True Power

There is principality and there is power and there is might and there is dominion and there is the precedence of one name over another, every name that is named but the Lord Jesus tops it all.


Scripture: Ephesians 1:19-20, Romans 5

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again radio friends. How in the world are you? You doing Alright today? Oh I trust so. Bless your heart. This is your good friend, Bob Cook, and we’re back together again by way of radio. Thank God for these privileges. It’s inestimably precious to yours truly, I’ll tell you that. I look forward to these broadcasts like a missionary looks forward to furlough. (Laughs) It is great just to be with you. Indeed it is.

Well, Paul says “I’m praying for you. I’m praying that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened that you may know the hope of his calling.”

And then he says, “The riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.” How is it that the Lord Jesus Christ can be interested in anything that He is going to inherit through us? Huh? Well, it says that in the ages to come, He wants to show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus, “that might be known by the church, the manifold wisdom of God”. What is he looking forward to?

He’s looking forward to the fact that you and I and millions of other believers throughout all ages are going to be God’s exhibit A in proving that the devil is a liar and that Jesus is Lord of all. “His inheritance in the saints,” born from above, born again believers by the millions yonder the glory, set like jewels in His crown are going to be the living and living for all eternity, living proof that God is right, that God is love, that God’s plan is the best, that the devil is a liar, and that eternal life by the grace of God is His gift. His inheritance in the saints. “Come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the world”. That’s our inheritance.

What is he going to inherit? Us. People can indeed be an inheritance. Paul said, “What is my joy and crown of rejoicing are not even ye in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” See? “You are my crown of rejoicing.” He said to the people in Corinth, “You are my letter of recommendation.” See? So people, born again, saved for all eternity indwelt by the Holy Spirit, shining with the glory of God and now living in sin-proof, death-proof bodies, a resurrection body. This is going to be His inheritance in the saints.

What is He going to inherit? People whom He has loved and saved and who belong to Him and through all age and of eternity will be praising Him and adoring Him and expressing their love and worship to our blessed Lord Jesus Christ.

What else is it that Paul wants us to know? He said, “I want you to know that you may know,” and there’s two or three things that are in this list. First, the hope of his calling; second, the glory of His inheritance in the saints; third, I want you to know the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe the exceeding greatness of His power.

Now, I’m looking now at the Greek New Testament. Exceeding is huper ballo, which means throwing it — that’s a homerun — throwing it over the fence, going beyond. Ballo means to throw, and huper means up over. The homerun power. (Laughs) Yeah, how about that? Then the greatness is a word that you computer people will be familiar with, megathos. Have you been talking easily about megabytes and mega this and that? Yes, you have, and that actually means that you have multiplied any given measurement by thousands and sometimes by millions. Isn’t that true?

So that you may know the homerun, over the fence, far out, megathos, megabyte power to us who believe. Oh it boggles the mind when you realize that God has taken poor lost sinners who deserve nothing but hell and judgment. And to put it chronologically, judgment and hell, and has given Himself to us in the person of His only begotten son, and has saved us by His grace, and raised us up together, and seated us by faith in the heavenly with Christ so that when He looks at the Lord Jesus, He sees us as well. Accepted in the beloved, the Lord Jesus.

And then he says I want you to know the greatness of his power. The far out, over the fence, homerun, way beyond, up over and beyond, megabyte kind of power toward us. What kind of people? Toward us who believe. I say it boggles your mind, you start to think about that.

Now what is the measurement then, you say? Well, I don’t know. What does he mean by His great power toward us? What does that mean? He says, I’ll measure it for you, “according” (now that’s the word “kata” means write down along the line of it. Do you want a comparison, you can compare it exactly with this, Alright?) Right down along the line, “kata”, right along line of the power that He worked in Christ; that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead.

Interesting word, “kratos”. That’s the bulldozer word. “Dunamis” is the dynamite word, the kind of power that keeps on shining like the sun never burns out. “Kratos” is the bulldozer word, the kind that chews up the mountain and nothing can stand before it. That’s the word he uses here. The working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead. That’s the measure. You want to measure of the power that’s available to a believer? That’s the measure.

What happened at the empty tomb? Well, it wasn’t empty at first, but on that resurrection morning, our Lord Jesus stepped out of those grave clothes, out of them just like a — leaving them like a collapsed chrysalis. And He didn’t have to get somebody to open the door. He just walked through it, no longer bound by space and time in His resurrection body. Still recognizably human, still able to speak and eat and drink and converse. But now, resurrected, the glorious Lord Jesus Christ. He comes out of the grave and at that moment there’s the earthquake and the soldiers that are guarding the grave fell down as though they were dead.

And the stone has rolled away now from the door by the angels and it’s opened for people to see what’s happened. Peter and John came, looked in there and discovered that our Lord Jesus had arisen just as He said he would. Now, what is the power that He wrought in Christ when He raised him from the dead?

Number one, life to a dead body. Our Lord Jesus was undeniably dead when they laid Him in the grave. It’s not a matter of resuscitation. I remember the seminary class where one of the students had a little different — a little difficulty in explaining some of these theories of the resurrection when he was reciting. And he came to that one when he said — “well, some people say he was resusci, resusci, resuscitated.” We had a chuckle at his expense but that is one — only one of the theories that unbelieving hearts have put forth and it is just as ridiculous as the rest of them.

Our Lord Jesus was undeniably dead when they put Him in the grave and He was undeniably alive the next time they saw Him after He’d been raised from the dead. So it’s life in to a dead body and then it’s liberty for an enclosed imprisoned body, and it is the eternal glorification now of the lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world and now has become our crucified and risen and coming again Christ.

The power that He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand. This is exalting him now in the heavenlies, far above all principality and power and might. “And every name that’s named in this world and that which is to come, put all things under his feet and give him to be the head over all things of the church. His body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all, And you”, chapter 2 verse 1, “hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.”

Now what’s Paul saying? He said, I want you to have the experience of resurrection power. It starts with the life of Christ being given to you when you believe. “Working to us who believe.” Verse 19, “The power that works to us who believe.” When you commit yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, then God’s eternal life comes to you. And you who were dead to God then dead to eternal issues are now gloriously alive. “You hath he made alive who were dead.”

That’s the power of the resurrection. What else? You’re accepted with the Lord Jesus in the heavenlies. You have gained access now into the very presence of God. Paul says in Romans 5, “By whom also we have access by faith in to this grace, wherein we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Access by faith. You’re accepted in the beloved and you are raised and seated in the heavenlies with Christ. God looks at you through the Lord Jesus. He doesn’t see you and me and our failures and our weaknesses. He sees us through the work, the perfect, the atoning finished worked of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is part of the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ. His power to us who believe, he raised him from the dead. There’s life for a dead body and set him at his own right hand. There’s acceptance in the presence of a Holy God in the heavenlies far above all principality. Now that’s authority, principality and power and might.

Principality is the large governmental divisions. Power is the local application of that authority and might is the outworking of that application. Dominion is the result. And so you have that string of words there, showing what happens in our world.

There is principality and there is power and there is might and there is dominion and there is the precedence of one name over another, every name that is named but the Lord Jesus tops it all. And you stand with Him accepted because He rose again and that same resurrection power, that same resurrection placement and that same resurrection authority and that same resurrection protocol if I may use that word, where you stand with the Lord Jesus who is Lord of all. And you’re identified with Him. Hallelujah! Oh thank Him for that wonderful salvation today, won’t you? And then let Him work his wonderful power through your life. We’ll get back to this subject of how the power works, the next time we get together.

Dear heavenly Father, today may the power of the risen Christ be real in our lives all day long. In Jesus name, I ask this. Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!



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