I mentioned last week that we will, Lord willing, this week come to verses 20 through 23 of Ephesians chapter 1, and that is the plan this morning. So we will take our reading from verse 15, as that is the context in which Paul writes this, and I'll ask you to please stand for the reading of the word of the Lord. This is the holy, inspired and infallible Word of the Living God. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 15. For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 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. 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, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power towards us who believe, according to the working of His great might, that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at 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. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him, who fills all in all." Amen. This is the word of the Lord. Now that's quite a mouthful. Christian life, it has been said, is like a journey through a deep and dark forest. Around every corner there is danger lurking. Temptations and pressures from the world that can trap you and eventually, if you are not careful, these temptations and dangers can even mean your death. We need someone to show us a safe route through this dark and very dangerous forest. And that's exactly what we have in the Apostle Paul as this morning we return to our exposition of the book of Ephesians. Paul is our royal guide, our royal tour guide as it were, appointed by Jesus Christ, tasked with helping us to find a safe path and reassuring and assisting us in this journey. Now you'll recall from last week, from verses 15 to 20, that Paul was in prayer that the Ephesians will receive the Holy Spirit of wisdom and revelation, and that they may understand three things. Firstly, that they would understand what the hope is to which He has called them, so that the final destination of this Christian journey is known. Secondly, what the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints is, that the Christian will know His identity as Beloved of God chosen child on this journey and thirdly he prayed that the Christian may know what is the measurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might that that we will know the resources available to us as Christians on this journey. Now this morning we're going to focus on verses 19 through 23 and You see, Paul does not only want us to know where we are going and what our identity as Christians are. He wants us to also understand the reach of the resources of grace at work in our lives. You see, it's one thing to mention there's a great abundance of resources available, but Paul goes further. He wants to show us in detail what these resources are so that we can live our new identity in Christ and arrive safely at our eternal destiny. He wants us, He wants to show us how safe we are and that we need not be afraid of the dangers around us because of the great power of God. And that is why our brother Paul begins using the superlative step. Look at verse 19 with me. He speaks of the immeasurable greatness of His power towards us who believe. You see, Paul uses almost every word at his disposal. to say that God's power is strong and firm. He says God's power is adequate, it is sufficient. No, no, it's more than sufficient. It is abundant towards us who believe. And Paul knows, he is an excellent communicator. He knows that simply telling us that God's power is great will not nearly be as effective as taking us by the hand and showing us what this power has done and what it is currently doing. So he wants to show us God's power and not simply tell us that the power is great. And that's what he does in verses 20 to 23. So let's look at it. The question is, where do you look to see the power of God, the incomparable and immeasurable power of God? Paul says, well, nowhere do you see it clearer than in Christ. Look to Christ, says Paul. If you want to see the power of God at work, look to Christ. It's the immeasurable greatness of His power towards us who believe according to the working of His great might. Where? What does the word then say? His great might that He worked in Christ. So, Paul doesn't take our attention and says, I want you to go home and to have private experiences of God's power. go and have dreams and experiences or supernatural phenomenons that ensure that God is strong and protects us. No, Paul takes our eyes and he says, stop looking at yourself, stop looking at this world, focus on Jesus. The immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe is seen and shown and revealed in Jesus Christ. Look there, fix your gaze there, says Paul. Never stop staring at it and meditating on it and pondering it. So the Apostle takes our eyes and he lifts it from this world, he lifts it from this dark and dangerous surroundings that we are in and he focuses us on this power that is above, the power on the one above. And he asks, do you want to know how great the preserving, sustaining, protecting, saving, guarding, bring you safe to home power of God really is? Do you need assurance that though you are weak, He is mighty? That although you are vulnerable, the power of God is strong enough to far exceed your needs? Do you want that? Then you have to look to Jesus Christ. Make Jesus your study. Make Jesus your infinite concern. The more fearful you get in this life, the more you need to look at Jesus. And note specifically what Paul says we should look at. Verse 20 he says, that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places. So Paul calls us to the exaltation of Christ. He calls us to see Christ's exaltation as it is embodied in three very specific areas. Firstly, as the head over the grave in His resurrection. secondly as head over all evil all rule all authority and power and dominion and Thirdly to see him as head of the church So he calls our attention to these three heads as head over the grave ruling over the grave Head over all authority and power and dominion and as head of the church, so let's look at them We see first God's power in the exaltation of Christ over the grave in verse 20 Now, dearly beloved, Jesus Christ is alive. He is alive as you and I are today. He is as alive as you and I are today. The grave is empty. The stone is rolled away. The body that was broken and torn and pierced and bloodied has life in it that fizzes and flows. The heart that stopped beating while on the cross. The same heart that was pierced by the spear from the Roman. beaten you with vitality and energy. The hands that bear the marks of the nails can feel and grasp again. He is alive. The mighty chains of death that keep everyone else in unbreakable bondage could not hold him. God raised his son to life. And at the heart of the Christian gospel The thing that makes the good news, the good news. It's not that Jesus died for sinners. There are many people that died for one another. Romeo and Juliet died for one another. And yet nothing came of it. If I recall. A dead Jesus is of no use to anybody. Now the good news is that the Christ who died in the place of guilty sinners The Christ who died in my place and in your place, who carried my sins and your sins to the cross, did not remain dead. He was raised from the dead. He was resurrected. The power of God broke the chains of death, thereby absolving His innocent Son, our Savior. And the power of verse 19 is the power that raised Christ from the dead. The resurrection was absolutely central to the apostolic gospel and the apostolic preaching. You see, for Paul, Christ's resurrection is an indisputable fact. On the third day, God the Father raised the Son from the dead, never to die again. He had conquered sin and death and hell. He was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead, says Romans 1 verse 4. You see, the resurrection The fact that Jesus lives is what makes the good news about Jesus the good news. It means that He is alive to give unto us that for which He suffered and that which He has brought for us. Is that not what we celebrate when we take the Lord's Supper in communion? The riches of that which the living Christ acquired for us. We celebrate not a dead Lord, No, we celebrate the Lord that lives. That's why we gather on a Sunday and no longer on a Saturday, because it is on this Sunday that the Lord raised from the dead. And now Paul says, the power that raised Christ from the dead, the power of Almighty God is the same power that is now toward us who believe. It is sin vanquishing, Satan defeating, death conquering power. Paul emphasizes here that the same power of God that raised Christ from the grave is the same power that will keep you from falling and bring you blamelessly before His glory one day. Now hear me, you might stumble and you might lose your footing and you might fall. You might take a tumble but you will not be allowed to fall and stay down. The power that gave life to Christ's lifeless and broken body is the same power that ensures life for you as a believer in Jesus. The same hand of God that took Christ out of the grave and placed Him on the throne is the same hand that takes you out of your sin and brings you to heaven. It's the same power that led Jesus from the tomb that will lead you to glory one day. Nothing is more calculated to breathe hope encouragement into our embattled lives than the doctrines of the gospel. What God has done in His Son is the foundation and the wellspring of all of our hope. You need to see the power of God in the exaltation of Christ over the grave in His resurrection and the value of that for you as a Christian. But that's not all because secondly See the power of God in exalting Christ over everything. So I'd like you to read verses 20 to 22 with me. Verse 20, that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion. above every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come and he put all things under his feet now after God raised Christ from the dead God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father that's Philippians 2 You see, Jesus sits at the right hand of God. We confessed it this morning. It is the place of authority and power. This language is taken from Psalm 110 verse 1. You might remember from not too long ago our sermon on that. The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Psalm 8 verse 6 says, you have given him dominion over the works of your hands. You've put all things under His feet. And what the old covenant scriptures looked forward to in hope has now been realized in the resurrection and exaltation of Christ. The Father has given Him all authority in heaven and on earth. The Dutch theologian Abraham Caper wrote, there's not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ who is sovereign over all, does not cry, mine." The late R.C. Sproul took this one further and said, there's not one single rogue molecule in this world that is not under the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Father put all things under His feet, under the dominion and rule of His Son, and Jesus Christ was resurrected with this in mind. He was resurrected to rule He has defeated death so that he will rule over everything, nothing excepted, all of everything. Is this clear? There is nothing that he does not rule over. And Paul goes on to very specifically mention what he rules over. He says, 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. And in a few chapters time Paul will use the same language in chapter 6 to describe the spiritual forces of evil that have been set up against the people of God and the plan of God and against the church of God. Demonic forces. And if we look at the description here then we see that it covers all kinds of power. Demonic power and angelic power, human governments and physical strength, wealth and influence, every form of recognizable authority, that we can or want to think of must kneel before Christ's sovereign rule. He rules not only over evil but over all things. Now Paul writes to the church in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 15 and he says, All things are now under Christ's rule and dominion. But the reality, the full reality of that dominion will not be seen or experienced until Christ returns. There is an already but not yet aspect to this. Christ already governs but not yet fully because in that moment when He fully governs, He will give all things to His Father because to God belongs the glory. The world, brother and sister, is a dark place. Sin and Satan are stubborn enemies. They are not lazy. And our flesh is weak. Temptation is strong. Peer pressure is enormous. Cultural expectations are demanding. And sometimes we wonder, and to be honest, most of us wonder, would we be able to stand? Will we be able to continue standing? Is the power of God sufficient for what at times seems like an overwhelming spiritual opposition that are piled up against us. Spiritual evil may be terrible and its venom and power great. And it's true that the world may press you to abandon your faith or to ridicule you for your obedience. There might even be oppression and opposition. There might be persecution. The forces set up against a Christian is great but Christ's power is greater. 1 John 4 He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. As Jesus taught his disciples in John 16, in the world you experience hardship, but take heart, I have already conquered the world. As we look to this fallen gospel rejecting world, it does not seem that our Lord Jesus has the dominion and the rule. But He does. The Father gave it to Him. These are all facts. And one day at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And those knees who will not bow out of themselves will be shattered by his iron rod. But the knees will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. And then all will see what has been revealed to us. That Jesus is Lord. He is the King of Kings. He is the Lord of Lords. He reigns and He rules. He rules over Satan and the demonic forces. He rules over politicians and the decisions of the Supreme Court. He rules over all of the nations of this earth. He rules in heaven and on earth. And the one antidote to fear is this. Look to the One who sits on the throne of heaven. He is the assurance and the foundation of our faith. Jesus our Savior, the One who took our sins upon Him, is the one who reigns. He is Lord over everything. But there's another even more fantastic facet to this. That is that Christ reigns over the church. We see the power of God in the exaltation of Christ over the grave. We see it over all authority and power. But it is most magnificently seen in His exaltation over the church. Read with me verses 22 and 23, please. And He put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him, who fills all in all. Now just let that sink in for a minute. Is that not a mind-blowing statement? that He put all things under His feet, gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. One who rules over all things, whose feet, under whose feet all of everything is placed, is given to the church as head. The dominion and rule of Christ that involves creation and providence receives a specific dimension, a focused government. Yes there is a general rule in the world but there is a specific, a special rule in the church. He is the Lord of creation and the king over every other power. Nothing can escape from His dominion and rule. However, He has a very special and unique relationship with the church. Gave Him as head over all things to the church which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. The church, the spirit created fellowship of believers is his body and he is the head of it, he rules over it. Now at this, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all, we might be tempted to join brother Peter in saying, our beloved brother Paul has written some things hard to understand. Because yes, this is a little difficult. And I found two ways in which it can be understood. The first is he could mean that the church completes Christ. This understanding would fit the grammar and the context. The church is Christ's body and without a body a head can't do much. A body gives completion to a head and vice versa. A head, a bodiless head is not much use is it? Calvin also understood it as such. He called it the highest honor of the church that unless she is united to the Son of God, he reckons himself in some measure imperfect, and he saw it as an encouragement to the Church to fulfill her task and duties. There are some other theological issues with this understanding though, and the immediate and wider context makes it seem more likely that Paul here means to say that Christ fills the Church. Christ indwells His church. He is going to continue saying this throughout Ephesians as well as in Colossians. Christ is not only the church's head, He is the fullness, it's life. He is the life that flows through and animates the church. John 15. You are engrafted in me, my father is the farmer, I am the vine. So just as Christ fills all in all in a uniquely redemptive way, He fills His church as its Lord and life. The church is His fullness and He fills her completely. It's that unprecedented spiritual intimacy and community. Christ inhabits His church. He lives in His church. He animates and governs it. He manages each limb as head over the body. He imbues into every heart the glory of God that once filled the temple of Jerusalem. Christ rules over angels and demons, over men and spirits, over natural and supernatural powers as the sole ruler, exalted and glorified, inaccessible, irresistible, raised and exalted, and yet he governs his church for an intimate personal presence and fellowship in his spirit. Is that not special? The devils know Christ's rule. They know it. It defeats them, it limits them, it will eventually one day destroy them completely and they hate Him for it. But the church knows Christ's reign that conquers us for Himself, cleanses us from sin, initiates and validates our obedience and keeps us from evil and leads us to glory. And we love Him the more for it. It's like Christ is this King who rules His kingdom in the strictest form of justice, destroying all who break His law. but is also a king who rules his own family with grace, forgives his children his long-suffering when they transgress, disciplines them in love, and teaches them to live under his roof. He rules over everything, but his dominion and rule in the church over his people is a government of love. It is a government of grace. It is not a dictatorship. The fearful power of the exalted Christ to rule and judge the nations is the same gentle power he uses to keep us close and to never let us go. The frightening power of the one whose name is above every other name is also the loving power of the head who is united with his body in mercy. Now perhaps you've noticed some of the tenses in the language in this passage. Did you notice that Paul writes as if the exaltation of Christ's dominion over all things has already been completed? Did you notice he uses words worked, raised, seated, put under his feet, gave him as head. All past tense, all either past perfect or past continuous. But when you look at the world, it's hard to see everything under Christ's feet now, is it? Islamic terror, same-sex marriages, the pornography epidemic, violence everywhere, ongoing racism, deadly pandemics and viruses, natural disasters. It does not really seem as if everything is under his feet, is it? But then in Hebrews 2, You'll find the following, and you're welcome to page there if you want. Hebrews chapter 2. At verse 8. The second part of verse 8. Hebrews 2, now in putting everything in subjection to Him, He left nothing outside His control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to Him. That's the truth brothers and sisters. We do not see everything in subjection to Him. There are many days, Psalm 2 asks the question, why do the nations rage? We see people and nations raging against God. Christ reigns but when you look at the world you wonder where is Christ's dominion and His government, where is His victory? But then Hebrews goes on to say verse 9, But we see Him for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus crowned with glory and honor. You see despite how the world is today, Christ still reigns. The full display of His victory, the execution of His reign, awaits the last day when evil will be finally undone and destroyed. It is not yet. It is not yet in the fullness, but soon. For now, Paul says, we can nevertheless already see the government. If we go back to Ephesians 2 or Ephesians 1, we can see the government of him who fills all in all and under whose feet all things are placed. There's one place where the Lordship of Christ is made visible in the world, where His reign manifests itself in this life and where His reign is honored. Where is this I hear you ask? In this, the Church of Jesus Christ. The Church is the fullness of Him. He fills the Church. The Church is His body and He is her head. It's here where His word and will directs and guides our lives. It is here where His presence shapes our community and compassion. It is from here where His kingdom can be seen breaking through in a dark world. And that, my dear powerless fearful Christian, means that the church is the sphere within which the power of the exalted Christ is made available to you. You need strength to conquer fear. You need strength to keep yourself from temptations. You need strength to help you endure when you get exhausted. And you need strength to remain faithful and believing when everyone around you who once followed Christ follows their own hearts. Where do you access the power and the strength of Christ? Where does our King and Head pour out His grace upon His people? In the church. It's not the church's gift. It's not the church's strength. It is but that which we minister. The church is the place, the meeting place, the dispensing point for the people of God to receive the power of Christ. And how counterintuitive is this? How awkward and weak and strange can the church not be at times? Talking heads in pews, water sprinkled on a child's head, bread and wine, outdated psalms and scriptures being recited, It doesn't seem like power, does it? And yet, in those prayers and praises, in the preaching and the sacraments, in the gifts of grace, and in the fellowship of the believers, in the ordinary worship of the saints, is where Christ is present in the fullness of His power. It is in the church, through His Word and Spirit, that the head animates and guides the life of the body. My dear tired, Sad and Christian, fearful, doubting Christian, sin-sick, world-weary Christian. Don't look anywhere else. Look at the church. Look at her worship and her customs, the simple interpretation of scripture, the pleading of the promises of God in prayer. None of this seems like power in the eyes of the world. And yet, that power is not within us. And that's why. It is Jesus who promised to meet us when we come to Him hungry and thirsty. It is He who comes to us in power full of grace with the gifts of grace in the life of the Church of Jesus Christ. It is He who comes to us in His Word and in His Spirit. Now perhaps you have looked for help in every other place out there. Maybe someone in the church has heard you at some point and now you're terrified of returning. But today Christ, the head of His body, the one who fills all things in all, fills His church with His presence. And He is calling you to meet with Him and to come and wait for Him in the one place where He has ordained to meet with us sinners. If it's Christ you need, and yes you need Christ, you may not know it yet, but if it is Christ you need, then you need His church. If it is the head you seek, you must be part of His body. It is the fulfillment that you long for, then you must be in the temple that He fills. To belong to Jesus means to be among His people. If you want Christ, if you want His power and grace to strengthen and refresh you, then visit the place that He visits. Be where He shows up in grace and blessing. Be worshiping in church and seek the worship service of the church of the Lord. You see there's power for us in Christ. In Him that is exalted over the grave. In Him that is exalted over every power and authority. In Him who is exalted as the head of the church. Christ is the head of everything. All of everything. Never forget that. Amen. Come let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord. Thank you so much for Jesus Christ. Forgive us, Lord, for looking at Him in any other way and not realizing that He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Forgive us, Lord, for tending to search for Him everywhere else than where He has chosen to meet us in worship. Would You grant that we may experience Him in worship, that we might see Him, might hear Him as He speaks from Your Word? Will You give us Christ anew in His power and grace to the glory of Your Name? Will You fill our souls and to the salvation of the lost, would You have us go out and share this with all that we need? We ask this in the name that is above all other names, in the name of King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.