NOTE: Only the last 16 minutes of this message were recorded.
I. Paul’s prayer for us to know and embrace three things (1:15-19)
A. The hope of His calling (1:18).
B. The wealth of His glorious inheritance (1:18).
C. The immeasurable greatness of His power (1:19).
“All this was in God’s mind when he called us. He called us to Christ and holiness, to freedom and peace, to suffering and glory. More simply, it was a call to an altogether new life in which we know, love, obey and serve Christ, enjoy fellowship with him and with each other, and look beyond our present suffering to the glory which will one day be revealed. This is the hope to which he has called you. Paul prays that our eyes may be opened to know it.” —Stott, The Message of Ephesians (p.56)
“Paul’s reference could be either to the riches we have in God, or to the remarkable biblical revelation that God regards his people as his ‘treasured possession’ (Mal 3:17). Since God’s inheritance in us and our inheritance in him are really two sides of the same coin, either interpretation implies the other.”—Sinclair Ferguson, Let’s Study Ephesians (p.28)
“That God should set such high value on a community of sinners, rescued from perdition and still bearing too many traces of their former state, might well seem incredible were it not made clear that he sees them in Christ, as from the beginning he chose them in Christ… God’s estimate of the people of Christ, united to him by faith and partakers of his resurrection life, is inevitably consistent with his estimate of Christ.”—F.F. Bruce, NICNT Ephesians (p.270-71)
II. What kind of power are we talking about (1:19-23)?
A. The power that raised Jesus from the dead (1:20)
B. The power that seated Him at God’s right hand, far above every other authority & power (1:20-21)
C. The power that appointed Jesus as supreme head over the universe & the Church (1:22-23)
“If God’s ‘call’ points back to the beginning of our Christian life…and God’s ‘inheritance’ looks to the end, then surely God’s ‘power’ spans the interim period in between.”—Stott (56-57)
III. In what ways is that power at work in our lives today as believers?
A. Less visibly now . . . gloriously later! (cf. Heb 2:8; 11:13; Rom 8:18; 2 Cor 4:17)
B. In our new birth (regeneration) (Eph 2:1-7)
C. In the change He works in us individually as believers and corporately as a church (Eph 3:20-21)