2. Prayer for Power - All Things New [Ephesians] Tim Mackie (The Bible Project)

we're we're kind of full speed ahead into this fall series we're doing in in Paul's letter to the Ephesians and we're calling this series all all things new because really the big idea of what this letter is about you may recall from a couple weeks ago and I kind of intro the whole thing is that Paul most of Paul's letters like first Corinthians or Philippians or Galatians or something if you've read other Paul's letters in the New Testament they're very specific he's writing them in response to a specific need or problem or issue whatever and Ephesians is different Ephesians was likely written to a whole number of churches in a region in and around Ephesus and Paul planted a lot of churches in that area and Ephesians reads a lot like an essay like a summary statement of Paul's kind of whole vision of his unique calling that Jesus gave him to announce the lordship and the reign of Jesus that extends even over the non-jewish world and that Jesus was making a new family a new covenant family that that found their identity only in the life and death and the resurrection of Jesus and so this whole letter is about God making all things new and making a new people for himself and so last week Josh helped us explore this like uber dense first 14 verses and I'm really glad I didn't have that assignment because it was it's just a really really dense packed statement but he began with this beautiful poem of praise and if you recall if you here last week it's this poem of praise to the triune God to the God who in the first verses in verse 3 is the father God the Father God the Son Jesus and God the spirit who mediates Christ's blessings to us in the spiritual blessings and so he talks about this God who is three and one who's a community within God's know himself and who has both created and invited and redeemed and saved a people for himself in the midst of a broken world and so he opens with this beautiful poem and what we're going to explore tonight here is verses 15 and following and it's a prayer he begins with this praise poem to the God whose story is revealed to us in Jesus and then he's going to pray for these these Christians who live in and around Ephesus and there's a new this is such a rad passage and I can't see everything that I want to say because it's just there's too much here but it's so beautiful and profound and there's so many great things going on here and I should say personally this verses 15 through 23 that we're going to explore tonight this has been a really important passage for me personally so as as a pastor I pray with and for people quite a lot and that's fine I never planned on being a pastor and so you know it's not like I might quote more qualified than anybody else to pray with or for people people seem to think that and that's fine or whatever I'm the pastor so it's okay but I'm certainly not you know and I never planned on this it just kind of happened and so this passage has been really important in teaching me about prayer and so I would just kind of wear that as a set of glasses as we as we read through these verses what and because prayer may be a new or old practice for you but what is the purpose of prayer for each other in this new family that Jesus is creating and Paul this passage has amazing wisdom to give us about the purpose of prayer for each other and our mist and and the kinds of things that we should pray for each other and before we actually kind of dive in and work through it just to kind of help give us a new frame of reference I want to tell a short story of an example of the kind of life that Paul is praying for here Paul is praying for these believers and as we're going to see he's praying that a new kind of living would emerge among the the Christians in these churches and the kind of life that Paul has in mind is the kind of life that was lived by a guy named Friedrich Bonn boodle sting say that 10 times 10 times fast yes so this is a father-son duo here the the Von Bulow's thing come on what a rad name right the bundle of things and so father and son right here and I don't you likely have not heard of these guys before German if you didn't guess already by by their name and so they these these two guys are responsible for starting in an organization that still exists today and it's today the largest Christian charitable care a network for the mentally and physically disabled in all of Central Europe they started something called the Bessel foundation back in that in the late 1800s and it's essentially I mean it's in fourteen cities all over Germany there's Hospital clinics and orphanages and so on all dedicated to the care of the mentally and physically disabled in the name of Jesus that's why this organization exists and it was started by by these two guys we get the picture I just like looking at their faces their well what house now let's senior has a smile but this guy is way too serious you know it's vague so so rad amazing followers of Jesus and I first heard about their their story actually not by anything about them but actually by reading a biography of another German Christian that you probably have heard of before a guy named Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was a German pastor and theologian and he grew up in the early 1900's and was an adult kind of basically coinciding with the rise of the Nazis in the 1930s and 40s and that is how all these stories come together but Bonhoeffer new-new friedrich jr pretty well and he visited the bethel community a number of times and as I read was reading Bonhoeffer story he was really impacted by his relationship with these guys and by what they were doing at the bethel community I want to read you a description of Bonhoeffer visit to the bessel community it's the biography by Eric Metaxas it was written a couple years ago if you like Viagra fees you have to read this I couldn't I couldn't put it down he says vessel began in 1867 as a Christian community for people with epilepsy but by 1900's it included several facilities that cared for 1,600 physically and mentally disabled persons Frederick jr. took it over at his father's death in 1910 and by the 1930s it was a whole town with schools and churches and farms and factories and shops and housing for patients nurses and caregivers at the center were numerous hospital and care facilities including orphanages so this is about Van hoppers visit Bonhoeffer saw Bethel as the antithesis of the Nazi worldview that exalted power and strength it was the gospel made visible a fairy tale landscape of grace with the physically and mentally disabled were cared for in a palpably Christian atmosphere now this this description grabs my attention for a number of different reasons particularly because really metaxas is wording here of describing this little community this town as a little fairytale landscape of grace I just love I love that phrase it's a little community that's living under the reign of a different king essentially and so this so Bonhoeffer visited the boat'll things you know in the in the night late 1920s and early 30s this is as the the Nazis and the Third Reich is kind of gaining momentum in in Germany before the mid 30s when Hitler's group seized power and and so on and so and the antithesis of the Nazi worldview so we're talking about a whole culture that came to see it as a good idea that for the progress of the human race we need to exalt certain values such as power and strength and ethnic purity and so on and therefore eliminate the lives of millions of other human beings who don't fit that description and so it's actually really really interesting von Bulow's thing became a defender of the people living in the vessel community and once the Nazi seized power they came numerous times demanding that he turn over the care of the people that were in the vessel community so that they could engage in what the Nazis called mercy killings so it's well-known that millions of Jewish people were murdered during the Second World War by the Nazis lesser known fact is the hundreds of thousands of mentally and physically disabled people were also murdered in in the death camps because they didn't fit the bill of the the Nazi worldview of a uber mensch as the the great human that would be the progress of the human race and so they came knocking at the door of vessel numerous times and this was at with actually such a stressful dangerous time for Friedrich jr. that the just a few months after World War two ended he died in his mid seventies and I can only guess out of just pure exhaustion right because his life was threatened numerous times and so on and so here's this guy living in the bubble of life living the bubble of the oven the Nazi culture that exalts power and strength at the expense of the weak and he somehow believed that he was accountable and that Hitler himself was accountable to a higher power namely Jesus and he created this community that lived according to a component like a like a fairytale land a totally different world where the weak are actually exalted as the most important and the people worthy of most dignity and care but the gospel centered world that he's created right here in the middle of a whole totally different culture governed by the powers that be that said these people aren't aren't worth anything and it seems to me that we might hear that story and be well that's super inspiring these are the stories that make you proud to be a Christian you're like yes that's rad and they did that in the name of Jesus that's awesome I like that right but but we might see that and be like yeah that's probably not in the future for me like that kind of kind of inspiring life and so on and I would want to challenge you and say actually this kind of life is exactly the kind of thing that Paul is praying for in the paragraph that we're about to read it's a kind of life that looks at the landscape of of your culture and says my allegiance is first and foremost to King Jesus and whatever powers that be that may exist in my world and the values and the worldview of my culture those no longer have power over me I live under a reign of a different king not just as an individual but actually as a community in Paul's vision is that this prayer would generate little fairytale lands of grace in these churches that he's what he's praying for what could motivate a kind of life like Friedrich von buildings a lot of prayer and a lot of prayers like this one that we're about to read we'll come back to him but I think that suffice is for a framework this prayer is has a lot of Bible II language and it makes our eyes glaze over and like oh yeah another prayer in the Bible no dude no there's not just another prayer in the Bible this kind of prayer has the power to generate lives that make big big impact in our world let's keep with dive into his prayer verse 15 of the visions chapter 1 Paul prays he says for for this reason by which he means everything he said before I Eve everything said Josh said last week enough said about that price so for this reason ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God's people I have not stopped giving thanks for you remembering you in all of my prayers let's just pause click here there's a number of things that are really really interesting here so he's heard so he's away now he's actually imprisoned some somewhere else and he's hearing about the lives of these Christians in churches that he helped start and so you can imagine these are people we know he lived in Ephesus for almost two years helping start the first community of Jesus followers that was ever there and he did that a number of other places around Ephesus as well and so he hears reports and they're really good reports he hears two things about about how they're doing he says what's the first thing he says I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and the second thing hears about is their love for the other Christians around them your love for all God's people now this is this is profound and this connects with the story of a Friedrich here when we hear faith in the New Testament we think of a belief or something that happens in your brain and that's true if you have faith in something there is I hope something going on in your brain but that's not that's not the only thing that that what this concept is about faith in the New Testament is about allegiance and loyalty and who you're grabbing on to for dear lives and so if you to place your faith in the Lord Jesus and all of the names to use is for Jesus in this prayer are very strategic to place your faith in the Lord Jesus is is about recognizing that Jesus is truly Lord and that my allegiance and devotion is now directed at nothing else but the risen King Jesus it's grabbing on to him as the best thing I've got going for me and it's something that happens in your brain but it's something that immediately and is connected to how you live which is what he says right here I'm hearing about your faith your devotion and trust and allegiance to the Lord Jesus and about your love for all God's people so he's not hearing about how they're writing like little heart letters to each other like that right so it's not so love is not in love in the Bible is not primarily an emotion it's the commitment to action so in our culture love is something that happens to us and like you fall in love and which causes real problems of course when you fall out of love right which happens all the time apparently and and then you're like well what's the status of this relationship and then if you're actually if you're married and you fall out of love and well I guess it's not convenient to be married anymore and there you go the powers that be have created a culture like ours where you can fall out of love and apparently fall out of marriage too and it's just not that not that big of a deal and the Bible's description of love is very very different love is a commitment to act for the well-being of another person ahead of my own well-being and love is the mark the key mark of a follower of Jesus because if you have given your allegiance to the Lord Jesus who loved me ie gave up his life for me Jesus followers are marked as people who do this for others and that's the fairytale landscape of grace easier said than done right but but this is what Paul prays for and so look at what do you think saying I'm hearing about this you're these churches you guys are doing so great your allegiance and trust is in the Lord Jesus you're caring for one another and it's I'm hearing about all the stuff you're doing and I haven't stopped giving thanks for you I'm remembering you in my prayers verse 17 look at what he's done for 17 and so I keep asking I haven't stopped praying for you guys now this to me is really profound and this is what I was talking about an insight into prayer right here for many of us we think of prayer as as like crisis management so prayer is what you turn to when things go bad and even just think about the language that we use or the times that we bring up prayer so we say so-and-so needs your prayers right because something bad happened or because they're really sick or this tragedy took place and that's true so and so it does need your prayers when bad things happen but that is not what Paul is saying here is it what look at what he's saying he's saying you guys are doing awesome you have Allegiance in the Lord Jesus you trust in him you're showing love towards other people so I have not stopped praying for you and we think wait a minute why does why do they need to be prayed for they're doing great improbable to say exactly they're doing great that's why they need me does not stop praying for them do you see this he takes our idea of prayer is something you do when it's a crisis and he flips it on his head and he says no no prayer is just adding fuel to the fire that's already burning and so when someone's doing great they need your prayers more than any other time and when someone's not doing great they also need your prayers more than any other time all right so prayer so whether the fire is about to go out because things are hard or where the fire is raging because people are doing awesome people always need your prayers and he never stopped praying for these new Christians in these churches that he helped start whether they're doing terribly or they're doing they're doing great and this is again I think this is unique insight for us as we think about as we think about prayer prayer is very important in times of crisis it's very important in times that are not crisis moments because it's about praying because what's he praying for is we're going to see is praying that these already growing Christians would continue to mature and to grow and so look at what he look at what he prays for here and I would just encourage you is you think about a question like how do you how are you supposed to pray for people in your community group one of the things that we ask community groups is to dedicate time in sharing life and sharing about your lives and praying for each other how do you do what are you supposed to do for each other and what does Paul pray for here look at verse 17 he says I keep asking that the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ the glorious father that he would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better I pray that the eyes of your heart will be enlightened in order that and he's going to go on to talk about the things that he wants them to know and we'll get to them and just just a second so look what he's praying for here notice that he doesn't pray for their circumstances at all I think one of the things that we often pray for you know so-and-so has had a tragedy or you know pray for so-and-so you know things are really bad we pray for the circumstances lord please provide this please you know provide her with a job or please help them recover from sickness we pray for circumstances and what's interesting in this prayer and a number of other of Paul's prayers in his letters he never prays for people circumstances it's really interesting he prays for something else and what does he pray he prays for with god-given wisdom look at this a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that whatever circumstances are in their lives that this becomes an opportunity for them to draw closer to Jesus in relationship right so that you may know may know him better now there's a lot of religious language you hear that might might be even easy for us to kind of overlook and so actually this will be an interesting little vote right here he says I keep asking you that's the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ the glorious father may give you the spirit of wisdom how many of you have a capital S on spirit okay how many of you have a lowercase s on spirit oh that's a good one all right that's good that's good so it's actually unclear here does this Paul have in mind here that it's the human spirit which is the New Testaments way of talking about that aspect of the human person that's that's open to relationship with with our Creator and with Jesus or is he praying that this is about God's own spirit that is coming alongside us being present with us and Ageing aiding it which one is it and clearly our translations are divided because we don't have Paul here to interview like what did you really mean Bob so we were to use this doesn't doesn't make it entirely clear one thing I think that is important is that whatever Paul is praying for it's that God would give us a new quality of insight in our relationship with Jesus and then actually knowing how how to understand what whatever this life circumstance how I can find God in this in other words Paul doesn't pray that so-and-so's like hip would get healed hit hug grant and right grandma Zelda's hit for something he doesn't pray that so-and-so would find a job would he does pray is that through the experience of Zelda breaking your hip and through the experience of Mary looking for a job and John dealing with the breakup with his girlfriend or whatever what he prays for is that whatever the life circumstance the God's presence would enlighten something inside of them and I think by by God's own spirit God's own personal presence he prays that these Christians would see whatever life circumstances they're in that they would that their eyes will be open to the fact that God's right there with them personally present in those circumstances it's what that's what the Spirit is in the Bible is not like a weird ghost like it's God's personal presence with every Christian is Jesus personally present with you in every moment and he prays that through this circumstance that I wouldn't see this difficult circumstances God abandoning me just the opposite that this is an opportunity in which Jesus is with me so I can I can actually understand his grace and presence for me much deeper than I ever had before this is very illuminating he doesn't pray for their circumstances he prays that the circumstances would open up new levels of growth and maturity in them as they see how Jesus is present with them through the spirit and this is the way that we can pray we can pray for each other and even just think about think about Fredrik one bottle spring so we can say that name 10 times fast but I think look when the Nazis come knocking at the front door of the Bethel community you're likely to think like Jesus where are you you're nowhere to be found no like where God's abandoned me what they were there here there was rifles or whatever right and what Paul would pray apparently is Friedrich you know you're on a journey and this is an opportunity for you to lean into Jesus in a new way that you have never had to trust Jesus before this becomes a moment of growth for him and it is and I can only imagine that it was these kinds of prayers that that were able to keep Friedrich afloat during those types of circumstances what what about you what about you let's keep let's keep going so he wants he prays that these believers would see whatever their circumstances are new opportunities for growth and that Jesus is present right there with him and he's going to pray for three specific new realizations for these Christian and the third one is where the dynamite is but we'll do all three here because they are all they're all connected yeah so look at verse 18 he says I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you might know and there are three things he wants them to come to experience and know even more here's the first one he says I pray that you'd either be enlightened so that you might know the hope to which he's called you we'll just read through them all together here second thing that you might know the riches of his glorious inheritance among his holy people and third that you might know his an incomparably great power for us who believe three things he prays for them and again I just would encourage you to think of this as a model what would it look like for you to pray these kinds of things for other people so what's the first thing he prays for is that they might know and experience and internalize the hope to which he's called you so each of these is huge we could do a whole series on each of these you know whatever but we're trying to not take a year to do the letter to the Ephesians right so we're we're we're flying big picture over these this is this really profound so the Christian life is about taking on a posture of hope and hope is is about having a conviction that my present circumstances don't determine the meaning of my lives whatever the present state of the world is whatever the present state of your life is those circumstances don't get to determine the meaning of your lives Christian hope is about the fact that that in the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus something so surprising happened so counterintuitive and strange and wonderful that if I'm a Christian I have to be open to the fact that my life may suck and the state of the world may be horrible but I believe in a God who brings life out of death who came among us to personally bear the result of all of the stupid selfish things that we do on the cross and to reverse that into life that can spread and spread and bring new life to more and more human beings who grab on to Jesus as the best thing they've got going for them in faith and so if that's the God I say I believe in then one of the disciplines of the Christian life and what he prays for them is that you don't ever forget that there's this future calling the hope to which I just called you God is making all things new he's doing that right here in the present in the midst of this old broken world and he will complete that work when Jesus returns and judges and restores our world in the new in the new new creation and so what that means is that whatever my life circumstances are Paul prays we could always see our present circumstances in light of this future hope and that whatever my present is it doesn't determine the meaning of my lives the life and the death and the resurrection and the hope that I have in Jesus that's where my life's meaning is found you praise that they wake up to this fact and it's connected to the second thing that he prays for them I pray that you might understand the hope to which he's called you I pray that you might know and understand the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people now that just sounds Bible II doesn't it like there's a whole bunch of Bible words and you finish me like what on earth does that mean right so the riches inheritance holy people look it's going what's going on here so and Paul's brilliant here in lots of different ways but he's taking a handful of different phrases right out of the Old Testament and they're phrases that actually were used to describe the people of ancient Israel got the Covenant family that he rescued out of slavery in Egypt and brought to Mount Sinai and made as a covenant family with himself and and the language that that God used to describe his covenant people of ancient Israel is precisely this language right here he's actually pulling these phrases right out of one of the books of the Torah the book of Deuteronomy and here's just give you a flavor here his two passages that I think he's he's borrowing from here so this is a Moses speaking to the people of Israel and Moses says but as for you all Israel Yahweh took you he brought you out of the iron melting furnace which is the metaphor of their slavery in Egypt out of slavery in Egypt to become the people of his inheritance as you now are and just a couple chapters later Moses says into ink in Israel he says for you are a holy people to Yahweh your God Yahweh your God has chosen you do you hear Ephesians 1 here right election and chosenness from last week anyway yeah God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people his treasured possession and so the idea here is is not that God just happens to like ancient Israelites better than anybody else this is the theme of election in the Bible in order to reach in bling bring blessed bling Freudian slip of some kind I'm not sure to to bring blessing and redemption to all the nations of the earth he starts by redeeming and rescuing one family making them his special covenant people so that they can be his witnesses to the character and the mercy of this redeeming God out to all of the nations he choose he chooses one on behalf of the many now how did Israel do at being a holy people the treasured possession of Yahweh yet not so well and that's so that's the whole complicated story of the Old Testament and so what Paul Paul's deep conviction is that the Covenant family that God began by redeeming out of Israel has actually has come to a sufficient in in Israel's Messiah in Jesus in Christ in King Jesus and that God for all of those who reach out and faith towards Jesus and find themselves in Christ or in the king they find themselves among the chosen ones this new chosen family that includes both Jewish people but also every other kind of human bring Gentiles and that's what the following weeks of Ephesians will be about about the new family of Jew and non-jew together in Jesus and so we he's using these words that used to describe only ancient Israel to now describe this new family that has been brought together around Jesus and it's it's language that describes how much God loves and cherishes human beings and for those who actually accept God's love and cherishing for them and His grace towards them they enter into this family and so for a long time I used to think Paul's praying that we would know the riches of our glorious inheritance by which I thought he meant like this going to heaven or something like that and then but that's not what he's praying for he prays that we would wake up to the fact that we as his people are God's own special treasured possession and again it's not that like he so apparently he loves you more than everybody else right so we're like no of course that's not what he's saying his point is is that he's created a special people who are unique and unholy in theory holy who were distinct and different than the world around them to be precisely to be the witnesses to his mercy and grace to the nation's and he prays that we would wake up to the privilege and the calling of what it means to belong to the people that are God's own inheritance that God has taken and set aside for himself and so it's both a privilege that we're opening our eyes to but it's also a challenge and a calling which is connected to the third thing that he prays for here and the third one is where the or the dynamite is here's the third thing he prays for it prays for the hope we might know the hope to which he's called us the riches of being part of his glorious inheritance and his holy people here's the third thing Paul prays that these Christians would would come to know his incomparably great power for us who believes Paul Paul wants these Christians to to open their eyes to this resource of power that's apparently available to us if we just have eyes to see it and would wake up to that fact there's this resource of power I don't know what you think when you hear the word power in our cultural setting when we hear the word power for the most part it's not very positive you know it's lucky it's hard to say she's a very powerful woman right you expect me to say that like don't cross her you notice or like he's a very powerful man he can make things happen that's how power is conceived of in our culture and specifically because you know here we are like jaded disenfranchised 21st century whatever generation people whatever and so with all these stories of the abuse of power that come before us so we're automatically suspicious of power because we think of power as just having the ability to do whatever the heck you want of having the resources the ability to do what you want that's how we think of power and so what does it mean that like Paul says that you might wake up to there's this huge power resource available to you and so it's interesting actually in the history of Christianity there's been a lot of branches of Christianity's that have taken this is kind of like yes in Jesus resurrection from the dead you have power you're a powerful person in Jesus and so we should all be powerful and influencers and seize your destiny and God wants to underwrite your dreams to pave your way to the Stars or whatever and there's a whole branches of like victory power Christianity like that and and for some people that's how it goes and that's great for them for most of us that's not how it goes though you know and our dreams don't come true and our prayers for this or that thing don't get answered at all the way we thought and we're like oh where's the power I don't I don't know and then some then a lot of people just write the whole thing off and that's why Paul is really quick to qualify what he means he says it's a very specific kind of power that's available to Christians if you just have eyes to see it and look at what he says here he said he immediately tries to cut off misunderstanding by saying what kind of power he's talking about he says I pray that you might know his incomparably great power that's right there for those you believe that power this power then talking about it's the same power as the mighty strength that God exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms far above all rule and authority power and Dominion and every name that is invoked not only in the present age but also in the age to come all clear great whoa okay so there's a whole bunch of other Bible II words here so so he immediately qualifies he's not talking about like power and victory be an influencer for Jesus or something is very different he says the kind of power that's available to us is the same kind of our power that transformed the death of Jesus into resurrection lives and and really what's going on here is Paul has a whole story in his in his mind and he's just alluding to a couple different moments in the story and actually he told he he states what the big picture of the story is when he talks about this language he says the present age and the age to come and this is the basic story that Paul's telling in all of his letters is that he calls the present world that you and I live in he calls it the present age where he calls it the world he calls it the age of sin and death and so it's it's the good world the God made but that has been deeply compromised and fractured by human sin and selfishness that results in a world of death and that looks like ours because of the seven billion human beings whose selfish decisions all compound on each other and make the world super screwed up that's the age of sin and death and part of the story that he's trying to tell in all of his letters and for him is basically a way of telling the story of the gospel is that the age to come the future has actually come crashing in to the present in Jesus and it's as if God has in Jesus come among us as the one human being who is not compromised by sin and who doesn't give in to the impulses that we all give into every single day he actually lives as the kind of human being that God always intended human beings to be and he lives on our behalf he dies on our behalf and he had on the cross he absorbs the collective just just mess and and results of all of the stupid selfish decisions that we make he absorbs death into himself on the cross and so the resurrection of Jesus is this moment were right here in the midst of our broken screwed up world God's how we see what the power of God is all about and apparently it's not like power to do whatever the heck God wants to do or to tell you what to do or command you to like be a nice person or something it's the kind of power that gives up status and authority to absorb and to take the hit on behalf of others and to allow the sin of others to crush him but because its commitment to the humanity is so strong and because his according to chapter 2 his love and mercy for sinful humans is so strong he has the power to reverse death into life and that's what the resurrection is about and so in the resurrection it becomes here's what God's power is up to in our world not power to underwrite your dreams to the Stars its power to take the most tragic sinful selfish human beings and through an encounter with Jesus turns them into something that's actually life-giving literally spiritually metaphorically the whole shebang and so whether you know whether it's a physical death our Christian conviction about physical death is that it's a tragedy it's an enemy but it doesn't get the last word why because Jesus rose from the dead and whatever power God exerted when you when Jesus was raised from the dead that power is going to manifest itself somehow for me one day - and so resurrection power in impulsive letters as we're going to see is not just about physical death though it's about the power that God has to actually change us so there might be patterns of behavior in our in our lives we're patterns of relating and like just everywhere we go we leave a trail of broken relationships or something and what Paul is asking you to entertain is do you actually have a hope that the present state of your life doesn't get to determine the meaning of your lives the present state of your character diction that you have right now the broken state of the relationships that you have right now he prays that you would actually have the face to entertain the idea that God has the power to resist to reverse those those death moments in your life into something new he's making all things new this is the kind of place the power to heal and transform sinful human beings that's what Paul price for here and for some of you you might think okay I could see how maybe God could do that in my life and there others of you were like yeah that's yeah nice pipe dream okay so you don't know my story you know you don't know like the patterns that I'm in I've been in this downward spiral for fifteen years now you really think Jesus can get me out of this and I you know I can't answer that question for you all I can say is I'll pray for you and I'll just pray this kind of prayer for you and if a gathering of Christians means anything we're gathering in hope that the privilege of being among the people that God calls his own precious inheritance and the hope that we have is that he can actually reverse the power of sin and death in our lives now it gets even better gets even better so he wants us to wake up to that power that he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and then look at this next aspect of God's power that he wants us to wake up to that's available to us he says it's the same power that seeded Christ at God's right hand in the heavenly realms above all rule and authority and power and Dominion and every name that is invoked in the present age and also in the age to come what what on earth is he talking about so this is a big theme this is the first time and it's not the last time but we're going to come across this this fall and a big theme in Ephesians and a big part of what a Christian worldview is trying to help open our eyes to see is that the physical world as it presents itself to us is not the whole story and as a child of 21st century American culture that tells us right that your what you hear see taste touch and smell that's all there is to reality so this is a really hard pill to swallow so what what are these powers and authorities and the heavenly realms and Jesus is above them that's cool I got to go to work in the morning you know again I gotta like pay my bells it's not like what does that have to do with anything at all and in Paul's mind this has everything to do with everything because the powers have an immense Authority in human history and have immense influence in human history what are these powers and and what kind of what is it what does even mean to wake up to the role that they have and the influence that they have once you look at chapter 2 with me how you guys done Ephesians is dense isn't it it's dense so I guess I'm sorry but I'm not sorry I think it's good squid Wade Griffin's is a great way to grow try to understand what underneath Paul's talking about look at chapter 2 this is his description of humanity that's living in the age of sin and death he says as for you all you were dead in your transgressions and sins I talked about this a couple weeks ago the idea of zombies living dead is not a new fad it's actually quite an old idea all right so it's people who are alive physically even spiritually and emotionally but there's their dead end and dead because of the perpetual selfish choices that we keep making and getting caught in the deadness to an awareness of other people and of God and so he says we were all among the Living Dead in which you used to live when you follow the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient so Paul has has this idea and it's an idea that's all throughout the scriptures it's that human beings we're just we're not actually that bright and most of the decisions that we make aren't actually very reasoned choices we're just pretty selfish and most of the decisions that we make are based on our desires and there you go this is the story of most of our lives and so that's that's true but Paul also has another another way another insight to offer about why this world is the way it is and it's the idea that's written right through the story of the Bible it's that there there exists a whole other realm of beings created beings who have real influence in human behavior and in human history but that are not visible to us and some of your likes and that just got way too weird for me hahaha so but I do at least want to encourage you that it's actually not that weird a hundred years ago if you were to try and explain Einstein's theory of relativity and life where things are going now in physics and string theory and multiple dimensions outside the four that we live in right space Heights depth width and time the idea that there are multiple dimensions dimensions that exist and that are real but that are not perceptible at all to us four dimensional beings that's that's commonplace in modern physics now do you know this I hope you know this all right the idea that there are things that are real that absolutely can hardly be perceived by us at all or likely will never be perceived by us but by the math they're real that's that's the common place this is not very strange the idea of other dimensions overlap and intersect with the four that we that we inhabit and so the idea that there is a reality even being who exists in such dimensions and can actually influence the four that we live in it's true the stranger than fiction and if you would have tried to explain Einstein's theory of relativity to someone living a hundred years ago they were thought you were absolutely nuts yes so probably more than 100 years ago when did Einstein well anyway I don't know you guys get my point so hundred fifty eight years ago or whatever and so so here's what the Bible is asking us to entertain and I would just put it before you and to say how do you go about explaining certain things in our world so even think personally and and the Bible's view of spiritual realities two of which Jesus is the victorious king over that's where the story the Bible's view of the spiritual realities is is such that it's a way of thinking about our own personalized but also our corporate lives as a society so what Paul's saying here is that there is a spirit there is a non-physical being who's apparently influencing individual humans to exploit our sinfulness and selfishness and make a horrible mess to make a horrible mess even worse and so think this is right back to what this holes all the imagery in in the story of the Garden of Eden is about this presence of this mysterious strange evil being who's trying to exploit human selfishness to make to make a horrible mess and you might say that's really strange talking snakes and so on but so think about it this way think about your own personal experience so well say you have a relational conflict with somebody you know or just someone in your life and you know they just kind of push your buttons and you know that it's wrong to just lash out and like bite their head off you know how they're a hundred a snap fm and you know what's wrong you know it's the wrong thing to do and you know you shouldn't do it totally not the right thing to do but you get into the moment right and now they're saying that thing again and they're bringing up that thing from two years ago you know unless you you're right here and you're like no I don't want to do that on our back yeah and you just you do it whatever and you totally level you just you just cut them right down you know with a cutting comment or whatever it is you know and then ten minutes later what are you doing you're regretting the fact that you did that because you know it was wrong you know it was wrong eating right up to it you let you gave into it and then every moment leading after you just like shouldn't dangle why don't do that again so here's so this is the human experience of evil and I think it's actually really true to our experience there's a sense in which who made that decision to just deliver that cutting comment in the moment you did but there's another sense in which that impulse feels alien to me it's me but it's not me that's not the me that I want to be I did absolutely cliche but you have a dick right that's not like I don't want to be that kind of person and I know it my virtuous good self knows that that's not why what is this thing inside of me that makes me do this we use this kind of language right and so this is not like just you know silly devil under every bush this is the Bible's way of getting at evil our experience with evil it's as if there is this influence exploiting my weaknesses exploiting my frailties and these thoughts come out of nowhere to say and do different things and it may or may not be influenced from evil spiritual beings or something like that Paul doesn't always resort to this explanation sometimes he just says yeah dude you're selfish and you're you're working out of your own selfish nature but other times he really does believe there's outside influence here you guys with me and that's part of our experience of evil it's actually not that bizarre it's actually not that crazy now here's what Paul does turn to Chapter six with me what Paul is going to ask us to entertain and actually I'm guessing this may or may not be a new idea to some of you most of us we might be familiar with what I just talked about and we might be familiar with like the silly version of it which is of like the half human half goat creatures you know with the tail and the pitchfork you know and these are the evil spiritual beings so first of all just get that silliness out of your head right so that's European Christians who imported Greek mythology into Christianity so just get that out of your head so this is this is what the Bible's saying something different so the Bible it asked us to entertain a reality or a dimension where these beings have influence over us as individuals the Bible would also ask us to entertain the existence of beings that have influence over whole cultures whole societies exploiting the collective brokenness of dozens hundreds thousands of human beings to make a huge complex mess look at what Paul says in chapter 6 verse 10 he says finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes for our talking collectively as the community of Jesus listen our struggle is not against flesh and blood so just positive real quick here so he's in a context where many Jewish communities were still persecuting these early followers of Jesus for the blasphemous ideas that are crucified Jesus was actually the Jewish Messiah this is a context where the Roman authorities are using violence and even execution to stamp out this new movement and Paul has the audacity to say if you realize like the Jews in Romans yeah they're not that's not where our struggle is like are you kidding they're at my door with guns and pauses no they're not your enemy at all at all here's your enemy he says our struggle is not against flesh and blood it's against the rulers against the authorities against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms it's the same words that he used in Chapter 1 and so here's this is a whole theme he talks about the powers in this letter in Corinthians and Romans in Colossians and Paul has this idea that these this is not about demon under every bush this is about there are powers at work to influence and exploit the collective brokenness of humanity that are working to destroy human beings think of two examples with me but I think would illustrate what Paul's what Paul's getting at so think of something that happened 50 years ago in American culture right it's been called the sexual revolution practically the sexual liberation movement right so here's a movement that takes place in American culture right about the free love that sex and love doesn't need to be contained within you know the institution and by the man and marriage and this kind of things there's free love man you know whatever you got the impulse go for it you know and so here we are 50 years later the children and grandchildren of that great liberation and how's that working out for our culture you don't have sang and I'm saying so so we so here we are in the generations and grandchildren generations post generations and like the majority of us are growing up with a mom or a dad or without both and maybe just one or neither you know we our culture as a right into place where if it's just a good idea to experiment having sex with as many people as you need to and this is a good idea in our culture here we are 50 years into this cultural movement and it's it's worked ruin in our culture absolute ruin right and so do you actually think like the people at Woodstock if they could have known what was going to happen in the next 50 years about the millions of human beings who would have such a screwed up view of the world because they don't have any stability at home because marriage just became a convenience or inconvenience from mom or dad right or the I mean this is just brought to my attention the other day when the Center for Disease Control came into existence in 1946 there were two known sexually transmitted diseases there are now 27 27 so apparently the sexual liberation has even invented new ways of humans destroying our own bodies and we like it like we love it we all know in our minds that like yes 27 sexually weight sexually transmitted diseases but I actually think it's a good idea to sleep with as many people as I can as I want to you know I want to go are we like missing something here unless what is going on here and Paul who's responsible for the sexual revolution so well how many people organize Woodstock you know maybe a dozen or so I don't know you know this is like the Grateful Dead are they responsible it means Hollywood Hollywood's the problem are they responsible you know like The Beatles The White Album that's definitely you know what do you it like what who's responsible for this nobody and everybody and this is precisely the kind of thing that Paul would II would say the powers it is it's the palette it's it's how else do you explain a whole culture of humans acting so irrationally for something that's bringing such ruin into our lives and we just love it we think it's a great and we just keep doing it how do you explain that and one of the ways Paul would appeal its they do there there are forces at work exploiting the collective ignorance and impulses of humanity to ruin ourselves and we think it's a good idea that's that's one example let me bring it full circle back to the 1940s in Germany and so here you have of course Hitler is a very key figure but he's not he's not the only person you had a whole culture what's so important for us to recognize we think about World War two Germany was like the pinnacle of human culture in the 1800s and technology and education of philosophy everything they were like the best thing humanity had going for it in terms of like America was still a backwater a bunch of Hicks you know back in eighteen hundreds and sub and so here's the most sophisticated culture on the planet and within just 15 years it becomes absolutely a good and accepted good idea to eliminate the lives of millions of human beings so that our culture can progress how do you how do you explain that and Paul would say the powers do there are powers at work exploiting collective human brokenness to wreak havoc in our world it's the powers and so I could say a lot more about the powers but I've actually come this has come to be really an important and compelling part of Christianity to me a way of explaining the way evil works on us it's me but it's not me and how is it that myself and whole culture of people can call something that's so clearly ruining us and we can call it good how do you explain that one of the ways Paul would say it's the powers now go back to chapter 1 let's wrap this up Paul says this what did he say about the powers he said look at verse 20 again God exerted this power he raised Christ from the dead he seated Christ at the right hand God's right hand in the heavenly realms above all these rulers and authorities and powers and dominions every name that is named or every name that's invoked and almost surely here he's talking about the practice developed in the first century of calling on the name Caesar as though he were God because Roman Roman culture the Caesar the King was was deified as a God he embodied the power and authority of the state and this is actually really inflammatory what he's saying here he he got caught in public saying this a time or two and it landed him in prison because he's saying actually the Risen Jesus is the real king and not any of these powers and not any of the earthly powers that are being influenced or used as puppets in the hands of the real powers that be in the world Jesus is the true power and look at verse 22 God placed all things under Jesus's feet and appointed him to be the head over all things for the church which is his body the fullness of him who fills everything in every way what slow down Paul stop we can only take one idea to type so so apparently Paul II this idea that in the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus so he might have this idea like ya King Jesus he is the king of my life used the king he's the king of the spiritual world or something and that is not what the New Testament what is taught what is Jesus the king of according to verse 22 everything what's included in everything everything not not just the spiritual dimension that we can't see but like everything now this creates a real contradiction for many of us it's like okay so that's cool but like so I live in Portland Jesus is the king of Portland yeah like that's real is okay we laugh because that sounds bizarre to a specimen what does that even mean Jesus the king of Portland but look look at what he says here this has never struck me until I studied this passage to you look what he says here God made Jesus king over everything appointed him to be the head over all things for what specific people church words Jesus is the king of everything he's exalted even above the powers but does everybody recognize that fact no and so what what here's what the church is according to Ephesians the church is this little fairytale land where Jesus is actually King and where people recognize what is true though not everybody has eyes to see it ie that Jesus's death and resurrection made him the the benevolent loving King and leader of all of humanity the church is this little fairytale landscape that is called to live as if Jesus is truly the king and and we are called to by the empowerment of the Spirit and this is all what the rest of the letter is going to be about is to allow the Spirit to create in our midst and in our own personal lives a little fairytale land where the powers no longer get to determine for you what is right and wrong where you actually get to discover your humanity again for the first time in Jesus and so it's a community where where our view of sex becomes completely different it becomes reformed around the idea of a covenant God who loves and gives himself and so sex is no longer a right of personal convenience it's a gift that I have to offer someone else to whom I'm going to make a lifetime covenant commitment just like Jesus made a lifetime covenant commitment to me money this is this little fairytale landscape of money mony is no longer simply a means to an end money is no longer something that I use just to survive and just think about myself and my own personal needs money is something it's one resource among many that I can use to help and serve the needs of others ahead of myself power money sex power 3 3 gods of our age right so power is we're all like trying to climb the little ladders of our own little social hierarchies and for you it might be your little niche whatever thing you know I always I love making fun of niche subcultures in Portland but there's so many of them the fun so fun to make fun of you know because if you think that like you think like you're at the top of the heat because I you can you like collected that kind of antique guitar or something that's cheers kudos to you yes I think but whatever there's a little social hierarchy of people and it's like oh he's the coolest guy cuz he has that kind of guitar whatever so all of these little hierarchies and the cross just levels all of that and just says here in this family we do power and influence if you want to have influence you go to the bottom and you just start serving and helping and meeting other people's needs like crazy and that's how we do power here in this new this new family and so here's here's really what this prayer kind of all wraps up to and you begin to see you can see Friedrich von bolt of things life just parabolically enacting this prayer can't you when Hitler came knocking at his door he just straight up he just said that's cool actually it's not cool but you've got this whole worldview thing going and you've convinced our whole culture that that's okay but not here but because Jesus is king here and we're doing life differently and we believe that these people's lives are actually an ultimate value in dignity because that's what happens when Jesus reigns as king people discover their humanity and they discover their their beloved status by the Creator of God and this is what Paul Paul prays for so let me just put the question to you and as we go into worship here I just encourage you like what this is true personally but also collectively what are the areas personally for you just and even just use a list money sex power were you actually you you profess allegiance to Jesus but your life doesn't reflect that in any way your life reflects the life that's controlled by the powers in the value system that the powers of our culture have imposed on and what would it look like for you to even just like start small you know start with one money sex or power what would it mean to just let one of those areas come under the influence of King Jesus and that you actually take that part of your life and you rethink it in light of the community group that you're about to start or in light of what's going on here in the community here at door vote because that's what God has called us to be a little fairytale landscape of grace where people come and find refuge and good news good news come out from under the influence of the powers in our culture and that has to happen to each of us first so as I'm going to close in prayer and I just would encourage you to take the time that remains to just you know as we always do make this a time of self-examination but also examination of our collective life together and how we could together become a more faithful witness to the to the reign of King Jesus in our meds

Channel: Tim Mackie Archives

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Length: 65min 4sec (3904 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 21 2017