Power

Many of you will be aware of this story. Thursday last week, so not this Thursday past, Thursday last week, in fear of her life, a woman by the name of Tara Brown went to the police to help her leave her partner who had become very violent. And she was seeking help from the police, but was turned away to seek help elsewhere. On Tuesday this week, just down the road from where I live, a few hundred metres, she was violently beaten while trapped in a crashed car by her that very partner. The next day she died of her injuries.

Tara left behind a young daughter who had just, she had just dropped off to the child carer around the corner again that very morning. Tara's tragic death came on a day when another man here in Queensland who had bashed his girlfriend until she passed out walked from court. While yet another man with a criminal history was allowed out on bail to kill mother of two, Jodie Eaton. In this same week, we heard of a woman being shot dead at a McDonald's down the road in Helensvale. And this all happened again this week as we mourn the death of a New South Wales grandmother and her seven year old grandson allegedly killed at the hands of her very own son.

It's been a rough week. And I don't know about you when you heard this news and I don't know about how you reflected on these things or whether you were able to join the dots and put them all together. It's so easy, I realised, that we can compartmentalise this bad news and slot it in as a daily sort of thing. This is just today's bad news. But we forget the next day about these sort of things.

But this week, I just couldn't help but be moved by these events. This is so far beyond what God's will is for life. This is so far beyond what He intended for us, and it made me wonder as a Christian, as a Christian, what would I say to some of these deeply, deeply damaged, scarred individuals who would do these sort of things? Who would take things into their own hands like this? Who could abuse their power so greatly?

How would you convince them? How would you persuade them not to do this? This morning, I wanna talk about power. I wanna talk about the biblical idea of headship. And as such, this morning, we will have a lot of focus on men of this church.

And this is not to the exclusion of the women here, of the ladies here, but I want us to really reflect on what it means to have power. Power that has been entrusted to us, power that has been ordained to us, we believe as Christians, and the abuse of it. I wanna read with you this morning from Ephesians 1:15 to the end of the chapter and keep your Bibles open. If you don't have a Bible, we've got plenty at the back there. Feel free to Google it on the Bible app or something like that.

But keep your Bibles open because we will be working through this. We'll be looking at different verses. So the book of Ephesians chapter one, verses 15 to 23. This is Paul the Apostle who writes to the church in Ephesus. And we sort of enter his line of argument midway through, but we'll explain that a little bit.

Paul says, for this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know Him better. 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 the 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, Him to be the head over everything for the church, which is His body.

The fullness of Him who fills everything in every way. If you didn't follow that very closely, that's okay. We're gonna unpack that a little bit this morning. I realise that it's very jam packed with a lot of stuff happening there. To give you a bit of a background, the Apostle Paul was writing to new Christians in a place called Ephesus, which is now modern day Turkey or belongs to modern day Turkey.

It's still there in fact. In the opening statement of his letter, he talks about the mysterious and the powerful working of God who in love so in the first verses, we didn't read this morning, in the first verses, talks about how God in love predestined all of these young Christians to be adopted into God's family from the beginning of time. Paul says that this was done according to a plan. It was according to a plan, but not only a plan, but because of God's great pleasure and delight in this plan. It was not impersonal.

It was very personal, and it was got done for God's joy. And the end result of this will be to the praise of His glorious grace, Paul says. God's radical, God's radical, absolutely unconditional love has no parameters, Paul says. It has no conditions that need to be met. Your faith has come about because God is gracious, not because you are great or because you are good.

God has lavished, he says in those words, God has lavished His love onto sinners who could have never warranted His love. That's how Paul begins. It's one big paragraph of uninhibited praise to God, thanking God for His kindness and His love, for this new reality that these Christians have entered into. And then we come to this second paragraph, and Paul moves to the Ephesian church specifically, not just Christians in general, but to these individual members of this church, this community. And he says that he has been praying for something very specifically for them.

He says that he is so thankful for what God has done in them, for the faith that God has given them. He is so thankful that they are believers of Jesus Christ and that they love God. He says in verse 16, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I have not stopped thanking God for you. I am so thankful.

I am so grateful for what God has been doing in you. That's the heart of a pastor right there, friends. He's enjoying the health. He's enjoying the blessings that his church members are experiencing. But that's not just a pastor.

That's a Christian. That's a Christian's heart who longs to see God transform people's lives. And Paul says he pours out thanksgiving to God for them, but that's not all. He says he also petitions God for something. He intercedes for them.

What does he ask for? Verse 17 says this, I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know Him better. Paul says that he's praying for these Christians so that they may receive the spirit of God which gives revelation and wisdom. Why? So that they may know God better.

So that you may know God better. Then he says also in verse 18, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, that there may be light given to your eyes. Why? In order that you may know the hope to which you have been called. Then he says, the riches this is summed up.

In the riches of His glorious inheritance and His incomparably great power for us who believe. So Paul writes out this prayer of thanksgiving, just praising God for His goodness and His faithfulness. And then he says, after pouring out this thanksgiving to God, he says, there's two things I request for you. Two things I request for you, that you may know God better and that you may know the hope to which He has called you. Friends, if you wanna understand Christianity, if you wanna understand the Christian life, what the goal is of this life, it is to know God better, and it is to understand the hope to which He has called you.

That is the Christian life. If I was to try to change the heart of a broken, angry, wife beating Bandido Biker, it would have been to begin by getting them to know God better and the hope to which God is calling them. Why? Verse 19 says, because this hope holds an incomparably great power, an incomparable power, I would say to this man, do you think you know power? Do you think what you did was powerful?

Do you think that the power you hold over other people, you can exert so that they will listen? The Bible says this morning, let me tell you about power. This is the power for all who believe. But you may be surprised in where this power lies. Paul says in verse 20, this power was evidenced first and foremostly in the hand of God raising Christ from the dead and putting Him at the right hand of God the Father, giving Him all authority and all power and all dominion.

The power of God, the incomparable power of God was shown in the resurrection. Why does Paul use that? Why the resurrection? I mean, believing in a God who flung the stars to the farthest reaches of the universe, who breathed and light came out. Why not evidence the power of God in His creation, in His creative power?

Why the resurrection? He goes to the resurrection of Jesus and here's why. Of all the powers that you can see in the world, there is no power like death. Why does a cyclone have power? Why does an earthquake have power?

Why do we say these things are powerful? Because it has some power of death. Because it can snuff out life just like that. It can kill and therefore it is powerful. There's so many aspects of mankind that we improve and are developing and we are working on.

Mankind can harvest some of creation's power. We can split the atom. We can do all of these things, but guess what? We will always die. We will always die.

So don't you realise therefore that death is the main power that is arrayed against us? The bible calls it the last enemy. If you could break the power of death, do you realise that there would be no power that would be a match for you? If you could overcome the power of death, you want a sunny vacation? Fly to the sun and go and have a holiday on its surface.

That is the power that you would have. That is exactly what God is talking about here. He snapped the power of death in half, and that is evidenced in Christ's resurrection. In Acts 2, the apostle Peter says, God raised Christ from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death because it was impossible for death to keep a hold of Him. It was impossible for death to keep its hold of Him.

In one Corinthians 15, after explaining the wonderful reality of what happened with Christ and His resurrection, Paul says this. He again just bursts out into joy. He says, oh, death, where is your sting? Oh, grave, where is your victory? Friends, that is a taunt.

That is mockery of the greatest threat to our happiness. Why? Why can Paul say this? Because there are very, very powerful things around us. Very, very powerful things.

You can say a cyclone has one thousandth of a power of a nuclear warhead that can kill. But then again, a nuclear warhead has one millionth of a power of an explosion on the surface of the sun. But then again, the sun only has one billionth of a power of an exploding supernova. That is powerful. That is powerful.

But Paul here talks about a power that makes all of that power sound like a pop gun, sound like a toy gun shooting off blanks. Paul talks of the power that makes all of that power look like an angry man trying to throw a soggy paper airplane. Why? Because a supernova is nothing like the power of death. If our galaxy was to explode in a super because of a supernova, it would kill you.

But what do you care about a hundred supernovas happening after that? You are dead. It doesn't hold any more power over you, but you're still dead. Death is final. Death is inevitable.

But what kind of power can enable a human being to laugh in the face of death? When Paul says, oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory? That's mockery. That's scorn.

And that's why Paul picks the resurrection. And he does it for this staggering reason. He is trying to show us that the power of the resurrection of God is actually at work in us. It says it's a power that is surging through you if you have Jesus Christ as your saviour. And this is a power caused by the resurrection.

Paul is saying this is the way that you measure real power. This is the way you measure real power. Not the power to kill, but the power to give life. The resurrection is the unit by which you can measure what real power is. So for all the broken men, the one who abuse their roles of heads and families, the ones who pervert their God given authority, the one who think that they have an ability to kill or to take life.

I would ask this, you think your threat to kill someone is real power? Think again. There is someone who has incomparably greater power than you have. It is not even worth comparing. A unit of measurement is important, isn't it?

A unit of measure is important. If I say to you, how much does this book weigh? Or if you ask me and I say it weighs five. This weighs five. What do you mean by that?

Is it five grams? Five tons? Maybe five kilograms. A unit of measure is important. Paul is saying right here, this is the unit.

Do you know how much God has bestowed in this? Do you know that God's power is showed in this death breaking thing called resurrection? The same stuff that raised Christ from the dead with all its fury, the fury of death, with all its inevitability, death tried to bind Jesus up. But Jesus was given the power to break it like a sewing thread. That's what's in view in your life right now.

Power. Power. The power of the resurrection is the way you measure it. That means that the things of death in your life, the death things of decay of brokenness in your life, your habits, your addictions, your confusions, your brokenness, Even though the power of death is very real, the power of the resurrection, the power of having life again, The power of God to do that is more powerful than anything you will ever go through in this life. Every struggle that you will have, every heartbreak that you will go through, the hope of the resurrection conquers it all.

The great Christian martyrs, if you were to read their stories, if you were to read their last moments, laughed in the face of death. Because when they finally stepped onto those gallows, when they walked up to that stake to be burnt, when they put their head on the chopping block, they realised the power that the gospel of Jesus Christ has. And any power out there is not worth comparing to the power that lies inside of you because of God's grace. So as Christians, our goal is to know God better, to know His power better, and to know the hope of this power better. That is the goal of Christians.

That is why we do what we do. That is why we have to come back to God's word over and over to understand it. But Paul's not finished. He's not finished yet. He's gonna wrap it up now.

He says in verse 22, God placed all things under His feet. After Christ was raised powerfully as the first example of this power, after Christ was raised powerfully, God the father placed all things under His feet and appointed Christ to be head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way. Now if you look carefully, you'll see something very interesting. Jesus is said to be the head over all the world and everything in it and also over the church. He is head over the world and He is head over the church.

He says, in other words, that Christ is ruling over everything. He is head over all things, but for who? For the church. For you. For me.

So there's a sense where God is directing the million trillion variables of this universe in some way in order to fulfil a plan for us. Yet before we get too big headed, before we think, wow, we're the centre of the universe then, Paul gives this qualifying metaphor for the church. He says that the church is like a body that has a head. We are the rest of that body. We are part of that body.

And Paul is referring here to a theme that he has talked about in other places as well, calling the church a body. When it comes to the problem of abuse, when it comes to the problem of domestic violence, whether it is the rich oppressing the poor in countries for businesses to exceed, or even if it's being really catty to that one girl at school, abuse of power comes from a misunderstanding of who holds power. Who has real power? And how should that power be used? Christian, I want you to hear this verse.

God placed all things under Christ's feet and appointed Him to be head over everything. What God is saying this morning to you is that the abuse of power in a Christian's life can never exist. Abuse of power in a Christian's life can never exist. Because if you understand the gospel, it will humble you out of any abuse of power trips. Obsession with grasping and clawing for power can cause a husband to beat his wife.

It can cause a paedophile to rape a child. The soul destroying obsession for having power over someone is completely disempowered when they understand that there is a God with incomparable power that you cannot even begin to grasp. And that God with this incredible power has a stake in your life. He has a plan for it. He has a desire for it.

He has a reason for it. The amazing thing is that even though this God is so great, and even though things around us seem so completely chaotic, the events of this universe is working according to a plan. And nothing can frustrate that plan. And even though this God is so powerful, God invites us to be His child, and He has a plan for you. He has a plan for you.

When Paul says that God gave Jesus Christ all authority and all power and appointed Him to be head over everything, Paul adds, for who? For the church. And friend, this is nothing less than that great promise in Romans 8:28 that God works all things for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purposes. God works all things for the good of those who love Him. And this is saying that if you belong to Him, if you belong to Jesus Christ, if you have Him as your king and your lord, everything that happens is happening for the good of you.

And we can recognise this from history. We can recognise this from scripture, how God can use complex, amazing stories and bring about a plan that is staggering in its scope. God will work out everything for your good if you belong to Him is the promise. Astoundingly, this takes into consideration your choices, and it still holds out that His plan will work out infallibly. And you have to just simply open your bible and you will find this.

Think about the Old Testament story of Jacob. Jacob, the beginning, the forefather for the holy nation of Israel, the forefather of God's people, God's treasured possession, Jacob. What did he do? He lied to his father. He lied to his father Isaac, stole a birthright of his brother to be his inheritance, was greedy, abused his intellect, abused his power.

He cheated his older brother Esau out of his rightful claim. And then Jacob got caught doing it. He got found out for having done it. And because Jacob cheated, because he lied, what happened? He had to flee for his very life from his own family.

His brother said to him, I'll make an oath to kill this man when I find him. Jacob had to flee. Did he sin? Yes. The thing about the Bible, the thing I love about the Bible is there is no perfect heroes in it.

He sinned really badly. Did he experience pain because of this? Absolutely he did. Was he punished for it? Yes he was.

But despite his sinning, in fact, almost because of his sinning, he had to leave his country and go to another country where he found a beautiful woman called Rachel, and he married her. And Rachel became his wife and guess what? Through Rachel, the Messiah came. Incredible. Was it alright that Jacob sinned?

But don't you see, because Jacob sinned, though God held him responsible for that choice, did God put him on some eternal plan B for his life? Could Jacob's sin destroy God's plan for the saviour to come from him? No. God is far more powerful than Jacob. God is far more powerful than Jacob's sin.

Friends, I wanna tell you this morning, God is greater than your stupid choices. The apostle Peter said in Acts 2, verse 23, days after Jesus' crucifixion, he said to the crowd who had done it, He, Jesus Christ, was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge. And you, with the help of wicked men, put Him to death. See what's happening there? You're wicked for having put Him to death, yet it was all purposed by God.

How could they be both? Well, because we don't have a mechanistic, impersonal universe, we have a God who is infinitely wise, incomparably powerful, who is able to work all things together for His set plan and His purpose, eventually for the good of those who love Him. And part of His purpose is to save you. And part of His purpose is to love you. And part of His purpose for you this morning is to know the hope to which He has called you.

This is the God you are called to worship this morning. This is the God you've come to meet this morning. This is the God you've come to say hello to this morning. And you are called to serve Him this morning right now. Not to wait anymore.

Not to come and serve Him when you are done sinning. Not when it suits you. If you know this God, then there is no choice but to lay aside your small minded rationalisations and your excuses and your thoughts of claiming power over yourself or others. Friends, the truth I want to share with you this morning is that living your life completely within God's will is the greatest liberation you will ever have. Why?

Because if I really thought that it was a matter my life was a matter of my choices, that all of my destiny, everything that happened to me happened because of my good choices or my bad choices, or everything needed to be influenced in my favour according to what power I could exert in different situations, the truth is I would crumble under the weight of anxiety. I would be afraid to get out of bed in the morning because which side of the bed should I get out of? The deeply disturbing news we experienced this week didn't come from anger. The things that happened this week, the crimes that were committed this week didn't come from anger. It came from fear.

It came from a very deep, never ending fear that consumes an individual. And time and time again, even psychologists will say it's fear, it's insecurity, it's anxiety. Why the obsession for power? Why the obsession for power? Because we're desperately trying to assert power to ourselves because you fear that you've lost it.

Friend, this morning, as I finish, I want to tell you, wherever you stand with the Lord this morning, you have lost power. You have lost it because you've never had it. Stop deceiving yourself and place your hope in the only one who really holds it. Men, lead and guide your families like Christ leads His church, sacrificially. Know who you are doing this under.

You are doing it under the gaze of the watchful and rightful king over your life. Ladies, find rest from comparisons of who holds more power socially and with respect in friendship circles. Don't manipulate. Don't seek to domineer others, including husbands. Because only God has the power to really change their hearts, to change your situations.

And how are we able to do all these things? What can motivate us to do it? Two things. By knowing God better and knowing the hope of the power that He holds out for us. Let's pray.

Father, forgive us when there is such an open invitation to know You, and yet we squander that invitation. We squander that invitation to desire things after You. We squander it by indulging in useless, tasteless sin that doesn't need to be a part of our lives. Things that is not from You, is not of You, and yet we run to it for whatever reason. Father, we want we desire to seek our satisfaction in You alone because in You alone is real satisfaction.

Father, this morning, I wanna pray for all of us in understanding where our value, where our power, where our privilege and blessings lie. Lord, it does not lie in our ability. It does not lie in our capacity. It does not lie in our manipulation of the things around us. Father, our authority and our power and our worth and our value can only come from You.

And father, it comes from understanding who we are in Your eyes, and it comes from understanding who You are, Your character, what You have done for us, what You mean for this world. Father, help us not to leave here unchanged. Father, for some of us here who might need to get right with You, father, for some of us who might need to give our hearts to You afresh this morning, I pray that You will break the power of sin, that You'll break the power of addiction, that You'll break the power of abuse, that You'll break the power of greed and selfishness, father, of complacency even. And, give us a taste. Give us a snippet.

Give us a little bit of that hope to which You have called us. The power of the resurrection. The power of a life that cannot be destroyed even by death. A life that is with You for eternity. Father, I pray that by Your spirit, You will impart these words into our hearts, that You will seal it up in our hearts, that we will be able to reflect and remember it forever.

And father, that we will not fall away. We thank You for Your grace because You deserve it. We thank You for Your love because You deserve it. And we give all praise and glory to You. Amen.