According to the Power at Work Within Us

Please turn your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2. Excuse me, that should be Ephesians 3.

Ephesians 3. We'll be looking at the second half of verse 20 today.

When you have that, go ahead and stand for the reading of God's Word. I'll begin with verse 14. For this reason

I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory

He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit and your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever.

Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we ask again for your blessing on this worship service as we listen to the proclamation of your

Word. We pray that it would work within our souls, that it would stir up in us a love for your truth, an understanding of your truth, and obedience to it as well.

In Jesus' name, amen. Here in this passage,

Paul gives us a doxology. If you remember the explanation from last week, that prefix dox refers to glory, ology refers to words about something.

So these are words about God's glory. And in this, he instructs us about prayer itself.

And this should be an encouragement in prayer. So he has prayed that the people would know the unknowable, that they would fathom the unfathomable, that they would know the love of God.

And at the end of this, as he gives us this doxology about the goodness of God, he includes in it motivations to prayer, encouragements in prayer.

God is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. So we should ask great things.

And moreover, he does this according to the power at work within us. If you understand this power, you will be encouraged to go to God in prayer, knowing his capacity to answer prayer.

Now, you may think to yourself, well, I already know God is omnipotent. Of course, he can do all things. We are weak creatures.

The fact that we know this in abstract does not encourage us the way it ought. God has given us many signs of his power in order to encourage us to take hold of that power.

Likewise, he has given us this half of a verse to encourage us regarding his power to work within us, that power being the power of the

Holy Spirit. He has spoken of this power a number of times before. Spoke of this power in chapter 1, verse 19.

Says, in what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe. Later on, in Ephesians 3, 7, he talks about that power having made him minister according to the gospel.

This was given to him by the working of God's power. Then we have in verse 16 of chapter 3, that God may, according to the riches of his glory, grant us to be strengthened with power through his spirit in our inner being.

As I mentioned last week, and may mention in subsequent weeks as we look at this passage, there are many parallel texts in Colossians.

Ephesians and Colossians were written about the same time. And they were written to different people, but Paul brings out a lot of the same truths to each of them.

And so we see the same things here. In the opening of Colossians, he likewise has a prayer like in the opening of Ephesians.

At the end of Colossians 1, he has some similar statements about God's working in him as a minister as well.

So he says in Colossians 1, 11, that he wants them to increase in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might.

And then in verse 29, for this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

So what is this power? If you look at each of these texts, that power is the working of God's spirit to give some grace.

Grace is a gift. Grace can mean the grace of salvation in particular, but it can mean any sort of gift.

And God gifts his people with strength and understanding for the

Christian life. It is that spirit of God that works in us powerfully, giving us whatever gift is needful in the moment.

So what is this power? This power is the gift giving of God's spirit.

Then at the end of this verse, when he says according to the power at work within us, who is the us?

He's speaking inclusively. He's not speaking just of him and his associates, his apostolic associates.

He's talking about the Ephesians as well. There's an inclusive we. In some languages, there are two different words for we.

We that would be we as opposed to you all and we that includes in English, as in some other languages.

There's no distinction. We just use we for both of them. So you have to ask yourself, which we is it talking about? Well, it's talking about both.

It is both that is mentioned here. That is why it is an encouragement to Paul in prayer.

Why is it that he knows his prayer for them to know the unknowable, to fathom the unfathomable is something that can be answered because he is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think according to the power at work within us.

First truth that you should take away from this is that God's spirit is working within us.

He has spoken of God working in him as a minister, spoke in verse five of this chapter.

He said, which was not made known, his insights into the mystery of Christ, the mystery of Christ being the

Jews and Gentiles being united into one church, that this is something that has been not made known to other generations, but has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit.

So the spirit has made this known to this particular generation, to the apostolic generation, to the apostles, and not to previous sets of prophets.

And then in verse seven, it says, of this gospel, I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given to me by the working of his power.

Okay, so the spirit has revealed these truths and now God's power is working particularly in Paul.

Now, how is his power working? Well, it's by the spirit working in Paul that God is working in Paul in order to have the correct kinds of insights and to share those insights in the proper kind of way.

And it is through that ministry of the gospel that he is now working in the Ephesians.

So the Ephesians says in Ephesians 1, 17, it says 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.

That spirit of wisdom and of revelation of the knowledge of Christ, that comes by the work of the apostle as he ministers to them and he gives them the gospel.

And then in verse 16 of chapter three, it says that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being.

This power is working through the spirit in their inner being. The spirit is working within them.

They have the means necessary for this prayer to be answered. They have the means necessary because the spirit is within them.

The Bible refers to the spirit as a seal. It refers to the spirit as a seal once in 2

Corinthians and twice here in Ephesians. That is an important truth here in Ephesians, that the spirit is a seal of our salvation for the day of redemption.

He is a guarantee that God will save us on that last day.

This is distinct from baptism. This is an important thing. Presbyterians will speak of baptism as being a sign and seal.

Baptists do not speak of baptism being a seal because it is no guarantee of salvation.

Rather, it is the spirit that is a guarantee of our salvation. Now, while the

Bible speaks of the spirit being a seal for that last day, he is likewise a guarantee of God's kind intentions toward us even in the day -to -day prior to that last day.

So when we pray for God to work within us, we are not praying for something that we don't have in any sense for him to give it to us.

Rather, we're praying for some work through the spirit that God has already given to us.

He's already given us the means by which that power would work. He is able to do far more abundantly than we ask or think according to the power at work within us.

Now, the next thing, it's not just that the Holy Spirit is working within us, but the Holy Spirit works great things.

He works great things. The Holy Spirit being God is infinite.

It is through the spirit that we are unified with Jesus Christ. You see in John how it talks about the vine and the branches, and it talks about abiding in Christ in the context of the previous chapter having talked about the gift of the spirit.

The whole point of that passage is it is through the spirit that we are united to Christ. It is through the spirit that we who are finite beings have access to the infinite, that we are strengthened with one who is infinite.

This is in some ways analogous to, and don't hear me as saying it is directly like or anything like that, but it's somewhat like the hypostatic union.

The hypostatic union is the union of the two natures of Christ. Christ being

God assumed a human nature so that he being infinite did not change in his divine being, did not change in his deity, but has a human nature such that we can say things like that he died on the cross.

Now God is not capable of death. God is not capable of change, but God shed his own blood according to Acts 20, 28.

Things like that may be said because of that union of those two natures in that one person.

Now we have not been granted a second nature like Christ has a second nature, but we are united to Christ such that we have power that is not our own, but rather is his in our union together with him.

We being finite beings have union together with one who is infinite by the spirit.

This gives us several things. This is how it is possible to know the unknowable in this passage.

What did he say? That you may have the strength to comprehend with all the saints was the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.

This surpasses knowledge, surpasses human knowledge. It does not surpass divine knowledge.

It surpasses human knowledge. How can you know that which is unknowable with your own mind?

You cannot, but you can if you are united to Christ, if you have the mind of Christ through the spirit.

This is what 1 Corinthians 2 describes. It's that we have the mind of Christ. That is how we can know those things that are unknowable.

That's how we can appreciate truths that others who have natural minds cannot appreciate.

We can have true knowledge through the work of the spirit. There's one

Christian theologian, philosopher from the early, earlier 20th century that I very much appreciate named

Cornelius Van Til. Some of you may have heard of him, some of you may have not. He gets a bad rap a lot of times because he spoke with terms that he didn't always completely define.

One of the things he would talk about occasionally is having true knowledge and he would say that only believers can have true knowledge.

Now a lot of people will misrepresent him and say that he said things like that only believers can know things, which is not what he said at all.

He said only believers can truly know things. What he's getting at is this, is that though others may know facts, apart from a heart that submits to Christ, you cannot know those facts in relation to all other things the way that God does because you just have a natural mind.

You don't know those things in a way that drives you to acknowledge his power like it says in Romans 1 or to honor him as God, but rather you suppress the truth and unrighteousness.

It is only through the work of the Spirit in your heart that you can truly know things. Actually acknowledging what those things entail and what they represent, the greatness of God, him having created all things, you can only have that true kind of knowledge through the

Spirit because it is through the Spirit that we have the mind of Christ, as 1 Corinthians 2 says.

Who can know a man except for the Spirit within him? So it is the same with God that he is the one who knows all things and we have in having the

Spirit have the mind of Christ. Likewise, you can have a true strength through the Spirit.

Paul talks about being strengthened to comprehend with all the saints. So it's not just mental matters, but it's rather even strength.

As you go in your day to day, how are Christians supposed to be divinely strengthened in order to face the trials that God has for them?

How are they supposed to rise up with wings like eagles? It's not through their own natural strength. It is through being connected to him who is infinite to have his strength.

How are you supposed to enjoy life in a prosperous way when we are made creatures who are designed for relationships and we do not receive the kind of love that we would like to receive?

The answer is you can have the love of God through the Spirit. You can experience the love of God.

He is the one who lets us know not just that God is good in a propositional sense, but experientially we can know the goodness of God.

We can know the love of God. We can have a full experience of him. As you find yourself tempted to sin, many of those times it is, pretty much every single one of those times, it is because there is some need that you are sensing that is not being met by God the way it should be met by God.

How can it be? Through the Spirit of God working within you. You will not feel any kind of weakness as you have power from the

Spirit. The Spirit is infinite and he is working within you. It's much like, a good analogy for this

I think is a computer. If you have a computer, well how much memory, or storage rather, does a computer have?

Maybe you've got a terabyte hard drive or something like that. How much power does it have?

Maybe it can last a day if you've got a good battery. It's very finite, but you plug it into the internet and it has near infinite knowledge.

You plug it into the power grid and it has near infinite power and capacity. We are finite beings, but as we are connected to God via his

Spirit, we are united to Christ, having the mind of Christ, having the strength of Christ, being the branches connected to the vine, we can know the unknowable.

We can be strengthened with the power that exceeds all human strength. This is how we can be made strong in our weakness.

It's because God's strength works in us, in our weakness. There are two particular ways that this strength and this knowledge displays itself.

One is by the Spirit's working within us. The other is by the Spirit working outside of us.

Just to consider those, at the beginning of Ephesians, in Ephesians chapter 1, it said, he worked in Christ when he...

It's talking about that power toward us. Let me start back a little bit earlier. Ephesians 1 is infamous for having incredibly long run -on sentences, so some of these thoughts are hard to pull together in short phrases.

Ephesians 119 says, And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward 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?

So, earlier it was talking about God giving us the Spirit in verse 17, and here it is connected that to the power that he has worked in Christ raising him from the dead.

Do you know what the implication of that is? That we would have the Spirit, that we would have the power by which he raised

Christ from the dead? Maybe you're familiar. Romans 8 -11 says, If the

Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised

Christ Jesus from the dead will also give you life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

That's the implication of it. You will have life. If he raised

Christ from the dead, as it says at the beginning of Ephesians, he will raise you from the dead. He will give you life. Now also, things without, we can call that victory.

We can call this life, life internally, victory externally. It says right here at the beginning of Ephesians again,

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.

Okay, so he put all things under Christ's feet. What is the implication of that? We read it in the in the benediction this morning.

Romans 16 -20, The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. Now this is something that has happened for Christ.

What does that imply for us? It is something that will happen for us. That same Spirit that has given him victory,

Christ being anointed with the Spirit at his baptism, that Spirit likewise gives us victory.

God gives us victory through the Spirit that Satan would be crushed under our feet.

So this happens both with life and with victory, within and without.

And remember me, when I go to Ephesians 1 -20 and 22, that is connected to Ephesians 3, not just because it's in the same book, but just think about the structure of Ephesians.

It's broken up into two halves. One is the doctrinal half. One is the practical half. The doctrinal half ends here in 3 -21, 3 -20 and 21 with this doxology that we've read that is the preaching text for today.

And Ephesians 1 opened up that whole section. Paul is opening up everything. He is explaining that he always prays for them.

Verse 15 of chapter 1, For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward the saints,

I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. He described what his prayers are. Then at the end of three, at the end of this half of the book, he goes ahead and prays that prayer and ends with this doxology.

So these are not disconnected. His prayer at the end of three is the same prayer with different words as his prayer was in chapter 1.

He's praying that we would know the power of him who raised

Christ from the dead and put enemies under Christ's feet. That means that we will be raised to life.

We will have enemies put under our feet. And that's not just a statement about the final resurrection and the final victory on the last day.

It is a statement about God's working within us even throughout this life. Yes, that will become fully manifest on that last day, but he would have us to know these things in some measure and have this strength in some measure even throughout this life in a growing way as we are sanctified by the

Spirit. So the Spirit is working within us.

The Spirit works great things. And furthermore, Spirit works by prayer. He moves by prayer.

When we pray, what we are essentially praying for in every circumstance is for a move of the

Spirit. You might not have thought about how all prayers reduce to that, but they do. We are praying for God to act.

Who does he act by? He acts by his Spirit. In Luke 11, we have the

Lord's Prayer in a shorter form than you see it in Matthew. And then you have some instruction about the

Lord's Prayer. So in Luke 11, Jesus gives the Lord's Prayer. And then he says to them, which of you as a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves.

So he talks about being willing to go to God and ask because if even someone who doesn't like you waking him up will give you things, how much more will

God give you things? He talks about God being a good father. He says, what father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent?

Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? Okay, so he's giving these analogies about asking for a fish versus a serpent, et cetera.

Now what this is saying that if you pray for a fish, that God's going to give you a fish. That's not necessarily the case.

God knows what is best for you. What it's saying is that he will give you what is best for you. And so what is that thing that is best for you that's described at the end of this?

Is it he's going to give you fish, he's going to give you eggs? What does it say at the end of this passage in verse 13 of Luke 11?

If then you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly father give?

What, just good gifts? How much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

This is the good gift that God always gives. It is the spirit. Every single prayer that you pray, if it is a right prayer, if it is answered, and all prayers are answered if they are asked in Jesus' name, even if they're not answered the way we would expect them, because he knows what is best.

He knows if we pray for something, what is actually best, he will always give his spirit to those who ask him.

Our prayers are ultimately for the spirit of Christ to work.

For the spirit of Christ to work within us, transforming us. This is the primary thing that's happening through our prayers, that God is working in us, to change us, to align us to his will, to make us more holy and humble, ready to give him thanks, ready to be more joyful when he gives an answer, so that we would not be ungrateful when he gives an answer.

If he did not have us come to him in prayer, we wouldn't even appreciate the answers to prayer. It is a blessing that God has us come to him in prayer.

I feel like I've mentioned this a few times even in my public prayers, but it's a blessing that God makes us a needy people.

If you did not need to eat, you would not appreciate having the energy that you have.

It is because you are a person who gets to experience the joy of having your needs met by daily bread that you appreciate food, that you appreciate energy, that you appreciate

God's blessings. These are things that God does for our benefit so that we would enjoy life more, that we would enjoy the life that he gives most especially by his spirit.

All this happens through the spirit of Christ. He's working in us.

He works great things and he works by prayer. Pray to him. Believe in the spirit.

When you are faced with difficulties and you don't know what will happen and you are despairing, believe in the

Holy Spirit. One thing I say to people who are despairing in a way that is, if I feel that their despair is more unwarranted than at other times,

I will often say something like, do you not believe in the Holy Spirit? Do you not believe in the Holy Spirit?

He can do great things. Pray for the work of the spirit. As we desire

God to move in this area to bless this church, to save souls, pray for a work of the spirit that he would put

Satan under the feet of God's people. As you face temptations to sin and you are distressed by how much you are struggling with it, pray for God's spirit to work within you to give you life.

As you see your brothers and sisters struggling, pray for the work of God's spirit. As you have needs that need to be met, pray for the work of God's spirit that you would have strength, that you would not feel your needs need to be met by externals, but rather may be met by him, either as he provides the externals or as he strengthens you in the midst of your lack.

Either way, he will answer. He knows what is best. He would not give a scorpion to someone who asked for an egg.

He gives the Holy Spirit to all who asks. Now this is not just speaking of him giving the spirit to those who do not have the spirit.

This is speaking of him in giving the spirit here. It is describing a greater move of the spirit.

Just like on the day of Pentecost, those people who are praying when the spirit was outpoured were not people who did not have the spirit.

Spirit was already working within them. They had already prayed the Lord's prayer. They had already received the spirit, but they had an outpouring of the spirit.

They had a greater work of the spirit as they prayed for the spirit. This is what you need to be doing.

You need to be praying for greater movement of the spirit both within you and without.

Because it is through this that God will accomplish what otherwise sounds impossible.

That you may know the unknowable. That you may fathom the unfathomable. That you may have infinite power even being one who is finite.

And it is through that that God will accomplish his purposes and he will bring glory to himself in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations.

Amen. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this wonderful truth about your spirit.

We ask that you would work according to that power that you have placed within us.

Your spirit. We thank you for this wonderful gift that Christ has earned through his perfect life and obedience and his death on the cross and having risen for our justification that he has given us the spirit.

And it is because he has ascended that we have the spirit in greater measure than we would otherwise.

We thank you for this and we ask that as we come to you in prayer as we pray for great things that you would answer far above anything that we ask or think and that you would do so by that power that works within us.