Sermon Tone Analysis

*Lesson 17*

*/Session of Christ/*

*/Eph.

1:20-23/*

*/ /*

We’ve been looking at Paul’s prayer in Eph.

1:15-23.

In v. 15 he commends them for two things: their faith toward God and their love toward one another.

They had the vertical and the horizontal relationships down.

The one thing lacking was hope so Paul prays that they might understand the */hope of their calling /*in v. 18.

In v. 16 Paul says that at his regular prayer time he thanks God for them and remembers them in his prayers.

The prayer itself begins in v. 17 as Paul prays that their human spirits might be strengthened in two areas; wisdom and revelation.

Wisdom is a piercing knowledge that is able to creatively apply doctrine to resolve issues in the cultural context.

Revelation is the ability to comprehend the things of God revealed in the Scriptures.

Both wisdom and revelation in their human spirits will lead them to /epignosis/, which is a precise knowledge of God.

Then in v. 18 he notes the precondition necessary for coming to /epignosis/, namely, their eyes of their heart had been enlightened.

Enlightenment is a one time act that occurs at the moment you believe.

Once you have been enlightened the Holy Spirit can teach you the truths of God.

The eyes of our heart have been enlightened for three reasons: 1) that we will know the hope of His calling, 2) the riches of His inheritance in the saints, and 3)  what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward those who believe.

Paul then begins to elaborate on the kind of power God has for us.

To do this Paul gives four words to describe every nuance of power that we can think of to describe God’s power.

/dunamis /(potential power), /energei /(kinetic power), /ischus /(inherent power), and /kratos /(visible power).

This can be understood by the analogy of a bulldozer.

Bulldozers have the potential to do work (/dunamis/)./

/Just the sight of the bulldozer reveals its inherent power (/ischus/).

However, when we hear the bulldozer roar and see it move we realize its power in a new way (/kratos/).

When the bulldozer knocks over a tree we see its power put into work (/energeia/).

These four words describe God’s power or omnipotence.

The whole idea is that God is all-powerful.

However, this is not enough to simply know so Paul gives us several demonstrations of God’s power in history so we can see God’s power at work.

Just what can God’s power accomplish.

Well, first of all, v. 20 reveals what God’s power did in Christ.

First, it raised Christ from the dead, second, it seated Christ at the Father’s right hand.

In v. 22 we see God’s power demonstrated in putting all things in subjection under Christ’s feet (cosmological Lordship) and giving Christ as head over the Church (ecclesiology headship).

In Chapter 2 we find that God’s power is instrumental in regeneration.

So, the power of God toward us is a power ultimately incomprehensible and from Paul’s perspective, the only way to get close to describing it was to use four related but nuanced words related to “power”.

Today let’s return to v. 20 and look first at God’s power at work in the resurrection and session of Jesus Christ and then in v. 22 at God’s power at work in putting all things under Christ’s feet and giving Christ as head over the Church, which is His body.

We’ve got a lot of doctrine in Ephesians 1-3 as you might have noticed.

And we’re about to launch into the specifics of God’s power as it relates to the Universal Church and how He calls the Church out via a by grace salvation through faith message coupled with God’s work of regeneration.

So, soteriology and ecclesiology are on the horizon.

It’s not enough to simply talk about the intellectual facts of the gospel, Paul wants us to put these truths to work in the Christian life as we’ll see in chapters 4-6.

*/Greek Text: 1:20 /**/}Hn evnh,rghsen evn tw~/| Cristw~/| evgei,raj auvto.n

evk nekrw~/n kai.

kaqi,saj evn dexia~/| auvtou~/ evn toi~/j evpourani,oij /*

*Translation: 1:20 which worked in the Christ by raising Him from the dead and by seating Him at His right hand in the heavenlies*

           

*}Hn evnh,rghsen evn tw~/| Cristw~/| evgei,raj auvto.n

evk nekrw~/n**, /“which worked in the Christ by raising Him from the dead”/*.*/

worked /*comes from the Greek verb /energeo/.

The noun was used in the previous verse as referring to actual power (kinetic energy; energy in motion).

Here it to God’s supernatural power at work.

Think of this.

Christ’s body laid in the tomb for three days degenerating, falling apart.

All physical and biological processes stopped for three days.

Just think that every cell in His body had to be transformed contrary to the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics which says that energy goes from order to disorder.

We make this observation everywhere in the natural world.

Things don’t fix themselves, things don’t clean themselves up, things always go from order to disorder and it requires work to go from disorder back to order.

If you’ve got kids I know you know what I’m talking about, just look at their rooms.

They can tear the room apart in a matter of minutes.

How many of those rooms are picking themselves up?

So, for Christ’s body, which was degenerating, to regenerate required a massive amount of energy.

The verb */worked /*is an aorist active indicative verb (AAI), meaning that this is a past completed point action.

Paul is summing up in this aorist verb the kinetic energy that God expended in the resurrection, the ascension, and the session of Christ; a 50 day period.

During those 50 days God did some work, and He finished the work by the end of those 50 days.

This same energy stands back of God’s promises to you.

You’ve got to reach out and grasp the promises of God because they’re powerful (e.g.

Rom.

8:28; Phil.

4:6, 7; 1 Pet.

5:5-7)!

Turn over to Eph. 3:20.

Notice that Paul is praying again and that Paul often mentions the power of God in prayer.

It’s not the power of your prayer that gets things done, it’s the power of God.

In Lubbock the news channel used to have a short blip called the power of prayer.

there’s no power in prayer, there’s power in God to answer prayer, but the prayer itself doesn’t have any power.

In Eph.

3:20 this is /dunamis, /potential power.

Potential power is power that is just waiting to do work.

It has the capacity to do work.

And notice that we aren’t even able to think about that kind of power.

We can’t even imagine it.

That’s how limited we are and how unlimited God is.

And God demonstrated that potential power by putting it to work in the resurrection, ascension, and session of Jesus Christ.

*evgei,raj auvto.n

evk nekrw~/n**, */“*by raising Him from the dead”*/.

The resurrection took place on the 3rd day... */having raised /*is an aorist active participle indicating that the working of His power took place precisely at the time Christ was raised from the dead (also aorist) and is therefore a demonstration of God’s power.

How does the secular world respond to the resurrection of Christ?

There have been lots of attempts to write off the resurrection; Theft Theory (that the body of Jesus was stolen from the tomb), the Hallucination Theory (that the apostles merely thought they saw Jesus), or the Swoon-Plot Theory (that suggests that Jesus’ body was removed according to a pre-arranged plan and that a conspiracy was arranged to simulate resurrection appearances).

Another possible explanation by unbelievers would be those who might say that we live in a chance universe and that anything can happen.

Therefore, a resurrection here and there should not surprise us since anything is possible.

It might be a rarity but not unheard of and because it is so rare it might make a great addition to Ripley’s Believe it or Not.

Why not send it in!

Well, this verse is totally against that idea.

This verse says it was not pure chance that Christ was resurrected.

There is a person behind this universe and it’s His power that raised Christ from the dead.

So, this verse connects the cause of Christ’s resurrection with God’s power and not with blind chance.

God’s power was demonstrated to be at work by raising Christ */from the dead/*.

*/From the dead /*is /ek nekron/.

The preposition /ek /shows that He was raised “out from” and /nekron /is in the plural so that what this means is that Christ was raised “out from all the others who had died and been buried”.

Out of all who had ever died and been buried Jesus Christ was the one who God raised by His supernatural power.

Notice how precise God’s power operates.

It’s not uncontrolled power, it’s controlled.

God’s power has laser precision.

Of all the bodies in the earth in tombs right next to Christ’s only Christ was raised from the dead.

So, God’s power is precise, unlimited, and available to you.