You Can Experience His Resurrection Power: Part One
Ephesians 1: 18 – 23
Jesus sent a shock wave through hell when He arose from the grave. In doing so He calmed the fears of His followers and lit in their hearts the triple candles of hope, glory, and power.
Jesus Christ dramatically demonstrated His authority and power in the moment of His bodily resurrection. Death’s final call He did not obey. He is risen.
Impersonal power is impractical. Applied power has a purpose. All of the power involved in His resurrection is without purpose unless applied in your life. That is precisely the one thing that accounts for the emergence of His young devotees. There is no way to account for the development of the infant church other than the resurrection. The fact the church exists today is a proof of the resurrection.
A single simple theme ran through His follower’s minds in those days immediately after His crucifixion: “You killed Him, God raised Him, we have seen Him.” That theme transformed their lives and enabled them to triumph.
Ekklesia is the Greek word for “church.” It appears 144 times in the New Testament. In approximately 100 of these uses it refers to the local church. The word means, “the called out assembly.”
The young church sprouted in the fertile soil of hope, grew in glory, and produced with power. Now consider how that hope, glory, and power relates to you.
THE HOPE OF HIS CALLED Vs. 18
What is the hope of those He has called?
Calling translates “kleseos” meaning an invitation.
His first calling is to salvation.
He then calls the saved to full and more meaningful service.
“Hope” means happy anticipation of a future certainty.
There is a basic explanation as to why so many people have lost hope today. In world War II the allied forces chased the German Nazi forces out of France. As they retreated, they changed road signs to confuse the allies. At great expense the allies soon learned the road signs couldn’t be trusted.
The forces of the enemy, that is the devil, have changed spiritual road signs in our world. As a result of following these wrong directions, many have lost hope. “There is a way that seems right to a man, But the end is the way of death.” (Proverbs 14: 12) This truth is so important it is repeated in Proverbs 16: 25.
Listen to the loving Christ call you to Himself. Read such signs of hope as posted in Romans 15: 13, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people.” (Ephesians 1: 18)