Christ -- the Powerful King (Ephesians 1:15-23)

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morningston, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Let's go ahead and turn our Bibles to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1, and this morning we'll be looking at verses 15 through 23. Ephesians chapter 1, beginning at verse 15, you can find that on page 1038 of your Pew Bibles. Ephesians 1, beginning at verse 15, just letting you know I'm really excited for this message about what God has for us today, so please pay careful attention here to God's perfect word.

Therefore I also, after I heard your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance. in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which 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 principality and power and might and dominion that is named not only in this name but also in that which is to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all." Thus ends this portion of the reading of God's Word. It is perfect, it gives life to the soul, and it is good, and it endures forever.

I want to start off just looking at verse 15. I normally don't start off this way, but I need you to understand Pastor Paul's starting here of this verse. Verse 15, Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, Paul starts off this message saying, man, I've heard about your faith. Man, I've heard about your love for the saints. And I'll tell you what, as a pastor, there is nothing more that will make a pastor want to get down on his knees and thank God than hearing that the church is full of people who love Jesus Christ and love one another.

And so most mornings I sit down and I pray, well every morning I sit down and I pray, but most mornings there's something specifically on my heart when I get to my thankfulness section. And I was just curious as I was sitting there this morning praying and I thought, I wonder what I prayed for about a year ago. And so I don't write down my prayers every year or every day.

It takes a lot of time, but it was interesting. Not quite a year ago, but on February 10th, I just want to read something to you that as I thought about this congregation, as I thought about you, what the Lord put on my heart, I had no clue when I was writing this that I would ever read it to anyone else. I've told my wife to burn these when I die.

But this is my words for you. Thank you, Lord. for the great blessing of getting to serve here at Sharon RP Church. Thank you for your people. Thank you for the joy of getting to open your word. What a grace it is to my soul to be able to study and share your word with your people. Father, please bless the preaching of your word. Let your glory be known.

God, let your spirit do a radical work in the hearts of your people. Especially, Lord, stir up the hearts of the men in the congregation to be serious about their faiths, leaders of your people. God, pour out your Holy Spirit into the congregation that they might know you and the power of your resurrection. God, lay on your people's hearts a heavy burden for the lost. Father, may Sharon RP be a hospital of souls. May dead bodies come to life and those brought to life be matured and built through your marvelous means of grace. This is my prayer for you.

And I want you to hear Paul's prayer. I want you to hear Pastor Paul's prayer for the church in Ephesus. Remember, Pastor Paul had been with the church here for two, almost three years. And what we hear here is Paul is in prison, Paul is in chains. But when he hears about them and he hears, oh, the people still love you, the people are still loving each other, his heart is overwhelmed and he prays for them. And he prays some specific things for them. And so this morning we're going to be looking at what those specific things are. There are three specific things that Paul prays for the church in Ephesus.

And they all circle around the idea that he wants them to know God. He wants them to know God. And this isn't just knowing God up here. Right? Paul doesn't just want people to know intellectually. God doesn't just want people to know to have big, huge, smart RP heads. God doesn't want people just to have vast theological vocabularies. This is not what Paul is talking about. Paul wants them to know down in their gut. who God is.

God wants the eyes of their hearts to be enlightened. God wants you to know who he is. God wants you to know in a vibrant and loving way the power that he has. And this is what we'll look at in these verses here. This is what God desires for you to know him. So look with me first at verse 17. Paul doesn't stop making mention of them in his prayer, and what does he pray? That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, and the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your heart being enlightened, that you may know, this is the first thing, that you may what? The first thing, that you may know the hope of His calling.

Now, these first two things that Paul has praised for the church, we're going to move pretty fast because we've explored them in the first 14 verses. We've looked at God's calling on your life. We know that God from eternity past called you, chose you, loved you. Because of His love, His great love by which He loved you, He chose you.

So He wants you to know that in the fiber of who you are, down in your heart. He wants your mind to know it. He wants your heart to know it. He wants you down in your kidneys and in your livers to be like, I don't know anything else, but if everything was stripped away from me, I know that God has called me. God wants you to know that He's called you. God wants you to know that so much that He has impressed His Holy Spirit as a guarantee and a seal upon your soul. God wants you to know the hope, the hope of His calling.

Brothers and sisters, what is hope? Hope is trusting in those things which are not seen, and yet I'm going to tell you today that it is true to a sense, but Jesus Christ is the hope of our calling. And that I pray that when you come up to the Lord's table here in a little while, when you come and you take communion, that down in your gut as you eat that bread and as you drink of that cup, you might know that Jesus Christ has called you and that body and that blood really are for you. Do you know the hope of this calling?

This is what Paul is praying for. The hope of your calling. Next, not just the hope of his calling, but look with me again at verse 18. God wants you to know What is His inheritance in the saints? This is what, again, we looked at in verse 11 last week. You are God's inheritance.

Now again, we might think that God got shortchanged in this, right? I mean, when I think of me and I think of what a sinner I am, I think, man, really God, I'm your inheritance? You know how flawed I am? And just yesterday I was talking to my wife about how I was cleaning up crumbs underneath the toaster and I had just gotten upset with the kids. And I thought, man, Lord, I was just praying about being gentle and having a soft answer just this morning, and yet this afternoon here I am. But God wants you to know that yes, you are a sinner.

But you are so valuable to him that what did he do? He paid for you with the cost of his very own son's blood. You were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the insurmountable riches of Jesus' blood. Do you see why we take communion? Why we need to remember that we are his inheritance?

God wants you to know that. God wants it to be so woven into your understanding of who you are that every day you might know that you are his child. That it is inseparable from who you think of yourself as. That no matter what, you might be a farmer, you might be an aunt, you might be a grandma, you might be a sister, you might be a mother, but no matter what, all those things might change. but will never change as you are God's inheritance. God wants you to know the hope of His calling. God wants you to know the riches of your inheritance, that you are His inheritance.

But lastly, this is where He spends the majority of the time in this passage. Look with me at verse 19. What is the last thing that God wants us to know? and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his mighty power. Paul here in the Greek, it's really interesting. It's just like Paul is heaping up words.

He just said, I want you to know God's power, but that wasn't good enough. He said, I want you to know not just God's great power, that wasn't good enough either. He says, I want you to know the exceedingly great, amazing, everything up here, this is God's power, and I want you to know that.

I'm praying that God might let you know that He is not some type of little God that we treat like an idol. He is not some little God that we can appease with somehow just being good enough. If we just bring Him a little bit of meat, or if we just follow Him exactly how He wants, we might be able to know His power. No, no, no. God is more powerful than that. God wants you to know what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of His mighty power. I need to take you back culturally a little bit here.

For those of you who were in Chalk and Talk last week, we read Acts chapter 19. And in Acts chapter 19, when we see about how Paul is interacting with the church in Ephesus, we know that he makes some people in Ephesus mad. The gospel upsets Demetrius, the silversmith who makes these statutes to Diana or Artemis. See, in Ephesus, and if you're here in the afternoon, I'll show you what this temple, what this massive building looked like at one time in Ephesus. Ephesus was known as the guardian of the goddess Diana. That's what Acts chapter 19 tells us. The pride of Ephesus was the temple to Diana. It had taken hundreds of years to build. And when people were coming out of the cult of Diana out of the cult of Artemis. It was Diana or Artemis. I keep saying Diana or Artemis in Greek and Roman mythology.

They're the same person. It's foolish stories anyways. But they came out of that background thinking that she was the daughter of Zeus and that somehow she had power. And Paul is telling them here, no, no, no, no. Nope. Nope, Diana's not the one who's all-powerful. Diana's not the one who holds together the entire universe by his mighty right hand. No, no, no, that's not, that doesn't belong. That's an idol.

Someone has tried to steal away God's glory there. I want you to know who really has the power. And how do we know that people thought about this? Well, because in Acts chapter 19, again, when the people came to Christianity, one of the things that they did as they took their scrolls, worth a lot of money, and they burned them. But not everybody in town burned them, and there are some inscriptions still of some of the magic books that people in Ephesus used. And they're replete with the words of the power of the gods. And so here Paul is saying, you really want to know who has power?

You really want to know which God has the power to change the universe? You really want to know the God who can change all eternity? You really want to know the God who sits enthroned not just in a temple here in Ephesus, but who sits enthroned in heaven? Let me tell you about that King, and His name is Jesus Christ.

And that's what we find in the next series of verses. Paul switches from God the Father and who God the Father is to what God the Father has done in God the Son. Look with me at verse 20. Which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead. God is not just powerful because he said it, but God has demonstrated his power. Four different ways here in these next verses how God has demonstrated his power. The first way that God has demonstrated his power is he raised Jesus from the dead. Okay, hold on, let me say that again. None of you guys went, oh! All right, hold on, hold on. God raised Jesus from the dead. Hold on, none of you gasped still. I'm wondering how often you go out into the graveyard and you tell people to come out of the grave. When's the last time you told someone, arise, get up, and they came up out of the grave?

This was something that no idol, no Artemis, no Diana, no other pagan god had ever done. And brothers and sisters, let me tell you, this is not some fabricated story, but thousands of people saw the risen Lord Jesus Christ. God displayed His great power in raising up His only begotten Son from the grave. And it was no phantom. It was no, it was no somehow a ghost of Jesus or something. But what does Jesus tell to Thomas?

Come here. Come here. Put your hand here. Put your hand in the wound. Is that not enough proof? Here, here's my side. Remember when they pierced me with that sword and the blood and the water came out? Put your hand here. It's really me. I'm alive. God displayed his power in our risen Lord Jesus Christ.

But if that wasn't good enough, what else does he do? Look again at verse 20 with me. When he worked in Christ, which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. See, Jesus Christ was on the earth. for 40 days, but he did not stay on the earth. Jesus Christ ascended into heaven.

If you turned over your Bible to the last chapter of Luke, you would go to that place of the first chapter of Acts, and you would see the disciples who were there with Jesus, and they bowed down to him, and they worshiped him. But Jesus told them, it's better for me to go than to stay. See, it wasn't just good enough that God raised up Jesus from the dead, but they stood there, and they looked up into heaven, and they saw Jesus going up into heaven, and their hearts sank. The disciples' hearts sank because Jesus wasn't with them, and an angel appeared to them and said, what's wrong with you?

Didn't he tell you he needed to die and to be raised and be taken up into heaven? See Jesus Christ ascended into heaven. Jesus Christ ascended into heaven. Our risen Lord Jesus Christ, the fully God man in the flesh now has a body and is in heaven and one day will return. We do not believe in some savior who's dead in a grave and gone. But your Savior liveth. Your Redeemer is alive. Your Redeemer is in heaven. But it's even better than that.

See, God's power was displayed not just in Jesus being raised from the dead, not just in Jesus' ascending into heaven, but what does verse 21 say? But He also was seated at the right hand. which 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 principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come. Jesus Christ, your Lord, was seated at the right hand of God. It's not as if Jesus went into heaven, and when he went in there, he knocked on the door of the heavenly temple, and he stood there before the Father, and there before the Father, he waits on the Father like some type of butler. No. No, there was a coronation ceremony in heaven. when Jesus Christ came in all of his resurrection glory, and there in heaven the angels stood waiting for what they had longed to see for thousands of years, and the myriads and myriads of angels and the saints of old stood there in heaven as they watched the King of glory walk in and take his throne at the right hand of God the Father.

This is what Revelation 4 and 5 show us. that all the angels rejoice at the Lamb who came, who is worthy to open the seals, the Lamb who sits upon the throne. And that Lamb, that King of Glory, who sits in heaven at the right hand of His Father, isn't just one amongst equals.

But God wants you to know the exceeding power of His might, and that He gave His Son a name which is above every other name. Again, that might be hard for us to think about right now. We just really messed up our caucuses. Let me promise you, brothers and sisters, that someday people will realize that there's already a king on the throne. Someday people will come and will know that Jesus Christ is the one who sits enthroned, that it is Jesus who is above the president. that it is Jesus who is above the Queen of England, that it is Jesus who is above the Chancellor of Germany, that it is Jesus who is above every Sultan, that it is Jesus who is above every Prime Minister, that it is at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that it is Jesus Christ who is Lord.

Brothers and sisters, God wants you to know this. God wants you to know it in your heart. God wants you to know it in your soul. God wants you to know it in your gut. God wants you, when you walk out of these doors today, to know that He is sitting on His throne and is reigning.

But again, that's not easy to accept every day, is it? I mean, that's great highfalutin talk, pastor. That's wonderful that you talk about Jesus on his throne. Oh, yay, that's wonderful. Life is hard. I don't get how Jesus Christ can be on his throne, and yet I see my life that looks like it's going to pot. As I grieve for people who have died. As I struggle to make ends meet financially, as I struggle with being stripped of things that give me joy, how is Jesus on his throne?

I don't see it. Brothers and sisters, let me tell you. Did Job see it? Did Job see God seated upon his throne? Oh, sure he did. Oh sure he did, God might be bringing you to a new low that you might finally lift up your chin and see him upon his throne.

Could you imagine Jeremiah as he's, as Jeremiah is in a pit? Literally as Jeremiah is in a dungeon? A wet, cold, dank place because he has done nothing but proclaim God's word? And yet Jeremiah doesn't lose hope that it's not dependent on his circumstances. But God's ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts greater than our thoughts. And he is the one who is bringing this about. Let me push it even further than that.

The disciples didn't get it. The disciples didn't get it. What do you mean you have to die, Jesus? No, no, no, Jesus, you don't know what you're talking about. Do you remember what Peter said to Jesus? How condescending Peter was to Jesus? Jesus, your plan doesn't make any sense. What do you mean that you have to die?

No way, not gonna happen. Jesus says, get behind me, Satan. All right, no, no, no, no, no, see. See, God has a plan. He's had a plan from the very beginning. He's had a plan to redeem you. He's had a plan to call you. He's had a plan on how he was going to bring about the final end. And if you don't think that Jesus Christ or that God has a plan, maybe you haven't read the book of Revelation lately.

Because God does have a plan, and God's desire for us is exactly what Paul has prayed for. That not only the eyes being enlightened, but that we might have a spirit of wisdom and of revelation. That we might know what he has said, and that we might have the wisdom to grasp onto those promises.

God wants you to know that He has a throne that is above everything and no matter what happens in your life, you can cling to the fact that He is the Sovereign One who is working all things together for your good and for His glory. So He wants you to know He wants you to know the hope of His resurrection. He wants you to know the glorious inheritance He has. He wants you to know His power in raising Jesus from the dead. He wants you to know His power in giving or seating Him at the right hand. He wants you to know that Jesus has been given the power of a principality above all else. But He also wants you to know one last thing.

Verse 22. And he put all things under his feet, and gave him to behead over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all." I'm not sure about you, but this is an interesting point for me. I mean, everything is talking about things in heaven and wonderful things God has done and the implications here on earth. But now God says, but hold on, there's one more powerful thing you need to know. There's one more way you need to know God's majestic strength.

And that's that God has made Jesus head of the church. I'm begging you, never say, I'm dead serious, please never, ever, ever say that pastor runs the church. If you start getting a whiff that somehow pastor or one of the elders is the head of the church, go and tell them to get rid of their God complex, because it is Jesus Christ who is the church's only head and king.

It is God who has displayed His power that in the church He fills it. That Jesus Christ fills the church. The idea here in verses 22 and 23 that Jesus has been given head over all things to the church which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all, is the idea that takes us back to the Old Testament. that when Moses built the tabernacle, how did God's people know that God was there? Because God filled the tabernacle with his cloud, with his presence. When Solomon finally built the temple with all of its grandeur and all of its pomp and all of its glory, how did the people really know that that was God's temple and that he was with them? because God's presence filled the temple.

And this is the beautiful part that comes here, and please don't miss it. How do we know that God's presence is with us? Because we are God's temple, and his Holy Spirit is in you. Did you catch it? Jesus Christ is in you and we are His temple. See, God is not just, Jesus Christ is not just sequestered in heaven, but His sovereignty and His Spirit pervades into us, the church.

He is the head of the church, we are His people, He is the cornerstone, and we are the building blocks, the living stones. He is the head and we are the body. He is the one who leads us. He is the one who guides us. He is the one who cares for us. He is the one who nourishes us. He is the one as our head who tells us, this is poison, don't go there. This is good, stay there. It is Jesus Christ in his headship that he as the king of the universe and of the church is going to take us into some uncomfortable positions in the second half of this book.

Because it is Jesus the King, the Redeemer, who is going to tell you, I am powerful enough to redeem your filthy mouth. I am powerful enough to redeem your marriage. I am the King who will redeem your relationships with your children. I am the king who has dominion over your marriage, your spouse. I am the one who will tell you how you are to live with them. I am the one, I am the king who will redeem your relationship with your children and will turn the world on its head. I am the one who is the king and I am the one who will tell the church how they are to interact in employment and in the economy. I am the king over every square inch of the church and our lives.

That is the power of Jesus Christ. The power that God has seen. And it was so powerful, brothers and sisters, that people in Ephesus went on a riot. I'm just going to put in a plug here for Chalk and Talk. In the afternoons, we look at things like this, how it plays out in life. And in Ephesus, when the people of God realized that Jesus Christ was the king over every square inch of their lives, that they were able to stand up to any ruler and principality, that the city was thrown in an uproar. because they wanted to say, great is Artemis of Ephesus, great is Artemis of Ephesus, great is Artemis of Ephesus. And the Christians were able to go into the amphitheater and to stand with courage saying, no, there is one Lord and his name is Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters, that same spirit that Paul prayed for the church in Ephesus is the same spirit that is alive and active in you. You have a Lord who redeems you, a God who has called you, and a Holy Spirit who has laid down himself as your guarantee. Brothers and sisters, God wants you to know it. God wants it to be as the fiber of your being. God wants you to know him and his great power.

When you walk out from here today, don't forget it. When you walk out these doors today, I'm guilty of this. Don't forget these truths. Don't quickly let these words fall from your mind. Don't let them be as words that were watered upon your soul and quickly run off on rocky soil. Brothers and sisters, God wants you to know these things. God wants you to know him, that he might change your entire life forever.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for your word. And we thank you, Father, for your Holy Spirit. Father, we pray that you indeed would impress these words, that you would engrave them in our souls, Lord, that we would know you. Father, that we would know that you are in us and that we are in you and no one can rip us away from you because you are a king forever. Lord, please fill us with hope. Lord, fill us with the joy of your salvation. Lord, care for us this day. And Lord, let us have these words applied to our hearts as we come to your table now. In Jesus' name, amen.

Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa 52640. May God richly bless you this week.