The Immeasurable Power of God – Ephesians 1:19
Here is a 2-paragraph version based on the sermon transcript:
In Ephesians 1:19, Paul continues his prayer that believers would know “the immeasurable greatness” of God’s power toward those who believe. This is the doctrine of God’s omnipotence: God has all power to accomplish all His holy will. His power is unlimited, never exhausted, never frustrated, and never overcome. He created the stars, sustains them, and calls them by name, yet His power is not raw force or uncontrolled strength. God’s power is holy, wise, good, just, loving, and always consistent with His perfect nature. Because God is omnipotent, His promises are not wishful thinking and His commands are not empty words. If He has purposed something, He has the power to accomplish it. If He has promised something, He has the power to fulfill it.
Paul also reminds believers that this immeasurable power is “toward us who believe.” God’s power is not merely something to admire from a distance; it is active in and for His people because they are in Christ. This means Christians must stop measuring obedience by their own weakness, hope by their circumstances, or the Christian life by what they can accomplish in their own strength. God has not left His people powerless. His power enables believers to obey, forgive, resist sin, love the saints, endure trials, and walk by faith. This does not make Christians passive, as though we sit back and do nothing; rather, God works in us as we respond by faith through His appointed means—His Word, prayer, repentance, obedience, fellowship, and service. The immeasurable power of God is not an abstract doctrine, but a truth that grounds us in daily life and assures us that the omnipotent God is not lacking any power to keep His people today.
FULL TEXT SERMON:
Well, amen. Turn in your copy of God’s Word to the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians.
All right, we got some kids here this morning. But if you’re a kid or a kid at heart, and you know this song, I want you to sing it with me.
“My God is so big.” Can you do that? Do you know all the motions for it? Yeah. Can we do it? Because I’m going to do it. You don’t have to get up here. Do I have to go up here? You don’t have to get up here, no. Sing the song with me if you know it.
My God is so big, so strong and so mighty.
There’s nothing my God cannot do.
My God is so big, so strong and so mighty.
There’s nothing my God cannot do.
The mountains are His.
The rivers are His.
The stars are His handiwork too.
Here you go.
My God is so big, so strong and so mighty.
There’s nothing my God cannot do for you.
For you.
Very good. Give yourself a round of applause. Good job.
We learned that song when we were little. Simple children’s song, but it teaches one of the great doctrines of the Christian faith: that our God is omnipotent. He is all powerful.
There is nothing that our God cannot do for you. There’s nothing He cannot do that is consistent with His holy nature and His perfect will.
As we come to this next verse in our series in Ephesians, here in Ephesians 1:19, Paul is still praying. This prayer began in verse—or the section of the prayer began in verse 15 following that open doxology in verses 3 through 14. And we’ve been working our way through this thanksgiving and prayer.
Last week we saw that Paul has prayed that God would open the eyes of our hearts. He wants believers to know the hope of God’s calling and the riches of God’s glorious inheritance in the saints.
And now, in this morning’s verse, he prays that we would know what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe.
Now this isn’t, as we’ve worked our way through different verses, we’ve come to different important key doctrines. It’s not that he just dropped in a doctrinal teaching just willy-nilly here. It’s part of his prayer.
It’s not just like, “Oh, here, stop there for a second. Let me teach you about God’s omnipotence real fast, and then we’ll get back to it.” It’s weaved all in there together.
And since it is here, it gives us this opportunity to stop, to meditate on the omnipotence of God. And this is part of his prayer because it is critical for us.
He wants the church not just to know God generally, but specifically to know things about Him. And in particular this morning, he wants them and us to know God’s power.
Not just that God is powerful somewhere out there. Some of you would get that. Not that God did powerful things a long, long time ago back in the Old Testament, New Testament days. He wants us to know God’s power towards us who believe today.
So if you will, stand with me for the reading of God’s Word.
I’m not sure what will be on the screen, but I’m going to back it up to verse 16 and read through verse 19 for this morning.
Paul says this:
“I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power towards us who believe, according to the working of His great might.”
Father, this morning, as we pause here on this verse and we get to meditate on your character, on your attributes, to look at your power, the great might that you have towards us, Lord, this morning as we are here to worship you, Lord, we need to hear from you. We need your Word.
Lord, you have inspired this Word. It is from you. It is as if you are speaking to us directly. Lord, and you have given us your Word as you have told us for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, and for training in righteousness.
Father, so for whatever purpose you have for each of us here this morning, Lord, do that by your Word in order that we may be complete, equipped for every good work, that Christ may be glorified in us, that the Holy Spirit may show himself strong in us so that you might be glorified in and through your church. In Jesus’ name, amen.
You may be seated.
Believers, we need to know the immeasurable greatness of God’s power towards us in order that we would live by faith in Him and not by confidence in ourselves.
This first phrase, “and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power,” the greatness of God’s power. That’s how he begins this part, this section of the prayer. That we would know the immeasurable greatness of His power.
Phrases like this ought to slow us down. When he uses extra adjectives, they’re not there all willy-nilly. God didn’t just decide to throw in extra adjectives just for fun to make the book a little longer, because the assignment was a certain number of words and you just throw in extra ones, right?
No. This is on purpose.
Paul is reaching out for the strongest language he can use. He is trying to overemphasize his point here. And the topic of God’s power is not one that you can overemphasize. And that’s his point.
He could have just said, “Really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really powerful.” And that wouldn’t even have been enough.
But instead of trying to even get close to describing the power, he just says, “You can’t. It’s immeasurable.”
It’s not small. It’s not limited. It’s not barely enough.
We don’t serve a wimpy God. I don’t know if you recognize that.
God’s power is immeasurable. That means God’s power is unlimited.
So this is the doctrine of God’s omnipotence here.
Omnipotence, if you’ve been around, if you’ve been in our Sunday night study, it’s been a few years since we were in that particular attribute. By the way, we’re finishing—not finishing—but we’re only a few lessons away from finishing basically a four-year study through systematic theology on Sunday nights. And then we’ll roll back around and start it all over again.
But omnipotence is this big fancy word that just means that God is all powerful. Which means God is able to do all His holy will. He has all the power necessary to accomplish everything that He has decreed.
There is nothing outside of God that is stronger than God, that can overpower God, that can frustrate Him. He doesn’t get exhausted. Nothing can stop Him. He doesn’t run low. His batteries don’t need recharging.
God, unlike us, doesn’t come to the end of the day and go, “Woo, that was a tough one.” Kick back in His recliner and kick His feet up. That’s not our God.
That may be us. That’s how we are, but God’s not like us.
Isaiah 40:26 says this:
“Lift up your eyes on high and see.”
Isaiah is speaking to the people to look up, literally. Look up. Well, what’s up there in the nighttime? Stars.
“Who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of His might, and because He is strong in power, not one is missing.”
Isaiah is talking about the omnipotent God.
It’s not enough for him to just describe what’s going on here on earth, and God is in control of it all. He says, “Look out there. He’s got all of it.”
He’s bigger. He’s more powerful than we realize, than we can understand, than we can put our thoughts to. By the greatness of His might and His power, not one of the stars is missing.
That’s power.
But God does not merely create the stars. He keeps them. He names them. There’s not one that’s missing. We haven’t seen them all. We don’t know them all, but He does.
I have a hard time keeping up with my church keys. And God calls the stars by name.
So maybe, maybe God is not overwhelmed by the thing that has overwhelmed us.
God’s power is unlimited. But we also need to understand that God’s power is holy.
We have to be careful when we talk about God’s omnipotence, because sometimes people can get a wrong view of God just thinking He’s the all-powerful being and He’s doing whatever He wants, and that He’s doing evil, and He can crush us, and He’s doing whatever He feels like, as if they’re projecting how God acts and thinks, like how they think, onto God.
Like He’s a human, and He’s just got all the power, so He’s acting like us, like we would be up there.
But that’s not the kind of power God has. That’s not God.
Some people ask some of those philosophical questions like, “Can God make a rock so big that He can’t lift it?” But really, that’s not a serious question about power. That’s just people trying to sound smart.
God’s omnipotence does not mean that God can do what is contrary to His own nature. Meaning God is not going to do something that is contrary to His nature.
God cannot lie. God cannot sin. God cannot deny His own existence. And God cannot make what is wrong right. That would be inconsistent with His nature.
His power doesn’t overcome His nature. It’s in line with it. It’s perfect. It’s holy.
And here’s the thing: that’s not a weakness of God, that He can’t overcome His will, that He’s not able to lie or to sin or to do those kind of things. That’s not a weakness. That’s perfection.
If God could lie, for example, that wouldn’t make Him more powerful.
“Well, God can’t lie, so He’s not as powerful as He could be.”
No, no, no. If God could lie, that would not make Him more powerful. That would make Him less glorious.
If He could sin, that wouldn’t make Him more powerful. That would make Him cease to be holy.
So when we say that God is all-powerful, we mean that He has all the power to do all that is consistent with His perfect nature and eternal will.
God’s power is never separated from the rest of His attributes. God is powerful, yes, all-powerful, but He’s holy. He’s wise. He is truth. He is goodness. He is justice. He is love. He has all these other attributes together. He’s perfectly united in Himself.
So it’s not just raw power, just raw overwhelming force. He is the living God, perfect in all His ways.
Stephen Charnock said this: “The power of God is that ability and strength whereby He can bring to pass whatsoever He pleases.”
And that’s what Paul is talking about here. God’s power is not an idea, just a philosophical idea floating out there somewhere. God’s power is His ability to accomplish what He has determined, His perfect holy will.
If God has purposed it, He also has the power to do it. If God has promised it, He has the power to carry it out.
So His promises are not wishful thinking. His commands here are not empty words.
God’s power is holy, holy, holy.
But then God’s power also corrects how we think.
You see, Paul is not praying that we would learn a theological word. He’s not interested in us knowing what omnipotence means in order that we might pass the next theology exam. I would hope you could pass the theology exam. I hope I’ve done a good enough job teaching you those things, but that’s not his purpose.
Remember, this is in the context of a prayer. Paul is praying to God that He would make His power known to us. He wants us to know God’s power. He wants us to know it in such a way that it affects our very being. He wants this doctrine to change us, to change how we live.
Because you see, we believe God created the universe, but sometimes we act like He can’t help us obey Him tomorrow.
We believe that God holds the stars up, but sometimes we act like He can’t help us to overcome that sin and temptation.
We might believe God rules over all things, but then one difficult conversation, one hard week, one overwhelming situation, and suddenly we think God’s lost control somewhere.
You see, this isn’t just a knowledge problem. This is a faith problem.
God says that His power is immeasurably great. So if we’re going to take God at His Word, if we’re going to believe what He says—and how many times does God have to say something for it to be true? Once. Once.
We don’t have to measure God’s power then by our own weaknesses or our feelings or our circumstances or our failures.
We can simply let God, through His Word, define Himself as He really is, and all we have to do is say, “Yes, Lord, I believe.”
God’s power is immeasurably great. That’s what it says.
“And what is the immeasurable greatness of His power?”
But second here, notice the direction of God’s power. It is toward us who believe.
Amen.
And that’s the heart of this verse.
God’s power is not merely out there. He’s not just above us, out above creation. He’s not merely around us. It’s not something that we just have to admire from a distance.
Paul says it is towards us. It’s not just holding the stars together. It’s towards us.
First of all, notice the power is for us who believe. It’s for all believers.
Did you notice the change in wording? In verse 18 Paul says, “you,” that you may know. But here in verse 19 he says, “us,” towards us who believe.
He’s including himself here.
This power isn’t just for the Ephesians, just for them at that time, for a certain moment, for a certain experience. It is not just for the apostles. It is for all of us.
It is not just for those who have tried so hard and have worked their way up the Christian ladder and become more mature in their faith. They’ve reached the advanced level of Christianity.
The power is towards us who believe.
And that means all who believe. I’m not trying to overcomplicate it. All.
If you are in Christ, meaning if you have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, His death, burial, and resurrection for the forgiveness of your sins, His power is towards you.
What a promise. This is for all of us.
Now, why is God’s power towards us? Why is it towards us who believe?
Is it because, Steve, of how impressive you are? Golly, I hope not.
Pastor Gary, is it because you are the strongest Christian we all know? Be good, man.
No.
It’s not because we’re impressive or strong, or we got our act together or whatever.
Why is God’s power towards us? It’s because of Jesus.
His power is towards us who believe. Those who are believers are in Christ. His power towards us is because we are in Him. He has given us His power because of Jesus Christ.
That’s been the message the whole way through so far. We can’t forget all that we have talked about so far in chapter 1.
God chose us. How? In Christ.
God has blessed us. How? In Christ.
In Christ we have redemption through His blood. In Christ we have forgiveness. In Christ we’ve obtained an inheritance. In Christ we were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.
So when Paul says that God’s power is towards us who believe, he’s not pointing us to ourselves. He’s pointing us back to Christ.
This power is for all believers because of Jesus.
And this power is received by faith.
It says this power is towards us who believe. By faith we receive what God gives. Our faith is in Christ Jesus.
And faith, true biblical faith, takes God at His Word.
Faith doesn’t look at ourself. It doesn’t look within and say, “Look at me. I have enough strength. I’m gonna pick myself up by my bootstraps. I’m just gonna get strong and trust in Christ.”
No. Faith looks outward. It looks at God. It says He is enough.
That’s important.
The life we live as Christians is not lived by being confident in ourself. It’s not lived because we have strong personalities. We don’t live the Christian life by the power of positive thinking. The Christian life is not lived by pretending that we’re stronger than we really are.
The Christian life is lived by faith in God.
This power is received by faith. But this power towards us who believe then removes our excuses.
And this is where doctrine affects our life. It starts affecting us as it applies to our daily living.
If God’s immeasurable power is towards us who believe, then guess what? We can’t keep excusing our disobedience as if God has left us powerless.
“Well, I can’t forgive that person. Well, I can’t overcome that sin. Well, I can’t share the gospel with that person. Well, I can’t,” fill in the blank.
You’re wrong because it’s not your power anyway. It’s God’s power towards us who believe.
So stop excusing your disobedience because you’re not strong enough, or you don’t have what you need.
God has not left you powerless.
Yes, listen, don’t hear what I’m not saying. We are definitely weak. We’re definitely frail. We’re definitely feeble. We need to be praying. We need counsel from other people. We need the church. We need correction. We need encouragement. We need to be reminded of these truths again and again and again and again and again, because repetition is how we learn.
But Christians, Christian, you are not powerless.
You are in yourself, but you are in Christ. And in Christ, His power is towards you.
The power at work within you is His power to obey, to do all His holy will, to do what He’s commanded, to believe what He has taught, to live out what He has commanded.
No excuses.
We can’t say can’t.
“Well, I can’t overcome my sin. My anger is just who I am. I’m too afraid. You don’t know what I’ve done. My past makes it impossible for me to obey. Well, I would obey God, but you don’t know my situation.”
Excuses. And excuses are like armpits. Everybody’s got two at least, and they both stink. That’s all they are.
God’s power is towards us who believe.
Now, don’t get me wrong. That doesn’t mean that obedience is easy. And it doesn’t mean that you’re going to just change all of a sudden, immediately. It doesn’t mean that you’re not going to struggle through life.
It means that God has not commanded His people to obey without giving the grace and the power to do so. Amen.
When God commands us to forgive, then He gives us the grace to forgive.
When God commands us to overcome temptation and sin, to mortify our flesh, He gives us His power to fight it.
When He commands us to love the saints, even those ones that are not so much fun to love, He gives us the power to love.
Beloved, church, you need to understand that the power God gives for life and obedience is His power. It is the power of the living almighty God.
So then, why would we turn away from God’s sufficient Word and from God’s power to look for answers somewhere else? Why would we go looking for another foundation when God has already spoken?
Why do we act like Scripture’s good for Sunday, but it’s not sufficient for Monday through Saturday?
Why would we tell struggling Christians to depend on themselves, or follow their hearts, or turn to worldly wisdom when Paul says that God’s immeasurable power is towards us who believe?
God has not left His people powerless. His power is toward you who believe.
“And what is the immeasurable greatness of His power towards us who believe?”
And third, the working of God’s power according to the working of His great might.
Paul’s just piling up the words here. Power, working, might, strength. Again, he’s not just trying to make the sentence longer. He’s stressing this point.
God’s power is active power. It is a working power. It actually accomplishes what He intends.
The word working points us to God’s power in action. It’s not sitting unused somewhere in heaven like a battery. God’s power is at work towards believers.
Paul uses the same idea over in chapter 3 of Ephesians verse 7 when he says that he was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace which was given me by the working of His power.
So Paul served. Paul preached. Paul labored at his work. He suffered immensely. But he knew, Paul knew whose power was behind it all.
Colossians 1:29, Paul says, “For this I toil, struggling with all His energy that He powerfully works within me.”
Do you notice the balance there? Paul toils, Paul struggles, but God works.
God’s power is active. But understanding that, we also need to realize that God’s power does not make us passive.
Let’s stress that a little more. The fact that God’s power is at work towards us and in us and through us, it’s active, doesn’t mean we just sit around and do nothing.
People sit around and they call it, “I’m depending on God. Let go and let God.”
I’m going to smack the next person I hear say that. I won’t smack them. I’m just kidding. I will love them with the Bible.
Listen, there are some—yes, there are things outside of our control that we need to let go of in that sense. I’m not saying that phrase is completely wrong. But usually we use that to mean, “I’m not going to do anything until God does it through me.”
No. Get to work, and as you’re working, God’s going to be working through you to do it. Amen.
“Well, I can’t forgive until God gives me the strength to forgive.”
He’s given you the command to forgive. That means you have the power if you get up off your tail and go do it.
Stop making excuses. You’re not sounding spiritual.
Faith isn’t an excuse for laziness. While it might sound spiritual in certain circles, it’s really an excuse to not do hard things.
But on the other hand, we also do not try to live the Christian life in our own strength and then call that faithfulness either. There’s a balance.
God works in us and we respond by faith.
We read the Word, we pray, we confess our sins, we repent, we forgive, we serve, we love, we endure. We use the means that God has provided for us, but we do not trust the means as though they work apart from God.
We trust that God will use those appointed means as we walk by faith in them.
That matters. It’s faith and works working together.
This matters in our sanctification.
Growing in holiness, growing in our sanctification is not a passive work. God does not sanctify us while we ignore His Word. He’s not sanctifying you as you neglect to pray. He’s not sanctifying you as you avoid church. He’s not sanctifying you when you resist being corrected, and then you wonder why nothing ever changes.
You’re not waiting on the Lord. You’re being disobedient.
So sanctification is not self-powered. It’s not moral improvement. It is God working in His people by His Spirit through His Word, making us more like Christ.
God’s power is active, but that doesn’t make us passive.
And third here, remember, God’s power is already at work in His people.
When we get over to Ephesians 3:20, it says this:
“That God is able to do far more abundantly than all that we can ask or think, according to the power at work within us.”
God’s power is at work within us.
So our hope is not found in ourself, but in God’s power at work in us.
Yes, we obey. Yes, we put off sin. Yes, we do all these things. We practice righteousness. We obey what God says, but we do all of that as those who belong to Christ, who are indwelt by His Spirit and strengthened by His power.
Now, verse 19 here leads right into 20, where Paul connects this idea to showing that the great power, that this display of His power is in Christ Jesus. But we’re gonna save that for next time. So you gotta come back.
For now, we just need to meditate here on this idea that God’s power is immeasurably great. That His power is towards us, His believers, His people, His chosen ones. That His power is actively working according to His great might.
So what do we do with this?
Well, we must stop measuring obedience by our weakness. We have to stop measuring our hope by our circumstances. We need to stop measuring our Christian life by what we can do in our own strength.
We need to trust that God has spoken, that He supplies all the power for us to face everything we face each and every day, and to obey what He commands.
We must trust in our omnipotent God.
I had a near-death experience this week. Those of you who know what I’m talking about, you understand why I say that. I don’t mean I actually died and then came back. I don’t want that kind of thing. Maybe a near-death scare, maybe that’s a better way of putting it.
I was at the doctor finally on last Monday. I think I told you guys that I had some poison ivy that I was dealing with. It had been a couple weeks. Anyway, my wife finally made an appointment and made me go, which she regrets now.
And the doctor prescribed, “Okay, we’re going to give you a shot of steroids today, then I’m going to give you some other stuff to take on, and we’ll get this taken care of.”
And while I was there, I was like, “Well, hey, can you guys go ahead and clean out my ears?”
So that was the plan. Went back, and they gave me the shot, and she was looking for some big old syringe, and I don’t know anything about anything medically, but that looked like a whole lot of steroids. And she gave me that whole thing.
And I was like, “Okay.”
So she’s like—and I was like, “Are we done?”
And she’s like, “Yeah, you’re good to go.”
I was like, “Are we still gonna do the ears?”
She’s like, “Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah.”
So I went back to the exam room, and she had the door open. She was gonna come back and stuff, and then she came back and shut the door real quick and went.
And I was like, “Okay, what’s going on?”
And I could hear them out there talking, and they were either even on the phone with somebody. I could only hear enough to know they were talking about me.
And then I heard clear as crystal, because I asked the lady before, while she was doing it, I was like, “That looks like a lot.”
She’s like, “Yeah, that’s 40 milligrams.”
And I was like, “Okay, whatever. I don’t know anything.”
Clear as crystal I heard, sitting in that room, “That wasn’t 40, that was 400.”
No.
And in that moment, the first thing through my head was kind of like, “What do I need to do? How can I—” Like I just got bit by a snake, and I need to pull the venom out or something like that. Like, do I just need to run in place really fast and get this out of my system? What can I do?
And I’m thinking, there’s nothing you can do.
And in that moment, I was like, “I am about to die.”
And that wasn’t like a joking kind of—I mean, I’m literally sitting there going, “I’m gonna die standing right here.”
Yep.
You know, throughout the week, I’ve had more time to think about that moment. Thinking about if I would’ve died in that moment and all the things that I was gonna miss out on and all that kind of—I’m gonna start crying. All right.
But in the moment, I thought, “Well, okay.” I mean, it’s within God’s power to remove that from me if that’s what He wants. If it’s God’s plan that it’s right now, then it’s right now.
Praise the Lord, I’m still standing here, so I’m not dead. Right?
Now, there may be some after effects that I’m gonna have to deal with for a little while. I haven’t slept very well this week. I’ll tell you that.
I could’ve done the whole 13 acres just with a weed eater.
But in that moment, all I could think of was, “God’s got it. He’s in control. He’s never not in control.”
And there was a sense of calm and peace, even in the freaking out of, “I’m about to die.”
Our God is, His power is immeasurably great. His power is towards us who believe, and in the moments when we need Him the most, we have all the power and all the grace that we need.
So here in this verse, Paul prays that believers would know this immeasurable greatness of God’s power according to the working of His great might.
This isn’t just some abstract doctrine. This is a truth that grounds us for our daily living.
Our God is omnipotent. And this God, whose power is immeasurably great, is not lacking any power to keep us today.
Amen?