The Power of Our Christian Living

There's a story in the Trump folklore of my baby brother, Gerard. I was about six years old at the time, and this youngest brother of mine, Gerard, or as we call him, Jerry, was probably about two or three. As the youngest of three boys, Gerard was always trying his best to keep up with his brothers. This was shown most clearly one day when he decided to swim in the deep end of the pool just like his more capable siblings.

The problem was that Jerry was still learning how to swim with floaties. On this particular day, for some unknown reason, he felt like he had graduated to swimming on his own. Without warning, he slipped out of his floaties and in the blink of an eye, was standing at the end of the pool about to jump in. I remember it as clear as anything. I was playing with my other brother, I turned around and I saw Jerry popping a low squat about to gain maximum air to make a heroic splash into the pool.

In that split second of jumping, I yelled out something along the lines of, don't do it, you can't swim. And before I knew it, my brother was in the water. And sure enough, he was flailing around helplessly, unable to get his head above the water. Now, it felt like an eternity, but I was able to swim over to him, to grab him. My mum, who had been with us, plucked him out of the water.

I was livid with my mum for not having paid attention to my little bro, allowing him to sneak out of those floaties. But then I found out that my mum was actually livid with me. Why? Because she had been watching all along, knowing that he was going to attempt swimming without his floaties, and she was standing nearby ready to help if things got out of hand. The difference between her and I was, she believed that my brother could make that next developmental leap into swimming without help.

It was me, in fact, who had been the spanner in the works. As older brother, we speculate at least today, it was my doubt in Jerry's ability which dealt a blow to his confidence. In that split second of yelling out that he was about to enter into the pool, you can't swim, caused him to lose the confidence that he could. And this was proven because it was only a matter of days before Jerry was swimming by himself. Once again, I was thoroughly corrected by a far wiser mum.

This is the funny thing about ability, isn't it? Our ability seems so dependent on confidence. To put it another way, hope is the real power behind power. This is actually a central teaching in the Christian faith. How we live and experience the daily Christian life is based so much on the hope that we have in Christ.

Our hope in Him is the power behind our ability to live the Christian life. But this power in hope is not something like wishful thinking or visualisation or, you know, positive energy. This hope is something in the sense of a full and certain confidence. And so if you have ever felt powerless in your faith, if you have ever felt that you cannot succeed in living the Christian life, if you have ever thought, I can never be like those Christians who make it seem easy, the evidence for a great hope that is available to you is found this morning for us in Ephesians 1:15. Let's turn to Ephesians 1:15 to verse 23.

Ephesians 1:15. For this reason, Paul says, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints. I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you. What are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints?

And what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might that 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 rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And He put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. This morning, we are talking about this hope, but particularly, the power for Christians to live the life that we desire to live as Christians. And the first thing we see in this passage is a prayer for power. The apostle Paul writes to the Christians in Ephesus about the miracle it is to be a Christian.

It is a miracle to be a Christian. In the opening statements of his letter, Paul talks about the mysterious and powerful working of God who in love predestined Christians to be adopted into His family. Paul says, we were chosen before the foundations of the world were laid. And this was done with a definite motive. It was done, verse five, have a look, according to the purpose of His will.

The NIV translates it as according to His pleasure and will. Our election is based on God's pleasure and His determination. That is the motive. What is the result? Verse six, He chose us to the praise of His glorious grace.

In other words, God's radical, unconditional love has no parameters based on who or what we have been. God's sovereign electing grace is determined solely by God's pleasure to save us. And this grace's result is an eternity of praise and glory to Him. Of course. What else could it be?

And so that is how Paul begins his address to these Christians. It is like the Sistine Chapel being painted for us. This is the glory that we are part of. This is the amazing story that we are a part of. But now Paul moves to address the Ephesian Christians especially, and he says that he has been praying something for them specifically.

He says that he is thankful for God and what God has done for them. Verse 16, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. Paul says he pours out thanksgiving to God for them, but that's not all. He asks God for something as well. Verse 17, that the Father of glory may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.

Paul says that he is praying that these Christians may receive the spirit of wisdom and revelation. Why? So that you may, he says, in essence, know God better. May the Holy Spirit come upon you that you may know God better. This knowledge is then defined even further in verse 18.

I pray that the eyes of your hearts may be enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which you have been called. And so after this Sistine Chapel panorama of God's electing grace, of what God has done for us Christians, Paul's very first request for the Christians in Ephesus is two things: to know God better and to know the hope to which we have been called. Friends, if there's nothing else that you get from this sermon today, please remember this. What is the goal of the Christian life? It is to know God and to know the hope to which He has called us in Jesus Christ.

This knowledge is the power, Paul says, which radically changes the Christian's life. If I was to try and change the heart of the most angry, abusive man, if I was to try and change the heart of the most insecure, unsure woman, if I was to try and change the heart of the most rebellious teenager or the most unconvinced and suspicious student, if I was to try and change the heart of any one person, it would only be by getting them to know God and the hope to which He has called them in Jesus Christ. Because this knowledge, verse 19 goes on to say, holds immeasurably great power for those who believe. So the first thing we see is a prayer for power from Paul, a prayer that we can freely adopt for ourselves as Christians. And that is that we may know, that we may come to know in some way, at least, the power of God and Jesus Christ.

And as Christians, we have come to know that in some way, right? That is what drives us to become Christians in the first place. It is we know what Christ has done, and we believe what He has done for us. But here, Paul is saying, we may dive deeper into that, and that that depth brings a transformative power to our lives. And yet, this is not some mystical power.

This is not some power that only the elite Christians among us will be able to receive. Here is the centre of the power and where we find it. The second point, it's found in the resurrection. There is power in Christ's resurrection. Initially, an immature Christian may be surprised that the power that Paul is speaking of here lies in the resurrection.

Paul says in verse 20, God's immeasurably great power was evidenced when Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. Now why does Paul talk about the resurrection as the pinnacle, the pinnacle of God's power? I mean, there are so many other examples of God's power. Why not refer to God putting the planets into orbit? Why not speak about God flinging the stars across the sky?

I mean, that's incredible power. No. The resurrection, the resurrection of Jesus is the display of God's great power, and here's why. Of all the powers in the universe, there is no power like death. Think about it.

Why do we fear Vladimir Putin? Why does he have so much power? Why do we fear, maybe we don't fear him on this side of the planet. Why do we fear COVID? Why do we think floods and cyclones and earthquakes are powerful?

Because all these things contain the power to kill us. And that's why we fear it. Humanity has learned how to split the atom. We can harness the power of the sun. We can do many great things, but guess what?

We will always die. We will always die. Death is the main power set against us. The Bible calls it the last enemy. But what if you could break the power of death?

In First Corinthians 15, after explaining the resurrection of Christ, Paul bursts out saying, Oh death, where is your sting? Oh grave, where is your victory? That is Paul taunting death. That is Paul laughing in the face of it. That is a level of outrageous confidence that one solitary man can have against the greatest fear humanity experiences.

Why? Well, because there are many things on this earth that are very powerful. A Russian smart missile is a very powerful thing. A highly contagious virus is a powerful thing. But a missile or a virus is nothing compared to the power of death.

After a missile kills you, why would you care if a hundred missiles exploded on top of you? You don't care because you're dead. The thing we fear about the missile is the result, which is death. Why do we ultimately fear this death? Because death is final.

Death seems forever. And death is the opposite of the thing we most love, which is life. And here comes Paul and he prays that the knowledge of God and the knowledge of knowing what He has called us to in Jesus Christ, that knowing, that same power that raised Jesus from the dead is with us. So it's not the hope necessarily in the power, but that it's that God's power has caused Jesus to be resurrected, that power through the Holy Spirit is working in us. It is this, the greatest power the world will ever know, that becomes our hope.

The greatest power on earth is therefore not the power to kill. It is the power to restore life. And verse 19 is telling us that this is the very resurrection power that the Christian has working in them right now. And so here is the point. It's not a question of if, but when.

It's not a question of if I can become a transformed Christian into the likeness of Christ. It is a question of when God will be pleased to fulfil that work in me. It's a question of how long might it take for God to patiently accomplish a transformed heart in me. But even while we wait for that, there is an incredible hope which is ours already now. And that hope is it will happen.

This is the hope of which Paul is praying about here. It's a hope that changes us. It changes us because of our goals and our perspectives on our reality being changed. So this hope is in itself very powerful. Biblical theologian Gerhardus Vos, in a sermon on the resurrection, once made this profound statement.

He said, it is not that our bodies as such shall be restored to us, which is the great hope of the Christian, but that they shall be restored in such a way, to such a state as to resemble the resurrection body of Christ, that through our bodies, our spirits may dwell in perfect accord with their heavenly surroundings and may lead in its consummate form the life that knows no end. What Vos is saying is that it's not simply that we simply get our current life back at the resurrection. The resurrection is a body, a consummate form, a perfected form that will be able to experience life in the fullest. A life that knows no boundaries. A time is coming where we will experience every emotion, every thought, every action, every choice with moral and physical perfection, and this experience will have no limitation.

Every action will be perfect. Every experience of love, joy, or peace will resonate with eternal echoes in our hearts. Today, we might say all good things must come to an end, but because of the resurrection, all good things will one day never end. That is the hope. And so the hope or the confidence that we have that we will one day experience that, well, that is in itself a power.

So not only is God's power through the Spirit directly changing us, but the hard evidence that a resurrection from the dead awaits us because of what happened with Jesus Christ. We already know in that evidence that our future is secure. So can a missile or a virus take that away? And Paul is not finished yet with giving all the reasons to be confident as Christians why we will succeed in the here and now living the Christian life. Because he goes on in verse 22 to say, and He, God, put all things under His feet, Jesus' feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

And this leads to our third and our final point, which is the power of the Lord. Verse 21 says that Jesus has been placed far above any other power or authority or dominion. He has been given a name or a title that is above every name or title. We know this title to be the Lord, which means master. It means king.

Essentially, as verse 22 then concludes, Jesus is the head over everything. All things have been placed under His feet. It means Jesus is Lord over all. Now as a baby Christian, that is generally the first thing we come to believe, that Jesus is Lord and He is powerful and I want to be on His side. It's one of the earliest convictions we have when we come to repentance and faith.

Jesus is Lord over everything and that includes me. But here is the interesting thing. As the head of all creation, Paul says, Jesus has been given especially to the church. Have a look in verse 22. God gave Him as head over all things to the church.

Think carefully about that statement. God has placed all things under Christ's feet. God has appointed Him as Lord and head over everything, and He is head over everything for the church. This is basically the promise of Romans 8:28, isn't it? Romans 8 states, in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.

Do you know what this means? When we fail to live the Christian life we want to live, when we discover that we're not hungering and thirsting for righteousness, we're not showing mercy. We're not peacemakers. We're certainly not pure. When we do those things and we fall short, we may think that our sins frustrate the plans of God.

We think that our apparent inability to resist our sin, our moments of falling into temptation, we see all that as a power that somehow resists God. But God's grace is far greater. God is bigger than our stupid decisions. All things have been placed under the authority of Jesus and all those things, guess what, are being worked out for the good of those who love Him. The awesome power of Jesus being Lord of all while working out all situations for the good of His church.

Well, we've seen that most magnificently in the way that Jesus actually ascended that throne in the first place, in the cross. In Acts 2:23, the apostle Peter, only days after Jesus' resurrection, preaches to a crowd at Pentecost and he says to them, 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. Okay. So here we have the power of sin, wickedness, with the power of death on full display.

But even here in this moment, at the pinnacle of human rebellion, we killed God's beloved Son. At the pinnacle of human rebellion, Peter points out that Christ was handed over to you by God's set plan. Even though you killed Him, God was working it out for the good of His church, His people, with His purpose. And that is, as Peter continues in verse 24, God raised Him from the dead, freeing Him from the agony of death because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him. Christ's resurrection proves that the sacrificial death of Jesus was enough.

Christ's punishment for my sin was a payment that was deemed acceptable by God. And it meant that the curse of sin, which is the power of death, found it impossible to try and keep Him down. The curse didn't stick to Jesus. And with sin conquered through the cross for those who trust in Christ, death itself has lost its power over us. The resurrection that we saw three days later nullified it.

And so in the moment of the cross, of all the furious power that was thrown against God, seen agonisingly in the execution of His Son, God turns that fury into fulfilling His own plan for the salvation of His precious people. Friends, this is the hope that God wants you to receive today. But I wanna say that in order for you to know this transforming power, you must receive Him. Don't wait until you have done sinning. Don't wait until you think that you have your life in order again.

The greatest power you will ever know is understanding that despite your brokenness and your rebellion, your destiny is secured by the power of Christ Himself. To not receive Him would be saying that you still believe that you have the power to change your life, that you have the power to overcome death. Friends, the astounding glory of the gospel is this: you have lost control. The reason you've lost control is because you never had it in the first place. I hope that you've lived long enough to realise we don't have any power.

Paul's great prayer, however, is that Christians would know profoundly the great hope found in Christ and in His resurrection. Because once you know this hope, your life will never be the same again. And so if you've never truly entered into this hope through believing it, the invitation is to come and receive that hope. Come and find your life again. Come and bind yourself to the only one who holds true power.

As I learnt that day with my brother jumping into the pool without his floaties, hope is the real power behind our power. And so my prayer with Paul this morning is that you and I may have the eyes of our hearts enlightened, that we may know what is the hope to which He has called us, the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe. And so we live with great confidence that He will accomplish great things in us. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the incredible display of your grace in these verses.

We thank you that we could see what you have done in eternity past already for those that you love. We thank you that because it has already been done and decided in eternity, there's nothing that can change it even in the future. And God, that gives us perspective and hope for lives that seem so up in the air, so confusing, so prone to change and fluctuation. God help us. Give us the ability to keep our eyes on the life that knows no end.

Of the hope of that which is secured for us, and that we can run the race now that is marked out for us. May we know in the deepest parts of our hearts who you are and what, may we know the hope to which you have called us. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.