality of the resurrection of Christ. That is power to which we have seen no comparison. That is the power with which he wants us to be impressed. That power that resurrected him and led to his heavenly seeding. He draws upon just about every word for power in the Greek language in order for this to get across there. He puts it in the superlative by saying the surpassing greatness, this is the overthrown greatness, the baseball going past the airliner. This is the overthrown greatness way beyond that. Anything you can imagine that seems powerful to you, he says that doesn't even start. Resurrection power, massive power, power which this world has no way to compare.

Power into us who believe. God is directing that magnitude of power into us who believe. That's what He wants us to understand. The power that He is directing into us is precisely defined, and if you take these words for power, as effectively in action, inergeo and inergeia, inherent in God Himself, and able to overcome all resistance.

Superlative power. Surpassing greatness kind of power. That's the kind of power. It's the same power which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places. That kind of power. Incomparable power. Power of magnitude that we have never seen.

In Genesis 1, where he said he created the sun and the moon and things like that, and it just says, just sort of matter-of-factly, offhand, oh, and he created the stars. Massive power to God is incidental. This is bigger than that. The surpassing greatness of his power toward, that is, into us who believe, results from God having identified us with Christ in his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding. That kind of power.

Resurrection and seeding are given in Ephesians 1.20, with the death, burial, and ascension implied between these from other passages.

Taken together, we have that we are identified with Christ in all these five ways. You have on page four of your handout this chart, which puts the focus primarily on the passage we're looking at here this morning. Other passages will point out the whole of the truth of Scripture. What do we have explicitly raised and seated of these five ways in which we're identified with Christ in this passage?

And then implied, we're crucified, buried, and ascended. We see that God the Father presented as the sovereign source of will and action. As you go through Ephesians 1, it starts off in Ephesians 1, 3, praise be the God or blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Father is the one who gets credit. Why? He is the one who carries out the strategy. He is the one who has the eternal perspective. He is the initiator by will and action. He is the one who raised Christ from the dead. It's that power with which we are blessed. It is that power that Paul wants us to be impressed with. So, as we look at this passage here, what do we have? The surpassing greatness of His power toward into us who believe.

Believe what? Believe anything? Believe in the Easter Bunny? Is that sufficient? No. In Christ. That's what he's talking about. Those who believe in Christ. As we have seen and will see here, the entire explanation, 18B, 21 and on into the end of the chapter, verse 23, centers around the person of Christ. It is all that kind of power that is inherent in Christ. And where are we? He's already told us many times in this chapter. in Christ ourselves. If you're a believer here this morning, you are in Christ.

Not only are we explained this power, you're in Him who has demonstrated this power. Paul includes another prayer as he goes on in Ephesians. One more prayer shows up. Here's in Ephesians chapter 3. He prays. And again, who does he pray to? The Father. The one who is to be praised for blessing us. He prays that the believers would be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.

To be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, this is kratayao, okay? It's a verb form from kratos, that's the kratos verb, right? Or kratos word. This word is in the passive voice, that you be strengthened. It's not we ourselves coming up with the strength. It's for us to be strengthened. Imagine, here's the Apostle Paul praying for them, and really, is there any reason why the same thing should not apply to us? We as believers today, it is the Lord's desire that we be strengthened entirely by Him, by His doing. That's what He has in mind. When you think of strength, what does it take for you to think of strength? Maybe this helps. Here's a couple of guys picking up this rock. Maybe this helps. I'm talking about babies here of late.

And by the way, we had the last half of Ephesians 3.16. There's no sense in going halfway with this stuff anyway.

When you want strength, you want full strength. You want the whole thing. You want total strength. Jesus inside. So God the Father is not intending for us to be self-strengthening. Have you, and maybe you have, I know I have at times been saying, Lord, help me, as if the Lord is sort of you know, take up the rest of what I can't handle? No. He says the whole thing. The entire strength is his. It's not self-strength. It is his strength. He is the one who strengthens us.

And why do we have to have our own strength anyway? We're talking about a strength that's of a magnitude that what we have to offer is nothing in comparison. Sorry about that. Voices from outer space here. Okay. to be strengthened with power. This power is dunamis is the word. It's translated power or might. It has this sense of ability. God is able. He is able to handle things. What kind of things are you going through? He's able. What are you facing up to? What are your challenges? He's able. He has the ability. He has what it takes.

It's that power into us. He prayed that the believers would be empowered only by God's enablement. He continues that prayer for the saints at Ephesus while under house arrest. Here he is under house arrest while he's writing these things. He talks about, according to the power, here's the word dunamis again. that works within us.

This is the Energeo, the energizing, the working within. That's what he's spelling out. How about that? He started out in chapter 1. He says, I want you to understand the power, God's working within. He gets in here to chapter 3. He prays again. I pray that you would understand and live out and that this would be lived out in your lives by His power, His energizing, the resurrection power. This is a power that is of resurrection magnitude. That's the magnitude.

It's power that is directed into us, initiated not by us. It's not, boy, I'm going to try really hard to be a good Christian. No, it's not that. I'm going to try really, really, really hard this time. No. It's His power, His enabling, His energizing.

Christ was resurrected not just back to earthly life, not back to live again as he was the first time, but into a new kind of life. This resurrection magnitude power. Jesus Christ isn't just a human being like Lazarus returned back to earthly life, but he was resurrected into a life that would continue on and would begin the new creation. You see, this earth that we're walking now and that we're all breathing the air from and all that, there will someday be a time when it's ended. It'll be gone and there'll be a new heavens, a new earth to replace it. Jesus Christ is the beginning point and the foundation of that new creation, the starting point.

He is the one who is demonstrating new creation power, the first one. demonstrating and living out that new creation power. Even now, we are in Him. That's the kind of power that Paul's talking about here. Resurrection magnitude power. New creation magnitude power.

It's power that is plenty effective whether you're tying your shoes, whether you're tying your kid's shoes, or whether you're just plain all tied up. Okay? It is whether you are moving along, whether you're not moving along so good, or whether God's moving you home. It is power that is exactly designed for the time when you're carrying your kids around, picking them up. It's exactly for the times when your kids are going through challenges and changes. It's exactly the kind of power that's needed for the time when you're carrying your kids around, picking them up. challenging diaper changes. It is exactly the kind of power, that resurrection magnitude power, for when your kids are in the classroom, or at home in class, when you're going to class, or when the Lord is just teaching you some lessons.

It's that kind of power if your marriage has just started out. That's exactly what's needed. As a matter of fact, God didn't intend anything less. It's that kind of power if you've been married for a little while or if you've been married quite some time ago. It is exactly that kind of power that the Lord intended for your home relationships. It's that kind of power that is precisely what God had in mind.

If you've got your dream job or if you're dreaming you had a job. It is exactly the kind of power that is needed when your job is turned from a dream to a nightmare. Precisely that kind of power. Resurrection magnitude power. Just tell you a brief story.

Here's Lake Tahoe and there's some beautiful summer and of course winter scenes there. It is a place situated right near Carson City where Nancy and I live for some 14 plus years. and had a project there right over in this portion of Lake Tahoe. And it was one of those cases where it became very evident to me what kind of power was gonna be needed to get through this. Had a project that had, because of another engineer's involvement, I won't go into the legal details, turned into a mess that I had to clean up.

Some of you are old enough to remember the original Bonanza movie. Some of you may remember this opening scene. That was taken right there. Just upstream from there, up into the upper right-hand corner, was the project that I worked on. You've heard of the clothing line, Tommy Hilfiger? Anyway, the CEO was building this $40 million place there, and that's where some things needed to be fixed.

Lots and lots and lots of stress. Huge stress. Calls in the middle of the night. Calls in the weekend. Calls from lots of attorneys. Very high stress. It was a perfect opportunity to demonstrate that only resurrection magnitude power is going to get you through this. A dream job in a place that people dream about and love to come to that turned into a nightmare. But only resurrection power is sufficient.

Not that the resurrection power isn't God's intent all the time, but there are some times when it becomes particularly important and relevant to us. That power is the power that was demonstrated when Christ was raised. That power, that resurrection magnitude power, is the power that was demonstrated when Christ was seated in the heavenlies, the one with whom we're seated now. What Paul is conveying as we look at this passage is that he most definitely wants us to understand that the power we're to operate is the power that God provides.

It is plenty adequate for everything that happens in our lives, for everything that God intends, the small things, tying the kid's shoes, to the big things, to the big challenge in our life, the things that are beyond our ability to handle. For all those things, The Lord intends that he be the one energizing us with the resurrection magnitude power because he lives his life, not ours. Let's pray. Lord, thank you that you've revealed such a pivotal insight that the things that we do, whether it's just getting up in the morning and having breakfast or whether it's the big challenges that seem to overwhelm us, all those things, you have designed that it be your resurrection magnitude power that is living through us. And Lord, what a marvelous thing for us to depend upon and to know that when these times, whether they be small and incidental or whether they be massive and overwhelming, these are all times that are perfectly fit, designed by you. designed by your intent to be lived by your resurrection magnitude power. Thank you for your marvelous grace, that power beyond comprehension, that overthrown greatness, the surpassing greatness of your power. In the name of the risen Jesus Christ, Amen.