| |
Book: Ephesians
 Print ( PC Only )
Ephesians 1:19
I. Paul's prayer for the Ephesians is for the most part a prayer for
knowledge.
A. The knowledge of God.
B. The knowledge of the hope of their calling.
C. Knowledge of the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the
saints.
D. This final request is that they might know the exceeding
greatness of His power to us who believe according to the
working of His mighty power.
E. To know the power that is available to you as a child of God.
1. Jesus said, "All power is given unto Me in heaven and
in earth."
a. How much power do you suppose that is.
b. Look out at our vast Universe, it was
sufficient to put it all into motion.
c. What do you suppose you would do if you had
that much power?
d. What would you use it for?
2. He then commanded His disciples to go into all the
world and preach the gospel to every creature.
a. That doesn't sound quite right. I have all
the power, now you go out and face the hostile
world.
b. The answer is in the next words of Jesus, "And
lo, I am with you always, even to the end of
the age."
c. As He is with us that power is available to us.
F. I believe that it is important that we know the power available
to us.
1. Many times we cringe before the enemy when we should be
standing firm.
2. There are many ventures we will not even attempt
because of our sense of weakness.
3. As a result many times the church is retreating when it
should be advancing.
4. Do you feel that you are too weak to go on? Take cheer,
Jesus said to Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, My
strength is made perfect in your weakness."
5. Paul asked in Romans 8. "If God be for us who can be
against us."
a. When king Asa went out against the great army
of the Ethiopians we read,
2CH 14:11 And Asa cried unto the LORD his God, and said, LORD, [it is]
nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that
have no power: help us, O LORD our God; for we rest on thee, and
in thy name we go against this multitude. O LORD, thou [art] our
God; let not man prevail against thee.
b. When Johnathan went out to face the Philistines
he said to his armorbearer,
1SA 14:6 Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these
uncircumcised: it may be that the LORD will work for us: for
[there is] no restraint to the LORD to save by many or by few.
G. Note that the power is to those who believe, so that it is not
enough just to know the power available to us, but to believe
that God will provide that power in the time of need.
1. Jesus said to the father whose son was possessed by an
evil spirit,
MAR 9:23 If thou can believe, all things [are] possible to him that
believeth.
2. Jesus said to Martha at the tomb of Lazarus, "Did I not
say to you that if you believed, you would see the
glory of God?"
3. No one is more desirous of seeing the power of God
than I.
a. I have not the slightest interest in seeing the
shams of unscrupulous men who seek to pass off
their charades as the power of God in action.
b. For a man to pass himself off as the Holy
Spirit bar tender dispensing spiritual powers,
to me borders on blasphemy, and I want to stay
as far away from that nonsense as I possibly
can, so that when the judgment of God comes,
I will not be close enough to feel the heat.
c. It is not the power to pin a person to the
floor, or to induce them to laugh
uncontrollably, or to shake with convulsive
jerks that I am interested in.
d. It is the power to live the overcoming life in
Jesus.
e. The Lord is more interested in your walking
straight than your falling over backward.
II. We have the power to live a victorious life in Jesus.
A. Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling and to
present you faultless before the presence of His glory with
exceeding joy.
1. In Chapter 3 we have a second prayer of Paul for the
Ephesians. In this prayer He asks God to do some
incredibly impossible things for them, he then closes
the prayer with these words of assurance, "Now to Him
who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that
we can ask or think, according to the power that
worketh in us."
2. This is the power that Paul desires them to know.
a. The power to walk worthy of their calling.
b. The power to walk in love.
c. The power to resist temptation.
B. We have the power to overcome the evil one.
1JO 5:4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is
the victory that overcometh the world, [even] our faith.
ROM 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? [shall]
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or peril, or sword?
ROM 8:36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we
are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
ROM 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him
that loved us.
ROM 8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to
come,
ROM 8:39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to
separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord.
1. The power not to be just a conqueror, but more than a
conqueror.
2. The powers of darkness cannot overcome me, for greater
is He that is in me, than he that is in the world.
3. If you only knew the exceeding greatness of His power
toward you, you would never again tremble before the
foe.
4. Paul cried,
1CO 15:57 But thanks [be] to God, which giveth us the victory through our
Lord Jesus Christ.
III. The power is according to the working of His mighty power.
A. This mighty power was manifested in the creation of the
Universe.
B. It has been manifested many times in the history of man.
C. It was manifested in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
"Which was wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead."
D. That God raised His Son from the dead is clearly manifested in
the scriptures.
1. The prophecy of David in Psalm 16,
PSA 16:9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh
also shall rest in hope.
PSA 16:10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou
suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
PSA 16:11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence [is]
fullness of joy; at thy right hand [there are] pleasures for
evermore.
2. Peter interpreted that Psalm in Acts 2
ACS 2:24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death:
because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.
ACS 2:25 For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always
before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not
be moved:
ACS 2:26 Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad;
moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:
ACS 2:27 Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou
suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
ACS 2:28 Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me
full of joy with thy countenance.
ACS 2:29 Men [and] brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the
patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his
sepulchre is with us unto this day.
ACS 2:30 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with
an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the
flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;
ACS 2:31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that
his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see
corruption.
ACS 2:32 This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
E. Jesus said in John 10 I lay down My life, and I take it up
again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.
I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of my Father.
F. Thus when Paul wrote to the Romans concerning Jesus he said,
that He was declared [to be] the Son of God with power,
according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from
the dead:
G. That same power that raised Jesus from the dead, dwells in you.
H. Paul desired that they might know that exceeding greatness of
that power.
|