Two Thursdays ago, my wife and I left our home around 8AM for a doctor’s appointment in Colorado. Every time I get into our Subaru Outback, I plug my phone into our car so that I can use my maps app and listen to my favorite playlist during my drive, our drive down to Colorado on Thursday was no exception until about 15 minutes into our drive the radio let out a irritating high pitched sound prohibiting me from listening to my newly downloaded navigation voice from one of my favorite movies of all time: Po, from Kung Fu Panda. We have a 2021 Subaru Outback, there was no reason for the audio to have abruptly stop working, but it did. However, nearly an hour later, after stopping for a pit stop, the audio mysteriously was fixed as soon as I started the car to continue our trip to our doctor’s appointment.
After we reached our destination, I immediately google searched on my phone to see if anything weird happened that would cause the audio in our car to do what it did. Here is what popped up in my search: “Two outbursts from the sun occurred as widespread cellphone outages were reported throughout the United States on Thursday morning (Feb. 22).” I am not sure it is related, but on Sunday we learned that all but four of our brand-new pagers stopped working over the weekend, our live stream audio stopped working properly, and a sim card in one of our Elders’ phones weirdly got fried. That’s not all, on Monday while checking out from Albertson’s, I was told that they were having trouble with their computers.
Now, I don’t know if any of this is related or if it has anything to do with Solar flares or the mysterious balloon that happened to be floating 43,000 feet above, “the mountainous Western United States.” Here is what did come to mind though: Our electrical grid is fragile, and it is vulnerable. With all our military might and power as a nation, we are not in control! I don’t know what happened on Thursday, but here is what was reported in New Delhi, India just this past Wednesday (2.28.2024) on WION with the news caption: “Massive sunspot wider than Earth is now aiming directly at us. Is it cause for worry?”
Recently, scientists noticed that a hyperactive sunspot, first detected on February 18, is now swelling at a faster rate and is pointed right towards Earth. In 2024, the biggest sunspot named AR3590 first appeared on February 18, on the Sun’s Earth-facing side. It quickly started swelling into a dark patch, much wider than our planet.
On February 21, AR3950 spit out a pair of X-class solar flares, which are known as the most powerful type of solar flare, with magnitudes of X1.7 and X1.8. On February 22, the same sunspot released a massive X6.3 flare, the most powerful solar explosion recorded in over six years.
All three flares caused temporary radio blackouts on Earth, but none of them launched coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which are clouds of magnetized plasma that can ram into Earth's magnetic shield as they fly through space.[1]
We are fragile and we are not in control! You, dear friend, are fragile and have little to say over whether or not you will survive the next 24 hours. Consider that reality against the backdrop of the fragility of your faith and determination to live a life pleasing to the One who made the sun, and billions like it, that has the power to wipe out all of Earth’s power grid in seconds. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light” (Gen. 1:1-3).
Christian, the same God who spoke into existence more than 300 billion suns like ours, is the One of whom we are told in Holy Scripture, “…has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). This is the God who called you, redeemed you, and sealed you. This is the God who is keeping you because He will receive His inheritance! The question before us and the one that Ephesians 1:19-23 answers for us is this: “How can I know that I can rest in the hope of that same God’s calling upon my life; that I can stand on the reality that I am His inheritance because of all that Jesus has done, and experience the greatness of His power through the indwelling and sealing of the Holy Spirit?” Let us turn our attention to Ephesians 1:19-23 to find out!
The Christian’s Salvation is Held by Resurrection Power
The power Paul described in Ephesians, among other places in his epistles, is a power that enables those of us who are redeemed by Christ to fight against sin, doubt, worry, and any other adversary that threatens to undo those of us who have been called by God, are the inheritance of God, and have been raised to new life by God.
To have the eyes of our hearts enlightened in such a way that we “know” the hope of our calling, the riches of His inheritance, and boundless power toward us who believe, is the kind of knowing involving the mind, heart, and will. After all, Jesus did say that the greatest commandment is, “You shall love the Lord Your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (see Matt. 22:35-40). But it is also more than that. James Montgomery Boice said, “Christianity is knowledge, yes. But it is also power, power from beginning to end. Without the power of God not one individual would ever become a Christian. The salvation of the soul is a resurrection, the recovery of a person from the dead. Without God’s power not one individual would ever triumph over sin, live a godly life, or come at last to the reward God has for all his own in heaven.”[2]
The word Paul used for “power” is the Greek word dynamis, from which we get the word “dynamite”; it is used over 100 times in the New Testament, Acts 1:8 being one of them. He used it to describe a raw and supernatural power that comes from God. This power is available to the Christian, and it is described as “boundless” and “great.” The word Paul used for “great” is the Greek word megathos, and the word he used for “boundless” literally means, “to surpass, go beyond, to outdo, or to exceed.” This is why almost every trustworthy English translation of the Bible reaches for words to capture the kind of power available to the Christian. Here are some of the ways these words are translated: “surpassing greatness” (NASB 95), “incomparably great” (NIV), “exceeding greatness” (KJV), “immeasurable greatness” (ESV), and “incredible greatness” (NLT). It is the boundless, surpassing, incomparable, exceeding, immeasurable, and incredible greatness of God’s power that is available to the Christian.
Paul then describes that this power, along with the hope of His calling and the riches of the glory of His inheritance that he wants us to see with the eyes of our hearts, is, “in accordance with the working of the strength of His might…” (v. 19b). The boundless power is “working” in you Christian, it is producing a “strength” to resist the devil and your flesh, and the “might” is what is required for you to persevere to the end without throwing in the towel of your faith in Jesus. Notice how we get this power from what Paul states next: “…which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and all of it is from the God who, “…raised Jesus from the dead” (v. 20a). In other words, the Power is God’s, and the victory is yours in Jesus.
What is it that will keep you when everything seems to have been pulled out from beneath your proverbial feet? What is it that will keep you when nothing you treasured on earth remains within your grasp? Who will be keeping who in your weakest and most fragile moments in life?
The Christian’s Identity is Guarded by a Preeminent Christ
So, how is the boundless, surpassing, incomparable, exceeding, immeasurable, and incredible greatness of God’s power available to the Christian? Paul tells us in the next verse: It is a power available to the Christian, “which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places” (v. 20).
Before I go any further, you need to understand that what I mean by “preeminent” is what the Airbus A380 is to a paper airplane. The Airbus A380 can seat between 525 and 853 passengers on its two full-length passenger decks: the Airbus A380 is preeminent to the paper airplane.
There is a reason why Paul emphasizes the phrase, “In Christ” repeatedly in his epistle to the Ephesians. Your identity as one who has been called by God and who is now the inheritance of God, is solely because of the redeeming work of Christ: “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us” (vv. 7-8). What did our redemption cost? It cost Jesus His life! He was the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 who was, “…pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings; the punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed” (v. 5). Jesus was crushed because He became our curse: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree…” (Gal. 3:13). Jesus, the Son of God, “…humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross.”
Christian, all of your sin was laid upon Jesus for all of your redemption. Isaiah 53:10 states that, “the Lord desired to crush Him, causing Him grief…” and the reason why God crushed the Son was not only for our redemption, but was to redeem a Bride for His Son! This was always the plan and was never plan “B!” The Lamb of God was slaughtered because of your sin, was then buried, and was raised! How come Jesus didn’t stay dead? In his sermon, the apostle Peter explained: “God raised Him from the dead, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power” (Acts 2:24). The reason why death had no power over Jesus is because He is the author of life! So, Paul wrote to the Ephesians that all of the blessings that now belong to the Christian are, “…in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places” (v. 20).
Listen, just as the cross of Christ is the display of God’s immeasurable love for you Christian, the resurrection is the display of a power that no other power manufactured by or through creation can compare… not even the power of 300 billion suns have the ability to do what God did, “when He raised Jesus from the dead.” This is why Isaiah 53 does not end with the Suffering Servant’s affliction for our sin, but continues with verse 10, “But the Lord desired to crush Him, causing Him grief.” The Hebrew word for “desired” (חפץ) can also be translated “take pleasure” or “delight in.” This is the way Isaiah 53:10 should be translated: “But the Lord delighted to crush Him, causing Him grief.” Why? Is it because God the Father is some cosmic child abuser? No! We are told in the last verse why the Father delighted to crush the Son: “Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the plunder with the strong, Because He poured out His life unto death, and was counted with wrongdoers; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the wrongdoers” (Isa. 53:12). Do you hear Isaiah 53:12 in Ephesians 20-23? Listen to it again!
…He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and made Him head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” (Eph. 1:19–23)
To be clear, Jesus was not exalted because He lacked something before He took on human flesh. There was nothing lacking in Him at all because He is not a part of creation but the agent of creation! This is why Paul wrote to the Colossian Church of Jesus: “…for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him” (Col. 1:16).
God the Father exalted the Son at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named… (v. 21) not because Jesus wasn’t exalted before He took on flesh. God the Father exalted the Son because, “He emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men…. He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross” (Phil. 2:7-8). In other words, God the Son became human to accomplish all that was needed to make the redemption of a sin-cursed and lost humanity possible.
Jesus is exalted as our Kinsmen-redeemer! What is a kinsmen-redeemer? He is a person that had to meet three requirements to redeem property lost due to a debt; the three requirements were that he had to be related to the family who suffered the loss because of a debt, he had to be willing to redeem what was lost, and he had to have the means to redeem what was lost. Because of Adam and Eve’s sin, creation is under a curse and every single human being since Adam, have been born into sin. Jesus took on flesh to become our kinsmen redeemer, and as our Kinsmen Redeemer, God, “put all things in subjection under His feet, and made Him head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”
Why did Jesus willingly take on human flesh to become our Kinsmen Redeemer? He did it for a Bride! He did it for His Church! Our sun is capable of producing a flare big enough to completely wipe out all of the earth’s power grid, and yet 300 billion suns cannot do what God did through His Son for your salvation Christian! The reason why Jesus could say to His disciples, “…they will put some of you to death…. And yet not a hair of your head will perish” (Luke 21:16-18). The reason Jesus could promise the Christian: “My sheep listen to My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one” (John 10:27–30). And, the reason Jesus has assured us: “I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it” (Matt. 16:18), is because of His cross and the empty tomb, Jesus has double headship. What do I mean by double headship? I mean that as Kinsmen Redeemer, Jesus is head over Creation by dominion and He is head over the Church by union.
What this means for you, Christian, is that you are His Church, and because you are His Church, you now share in His triumph because He has joined Himself to you as your Groom! What this means Christian is that you are the apple of His eye and not even the power of 300 billion suns can ever change that! Now wrap the eyes of your heart around that! Amen.
