which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms,which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places,Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places,
12 sermons cite this verse
… kind of power am I talking about, oh I'll tell you, I'm talking about the power that is the same as the mighty strength that he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead, and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms. That power. And where did he seat him? How did he seat him? Where is he now? He's far above all rule and authority. Thank you, Jesus. He's far above all power and dominion. He's above every name that is invoked, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. Praise God. That power that raised him up and seated him and put him in a place where he's untouchable, uncontestable, that power, I want you to know that you have access to that power. and then he talks about Christ at the end, and I want to keep this in just because it's important to keep remembering this, and God placed all things under his feet, under Jesus' feet, and appointed Jesus to be head over everything, hello, for the church, now he's head over everything, but he's primarily focused as head over everything for the church, so someone will push back on this for sure but if you really want to get the fullness of the power that raised christ from the dead you're going to get that in the context of the church you cannot be a free agent floating around in life now you can know god you can walk with god …
… He sustains all things, and he has triumphed over all things. Back to Ephesians 1, verse 20. He was raised from the dead, seated above all rule and all authority and all power and all dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. He's the Lord. But notice this, that none of these reasons actually find their way into the answer the Heidelberg gives. The answer the Heidelberg gives highlights his personal redeeming saving work for you and for me. Why do you, Christian, call him our Lord? Because not with gold or silver, But with his precious blood, he has delivered and purchased us body and soul from sin and from the tyranny of the devil to be his very own. Or as Paul said it to the Ephesians, because in him we have redemption through his blood. Of course, if you think about how the catechism words it, it's hard not to hear echoes of 1 Peter 1, verses 18 and 19. …
… strength 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. Watch this. Far above all, what? Rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that's named. Come up with a name. He's above it. Not only in this age now, but in the one to come forever. He put all things under his feet, gave him his head over all things to the church, which is his body. The fullness of him and fills all in all. Are you seeing this? Yes, our adversary in this spiritual war may be indescribably strong, but our ally in this war is infinitely stronger than him. Then all of them, they're all under his feet. That's where they are. All these rules, powers, authorities, cosmic powers, spiritual forces under his feet. This is not some dualistic Star Wars battle between two equal, but opposing forces, good and evil. This is not dualism. This is domination. And don't miss it. The dominator is on your side and not just on your side. He's inside you. He fills you. …
… that power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ Jesus from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms. So, Jesus was flatlined And the same resurrection power that restarted his heart can restart your heart and mine. Only because of the resurrection. what's your EKG? because your heart and my heart was made to beat at the same rate, the same pace, the same cadence as the heart of our Lord. Up, down, up, down, up. Up, down, up, down, up. Because friends, if it beats for any other thing or any other purpose will never understand what this existence and what eternity is all about. I'll say it again, the heart of the issue is the issue of the heart. Ezekiel chapter 36 says, I'll give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I'll take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh what a great prayer that can happen ladies and gentlemen today I'm gonna go back to the heart surgery again. …
… 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 age to come. he says, you want to know about this power that's toward you? He goes, imagine, he goes, it's like the, let me give you an example of the power that's towards you. It's like when Jesus was crucified. Remember how God took that body and raised it? Not only raised it from the dead, but had him ascend into heaven and not just barely above all rule, far above all rule and authority. And he gave him the name above every name. And it's not just for this generation. He goes, it's forever and ever. So he took a dead body, raised him far above every other power that exists forever. And he says, there's an example of his power. There's a picture of his power. …
… don't believe that, he continues and he says, 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 the 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. He says, you know the power that's available to you? He goes, let me illustrate the type of power, the immeasurable power that's in you. Let me just give you a little glimpse of it. He goes, remember when Jesus was crucified? Picture that body laying right here. mutilated you don't even recognize him as a man it's just lifeless it's just a piece of flesh and blood everywhere he says it's like the power he used when he took Christ and he raised him imagine that power but he didn't just raise him to where he stood up he says then he exalted him and took him to the highest place far above all rule and authority. That means it's not like, okay, here's Satan and here's Jesus. …
… 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. Okay, so Paul was praying for the Ephesian church. He goes, I keep praying the same thing. This is what I've been praying for myself. It's what I've been praying for you. And he goes, my prayer is that God would give us, okay, this is something he has to give us, the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him. Okay, this is what we're on our knees just now, or I was on my knees just praying. It's like, God, this is what we need. We need your Holy Spirit. We need something spiritual to happen. Like, I can't communicate this to you. Impossible. I can't make you get this. There's no way I am gonna make you get this. he says having the eyes of your hearts enlightened did you know your heart had eyes okay there's something in in your very soul the core of your being the heart was like the the mission control center of your being your seat of emotions like deep in you something from God has to happen so that you can see, so that you can be enlightened to that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you. …
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. This is about God's power. I know if you came to the earlier services, and some of you do, you'll know that the subject was about God's power then. Don't worry. It's as vast and as rich a subject that it's very, very possible for us to talk about it tonight through this passage and not in any way overlap with what we said earlier. There's just so much to say about it. What's comical about this power is how Paul almost has to, even though he's Paul, stretch to find a way of describing God's power. When he says this is like the working of his mighty strength, when he talks about his incomparably great power right there, incomparably great, He uses three Greek words that if you're reading them in Greek, you actually see how comical it is because every one of those three words is a Greek word that we have brought directly into the English language. …
… 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. Tonight, what I'd like to do is I'd like to depart a little bit from my ordinary style. The ordinary style, I think, is to take a point or two and to say it over and over and over again very emphatically. And instead, I'd like to actually run through here and make many points and therefore in a more calm and necessarily less emphatic way in order to cover the material, give you more of an inventory of what Paul's praying for here. …
… 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. this prayer is for what? It's for knowledge. Again and again, it says, I pray that you may know. I pray that you may know. I saw one Bible that I had looked at, a study Bible, that had a title over this paragraph, and it said, Paul's prayer for knowledge and power. That's misleading. Beware of what your study Bible tells you. The footnotes are not divinely inspired. …
… 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. Now, I may be wrong in how slowly I move through this chapter. I don't know that I've really got much of an alternative. When you read that chapter, couldn't you tell that you knew that there was so much going on in every word and every phrase that you couldn't take it in? It's very much like biting into some dessert that is way too sweet. It's just too much. …
… And he says here that Jesus Christ is the head of the church. He states here in this first chapter that God the Father raised him from the dead, seated him in his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and powers and dominions, and every name is beneath his name and everything is beneath him. You recall in Colossians chapter 1 when he spoke of the creation, he says that Jesus Christ has created all things for himself. He's the head of all things. He's above all things. He takes preeminence over everything that is presently in existence. That is including the church. So what I want us to look at for just a few moments is this. That is what is implied in saying that Jesus Christ is the head of the church. What does that really mean? All right. Let's look at several things here. First of all, it means that he is the sovereign authority over the body of Christ. That is, all of us who live in this earth, who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we are a part of the body of Christ. …