00:00:00:45 – 00:00:28:55
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Thanks for being with us. Grateful that you join us again as we close out the week together. And I think today, close out this first, chapter of the book of Ephesians where we’re picking up in verse 20 of chapter one. Paul has now moved from this very theologically nuanced and sort of messy opening statement to a, a moment of prayer and kind of affirmation.

00:00:29:00 – 00:00:55:09
Clint Loveall
And we’re going to look at the closing words of that, and then we’ll come back. So let me read these through, and then we’ll come back and have some conversation. God put his power to work in Christ when 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 above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the age to come.

00:00:55:13 – 00:01:18:49
Clint Loveall
And he has put all things under his feet, and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. So we said in the intro to this study that one of the markers of Ephesians, and this is generally true of Paul’s writings, but we see it really clearly in Ephesians.

00:01:18:54 – 00:01:44:35
Clint Loveall
Ephesians has these moments of just kind of soaring praise, of, almost doxology, of a moment of worship. And here, Paul, I think, moves to one. Yesterday he said, you know, we we trust his immeasurable greatness and his power for us who believe. And now he goes on to unpack that God put this power to work in Christ.

00:01:44:40 – 00:02:20:57
Clint Loveall
So God’s power to accomplish his purpose is put to work in Christ. When he raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places. So how does God fulfill his purpose? How does God work his power by what he has done in Jesus Christ, who is now seated with him and then there’s this beautiful litany above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, we get similar language to this in Philippians.

00:02:21:01 – 00:03:00:23
Clint Loveall
But this is this is Paul’s way of just saying everything that Christ is above everything, and to make sure he reinforces that not only in this age, but also in the age to come. And, I yes, Michael, this is theological. Paul does deeply believe this, but for him, I think it’s also deeply practical. He he can’t imagine a system of Christian belief that Christ isn’t at the center and above everything else.

00:03:00:34 – 00:03:02:24
Clint Loveall
And I think that’s to his credit.

00:03:02:29 – 00:03:23:49
Michael Gewecke
No doubt. I think the term we’re going to see tomorrow or the next time we get together for the study next Monday, if you’re joining us live, is the fact that this has real life implications for the believer? It it’s going to land home for us. But right now, we’re not there yet. And I think we need to stay where we are, because there’s something to learn here.

00:03:23:54 – 00:04:00:00
Michael Gewecke
Because what we are going to discover in this text that’s all about powerful ness, about being lifted up. I love this language. I think it really helps put it in perspective for us. Far above all, rule, authority and power. He’s put it under his feet that this is the trope for thousands of years. Whether you’re looking at the Reformation and all the kings and queens who are trying to exercise power, get people under their feet, or whether you go all the way back to the Roman Empire and you start talking about Caesar as lower than you could just look through history.

00:04:00:05 – 00:04:27:08
Michael Gewecke
Humans are always drawn to this idea of power. And so the fascinating thing that we’re seeing here is that when we talk about the immeasurable greatness of the power given to those who believe the power exhibited in verse 20, when Christ is what raised from the dead. So in other words, the shocking turn that God’s power is most clearly evident.

00:04:27:08 – 00:05:03:03
Michael Gewecke
It’s seen most powerfully when after Jesus dies, God is able to resurrect him from the dead. That should shock us. I think it doesn’t, because of our temptation to get caught in a cycle of the faith in which we just get used to the vocabulary and we get used to the Easter promise. But friends, that’s astonishing that the God with all power would die, that the God of all power would be buried into the ground, that the power is exhibited most clearly in God’s ability to take this bad thing and to bend it to good.

00:05:03:07 – 00:05:20:17
Michael Gewecke
That’s an astonishing turn of power, which every human who’s sought after power in the times since. And some of those even tried to leverage faith to do so. And this is astonishing, the kind of theological depth to this is amazing.

00:05:20:22 – 00:05:44:28
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And you can kind of see the concentric circles that Paul draws here. Michael, is all rule and then authority, which is a little bigger, and then all imaginable power which is bigger yet. And then all dominion, and then go so far as to say above every name that is name. So anything anyone you can think of, Christ is above that.

00:05:44:33 – 00:06:14:15
Clint Loveall
Christ is beyond that. Not only now in our own experience, but in all the times yet to come. And but to begin. Does Paul have a tendency to get a little wordy in these moments? Maybe. Maybe it would be sufficient for him to just say Christ is above all but but he wants believers to understand the depths of what that means.

00:06:14:15 – 00:06:57:25
Clint Loveall
And so, I think here he he paints with multiple colors to make sure that Christians see a clear picture, not only in this age, but in every, you know, or in the age to come. And then look at the action. So if that’s the truth that Christ is above. Now look at the action here. God has put all things under his Jesus’s feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

00:06:57:30 – 00:07:15:27
Clint Loveall
I suspect, Michael, that we are so comfortable with the idea of church and so used to our idea of church being a small place and a gathering of people.

00:07:15:32 – 00:08:04:03
Clint Loveall
That when we hear words like this, we have to intentionally let them land on us, that the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all the the, the idea that the church is the fullness of Christ, that the church is called to be the body of this one who is above everything, and everyone and all power, that that one exists to fill the church, and that the church exists to be filled by him.

00:08:04:08 – 00:08:37:14
Clint Loveall
We are. It is a measure of our comfort that that we are so stunned by those kind of words. We should be more conscious of that calling. We we can easily think of church as our small experience of it. And churches, you know, the doing the day care or the having Wednesday night or the whatever. And yes, it is all those things, but the purpose of the church is to be a vessel filled by Christ, to be a body of which he is the head.

00:08:37:19 – 00:08:43:21
Clint Loveall
And the church would do well to remember that more often.

00:08:43:26 – 00:09:16:27
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, I can’t agree more. I think that the church often misses in the commonness of human life together. The sacredness of what God is doing in us. And I want to be clear, I think the wording there does matter. It’s not the sacredness of what we’re trying to accomplish, because more often than not, when we get fixated on the stuff that we are trying to do, we miss the mark and hit ourselves as opposed to pointing our lives towards the ultimate power of the died and resurrected Savior.

00:09:16:31 – 00:10:02:45
Michael Gewecke
I think the astonishing movement of this text is to force us to stand at the foot of the all powerful one, and to realize that somehow God has chosen us, the body, the fullness of him who fills all in all to push back the darkness of the world that we live in. And it’s remarkable how dark and powerful that darkness is, is to press in on Christians and if we feel the weight of that in the midst of our lives, whether that be a personal struggle or whether that be a larger struggle of our community or our nation or the world, friends, the fullness and power of God is seen, and God’s ability to redeem,

00:10:02:45 – 00:10:23:10
Michael Gewecke
to make right, to turn these things. And that’s not historically unique. You know, I just want to quick throw up here so that we can all see it. This is a or this rendering of the temple that sat in the center of Ephesus. And this is a foreign pagan god for the Christians. And so they’re walking by this.

00:10:23:15 – 00:10:50:40
Michael Gewecke
Imagine how small you would feel at the foot of those stone pillars. Right. And here the invitation that Paul’s offering to this city, this, this mega city full of all of its cynicism and full of all of its pagan gods, that ultimately there’s only one power that everything else will fall. It’s find itself underneath. And ultimately, and mysteriously, that power lives in and through the church.

00:10:50:40 – 00:11:28:51
Michael Gewecke
It should astonish us. It should compel us. Quite frankly, it should encourage us because you’re not held to the measure of perfection. You’re simply held to the measure of being part of that body. It’s about membership. It’s not about more moral perfection. And I think we get this wrong. We we begin to define ourselves by whether a person is more or less like us in belief or in action, instead of whether or not a person is a brother or sister in the body of Christ, whether that person is rooted inside our family, that’s a radically different way to understand who God has called us to be.

00:11:28:51 – 00:11:53:46
Michael Gewecke
And it’s a radically different way of understanding of how God pushes back on the darkness of the world that surrounds us. Whether you’re at the foot of the temple in Ephesus or you’re somewhere radically different thousands of years later, friends, that the point is, Jesus Christ is the center and the one in power. And whenever you are brought into that body, you’re now coming into a different way of God, engaging in the world and your life is reoriented because of it.

00:11:53:51 – 00:12:18:15
Clint Loveall
And I just want to point out a thing here, Michael, that in some ways, the most powerful word in this small, in this short passage is one of the smallest words. If you read this, he has put all things under his feet and has made him head over all things. And and you would expect to see the word in that.

00:12:18:20 – 00:12:45:45
Clint Loveall
We all are comfortable with the idea that Jesus is the head in the church. Jesus has power in the church. But that’s not what Paul writes. The head over all things for the church. Christ not only exercises his authority in the church, he exercises his authority in the world on behalf of the church. He works for us inside and outside of our walls.

00:12:45:50 – 00:13:10:15
Clint Loveall
And that, I think, is, an important, vital distinction. We all get that Jesus is Lord in here, but that’s not big enough for Paul. Jesus is Lord and we recognize it in here. And that’s a very different thing and a very different picture that he paints. And I think it’s fascinating that he does not say in the church.

00:13:10:26 – 00:13:15:51
Clint Loveall
He says, for the church. And I, I think that’s I think that’s worth noting.

00:13:15:55 – 00:13:44:47
Michael Gewecke
It is very helpful. Note and I would encourage you, regardless of where you stand personally, those of you studying with us, wherever you stand on the authorship of this letter, I want to encourage you to go to Paul’s letters, and I want you to read it with that, that central idea, because what might surprise you is that Paul is never truly concerned or even put off by the brokenness of the world.

00:13:45:01 – 00:14:18:12
Michael Gewecke
Paul’s always calling the church to recognize that its calling is to live into the reality, the transformation, the salvation, the redemption of being the people of God filled by the Spirit of God so that it can model for the world. The church can model for the world what it is called to look like itself. That is an amazing turn, and I think you’re exactly right to point it out, Clint, that that that is living right here in the text and that ultimately it has a way of bridging into the questions of so what?

00:14:18:12 – 00:14:44:24
Michael Gewecke
And we’re not going to talk about it today. But I do just want to note, don’t miss the next study, because what you’re going to see happen is this seamless, I think beautiful transition between a description of who Jesus Christ is and how that faith reality is true. And then you’re going to immediately see that transition into the answer to the question, so what for us?

00:14:44:25 – 00:15:08:51
Michael Gewecke
If that’s true for Jesus, then what does it mean for the body that he is for? And that’s immediately the thing we’re going to be thrust into in what our Bibles have as the second chapter, so that this is a it it just shifts so seamlessly between this rapturous theology, this look and celebration of the greatness of God, but also the reality of what that means for the Christian.

00:15:08:51 – 00:15:28:52
Michael Gewecke
And we break it into small chunks. But this would have been read seconds apart from itself. It this all would have been read as a unit in the place of worship in Ephesus. And I think all of it is built together so that you see who God is. And then now you can also understand who therefore you are called to be, and it’s all knit together.

00:15:28:57 – 00:15:42:29
Clint Loveall
Yeah, it’s really, really good. I think we’re getting rolling. I hope you can join us next week, because this second chapter, we we continue to move deeper into the arguments, into the ideas. And I think there’s some really great stuff coming up.

00:15:42:34 – 00:15:50:02
Michael Gewecke
So that being said, I hope you have a wonderful break this weekend and we look forward to seeing you all Monday, 2:00 and be blessed.

00:15:50:11 – 00:15:50:39
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everyone.