Ephesians Study 8

Ephesians Study 8:

The Unlimited Power of God

The Unlimited Power of God – Ephesians 3:14-21

Introduction

Hello again to everyone who is joining me today. My name is Sarah Bradbury, and this is Garden to Glory: The Mystery of God.

You are listening to the eighth installment in our study on the book of Ephesians. In our last few studies, we have been looking at the desperate condition of humanity before Jesus.

We looked at the problem of sin that made all people slaves to death. We learned about the religious and cultural obstacles that kept people apart from each other and at a distance from the presence of God. And we looked at the marvelous ways in which the work of Jesus overcame all these obstacles to bring believers to life and unity with each other and God. All these things were displayed clearly in the life and example of Paul, the writer of this book.

In today’s passage, Paul reacts to these aspects of the wise, loving, and eternal plan of God with another prayer for the sake of the believers in Ephesus.

Let’s read his words in Ephesians 3:14-21:

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will empower you with inner strength through His Spirit. Then Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust in Him.

Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Now all glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to Him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.

Paul is reacting in awe and wonder to the revelation he has been given about this mysterious plan of God that we have been reading about.

Through Jesus, God has overcome sin and death in the lives of believers. He has done away with the hostility that separated Jews and Gentiles. He bridged the chasm that kept all people from entering into His presence and sent His very Spirit to live inside of believers. He declared His wisdom to the unseen powers of the world by building His church – not with a uniform group of people that look, talk, and act alike – but with diversity no one could have fathomed.

All of this shows the immense wisdom and power of the infinite creator of all things. Paul is overcome with this recognition of God’s greatness, and he responds in the only way he knows how. He falls on his knees in prayer.

Like Paul’s first prayer in Ephesians, he once again sees the work of God in believers. Paul credits God for that work, asks Him to do more of it, and prays for God to strengthen them through His Spirit. This strengthening will presumably move these believers forward in God’s eternal plan to make all things right by uniting everything in Jesus.

What Would You Ask For?

If you knew for sure your requests would be answered, what kind of strength would you ask for from the creator of everything who has glorious, unlimited resources?

How about the power to overcome physical challenges? For example, the ability to heal ourselves or others from injuries or diseases would be amazing! One of the goals of the Christian life is to live forever, right? Having the power to heal would certainly be a step in that direction.

Even better would be bodies strong enough to avoid illnesses and injuries all together. Perhaps on top of that, we could accomplish the dream of body builders and super models everywhere and be able to display the epitome of physical fitness and attraction.

If we had enough strength, we could even perform feats like picking up a car that has someone trapped beneath it, accomplishing endless tasks without any sleep, or even helping that friend of ours move this weekend.

In the ancient world, this type of strength would be prized not only for general physical health, but for military might as well.

This would be a logical request for the people in Paul’s day to make to God. The Roman culture that surrounded them already viewed military success as a sign of favor from their pagan gods. What could be more natural than to ask for that same power from the true God?

Even in the Jewish culture of Jesus’ day, we can see the underlying assumption that physical wellness or infirmity is related to your favor – or lack thereof – with God.

John 9:1-3 is a great example of this. In this passage, Jesus’ disciples assume that physical limitations must be a byproduct of God’s judgement for sin. It says:

As Jesus was walking along, He saw a man who had been blind from birth. “Rabbi,” His disciples asked Him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?”

“It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.”

As we can see from Jesus’ response, the presence of disabilities in a person is not an indication of God’s displeasure with them. Similarly, the physical flourishing of anyone in the world is not a sign of God’s favor with them.

As amazing as physical strength and healing would be, this is not the type of request Paul chose when he appealed to God’s unlimited resources to strengthen the believers of Ephesus.

Instead, Paul specifically says that he wants God to empower them with “inner strength.” Ok, so what might we ask for that would qualify as inner strength?

How about gifts of knowledge? Imagine if the God who created everything caused you to instantly know how all of creation works!

I know very little about science, but I know that the discoveries of many people over the centuries have led to great improvements in the way we experience life today.

We can treat diseases that used to be fatal. We can regulate the temperatures in our homes so that we don’t have to sweat all summer or freeze all winter. We have these small devices in our pockets that allow us to search for answers to questions that previous generations would never have dreamed to ask. These same little devices also make it so we have the option to call someone for help in any emergency.

I could obviously continue down this path for a very long time, but you get the idea. If God gave us immediate and complete knowledge of quantum physics, chemistry, biology, and any other field you can think of, imagine the immediate impact we could have on humanity. However, this knowledge is not what Paul asks God for.

Maybe the key here isn’t knowledge; maybe it’s wisdom. After all, just knowing better isn’t always enough to create real change in the world. You also have to be able to get others to go along with that change. You need to implement knowledge in a way that is useful.

What kind of wisdom would make the greatest change in the world? Maybe God would choose to give us political or military strategies – the ability to make and enforce laws that would cause others to behave in a way that would benefit everyone.

However, we’ve already seen in the example of the nation of Israel that godly laws are not enough to make people righteous. Just being told what to do doesn’t change hearts, and it will lead to disobedience.

Galatians 2:19-21 says:

For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law – I stopped trying to meet all its requirements – so that I might live for God. My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.

This type of rule by law is actually the complete opposite of the gospel of grace. Certainly we can rule out this type of power as the intention of Paul’s request.

Inner Strength

So what exactly is this inner strength that Paul is asking God for? I think the answer to that becomes clear when we read the verses that follow his request.

Looking again at Ephesians 3:17-19, Paul says:

Then Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust in Him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is.

May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

The life and power that comes from our Creator, who has glorious and unlimited resources, is rooted in His love. It is His love that makes us strong. It is the power of understanding this love that causes us to experience it through Christ. And the experience of Christ’s love is what makes us complete with the fullness of life and the power that comes from God.

When we pray to God, we tend to ask for healing and protection; for tangible, physical help. We ask for power, influence, or money. These are not necessarily bad things to ask for. God cares about our immediate physical needs.

I believe that God fully intends to meet all these needs and more in the fullness of time and for all eternity. However, the foundation of the power of God that changes us and unites everything in Jesus is not these things. It is the love of God shown to us in the life and death of Jesus.

Love: The Power of God

Romans 5:6-8 says:

When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

This love is what caused God to choose us before the foundation of the world. This love is what raised us from death to life. This love is what unites us to other believers regardless of race, culture, gender, or social class. This love is what brings the presence of God into our very souls, and this love is what causes us to overflow in love toward others.

John 4:7-12 says:

Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

God showed how much He loved us by sending His one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him. This is real love – not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and His love is brought to full expression in us.

This is the power of God. This is the wisdom and knowledge that baffles the unseen powers of the world. This is what confounds the wise and is revealed to the simple. This is the power of God that unites everything in Jesus.

Physical health and strength is worth pursuing for our own good and the benefit of those around us. Knowledge that leads to scientific advances is worth pursuing in order to benefit ourselves and the rest of humanity. Seeking to wield power for the benefit of those under it is noble if truly done with the best interests of those affected.

However, every one of these things – and anything else that you can see as means of good in this world – must be rooted in love to be worth pursuing. 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 says:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

The immense power of God’s love is why – at the end of our passage for today – Paul says in Ephesians 3:20-21:

These verses are commonly read at the end of sermons as a blessing to the people of God. They are meant to remind us that God is powerful enough to do not only anything we ask of Him, but infinitely more. However, I think we often miss something when we read these words.

The Power at Work In Us

God is able to do infinitely more than we might ask or think, but Paul says here that the power with which God can do these things is the mighty power that is already at work within us.

Friends, we are not simply waiting for some miraculous power to drop from the sky. Yes, we wait and long for Jesus to come back. We look forward to the day when He will wipe away every tear from our eyes. However, the power of God that can do infinitely more than we can ask or think is right here and now at work in us. That power is the love of God that we have inside us through His Spirit.

This is the same power that conquered sin and death by willingly dying on a cross. It’s the same power that moved Paul to give up persecuting others and instead be counted among the persecuted. It’s the same power that caused Jews and Gentiles to become brothers and sisters instead of enemies. It’s the same power that causes selfish sinners to become self-sacrificing servants, and it is the same power that continues in each of us as we love and serve others in the name of Jesus.

In Matthew 6:31-33, Jesus finishes teaching about why people should not be overly worried about getting their basic needs met by saying:

So don’t worry about these things, saying, “What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?” These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need.

However, Jesus also said this in Matthew 25:31-40:

But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit upon His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in His presence, and He will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep at His right hand and the goats at His left.

Then the King will say to those on His right, “Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed Me. I was thirsty, and you gave Me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited Me into your home. I was naked, and you gave Me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for Me. I was in prison, and you visited Me.”

Then these righteous ones will reply, “Lord, when did we ever see You hungry and feed You? Or thirsty and give You something to drink? Or a stranger and show You hospitality? Or naked and give You clothing? When did we ever see You sick or in prison and visit You?”

And the King will say, “I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these My brothers and sisters, you were doing it to Me!”

So which is it? Does God provide the food, clothing, shelter, and water that we need, or do the people of God provide those things to those who need them? The answer is yes.

God Working In You

In Philippians 2:13, Paul says this to the believers in Philippi:

For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him.

The Apostle Paul says something similar about himself in 1 Corinthians 15:9-10. He says:

For I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I’m not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted God’s church.

But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out His special favor on me – and not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by His grace.

God’s power is at work in this world. It will not be made complete until Jesus returns. We do not see the obvious, miraculous working that was present when Jesus was physically walking among us, yet God’s power is still here. The Apostle Paul tells us that this power is already at work within us. It is this same power that God is able to use to do infinitely more than we can ask or think.

God’s power in this world right now is shown primarily in and through the people who are joined to Jesus as part of His very body and filled with His Spirit.

We show this power by sharing the love of God with others in our words, witness, and actions. God’s power is seen through our love! It sounds so inadequate. It sounds overly simple. Yet Christians throughout history have changed the world by showing this love.

God has been doing far more in this world through the love of Christians than anyone would have asked or imagined. If you look at history, it’s full of Christians risking their lives to care for others in times of plague, starting hospitals, founding orphanages, and running schools. It was the idea of Christ dying on a cross that led to our love of the underdog and the lowly. Humbly giving our lives for the sake of others was never considered praiseworthy before Jesus.

I know less about other cultures of the world, but I know that in the West, the impact of Christianity has been so thorough that historians can’t even sort out what our culture would be like if Christianity had never existed.

False Followers

I will caveat this statement by saying there have also been many people who have claimed the name of Jesus to justify actions that are not remotely loving. Not every person in history who wore a cross and yelled the name of Jesus showed the fruit of His Spirit. However, this shouldn’t be a surprise.

Jesus said in Matthew 7:15-23:

Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.

Not everyone who calls out to me, “Lord! Lord!” will enter the kingdom of heaven. Only those who actually do the will of My Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day, many will say to Me, “Lord! Lord! We prophesied in Your name and cast out demons in Your name and performed many miracles in Your name.”

But I will reply, “I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.”

Matthew 13:24-29 and 36-40 records a parable from Jesus. It says:

Here is another story Jesus told: “The kingdom of heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away. When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew.

“The farmer’s workers went to him and said, ‘Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds! Where did they come from?’

“‘An enemy has done this!’ the farmer exclaimed.

“‘Should we pull out the weeds?’ they asked.

“‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.’”

Then, leaving the crowds outside, Jesus went into the house. His disciples said, “Please explain to us the story of the weeds in the field.”

Jesus replied, “The Son of Man is the farmer who plants the good seed. The field is the world, and the good seed represents the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people who belong to the evil one. The enemy who planted the weeds among the wheat is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world, and the harvesters are the angels.

“Just as the weeds are sorted out and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the world. The Son of Man will send His angels, and they will remove from His kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. And the angels will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!

We should not be surprised when people falsely claim the name of Jesus to do what is evil. Yet, the people who truly belong to Jesus will do God’s work in the world. That work is the work of love. Evil is here, but goodness is too, and goodness is winning.

The Kingdom of God

We are waiting for the day when we will shine like the sun in our Father’s kingdom, but in a limited way, that kingdom we are waiting for is already here now, and it is growing.

Luke 17:20-21 says:

One day the Pharisees asked Jesus, “When will the kingdom of God come?”

Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God can’t be detected by visible signs. You won’t be able to say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘It’s over there!’ For the kingdom of God is already among you.”

In Matthew 13:31-33, we read these descriptions of this kingdom that was already among them:

Here is another illustration Jesus used: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants; it grows into a tree, and birds come and make nests in its branches.”

Jesus also used this illustration: “The kingdom of heaven is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough.”

These descriptions of a growing kingdom match a dream interpreted by Daniel in Daniel chapter two. In this vision, God showed a new kingdom represented by a rock that destroyed the other kingdoms of the world and then became a mountain that filled the whole Earth.

The power of God is here right now. It is at work in us. Through the love of God shown in Jesus on the cross, God saved believers from sin and death, brought unity to people of every background, and crossed the chasm between us and the presence of God.

That same power is at work in you, making you increasingly unified with Jesus and other believers. This is the power of God that can accomplish more than we ask or think, and it is the power that will eventually fill the whole world and make everything new.

And so, my suggested applications for today are quite simple.

1. Pray to God and ask Him to use His unlimited power to increase the strength that you and others have in His love.

2. Meditate on God’s love for you shown in Jesus.

3. Overflow with this powerful love to the whole world.

As I long for all of the world to be filled with the kingdom of God, I echo Paul’s requests for the believers in Ephesus and for all believers everywhere.

In closing, I will read this passage one more time, Ephesians 3:14-21:

To help you meditate on the principles we have discussed today, I have made a short Spotify playlist that you can find here.