In the previous article on the resurrection of Jesus, we looked at the importance of focusing on the resurrection of Jesus, not just His death.
Many are aware that ‘Jesus died for my sins’ but they are not aware how His resurrection benefits us.
If you haven’t already done so, I encourage you to read the accompanying article which covers this more.
Knowing the account of the events of what happened to Jesus at the cross is good, but we need to know more that just ‘what’ He did, we need to understand and grasp what He did and how it relates to us.
UNDERSTAND what He did, not just KNOW what Jesus did
The Gospel’s gives us an account of the events of ‘what’ happened, but the Epistles explain it. The Epistles provide us with a behind the scene view of what went on, what happened at the cross and the resurrection.
One of the great truths that the Epistles reveal, which the church as a whole has not grasped, is ‘the power is in the resurrection’.
At the cross He paid the price, but the resurrection gives us a revelation of the power.
The Bible talks about the power of God that was involved in the resurrection of Jesus and how it applies to us, so in this article we want to examine this truth, to find what the New Testament Epistles want us to see about it
Philippians 3:10
:10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
Here Paul cries out, ‘that I may know Him’. I have heard some great messages on this statement from Paul, which expresses his heart and desire to know His Lord more and more. But that is not all Paul said here.
He actually spoke of THREE things in this verse that he wanted ‘to know’:
1) That I may know HIM
2) That I may know the POWER of His Resurrection
3) That I may know the fellowship of His sufferings (or my partnership in)
Since this article is on the resurrection, we will focus on that part of what Paul speaks of here.
Paul didn’t just say he wanted to know ‘the resurrection’, but the ‘POWER of the resurrection’
You can know about the Resurrection of Jesus and still have very little grasp of the power of the resurrection.
There are some incredible truths for us to see and grasp connected to the power of God that was released in the resurrection of Jesus. We need to see and understand them as the Bible presents them.
Paul saw it and wanted to grasp it even more. He got the revelation of the incredible power of God that was involved in the resurrection and in Ephesians He prayed for the church was that they would see it too.
In his Epistle to the Ephesians, Paul reveals more on this incredible truth about the power of God involved in the resurrection:
Ephesians 1:17-23
:17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,
:18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
:19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power
:20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
:21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
In this passage, Paul speaks of his prayer for the Ephesians. It is one of what we call ‘The Ephesians prayers’ and is a very good example of how to pray in the New Testament.
Paul’s primary focus in this prayer is that, ‘…the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know …’
He prayed that their eyes would be opened so that they would KNOW some things. He prayed that the Father would give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that their eyes would be opened to some particular truths.
Paul considered these truths of primary importance, which is why he prayed they would get a hold of these specific things.
What were the things Paul prayed that their eyes would be opened to?
He lists three things. Let’s break the verse down to see it:
:18 … the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know …
1) what is the hope of His calling
2) what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints
3) and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, (verse 19)
Each of these is a vast subject to study in itself, so we will not look at all of them here, but notice (3)
God wants your eyes opened, your understanding enlightened concerning the, ‘…the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe…’
There are some things God wants you to grasp about His power, He calls it, ‘the exceeding greatness of His power…’ and declares that it is ‘…toward us who believe…’
This may seem a bit redundant and repetitious, but it is so important and we have not seen it, that I need to break this down step by step to make it as clear as possible.
Look at the full context of what he says about this power:
Ephesians 1:19-20
:19 – 20 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of His mighty power which He worked In Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
In speaking about this exceeding great power that he wants us to see and understand, he makes reference to the power of God that God worked when He raised Jesus from the dead (and seated Him at His right hand). The power that He wants us to see and have our eyes opened to is the power that was involved in the resurrection of Christ.
There is a revelation of the power of God found in the resurrection of Jesus that God wants us to get a hold of
What we need to understand is that there was a tremendous demonstration; a magnificent display of God’s power at the resurrection of Christ from the dead, which the Bible calls ‘the Exceeding Greatness of His power’ and the Bible declares here that this power is ‘toward us’
The Exceeding Greatness of His Power
The Greek word translated here as ‘exceeding’ is ‘huperballo’ meaning to throw beyond the usual mark
The Greek word translated ‘greatness’ is megathos which means ‘magnitude or size’
Often Greek words are hard to fully express in English, and the translators of this verse did as best as they could, but there is a description given here of power that is incredibly large, and it does not come across in the English as well as in the original Greek.
The size and magnitude of power being spoken of here is difficult to express in English but it is power of tremendous size – beyond comprehension. This is talking about power that is thrown way beyond the normal, power of incredibly great magnitude.
God is powerful, most know that, but at the resurrection of Jesus, God put on a display of power that was ‘thrown way beyond the usual mark’, in fact the Power of God displayed in the resurrection of Jesus was way beyond what has ever been seen before.
When God raised Jesus from the dead, He really ‘flexed His muscles’ so to speak and put on a vast demonstration of His power. He really showed how powerful He is once and for all!
Many may not understand this, but the resurrection of Jesus was the greatest display of God’s power ever. The Bible speaks of it in terms which show incredibly great size. When Jesus arose victorious over sin and death and redeemed all of mankind, God’s power was really shown for how great it is.
Not even the power of God in creation was that big!
The statement I just made will cause many to stop and think! We tend to see God’s power released at Creation as ‘the most powerful thing God ever did’ but in truth, the Bible does not speak of that as a display of ‘the Exceeding Greatness of His power’.
When God speaks here in Ephesians of the power of God at the resurrection of Jesus, He uses Greek words which paint a picture as large and as demonstrative as possible. He is wanting us to see how much power was released at Jesus’ resurrection.
All those Greek words for power?…
Many people know that the Greek language used to write the New Testament was very expressive. The Greeks had more than one word for many things we just use one word to describe. For example many know that the Greeks had more than one word for love, each of which described a specific aspect of what we simply refer to as ‘love’
The same is so with the word ‘power’. There is more than one Greek word for power, each of which focuses on a specific aspect of power.
When God inspired Paul to write Ephesians 1:19-20, and to speak of the Exceeding Greatness of His power, power which was thrown way beyond the normal, God used ALL of the Greek words for power in a single verse of scripture!
He was defiantly trying to show us something!
There are actually quite a few Greek words packed into Ephesians 1:19-20 that give a description of incredibly vast and huge power and dominion. These verses speak of Magnitude, Intensity, force, dominion, degree, size….The awesomeness of God!
Human language can’t adequately describe God’s Power, but these verses try to! That is why Paul prayed that they would have their eyes opened to it, because you really have to get it by revelation!
Let’s take a look at the words used, besides the two we have already mentioned above:
Ephesians 1:19-20
:19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power (1) toward us who believe, according to the working (2) of His mighty (3) power (4)
:20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
(1) Power = Dunamis = miraculous Power, ability, strengthWhere we get the word ‘dynamite’! Used in connection with miracles – Power IN ACTION – strongs # 1411
(2) working = Energia = operation, display of power (Energy)
– Strongs # 1753
(3) Mighty = Ischus = forcefulness, ability, force – strongs #2479)
(4) Power = kratos = Dominion, might, ruling power – strongs #2904
Also the phrase ‘according to’ means ‘demonstrated in’ and denotes intensity amongst opposition.
When we put all these words together, we can see how Ephesians 1:19-20 speaks of incredibly great power:
The Mega explosive, dynamite power of God – which is beyond the normal – was demonstrated in the forceful display of His dominion which he exercised when raising Jesus from the dead
God forcefully displayed His dominion in dynamite power amidst opposition! The devil opposed it, but God put on a demonstration of power which showed once and for all ‘who is boss’
God was showing the devil (and everyone else), once and for all who is in charge!
Many people do not have a grasp of how much more powerful God is than the devil. They tend to see God and the devil as equal opposites. They view it like there is this battle between the two where each has similar strength.
That is not accurate. God’s power is so far above the devil and His power that it is a joke to think that the devil could ever overcome God!
The fact is the devil has NEVER won a single confrontation with God, and the book of Revelation shows He never will. God has never lost a single battle
Luke 11:20
:20 “But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.
Jesus cast out demons by the ‘finger’ of God. That is how little of God’s power it takes to deal with the devil. It doesn’t take His arm, or even his hand to hold the devil back, just His finger!
The devil has as much chance against God as an ant has against a tank!
The devil is NO MATCH for God, not even close!!
Ephesians 1:19-20
:19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power
:20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
God speaks of this power which He ‘worked’ or ‘exercised’ when raising Christ. God used this tremendous display of power when raising Jesus from the dead.
He used the resurrection to put His power on display. The resurrection was a demonstration of power! Like saying to the devil, ‘…just to show you who you are messing with!’
God put on this show, this display of power, then turned around to the believer and said, ‘Now you take that power and go use it!’
What we have not yet seen, we MUST see and get the revelation of!
We have NOT grasped God’s awesome power.
Have you ever come close to a lightening bolt? And seen the power involved in it, feeling it when it is close? Well that doesn’t come any where near to how powerful God is! He created everything in this natural realm, even the sun which is a vast power plant in itself!
The largest nuclear explosion on earth is nothing compared to our God!
The vastness of a nuclear explosion would leave a human being shaking because of the power, well God’s power exceeds everything we can even imagine!
He could reveal Himself in such a way and with such power that would leave us all shaking in the floor in fear and dumbstruck for life at the intensity of power! (I didn’t say He is going to, but that He COULD…)
When God’s glory and presence manifested in the Bible, many would respond in fear declaring ‘Woe is me’ (Isaiah 6:5). The awesomeness of His power caused such a huge reaction in people.
No matter how much you might think you ‘could handle it’, if you were to ever come into contact with power of the magnitude that God has, you would be completely struck beyond anything you mind could prepare you for.
God holds Himself back, giving us all we can handle, but many do not have insight and revelation of the power that backs us as believers.
Often we live our lives with more of an awareness of the size and power of negative things. We fear sickness and destructive forces. We talk about things like cancer as ‘the Big C’. We’ve dealt with demons as if they were ‘big’.
Our conversation is filled with comments on what is not possible or incurable!
‘That’s impossible / incurable’
‘that’s a tough one!’
‘There’s no way through that…’
No way through ‘for who’??
Who is it hard or tough for?
For you in your own ability things may look impossible, maybe, but not for God! And not for one who has a revelation of the power of God and understands that His power is on our side and working in, for and through us as believers.
Things are only tough and impossible in your thinking.
So often we limit God by our thinking! We limit what He can do in our lives because we are unaware of how powerful He is and that His power is for us as His children! We are more confident in our lack of ability than in His abundant ability and power toward and available to us.
In the Old Testament, the Children of Israel constantly limited God when they were faced with challenges in the wilderness, They were more aware of the challenge than their God who could overcome the challenge. We ought not be like this!
God wants us to grasp and understand His power which was demonstrated in the resurrection of Jesus.
Psalm 78:40-43
:40 How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, And grieved Him in the desert!
:41 Yes, again and again they tempted God, And limited the Holy One of Israel.
:42 They did not remember His power: The day when He redeemed them from the enemy,
:43 When He worked His signs in Egypt, And His wonders in the field of Zoan;
(verse 44 onward reveals His power)
They limited God because they did not remember His power! They limited Him in their lives.
This verse is speaking of the power of God that was released when God delivered the Israelites from Egypt.
Those events were certainly some of the most spectacular in the Bible! They have been told over and over again as Bible favourites: the way God demonstrated His power over Egypt’s gods, the plagues ending with the amazing demonstration of God in splitting the Red Sea leaving the enemies of God’s people once and for all behind them.
However once the Children of Israel were in the wilderness, they faced challenges and each time, instead of looking to the awesome power of God which had delivered them, to get them through again, they got down and acted like there was not way out for them, like they were going to die.
Psalm 78 says that they forgot His power, ‘…The day when He redeemed them from the enemy,…’
Their enemy was Pharaoh and Egypt, and there was a tremendous display of God’s power in delivering them, however those Old Testament events were typical of OUR salvation and OUR deliverance from the enemy.
Just like there was a tremendous display of God’s power released in delivering them, so there was an even greater display of God’s power involved in delivering us!
Let us not forget His power like they did. If we do, we will limit what God can do in our lives and situations, just like they did. Rather than limiting Him, arise in faith and confidence in Him and His willingness to use His power on your behalf.
When challenges arise that look insurmountable, let’s not forget the power of God that is ‘toward us’ that was demonstrated in our deliverance from the enemy.
God flexed His muscles and showed us and the enemy just how powerful He is!
Now, when you face challenges, remember it! Remind yourself of the power of God that is toward you! (for you, on your side). Paul prayed in Ephesians that the church would have their eyes opened and get a revelation of God’s power that was released in the resurrection of Jesus.
Have you forgotten His power?
When you face challenges do you forget the power of God that is within you as a Believer that can overcome any challenge?
You provoke God when you speak and act like He isn’t powerful enough to help you!
1 John 4:4
:4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
Many people think of the devil as ‘big’ They are often in awe of the devil’s power and ability. People fear witchcraft and demoniac power, when the truth is God’s power is far greater! The devil is NO match for God, there is nothing too big or powerful for God.
Christians have great confidence in the devil’s power. They stand in awe of demon possession, and of things like witchcraft, simply because they have more respect for those things than God’s power.
ALL of that is nothing in comparison to God’s power IN us, FOR us and working THROUGH us. We are on the winning team
The resurrection was a display of How powerful God is
God demonstrates who is Boss!
Jesus arose victorious over the devil, who was left defeated and stripped of power and authority. We serve a BIG God! The devil’s power is small and insignificant against God’s.
The devil is NO MATCH for God, and no match for a Christian who knows and walks in what God has given us In Christ Jesus
Acts 1:8
:8 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
He said, ‘you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you’.
This is part of God’s provision for His people who receive Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit. It is an endowment of power! God gives us His power which He has demonstrated in raising Christ from the dead.
This is the same power used in raising Jesus. We have failed to recognise the magnitude and potential of the power of God upon us and our right and authority to use it. He is the Greater One who is living with in us!
God put on a demonstration of His power raising Jesus from the dead, then said, ‘Now you go and use it!’
He showed JUST HOW POWERFUL He is against the devil. Then, after showing us how powerful He is, God appoints US as His representatives! ‘Go & represent me on the earth, My power (which I’ve demonstrated is an unconquerable power) BACKS YOU UP!!’
If you are a Christians, next time you say you don’t have enough power ask – ‘who’s lying me or God?’ He says you’ve got it!
Acts 4:33
:33 And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.
Great power!
These are the representatives of Jesus walking in the Power of God! We’re to live by a greater power – operating in HIS authority on this earth. The power that backs us is more than the devil could ever dream about having! Our dealings with the devil ARE NOT an equal fight!
People need their confidence raised in the power of God
Increase your confidence and expectancy in what God’s power can do and accomplish for you! Disease, poverty, demons, the devil are NOT more powerful than God.
When you are limited in your thinking, you limit God in your life!
1 Corinthians 2:2-5
:4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
:5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
Our faith should be in the power of God!
When we focus on problems and the devil more than God, we forget God’s power.
We limit His power and we limit Him in our lives!
Get rid of an ‘impossibility mentality’ an attitude that looks at circumstances and think: ‘That’s impossible’
See the Power of God that is revealed in the resurrection of Jesus and begin to realise that power is toward us who believe. Put your faith and confidence in the Power of God in your life, not in your own wisdom and intelligence to make it through.
God’s power moves for those who have faith in it!
Don’t question and doubt God’s Power but rather live and act in a way which puts confidence in His power. Realise that God’s Power backs you
The devil fears this truth because it shows him for who he really is. He wants to hide it.
The devil wants Christians to think we have to fight and struggle with him because he is big and powerful, when in truth he is no match for the awesome power of God which was demonstrated in Christ.
Many Christians are living on a lower level than God intended because they are not walking in His power in their lives! Life is always a battle for them, it is because they do not have confidence in God’s awesome power which He has made available to them. We need to grasp the power of the resurrection of Jesus and its significance to us in our lives today.