Ephesians 1

¹⁵ For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, ¹⁶ I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, ¹⁷ 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, ¹⁸ 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, ¹⁹ and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might ²⁰ that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹ 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. ²² And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, ²³ which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

In a fascinating article for Christianity Today, Franco Jacomini wrote about how the government of Uruguay effectively removed Christmas and Easter from Uruguayan society. He writes:

Uruguay was one of the first countries in the Western Hemisphere to constitutionally separate church and state, and nowhere is secularism more apparent than in the nation’s rebrand of Christian holidays. In 1919, the government legally changed December 25 to the Fiesta de la Familia and Holy Week to the Semana del Turismo (“Tourism Week”), during which time the capital city holds Semana Criolla.

Jacomini explains that Semana Criolla (“Creole Week”) is

a series of festivals honoring the country’s gaucho heritage. Many come to watch Uruguay’s national sport, jineteada, where riders attempt to stay on the back of untamed horses. Few of the activities, which also include traditional music and dancing, acknowledge the Christianity calendar, except when it comes to eating asado criollo.

Vendors sell the country’s local barbeque throughout the week, except on Thursday and Friday, a nod to the country’s Catholic heritage.[1]

My goodness! The mind boggles.

In Uruguay, Holy Week becomes tourism week.

The great spectacle of Holy Week becomes watching people attempt to stay on the back of untamed horses.

And the only possible nod to Christianity is not being able to eat barbecue on Thursday and Friday, which is “a nod to the country’s Catholic heritage.”

I repeat: My goodness!

Church, Holy Week is more than tourism.

And the great spectacle of this week is not an untamed horse with a rider on it but a tomb without a Jesus in it!

In Ephesians 1, Paul lays out beautifully the amazing implications of this day, of the resurrection of Jesus.

The resurrection of Jesus demonstrates the greatness of the power of God.

Our text begins in verse 15 with beautiful words from Paul intended to encourage the Ephesian Christians. Listen:

¹⁵ For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, ¹⁶ I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, ¹⁷ 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, ¹⁸ 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,

What a wonderful prayer Paul offers for the Ephesian church! He thanks God for them. He prays that God will give them wisdom. He prays that God will give them revelation, knowledge, and enlightenment. He prays that God will open their eyes to the hope and riches and inheritance they have in Jesus. But in verse 19, Paul prays for power for the church and, in doing so, decides to point to a particular event as a demonstration of just how powerful God is.

¹⁹ and [“that you may know”] what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might

That verse—perhaps more than even our English translations make clear—is positively loaded up with strong terminology that seeks to impress the Ephesians and us with just how amazing God’s power is. Ralph Martin writes:

Words for power (in v.19) are piled up in an impressive, if bewildering, array. Indeed, an English translation is almost impossible with so many synonyms closely bunched together.

In our translations, it looks like this:

• immeasurable
• greatness
• great
• might

Scot McKnight’s translation of the New Testament gets closer to the impressive sense of what Paul is doing here when he translates verses 19 and 20 like this:

¹⁹ and what is his power’s great excess for us allegiant ones consistent with his strong grip’s energy, ²⁰which he energized in Christos, raising him from among the dead ones and seating him at his right hand in the heavenlies[2]

F.F. Bruce argues that these words for power are piled up like this in verse 19 because Paul “is thinking of one supreme occasion when that power was exerted.”[3] And what was that “supreme occasion”? Paul tells us in the next verse:

^20a–d [his great might] that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead…

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the supreme demonstration of the power of God. Repeatedly, the New Testament says that it was God the Father who raised Jesus from the dead. Consider:

• “God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death…” (Acts 2:24)
• “God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first…” (Acts 3:26)
• “Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead” (Acts 4:10)
• “The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging on a tree.” (Acts 5:30)
• “but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear” (Acts 10:40)
• “But God raised him from the dead.” (Acts 13:30)
• “and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead” (Romans 10:9)
• “through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead” (Colossians 2:12)
• “believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory” (1 Peter 1:21)

Our God is so powerful He can create.

Our God is so powerful He can do miracles.

Our God is so powerful He can divide the waters of the sea.

But when God really wanted to show just how strong and powerful and mighty He is, He decided to shatter the shackles of death and raise His Son, Jesus back to life!

When God flexes, it looks like Easter!

There is no power that can match this! There is no power that can compare!

The resurrection of Jesus establishes Jesus as the Ruler above all other rulers and the power above all other powers.

And when the Father raises Jesus up, He raises Him all the way up! Observe:

²⁰ that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹ 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.

Do you see? God raises Jesus from the dead, yes, but not merely back to His earthly incarnate state. No, He raises Him all the way up to “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.”

In the incarnation and on the cross and in His death, Jesus came down, down, down.

But in His resurrection, Jesus was raised up, up, up! His being raised includes his resurrection to earth as well as his ascension to heaven forty days after his resurrection. It involves, then, the enthronement of Christ and the beginning of His heavenly “session” in which makes intercession for His people.

There is something extraordinarily exclusivistic in this raising up. Unavoidably so. Necessarily so. For if the risen Christ is raised “far above” all other powers, then that means that our age’s strident desire to say that all paths lead to heaven and that all would-be saviors are equally legitimate is nonsense. If there is no power (a) above Jesus and (b) that matches Jesus then that means, at best, that your “savior” who is not named Jesus is no savior at all! At best—and this is assuming that the one you are following does some relatively good things—this means that your alleged “savior” who is not named Jesus is only second best. But, in reality, the distance between first and second places is a yawning chasm that is immeasurable, for if your alleged “savior” is not the sinless Son of God who paid the price for our sin through a substitutionary work on the cross of calvary and who then was raised, breaking the power of sin, death, and hell and being enthroned at the right hand of the Father…if, that is, your alleged “savior” is not these things—and according to scripture—unless he is Jesus he is most certainly not these things, then your alleged “savior” is just a sinner like you and could not save you even if he or she wanted to!

If Jesus is “far above” all other powers, then why on earth would you settle for anything but Jesus?

Do you remember when you were a kid and you used to say, “My daddy can beat up your daddy?” Well, to be frank, at Easter, the church says, “My Savior can beat up your savior!” And indeed He can. There is no power that can match the power of our strong Jesus!

The resurrection of Jesus establishes Him as the indisputable head of the church.

And Paul makes a final point and an important point. This final point is important because, without it, we would have the impression that Jesus is the greatest power but He is out there somewhere! And yet, while Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, He is also still here. How? He is here in and through the presence of the church, the body of Christ. Paul writes:

²² And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, ²³ which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

In the initial wording of verse 22—“And he put all things under his feet…”—Paul is alluding to Psalm 110, which says:

¹ The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” ² The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies!

This was a favorite verse of the New Testament writers. They cite Psalm 110 some dozen times. All things are “under his [Jesus’] feet” and Jesus is “head over all things,” including and especially “the church, which is his body.”

The risen, ascended, glorified Christ is the head of the church! It is His body. It is His church.

The church, then, as His body, continues His existence in the world. We are the continuation in the world of Jesus, created and commissioned by Jesus and empowered by His indwelling Spirit. We are not Jesus, but we are His body, His presence.

It is telling that we are called Christ’s “body.” This is because of the two things we think of when we think of His body:

• His crucifixion
• His resurrection

If the church is the body of Christ, that means that the church is His crucified and resurrected body. That means that the church must exhibit the humility and radical obedience of the cross alongside the triumph and power of the empty tomb.

The church exhibits and displays resurrection power as we are the body of the resurrected Christ!

The world should be able to look at the church, then, and see the cross and the empty tomb, humility and power, gentleness and steely resolve, obedience and confrontation with the powers of hell.

Church, we are His body! So the world will judge the church on that basis: Do they see in us humility, radical obedience, and resurrection power? If they do not see these things, they will question us and they might dismiss us.

Philip Yancey wrote this of a friend of his:

A friend of mine was stopped dead in her tracks by a skeptic. After listening to her explain her faith, he said this: “But you don’t act like you believe God is alive.”

I try to turn the skeptic’s accusation into a question: Do I act like God is alive? It is a good question, one I must ask myself again every day.[4]

It is a good question, but let me frame it in another way. If the lost world determined that it would make a determination about whether or not it believes Jesus rose from the dead solely on the basis of your life—the way you live, the way you speak, your attitude, your words, your faith or lack thereof—would they believe that Jesus rose from the dead?

If your life were the only evidence presented for the reality of the resurrection of Jesus, would there be enough evidence to persuade your lost friends that the tomb is empty?

Do you live like Jesus is alive?

Does your life say, “He is risen? He is risen indeed!”

Church, it must! Our lives must say this, must herald this, must proclaim this! The resurrection of Jesus must work itself out through our lives in such a way that the world cannot deny it.

Why? Because we are His body…and His body was crucified and His body rose!

So take the cross of humility and obedience…and then walk out of the tomb with Jesus in the power of our great God!

 

[1] https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2024/march-web-only/evangelism-holy-week-uruguay-secularism.html

[2] McKnight, Scot. The Second Testament (p. 208). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

[3] Martin, Ralph P. Ephesians, Colossians, & Philemon. Interpretation. (Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press, 1991), p.22.

[4] https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2024/march-web-only/world-without-easter-resurrection-philip-yancey.html