Paul says God’s power is working in a believer’s life. How great is that power? It is “incomparably great;” there is no power like it. Paul tries to describe this power by heaping up words. It is exceeding greatness, a raw power like dynamite. It is not static; it is a working energy, an inward propulsion of power. It is a mighty power that has the ability to conquer all things: to conquer sin, to oppose spiritual enemies, to persevere through trials, and to live joyfully and fruitfully.
Maybe you are sitting here thinking: “What power are you talking about, Pastor? Which world are you in? Forget about power; we don’t even have the strength to live. We are so weak and are struggling to deal with daily life.” Often we struggle and are defeated by a besetting sin. We feel we have no power to overcome ordinary things like mobile and TV addictions, or struggles in marriages and families where uncontrollable anger causes us to wound one another with bitter words. We are not doing anything for the kingdom or progressing even in this life; we are wasting our time and lives on frivolous activities. We feed our minds with godless mobile videos, TV, and movies, having no power even to regularly read and study God’s Word. Surrounding us, we see nothing happening for God’s kingdom.
“Where is God’s mighty power working in our lives?” At least the Pentecostals are screaming “power, power,” claiming to do miracles and speaking in tongues; yet often there is no power of holiness in their lives, and they suddenly get caught in money and sex scandals while the world mocks the gospel. That is a different story, but where is the power in our lives?
I know we do not feel that power; it sounds very theoretical. It does not correspond to experience, so for some, you assume the sermon is going to be fiction. I know that, and even the apostle Paul knew that when he wrote this. He tells us the reason why we don’t feel this exceeding greatness of power. The most basic reason, he says, is because the eyes of our minds are very dim to spiritual realities: the reality of the horror of sin and depravity, the reality of demonic power, the reality of what God has done for us in salvation, and most importantly, the glory of Christ, our identity in Christ, and Christ’s present glory and present ministry. Oh, if we could only see what has become of Christ since the resurrection!
That is why Paul earnestly prays for a spirit of revelation and wisdom to enlighten the eyes of our minds. How will the Holy Spirit enlighten us? It is not just through a wishful prayer and then forgetting about it. No, the Holy Spirit always works through means. We need to pray earnestly on one side and then use our minds to grasp the deep, wise words he inspired Paul to write. That is why Paul didn’t stop with praying; inspired by the Holy Spirit, he writes these words. He is praying and telling us to meditate on these words because the Holy Spirit uses both to open our eyes.
But we have two great problems: we cannot do both. One, we pray very little, and even those prayers are not fervent—they are lukewarm. Secondly, our greatest reason for such a prayer life is mental laziness. We hate to think about something deeply until our brains sweat. Someone said, “Pastor, I do thousands of things, but I hate to read or think.” Meditation feels impossible. That is the main reason why we don’t progress in this life or in spiritual life. Proverbs 23:7 says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” See, the quality of our life is directly connected to the depth and quality of our thoughts. If our thoughts are shallow, narrow, low, and selfish, our life will reflect that.
I will suggest one lifestyle change exercise. When we wake up in the morning, instead of focusing on food or worrying about your family, work, health, and future, do not let yourself get discouraged by thinking of all the wrong things. If you do, you will have no confidence and no power in life. Daily, when you wake up, take some time and think of our Ephesians “magic formula”: EPRAIS, and then be HIP. You need to be “HIP.” It is slang for being updated, knowledgeable, or informed—being “in the know” or aware of current events. Prayer daily that the Holy Spirit should keep you HIP (up to date). Help yourself to see the HIP.
Start the day meditating on those thoughts. Instead of waking up at 11 am and sitting in one place for hours on your mobile, keep your body and mind active. Start walking in the park for 2 to 5 km and use that time to keep thinking about these things. You will see that within one month, the quality of your life will keep going up and up. Otherwise, you will hear this and go on as before, and nothing will change. Until you realize mental laziness is the cause of most of your problems, you will not progress, and nothing will dawn on your life. You will continue a low life. One great person said the primary reason for all spiritual instability is mental laziness.
So, at least today on the Lord’s Day morning, can we try to give some work to our minds and think higher thoughts with Paul? Paul prays we need to be HIP; don’t be outdated, be fresh, and don’t rot. Daily, freshly know the Hope of our calling inside us—the object of that hope is filled with glory, the Inheritance. Thirdly, know the Power. Talking about the power, Paul gets on fire from verse 19 to the end of the chapter and writes this “Mount Everest” passage.
We have climbed the first stage: verse 19, the Importance of the Power of God. The reason we get so discouraged is that we see this great hope and inheritance on one side, but on the other side, we see our own weakness, our waywardness and sin, and our low life. We often tremble and despair that we will never be able to achieve such blessings. To overcome all this discouragement, we need to know the power of God. It alone can fill us with a joyful assurance that all the glorious things God has planned in grace, He will infallibly effect by His power.
The second stage is the Characteristics of this Power. It has two things: its excellency (it is the exceeding greatness of His power, surpassingly immense) and its working efficacy. Notice that the end of verse 19 says, “According to the working of the strength of His might.” It is not a dormant or sleeping power, but it is an efficient, working, active, and accomplishing power.
Thirdly, consider the Recipients of this power. It is “power to us, who believe.” The tense here describes them as those who continually believe. This is not for everyone who once believed 20 years ago or holds false beliefs; it is for those who have a true saving faith which continues—those who live now in a state of faith.
Now, today, let us continue our trekking of Mount Everest. Let us try to climb verse 20:
“…which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places…”
After talking about the characteristics and objects of this power, Paul tells us two things. First, he speaks of the one in whom the power was exercised and manifested: “which He worked in Christ.” Secondly, he lists four specific acts in which the power was exercised and manifested:
- He raised Him from the dead.
- He set Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.
- He put all things under Him.
- He gave Him to be head to the Church.
Paul, you are talking about this exceeding great power operating in us; can you help us with a revelation of this power so we can grasp it? Yes, I will show you a Person, and in His four acts, this exceeding great power was exercised and manifested: Christ and His acts of Resurrection, Session, Exaltation above all, and Headship of the church. The Holy Spirit again brings us back to the central gospel message of the Scriptures: Christ in His Person and His work. This is the center of divine revelation and the structural backbone of the whole Christian faith.
So we will see two things today: the Person and His first act of power.
First: The Person in whom the power of God was exercised and manifested. Notice Paul doesn’t use the full title, “Lord Jesus Christ.” This power was manifested not generally, but particularly in Christ’s ministry. The word “Christ,” we know, means “Anointed,” the Old Testament word for “Messiah.” The whole identity of the Messiah or Christ is that He is anointed from head to toe to save His people. How will He save them? He will save His people as their anointed Prophet, Priest, and King. The Messiah’s whole role is to save His people, and He saves them by His prophetic, priestly, and kingly ministry.
Paul says if you want to experience the exceeding great power that will accomplish all God planned by His grace and is operating to secure your glorious inheritance, you have to experientially know this Person first. He is Christ, who is the anointed Prophet, Priest, and King.
The preparation and appointment of the Person itself is a great demonstration of God’s power. This Person, Christ, is a great mystery. I don’t even know where to start with this mystery. Think with me: Who was this Person before He became Christ? This is the great question our Lord asked the scribes and Pharisees, and none of them could answer: “Who is Christ?” He was not an ordinary man or just any son of David lifted to this role. He is the Son of God, equal to the Father. He possesses all the attributes of the Godhead as the eternal Word. Equal to the Father touching His Godhead, He can create, destroy, and is self-sufficient and sovereign. He doesn’t need any glory; He was already full of glory. He didn’t need exaltation; He was already exalted to the highest. He didn’t need authority; He already possessed all authority.
It is such a Person God prepared and anointed to be Christ. Preparing this Person as Christ is a great revelation of power in three steps. First, this Person is equal to God. How can such a Person become Christ? He had to be infinitely emptied and humbled. He had to leave all the glory voluntarily and cheerfully—to leave being treated as equal to God and all its prerogatives. Was it easy? We don’t leave a single right; we hold on with a death grip. We lose a little respect or have a small financial problem and we turn the world upside down.
See the power in Christ. When we think of power, our idea itself is often twisted—thinking of power as bursting in anger or shaking everything. God, whom the universe cannot contain, can burst everything and turn everything to ashes in a second. Can you imagine what power was needed for Him to empty Himself of everything and become a small, helpless, invisible cell in a woman’s womb? He had to lose all His inherent power, His inherent authority, and all the prerogatives of God to become so helpless. He took not only the form of a man but even the form of a bondslave. Born under the law, He kept the law perfectly and became so helpless that in the office of Christ, He had to be 100% dependent on the Father, even for every meal. Even if He fasted 40 days, unless the Father gave Him food, He would rather die than make stones into bread.
Wonder of wonders, the one equal to God says in John 5:30, “I can of myself do nothing,” and even when speaking, He says, “I do not speak on my own but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.” Wonder of wonders, He prays as a man fully dependent on the Father. He says, “My Father is greater than I.” Then, wonder of wonders, He humbles Himself to the most painful, shameful, and cursed death; He hangs on the cross crying, “My God, my God, why did you forsake me?” When we see Him so dependent upon the Father, what are we seeing? We are seeing the wonder of the Person of Christ. Though He is almighty, all-powerful, and equal to God, as Christ He is so meek and so helpless. Yet, this same Christ, when people worship Him—like Thomas saying, “My Lord and my God”—accepts that worship as God, saying “I AM” again and again.
If you have any idea what it means to be equal to God and then come down to such an empty level, you will realize what power was needed to prepare such a Person. Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh. If you grasp that, you will not be like the mentally lazy Jehovah’s Witnesses who say, “See, Christ says the Father is greater.” Instead, we will wonder in amazement that the One who is equal to God had to become Christ to redeem us. He humbled Himself to that extent, and we will fall at His feet and worship Him as “My Lord and my God.”
Secondly, if you grasp this, the word “Christ” will be the most precious word to you. Why should the Son of God, who already had all glory, be humbled to become Christ and then be glorified again? May the Holy Spirit open our eyes to see the preciousness of the word “Christ.” As the Messiah, as the Christ, the Anointed Prophet, Priest, and King, He was inseparably, eternally, and organically united to His people—to you and me. That is why I titled this: “In Christ: He is me, and I am He.” See, this Christ is not some different entity or Person; in a mysterious union, He is me and I am He. We are one, just as my head is one with my body.
This great Person, equal to God, brought Himself to such a helpless, humble slave form and inseparably and organically united His people to Himself. You see, this Christ never acts or does anything as a private person. He didn’t have to humble Himself or achieve anything to be glorified for Himself. All that He did in His capacity as Christ was for me as my Representative. Trace every act of His entire life on this earth to the climax upon the cross where He was forsaken by the Father for our sins, and then look at every act of His present heavenly ministry. Why did He do all that and why is He doing what He is doing now? He did it all as my Christ, meaning He is me and I am He; we are one and inseparable. Oh, may the Holy Spirit open our eyes to help us come out of our narrow, self-centered view and see this glorious, eternal union between me and Christ. That is why the New Testament, hundreds of times, keeps saying “understand in Christ, in Christ.”
Notice Paul talking about the revelation of this power in verse 20: “which He worked in Christ.” God took you and me and united us to this Person eternally and inseparably, forming a mysterious Person called “Christ.” He is my portion; He is me and I am He; we are one. Behold the exceeding greatness of God’s power in uniting us eternally and inseparably to such a Person as Christ. May the Holy Spirit open your eyes to see that in every action He did as Christ on earth and does as Christ in heaven, nothing is done for Him as a private person. It is all done as the covenantly bonded Head of His people, who are inseparably bound to Him eternally in the living bonds of a spiritual union. When the Holy Spirit opens your eyes, you see that Christ and all He did is as effectual as if I myself did it. I learn to see my identity; it is this revolutionary and head-spinning concept that opens our eyes to see the preciousness of Christ, and that is when you start feeling the electricity of this power.
We were chosen and bonded in Him before the foundation of the world, so that when the Lord Jesus came, died, was buried, rose, and ascended—all my Christ did, I did. If the Holy Spirit enlightens our eyes, we see on one side the meaning of total depravity and what the fall and sin have done to us, and on the other side we see the sense of who and how highly exalted Christ is. He didn’t just make us His servants (that itself would be great), or His friends, or His relatives. He didn’t just take us into His lap and pour out possible objective blessings outside of Himself. No, He united us to Himself in such a way—wonder of wonders—that Scripture says He is not complete without us; we make Him full. Being united to Christ, not only is all He does what I do, but all the glory He receives is mine; He cannot get one inch of glory without sharing it with me. Oh, the wonder of this mystery! Do you see that only when we know our connection with this Person, Christ, and exercise our faith, will we experience the exceeding greatness of His power in the coming days?
Oh, may God help us to see the glory of Christ: His life is my life, His death is my death, His resurrection is my resurrection, and His glorification is my glorification. In that union, we experience the exceeding greatness of God’s power. If you think of this deeply, what else do I need in life? This is the greatest blessing.
So brethren, Paul says first this exceeding greatness of power was manifested in this Person, Christ, and next he lists four specific acts in which the power was exercised and manifested. Let us see the first one: He raised Him from the dead. Oh yes, we know about the resurrection, but may the Holy Spirit open our eyes to see it as the exceeding greatness of God’s power towards us who believe.
Paul says He is not only uniting us and preparing and appointing this Person for us as Christ, but see what He also did to us through our representative, Christ: He raised Him from the dead. Scripture measures power in the Old Testament by creation; only God has the power to create. Secondly, it is measured by the power of resurrection; only God has the power to raise the dead. The mightiest power ever unleashed on this earth was not the power of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan or the power of an earthquake or a volcano. The mightiest power ever unleashed on this earth was when God raised Jesus Christ from the dead.
When someone who is sick and expected to die comes back, we admire their will and determination to fight. When a physician heals someone who is about to die, we admire his skill and his wisdom. When a mother nurses a feverish child back to life with sleepless nights, we admire her love. But listen, when someone who has been dead rises from the dead, we don’t just admire their will; we wonder at the power. Resurrection is a manifestation of raw power. Death has been a powerful thing since the fall; all humanity stands helpless before it. We see that something bigger than death has come and broken its grip. And whenever there was a resurrection recorded in the Scriptures, the people were amazed at the power of God exerted in that mighty work.
The resurrection of any ordinary person is a great power, like Lazarus rising from the dead, because humanity since the fall stands helpless before death. No doctor, no medical advancement, no great scientist or rich man, no powerful government or hospital can do anything about it. During COVID, we saw how great leaders and governments were humbled before death. No one has defeated death; kings, presidents, heroes, and spiritual leaders all die, and none have experienced this resurrection for themselves. This power of resurrection belongs only to God, and it is His prerogative.
If an ordinary resurrection is a great power, think with me about the exceeding greatness of the power of Christ in two ways. First, it broke the power of His extraordinary death. His resurrection is not an ordinary resurrection because His death was not an ordinary death. Remember, He died as Christ, as an atoning sacrifice for all the sins of the innumerable elect. When He hung upon that cross, He was being made sin for us. The mountains and oceans of the iniquities of all the people of God in all ages were, as it were, lifted up from the earth, held above the head of Christ, and then dropped upon Him until He was crushed beneath the weight. To that, He cries out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” That burden crushed Him down and down until His heart burst, and He died beneath the weight of it.
He died as the payment for the mountains and oceans of sins of the elect. The wages of sin is death. It was the wages of billions of sins that dragged Him down and kept Him in the tomb. His death was not an ordinary death; it was the death of Christ. It was the death of all His people as the wages of their sins; they all died in Christ.
Can you picture what it must have been like in the reality of the invisible spirit world? The Lord Jesus, in His lifeless body, is in the tomb. Not only did the billions of mountains and oceans of sin keep Him in the tomb as payment, but think of the visible and invisible opposition. Just as the religious and political world did everything to ensure Christ did not come out of His tomb, think of the demonic world—the principalities, powers, and the dominion of darkness.
Satan, the god of the world of sinners, would have gathered all the armies of his dark worlds—all his legions, his highest princes, and the forces of hell. The whole vast host exercised all their power together in one attempt to keep Jesus dead. They knew that if He rose from the dead, the sins of all His people would be atoned for, they would all rise like Him, every purpose of God would be fulfilled, and Satan’s head would be crushed. Satan and his army would be cast into eternal hell. Can you imagine the effort they put in to stop the resurrection? Imagine the vast host of Satan screaming at the top of their voices, “The wages of sin is death! The wages of sin is death!” Christ was held not only by the sins of His people but by the entire host of hell.
But praise God for the exceeding greatness of His power towards us who believe. God raised Christ from that extraordinary death. All the hosts of hell were shattered by that power. It was the greatest display of power in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. What power! All the powers of darkness and hosts of hell would shriek with horror when they saw the power of the resurrection. They had never seen it and never will see such a revelation of power again. Raising Jesus from the dead was the mightiest display of power ever known.
So, the exceeding greatness of this power first broke His extraordinary death. Secondly, it was an extraordinary resurrection. All other resurrections recorded in the Bible—like Lazarus and others—involved people who rose only to die again later. But Christ rose never to die again, possessing a deathless, glorified body. He rose with a powerful life that had all that was necessary to carry Him through eternity in His mighty work on behalf of His people. Not only that—remember, He is Christ; His resurrection is not a private event. He rose with a resurrection that grants spiritual and physical resurrection and eternal life to all His people.
Revelation 1:18 beautifully says that when John saw the resurrected and glorified Christ, he fell as a dead man. Christ said, “Do not be afraid; I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.” His resurrection is extraordinary because He rose in such a way that He took the keys from the hands of the destroyer of men’s souls. Now His resurrection is the infallible assurance of the resurrection of all His people. When Jesus burst through the power of death, His resurrection was the resurrection of all His people from every nation, tribe, and language.
This power is operative in us. It is His resurrection that gives us spiritual resurrection and makes us born again, and it will raise our bodies from the tomb with a glorified body like His. All that is true, but it goes even beyond that. Words are so meaningless; I cannot fully explain what I felt when I learned this. When He came out with exceeding power, He did not come as a private person. I came out with Him in my true identity. Remember, I am He and He is me. I may have been born in 1976 and saved later, but my salvation and sanctification in time are just a delayed manifestation of this exceeding great power. I died and I rose from the dead when He rose. Because in Christ, He is me and I am He. When I was born in Adam, dead in sins, He raised me from my spiritual death by that same power.
This is not my imagination. Look at Ephesians 2:5: “Even when we were dead through our trespasses, He made us alive together with Christ.” Notice it doesn’t say we rose merely on the basis of Christ’s resurrection, but that we were raised together with Him. Verse 6 continues: “…and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
If you grasp even a small level of your state in sin and depravity—a state like the demon-possessed man with a legion—you will wonder how you ever got saved. It was this power that opened your eyes, broke your bondage to sin, gave life to your dead bones, and humbled you at the foot of the cross. It is that power which is keeping us, preserving us from falling, and enabling us to persevere. Praise God we can live with full assurance that this power will preserve us in faith and grace until we die. Even if the whole world were filled with devils threatening to undo us, and when we are buried and the worms eat our flesh, Jesus Christ will come. That power will reconstitute every atom of our body into a body capable of eternal dwelling—unwearying and untiring—to bring us to the riches of the glory of our inheritance.
Application
What do these words mean, and how do they apply to us? How can we experience the reality of God’s power in our personal lives? This exceeding power is not just individual; it works “toward us who believe.” This power works when we exercise continuous belief in our union with Christ and His resurrection. This was the great dawning that happened to men like Luther and Wesley—through faith and belief.
1. Realization and Examination: Realize that your great problem is spiritual dimness, which is the cause of unbelief, and pray for the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment. Pray that the Spirit would open our eyes to see the glory and relevance of Christ for our every need and make Christ precious to us. Remember: In Christ, He is me, and I am His.
2. The Power Already at Work: Paul is not praying that you receive this mighty power, but that you may know the power already working in your life. This exceeding greatness is already at work. That is why you experienced a spiritual resurrection and new birth. It was this power that removed blindness from our eyes and opened our hearts toward Christ, conquered our rebellious wills, and created a new heart that loves God. Now we are alive to God. The Word of God and prayer, which were once dead to us, are now very much alive. This power has worked in the past by giving us new birth, and it will raise us from the dead in the future. It is this power that removes the fear of death and makes us sing, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
But Paul’s main concern is that we know this resurrection power now—to live and die for the glory of Christ. He knows these believers do not always feel the power of God in their lives. This power will guard us from the dominion of indwelling sin, overcome obstacles, and bring us to the end in persevering faith. We need to seek this power to live the Christian life, conquer our enemies, and live fruitfully. We studied in Philippians that Paul’s great ambition was to “know the power of His resurrection.” He sought this power all his life, which is why his life was so powerful. We need to seek it like Paul did, even 25 years into his Christian experience. This is a lifelong process. May the Holy Spirit help us enter the veil with Paul until we are lost in wonder, love, and praise.
Examination: All of this power, Paul says, is “toward us who believe.” I ask you this morning: do you qualify as a recipient of that power? Is your faith true? Someone said that because of rampant false gospels, today’s churches are filled 80% with false faith. False faith is equal to unbelief. That is scary. What about our church? How many are unbelievers?
How can I know if I am born again? I love expository preaching because it not only exposes God’s Word but also exposes our true spiritual condition. True believers will enjoy every piece of expository preaching; even if they are in a backslidden state, they will find it vital. Nominal believers and unbelievers will be bored to death. Examine yourself based on what I have presented from the Bible for the last hour. Did you enjoy it, or are you sitting here wondering what this “power” is, thinking it is all imagination and theory? Are you biting your tongue, waiting for the sermon to be over?
How can you know you are born again? Is Christ precious to you? Do you have any experience of His resurrection power? Just historical knowledge is not enough; even the devil knows He rose from the dead. Has it done anything to you? The reason you may not feel anything is that this power works only on those who believe in the Person and work of Jesus. Believe that Jesus is indeed the Son of God, equal to God, but that He humbled Himself to become “my Christ” to save me as my Prophet, Priest, and King. He died on the cross as the atoning sacrifice for my sins and rose again. When you believe in Him, faith creates a connection, and the power flows. By His perfect life, I am justified; by His death, I am forgiven.
His resurrection is your only hope. If you are an unbeliever, He says: “Come, repent, and believe in Me.” Exercise your faith. Believe He rose from the dead. You will be saved, and power will flow to you through that belief. If you continue in unbelief, He warns you of terrible consequences for all eternity. He who does not believe will be damned. God has determined to glorify His power. Every one of us shall either know the power of God unto salvation through the gospel, or the power of God unto damnation through the law. There is no third alternative. You are chosen to glorify God’s power either by grace or by condemnation. Which direction is your life going?
The resurrection of Christ is infallible proof that the same resurrected Christ will take His place as the Judge of the world and summon you into His presence. He will judge you for all your sins one day if you do not repent and believe in Him. Don’t play with this exceeding great power. Repent and flee to Christ before that power crushes you with an everlasting crushing.
Do you see how wrong the Jehovah’s Witnesses are? They come to your house and point out verses where Jesus says, “I can do nothing without the Father,” or “The Father is greater than I.” But when we point out that the Word is God and became flesh, they try to change the meaning. What about when Thomas said, “My Lord and my God”? Some claim Thomas was just shocked and using a curse word—but that is impossible. If Thomas had been taking the Lord’s name in vain, Christ would have rebuked him. Instead, Christ accepted it and said, “Blessed are you, Thomas, because you have seen and believed; more blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”