God's Mighty Power To Us

God’s Mighty Power To Us A. Paul prayed that believers might know the exceeding greatness of the power that is available to them. EPH 1:16-20. 1. This will assure us that we are on the winning side. 2. This will counter a defeatist attitude and a victim mentality. 3. This will breed the mindset needed to withstand Satan's attacks and to obey God. EPH 6:10-11; PHIL 4:13. 4. This power exceeds the power of any affliction, temptation or opposition. 1JO 4:3-4. B. We believe “...according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places” (EPH 1:19-20). 1. This is the power demonstrated in the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus Christ. ACT 2:32-33; 5:30-31. a. This was mighty power over against the power of Satan to try and keep Christ in the tomb. MAT 27:62-66. b. The mighty power has exalted Christ “...far above ALL principality, and power, and might, and dominion...” (EPH 1:21). That is mighty power, even exceeding great power! 2. By this same power God quickened us from our state of death in sins. EPH 2:4-6. a. Being made spiritually alive by the resurrection/exaltation power of God, we were made able to believe. JOH 5:24. b. In order to be able to believe we must be resurrected and raised far above all power as was Christ. c. This is power that we do not have in ourselves to exert. The gospel (good news) is the power of God unto salvation (ROM 1:16). This is what should be published. 3. Just as the resurrection and exaltation of Christ was brought about by the miraculous power of God, so our spiritual life was given by the miraculous power of God. 4. That we are believers is a miracle! a. The age of miraculous signs and wonders by the hands of men had a very limited duration. MIC 7:15 c/w ACT 7:36. b. The miracle of spiritual life and belief endures to the present and is manifest by every conversion to Jesus Christ, by every faithful obedience to His word. c. Miracles of tongues or healings are weak substitutes for the greater miracle of simple belief in Jesus Christ and His word which requires resurrection power. 5. Compare the mighty power displayed in Christ's resurrection with two other occasions on which God's mighty power was demonstrated. a. Mighty power was also demonstrated in the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt. DEU 4:37. (1) The Egyptian empire is a head of the beast of REV 13, which is empowered by Satan himself. (2) “In the Old Testament the standard miracle was the deliverance of Israel from Egypt: again and again reference was made to the Red Sea as the supreme demonstration of God's power to help and to save. When the prophets sought to inspire courage and confidence they pointed back to that mighty deliverance.” (DEU 20:1; PSA 66:1-7; ISA 43:1-3; 51:9-11). Arthur Pink b. The mighty power of God was again displayed when Jesus cast the devil out of a lunatick child. LUK 9:37-43. God’s Mighty Power To Us 5-19-24 Page 1 of 3  (1) The disciples had been unable to cast this devil out. (2) This was a powerful devil. Thus, it required the mighty power of God to cast him out. c. In both cases God's people were delivered from being held captive to the mighty power of Satan by the mightier power of God. d. In the resurrection Christ was set free from death and the grave, although the sepulchre was made as sure as possible to hold Christ in it. MAT 27:62-66; ACT 2:24. e. “In the New Testament the Red Sea is superseded by the empty tomb, and the resurrection of Christ from the dead is pointed to as the grand triumph of Omnipotence and the standard of what God will do for us 'who believe.'” Arthur Pink (1) The resurrection and exaltation of Jesus Christ are the foundation of our faith and hope in God. 1PE 1:21. (2) From the resurrection we draw encouragement to live the Christian life now and courage to face death. 1CO 15:57-58; 2CO 1:8-9; 4:13-14; REV 2:8-10; 2TI 2:8-9. f. Note in all these instances that God's mighty power is a liberating power. It is this power according to which we believe. (1) We had to be set free from Satan's power in order to believe. (2) That same power is working to usward who believe to further set us free from Satan's power. JAM 4:6-7; 1PE 5:8-9; EPH 6:16. (3) In order to overcome Satan, we must see ourselves exalted above his power. C. God has set Christ at his own right hand in the heavenly places. 1. This fulfills the prophecy of PSA 110:1. c/w ACT 2:32-35. 2. Note that this is the Christ Who was raised from the dead that is set at God's right hand. a. This clearly refers to the human nature of the Lord Jesus. b. It is that same Jesus that was crucified that is seated there. ACT 2:36. c. The exaltation is the reward of Christ's sufferings. PHIL 2:8-9. 3. GOD set Jesus at His own right hand. As God, Christ rules inherently. As man, He rules by delegation from God. 4. Christ ascended from this earth to the right hand of God in the heavenly places. MAR 16:19; ACT 1:9-11. a. The right hand of God is in a place to which a human body can actually go! b. The power which raised Christ from the dead resides in the physical body of the believer. ROM 8:10-11. c. The power to pass from earth through space to heaven and God’s right hand is greater than Satan who has no longer any access to heaven. REV 12:7-9. d. Paul’s prayer is that believers would grasp the reality of this power and make good use of it in fighting Satan. c/w 1JO 4:4. 5. This passage shows us the heights to which God has exalted human nature in the second Adam, Jesus Christ. This stands in marked contrast to the depths to which human nature has been plunged through the fall of the first Adam. ROM 5:12; 1:18-32; 3:9-18. 6. Consider what Scripture has to say about God's right hand. a. It is the place of God's power. LUK 22:69. (1) The right hand suggests power. (2) right hand: That hand which is normally the stronger of the two. (3) Jacob placed his right hand upon Joseph's younger son, Ephraim, since Ephraim would become the greater people. GEN 48:8-19. God’s Mighty Power To Us 5-19-24 Page 2 of 3  b. It is high. PSA 89:13. (1) It is “...FAR ABOVE all principality, and power, and might, and dominion.” (2) It is not only above all in authority, it is above all geographically, dimensionally. (3) It is so high that God Almighty swears by it. HEB 6:13-16; ISA 62:8. (4) To be set there is to be highly exalted. PHIL 2:9. c. It is full of righteousness. PSA 48:10. (1) Whatever it does is in keeping with the character of God and is, therefore, right. (2) From this hand came God's law of righteousness. DEU 33:2-3. d. It performs valiantly and victoriously. PSA 118:15-16; 98:1. e. By it God's people are saved and upheld. PSA 17:7; 18:35; 20:6; 63:8; ISA 41:10. f. It restrains the wicked. PSA 74:10-11; LAM 2:3. g. It destroys God's enemies. EXO 15:6, 12; PSA 21:8. h. It planted the church in the Old Testament. PSA 80:8, 15. i. It is the place of pleasures forevermore. PSA 16:11; HEB 12:1-2. 7. Christ being set at the right hand of God means that He has been given all the power and authority of God's right hand to do what God's right hand does. a. A man born of a woman is sitting at God's right hand ruling over all creation! b. That same voice that cried as an infant for His mother's breast has the entire universe at His command. REV 12:5. 8. Christ's taking His seat at the right hand of God signals that Christ has purged our sins by His sacrifice once for all forever. HEB 1:3; 10:10-14. a. Christ would never have been admitted to a right hand full of righteousness (PSA 48:10) with our sins yet upon Him. b. No seat was provided for the Old Testament priest in the tabernacle. (1) The sacrifices offered by the priests under the Old Testament could never take away sins. HEB 10:4, 11. (2) Hence, the priest was always standing because his job was never done. (3) Christ sat down after His sacrifice because it once for all put away sins. 9. Christ sits there as our high priest to make intercession for us. ROM 8:34; HEB 8:1. a. We are represented at this seat of supreme power that is full of righteousness. b. Your name and your needs are made known and considered at this exalted place! c. Connect all that is said of God's right hand to you and your need and you will see that you are in good keeping. God’s Mighty Power To Us 5-19-24 Page 3 of 3