Introduction

‘Give me Strength!’

It was one of my last father’s more common and my best remembered of his expressions as I was growing up.

And it would almost inevitably be followed by one of my mother’s more common expressions:

‘What’s he done now?’

Now, I don’t remember being a totally outrageous individual, not at that early stage in my life at least … but I clearly had a knack for consistently coming up with some fresh star turn or other to stretch his reserves of resilience and self-composure.

How stretched are your reserves this morning?

Let me assure you straight away this is not just you.

This is what it is to be human and honest and … alive.

We live in a condition … unless there is something wrong with our mental state … of knowing and feeling and confronting our human weakness, sometime even the sense of helplessness at our own strained resources.

Please do NOT panic.

It’s not just you.

So this morning we find Paul is writing to the Ephesians about where to find strength, because things weren’t going well for them and they were making their weakness very evident to all.

That’s why he wrote to them … because they were going astray and needed a course- correction.

We know that because by chapter 4, he swings his focus to their two major problems before setting their experience in the context of the spiritual battle Christians face every day in chapter six.

But before looking for that course correction where they will need to strive to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace AND attend to the impurity the has taken root amongst them (that’s chapters 4-5) Paul first sets out to reset the doctrinal slippage that underlies the problems they’ve developed with unity in the Spirit and purity.

Doctrinal and behavioural error ALWAYS starts out and takes root in the mind

So, this morning we’re in that ‘foundational thoughts’ section of the book where Paul explodes in praise (1:3) and sets out the gloriousness of the Gospel which is totally sufficient for our needs because it arises out of the initiative NOT of our weak and imperfect selves but out of the initiative of our all-sufficient Saviour.

I’m not enough.

You’re not enough.

But HE is … there’s the thing.

So that’s what 1:3-14 are saying in one big, breathless single sentence in the original language about the glory of it all

Then what vv. 15 ff. are doing is to pray that the Ephesians will be AWARE of these rich blessings they have had laid on for them in Christ.

Why do they need to be conscious and aware of the details of the God-given nature of their salvation?

Because it is the awareness of the things set out here about the salvation we have received being all GOD’s doing that will sort the Ephesians issues out!

And that’s what Paul’s praying for in vv. 18 that they will 

1. Know the hope to which he has called you, that is …

2. The riches of His glorious inheritance in His HOLY people, and 

3. That they will have the eyes of their hearts enlightened to TWO things … there’s the key to driving the behaviour change they need to make.

OK Paul … what are those two  areas of heart-eye enlightening that you particularly have in mind that they need to get hold of for the behaviour change that’s needed to take place?

You’ve been looking at those the last few weeks:

Paul prays that their hearts will be enlightened as to:

(Vv. 18-19) “the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.”

The hope to which He has called you … they ran off into disunity and into impurity because they lost sight of the sufficiency and the adequacy of the inheritance given to the believer in Christ, which is far better than where they’d run to.

Disunity arose because they started to think they were better than others.

Impurity arose because they thought the hope to which He has called you wasn’t sufficient, they wanted the short blast of pleasure that impurity gives in the here and now more than the exquisite joys of eternity.

Now, I wasn’t around last week but I think we’ve got as far as looking today at the last one of those three things Paul is praying that the eyes of their minds will be enlightened to grasp … today it is ‘His incomparably great power to us who believe’ and what Paul’s got to say about that.

It’s about Him putting HIS strength about, making our joy His sufficiency in the face of our weakness, because we as ‘normal’ human beings bear a good measure of insufficiency, 

And Paul is praying that so that we can live and modify our behaviours daily in response to His great initiative to save us, His great initiative to enable us to live in the light of His grace day by day.

So there’s the big picture.

It’s going to get easier.

But there’s the really important place this issue occupies in what Paul is doing in this book and … ‘give me strength’ is what we’re about this morning.

Are you up for it?

1) Drilling down into this text

            a) Incomparable

The fact that His power is beyond compare is key to keeping us on the straight and narrow because it will keep us away from trying to gain strength and superiority in unhealthy ways and from insalubrious places which are inferior.

τὸ ὑπερβάλλον μέγεθος τῆς δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ

The going beyond greatness of the power of Him.

It is exceeding greatness of power we’re looking at with Almighty God … no weakness there as Paul will get on and illustrate from a couple of things they know God has done.

I don’t doubt that the Ephesians were fully aware that God is the Almighty before Paul spoke up, but the thing they are missing is that the going beyond greatness of the power of God is …

            b) ‘TOWARDS’ us

NET Bible in v. 19 here has: “the incomparable greatness of his power toward us who believe”

There’s a really commonly used little word there, and the trouble with a commonly used word is that it is often one that’s commonly used because it’s been stretched out a bit at the edges so it can therefore be used to cover quite a lot more intended meanings.

Here the word is εἰς which can in different contexts mean ‘to, toward, into; for’.

This is why looking at the context in which a word is used can be a lot more helpful than going to a dictionary for a definition … beware of the person who says ‘this word literally means’ because you are probably about to get given a dictionary definition which may or may not be the right one in this context!

What’s going on here in this context is the idea that God has put about His power for us as evidenced in three particular ways … His power towards us has been exercised FOR us in three particular ways which demonstrate and exemplify for us how totally He is prepared to use His incomparable, committed and all sufficient power to meet His people’s needs …

This power, in this context, has been exercised to display His strength by raising Christ from the dead, setting Christ at His right hand in Heaven and establishing Christ’s reign on the Heavenly throne FOR His Church.

            c) Displayed in the EXERCISE of His strength

i)               Raising Christ from the dead

His strength has been seen in that He can raise the dead.

I reckon there’s very little that can make us humans sense our weakness more powerfully than the issues around mortality.

When Scripture speaks of death as the last enemy, what that does is to highlight our own lack of strength or power or authority to overcome it.

It is the last one that we humans tangle with, and the ultimate one.

But look, His authority is such that by His word of command death itself has to get back in its box.

·       Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus?

‘Lord he stinketh’.

‘Lazarus come out’.

Back to Mary and Martha’s for a nice big celebratory slap up tea … 

And it’s all by His simple Word of command and the authority of the incomparably great power for us who believe of the One Who exercises this power for His people.

·       The women at the Garden Tomb that first day of the week?

‘“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”

“Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

And the rest, my friends, is 100% history.

God exercised this great power FIRST in this verse by raising Christ from the dead, and then by …

ii)             Setting Him at His right hand in Heaven

His strength has been seen in that He can seat Christ on heaven’s throne.

How do we know He’s done that?

We know that because we see the Spirit of God has been sent to us and is at work amongst us … the very thing Jesus said on earth that He’d do when He got back to Heaven.

We have the Comforter amongst us and at work around us.

The disciples preached the Gospel in the Acts in fulfilment of OT prophecy and with signs following, the very same sorts of signs the Lord had done Himself when He’d walked amongst them.

Now, you may have missed the idea of Christ’s being seated at the right hand of the Father.

We’re talking about the Lord Jesus Who had been seen crucified then very widely seen alive again in the same body in which He’d been crucified … you can read about the list of witnesses to His post-resurrection appearances in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 

But then, after going up into Heaven in a definitive way while His disciples watched (it’s in Acts 1), suddenly being nowhere to be seen again … at least, never seen walking the earth again in that resurrected human body, but only with a glorified body … after which His appearance is too bright and glorious to be seen because of His glorified body being wrapped in blinding light.

(Think Paul on the Damascus Road here.)

From that point on, what happens is that the kingdom of God is embodied in the risen Christ who, upon his ascension, has been given plenipotentiary powers over the entire universe … set at God’s right hand in Heaven.

1 Corinthians 15:20-25 picks up where we’re up to now in view of all of this: Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

(There’s “the incomparable greatness of his power toward us who believe”, for you!)

Paul goes on:

“For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in

Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

Well, that’s moved things forward from the incomparable greatness of His power raising Christ from the dead to the incomparable greatness of His power raising lost sinners like you and me from the dead!

“But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.”

OK.

That explains why I’m feeling weak then.

At the moment I’m living feeling weak but the truth is that the power of God has been exercised for me in this first fruits sort of way and also for all those who belong to Christ … and in this life I now lead I am still supported by this immense power that raised Christ and seated Him in Heaven … but it doesn’t always FEEL like it!

Paul’s got more about where this is going, because first fruits leads to harvest  …

Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father 

after destroying every rule and every authority and power.

For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.”

So what’s in view is a big eastern throne where Christ has been raised and has ascended by God’s incomparable power which is being exercised for us … and our verses today indicate that immeasurably great power is being exercised from that Heavenly throne that Jesus has been raised and exalted to for an enormous purpose.

Let’s hear it …

Ephesians 1:19-23

Paul prays that the problems arising from the human weakness of the Ephesian believers will be remedied and reversed as they are given awareness of the Christian hope and of

“his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”

What is happening RIGHT NOW as we struggle with our human weakness, as we are lax in maintaining our awareness of the glorious hope held out to us in the Gospel and of the sufficiency and the adequacy of God’s power being exercised on our behalf from Heaven’s throne is that God IS … in the face of all of that …

iii)           Establishing Christ’s reign in Heaven over all things FOR the Church

The sufficiency and the adequacy of the God-given strength and power of the Lord Jesus Who loves you is TODAY moving all the things up against which we feel inadequate and weak.

Where is He moving them to?

He is moving them under the feet of the Lord Jesus because however weak and inadequate we feel for the challenges of today what is actually happening is that in an on-going way JESUS is ruling from Heaven over all things FOR the Church.

And we have access to Him to ask Him to exercise the same sort of power He is exercising in those three ways to shift the little bit of stuff WE’re stumbling over and move that for us by His incomparably great power, which He deploys simply for us who believe.

2) This strength - where does it come from?

It is HIS power.

a) This strength - who gets it?

It is for us who believe

b) This strength - Who/ where does it come from?

It comes from HIM … not by self-reflection or from within yourself or any other such nonsense.

c) This strength - HOW do you get it?

Well if it comes to those who believe … you get it by trusting God for it

Paul prays that God will give these Ephesians a soul-protecting grasp of that.

3) This strength - will it be up to it for me?

It is His INCOMPARABLY great power, which raised Christ from the dead and seated Him above … everything, at every time … that great strength is already up for you and at it for you.

There’s the thing.

It IS being … but Paul realises that for these Ephesians he has to pray that they’ll be CONSCIOUS of it … v. 18:

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people,19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.”

The challenge is to make sure that His set-apart people, set apart by His initiative, adequacy and sufficiency, are enlightened as to the great power that ids at work in them and for them.

Because staying aware that this is ALREADY HAPPENING, already going on all the time is the key to our stability, maturity, orientation … our STANDING against all the attacks ad all the whiles of the evil one.

Are we conscious of the incomparable, evidenced, authoritatively exercised power of  God is always FOR us, all the time, as He rules over the universe from the throne of Heaven until all things are put under the feet of the One Who loves us?

a)    Incomparable

He is the One and only Almighty.

His strength exercised for me is incomparable across the cosmos.

And you can see this working itself out in real time …

b)    Evidenced in real time

i) Resurrection

ii) Ascension

iii) Session

Evidenced in His exercised Authority, as He exercises that incomparably great power and cosmos-shifting authority in response to the sighs and the prayers of His people.

Conclusion

My friend, are you conscious of His incomparably great power, and that is exercised now FOR all His people who believe?

May this thought, this awareness keep you safe as you walk on with Him.