THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION

Ephesians 1:19-23

Part one

“I pray also 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 the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him Who fills everything in every way.” NIV

There are many approaches to the resurrection event. For this pen pulpit I have chosen one aspect: The Power of His Resurrection! This is the aspect that is perhaps the most relevant to the church. It is one of the great realities that Paul personally aspired to know cf Phil 3:10 “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death…”. It is one of three hallmarks of the Christian faith that he prayed that the church might cone to fully understand.

In Ephesians 1:19-21, the Bible groups three great events together: His death, His resurrection and His ascension. These three events form one complete package – they are inner-connected. No cross: no forgiveness. No resurrection: no deliverance. No ascension: no church. In these three events our Lord defeated and was victorious over death, sin, Satan and the world. In Ephesians 1:18 there are three hallmarks of the Christian church that Paul prayed that his readers might understand: (1) The HOPE of our calling, (2) The RICHES of His inheritance, (3) The POWER and greatness of His resurrection and ascension. He doesn’t pray that they will receive this power, but that they will realize it.

The Expression of His Resurrection Power - vs.19, 20 This is power operative in resurrection and ascension. This is power directed to those who believe. So, whatever power was involved in raising Him from the dead is directly connected to believers. When we think of the essence and apex of power today, we think of thermo-nuclear power… power involved in nuclear fission i.e. the thermo nuclear explosion that occurred on March 1, 1954. According to authorities that explosion released 15 megatons of nuclear power or 15,000,000 tons of TNT. However, this is infinitesimal as compared to thermo nuclear energy lodged in this universe – that God created –and which one day will erupt in a nuclear blast beyond all description cf 2 Peter 3:10,11.

All of this fades into relative insignificance when we compare it to the power involved in raising Christ from the dead. Paul exhausts his vocabulary with words that bend under the weight of what they imply. Each word conveys a special designation of divine dynamic. We have a well-rounded picture of His resurrection power. William MacDonald provides us with a superb description of this power discussed in Ephesians 1:19, 20 “To further emphasize the magnitude of this power, the apostle next describes the greatest exhibition of divine power the world has ever known, namely, the power that raised Christ out from among the dead and enthroned Him at God’s right hand. Perhaps we would think that the creation of the universe was the greatest display of God’s might. Or God’s miraculous deliverance of His people through the Red Sea. But no! The New Testament teaches that Christ’s resurrection and ascension required the greatest outflow of divine energy. Why was this? It seems that all the hosts of hell were massed to frustrate God’s purposes by keeping Christ in the tomb, or by preventing His ascension once He was raised. But God triumphed over every form of opposition. Christ’s resurrection and glorification were a shattering defeat for Satan and his hosts, and a glorious spectacle of victorious power.”

The marvelous truth of the whole event is found in verse 19 - “And what is the surpassing greatness of His power to us who believe.” Friends, this power is available to the church now – today- to you and to me. Through the Holy Spirit, Christ’s power is infused in and through us to accomplish God’s purpose on earth. He does this through Body #2 – the church. We will resume this resurrection message in our next pen pulpit.

God bless and have a great Resurrection week.