STRENGTHENED WITH HIS MIGHT
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on February 5, 2023 under 2023 |
Bethany Bible Church Sunday Sermon Message; February 5, 2023 from Ephesians 3:16
Theme: We should pray for one another that we will be strengthened with might through the Holy Spirit in the inner man.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
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Last Sunday morning, we studied a prayer. It was a prayer the apostle Paul said that he prayed—in deep earnestness—for his brothers and sisters in Christ.
His description of that prayer is found in Ephesians 3:14-19. Paul wrote;
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:14-19).
Paul was moved to pray this prayer after having told his readers about the immeasurable riches that were theirs in Christ. And last week, we talked about how there were three things that he asked God for. They were spiritual things that God the Father must give His people in order for them to experience the very last thing that he mentioned in his prayer; and that is, that they would be ‘filled with all the fullness of God’.
I have felt very strongly that we shouldn’t rush through what Paul says about this prayer—that we should take our time to carefully understand each of these three things that he asks for; and that we should habitually pray that God would give them to us. And so, this morning, I ask that we consider the first of these three things. It’s something that is absolutely essential for us—as individual Christians and as a church family—to be able to have a satisfying Christian life, and to truly be ‘filled with the fullness of God’. It’s found in verse 16: “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man …”
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When I first became a follower of Jesus almost 50 years ago, I thought that living the Christian life would be easy. It certainly seemed, at the time, as if it couldn’t help but be easier than living the life of rebellion I had been living before then. But it didn’t take long for me to find out how wrong I was. In many ways, it was harder. And I wonder if you have discovered for yourself what I had discovered; that living the Christian life wasn’t just hard—it was humanly impossible!
No matter how hard I tried, I found that I couldn’t live up to the high standard that I had embraced in Christ. I would go to church, and read my Bible, and pray, and do all the things that I understood that I should do on the outside. But I also knew how far I was on the inside from that standard. I would easily fall back on old patterns of thinking. I would feel, rising up within me, the same old feelings and affections and inclinations toward sin. If I dropped something on my foot, I might not have cussed on the outside; but I sure let the words fly out on the inside! Based on my own power and abilities, I could not seem to live the consistent Christian life that I sincerely wanted to live.
I wonder if you have ever felt that way. Well; actually, I don’t have to wonder. I’m sure you have. You’re just as human as I am. You have often longed—just as I often did—for a victorious Christian life. You’ve wanted to be filled with all the fullness of God. But you often found yourself frustrated by your weaknesses and limitations and lack of zeal. You sincerely loved Jesus. You truly wanted Him to be the Lord of your life. But you were often grieved by the same old sins popping up, and were frustrated in your sincere desire. As Jesus once put it; “The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). To live the Christian life felt like an impossible ladder to climb—a goal that seemed out of reach. Try as hard as you may to live a holy life, you only felt like you ended up only condemning yourself further. Sometimes, you may even have been so frustrated that you became tempted to give up trying.
Do you identify with that? Don’t you agree that it’s not just ‘hard’ to live the life of a follower of Jesus?—that it’s actually ‘humanly impossible’? Don’t you feel that it requires a strength that you don’t have in and of yourself?
Well; I’m not sure exactly when it was that I first learned it. But I eventually discovered along the way that it was never God’s intention that I live for Jesus on my own power. I learned that when we first believed on Jesus as our Savior, God sent the Holy Spirit—the third Person of the Trinity—to indwell us. He has already taken up permanent residence in us. And the Bible teaches us that He’s the One who is to live the life of Jesus in and through us—the kind of life that pleases God the Father. As Paul put it in Romans 8:1-4;
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:1-4).
It’s not that we’re completely passive in the matter, of course. We must willingly submit to the Holy Spirit’s enabling presence and obey His instructions through the Scriptures. We need to walk in daily dependency upon Him. But the wonderful news is that He’s the one who lives the life of Jesus in us that we cannot live for ourselves. He’s the only true power source for the Christian life. It’s only by His enabling help that we are able to be “filled with all the fullness of God”. In fact, He Himself is fully God; and He fills us with all the fullness of God by filling us with Himself.
We cannot be filled with all the fullness of God without the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit. And so; that’s something that the apostle Paul got down on his knees and prayed earnestly that his brothers and sisters would be given. It’s that God the Father would grant them, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in their inner man. And dear brothers and sisters; that’s what we also ought to do. We ought to love one another so much that we pray for one another what Paul prayed: that is, that we—individually and as a church family—will be strengthened with might through the Holy Spirit in the inner man; so that He lives the life of Jesus in and through us.
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So then; let’s look, in greater detail, at this first great thing that Paul prayed for. Notice that this one verse—Ephesians 3:16—answers a question for us …
1. WHAT DO WE NEED?
And it tells us what we need in this way: “to be strengthened with might”.
When I began exploring this subject, my mind went back to an Old Testament hero. His name was Samson. He’s legendary in sacred history for his great physical strength. But it wasn’t a strength that came from his own physical resources or abilities. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have become as weak as a kitten when his girlfriend gave him a haircut. It was a strength that was his strictly as a gift of God’s grace through the Holy Spirit.
Do you remember how he once met up with a lion? The Bible tells us, in Judges 14:6;
And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion apart as one would have torn apart a young goat, though he had nothing in his hand (Judges 14:6).
It was the Holy Spirit that gave him this great physical power. Without the Holy Spirit’s enabling, he couldn’t have done anything like that. The same kind of thing is told to us in verse 19; when he single-handedly took on a town full of the enemies of his people. We’re told;
Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of their men … (v. 19).
When his own people became afraid of him because of the trouble he was making for the Philistines, they handed him over to the Philistine army as a prisoner—bound with ropes. But we’re told in Judges 15:14;
Then the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him; and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds broke loose from his hands … (15:14).
That was when he picked up a ‘fresh jawbone of a donkey’ and killed a thousand Philistine soldiers with it. How could such a thing happen? It wasn’t because the power was in Samson. And it certainly didn’t have anything to do with the jawbone! It was because the Holy Spirit came upon him and empowered him with super-human physical strength to—at that time—do God’s will.
Now; it seems to me that this was only a limited display of the Spirit’s enabling power. The Holy Spirit didn’t take up residence “in” Samson. He only “came upon” him—in sort of an ‘outside’ way—in order to enable him to perform great displays of ‘outside’ strength for a time. As we all sadly know from the story that the Bible tells us, Samson didn’t seem to have been given the power to control his ‘inside’ very much. His sinful inclinations got the better of him time and again.
But that underscores the thing that the apostle Paul was praying for his brothers and sisters. For us, the Holy Spirit doesn’t just come ‘upon’ us for a time; but rather, He takes up permanent residence ‘in’ us. He gives us a strength that is far greater and more profound than that which Samson experienced. For us, it isn’t a power to manipulate outside circumstances. Rather, it’s an inward power to respond to outside circumstances in a Christ-like way. It’s a power that transforms our inner character and helps us to live like Jesus It’s the kind of strength that Paul talked about in 1 Corinthians 16:13; when he told his beloved brothers and sisters;
Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong (1 Corinthians 16:13)
It’s the gift of strength that he described in Colossians 1:11 as being
strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy (Colossians 1:11).
That’s the kind of strength you and I need, dear brothers and sisters in Christ. We don’t need the outward muscles to beat up armies or to sling donkey jaws. We need the kind of strength that works from the inside out. We need the kind of strength that enables us to meet all of the circumstances of life, and to interact with all the people we may encounter, with the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).
And so; we need, dear brothers and sisters, to pray for ourselves and for one another—that together, we would be ‘strengthened’ with that kind of ‘might’ so that we would live like Jesus.
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Now; another question that Ephesians 3:16 answers for us is …
2. HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?
How does this kind of power become ours? As Paul told us, it’s “through His Spirit”.
God uses human beings—like Samson, or like Paul—in mighty ways. But the Bible makes it clear that He does not do His mighty work through human power. God Himself put it this way in Zechariah 4:6:
‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’
Says the Lord of hosts (Zechariah 4:6).
And that Spirit—God’s Holy Spirit—the third Person of the Trinity—takes up permanent residence in us when we place our faith in Jesus. This is something that Paul has already told us about in this letter. In Ephesians 1—after telling us about the work of the Father in calling us to Himself, and about the work of Jesus His Son in redeeming us—Paul wrote this in verses 13-14;
In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1:13-14).
The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force. God the Father doesn’t simply place a ‘portion’ of the Holy Spirit in us. The Spirit is a divine Person who loves us infinitely. When He takes up permanent residence in us, He does so in the wholeness of His Person—protecting us and caring for us—sealing us as a redeemed man or woman who belongs to the Father—guaranteeing that we will share the eternal glory of Jesus forever. We should accept it as fact, dear brothers and sisters, that He indwells us right now by God’s grace.
What’s more, the apostle Paul also tells us in this letter how powerful the Holy Spirit is in our lives. There is no limit to what He can do. In Ephesians 1:19-22, Paul prayed that we would know—among other things—
… 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, 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. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all (vv. 19-23).
Just think of it, dear brothers and sisters! The very same power that raised Jesus from the dead, and seated Him at God’s right hand in majestic heavenly glory—is a Person. He has graciously taken up residence in you and me! He loves us forever, and will not leave us until we are raised up and brought into that same glory with Jesus! As Paul put it in Ephesians 3:20-21;
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen (3:20-21).
We should always remember, however, that the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit is not a power that we can use according to our own will. Rather, we are the instruments that the Holy Spirit graciously uses according to His own will. And this means that, in order for the Holy Spirit to exercise His power in us, we must submit ourselves completely to Him—and neither grieve Him nor quench His work through us. The way that the apostle Paul put it is that we must be “filled with the Spirit”. In Ephesians 5:18, he wrote;
And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit … (5:18)
Paul used that analogy intentionally. It’s the best way for us to understand what it means to be “filled” with the Spirit. When someone is drunk with wine, they have submitted themselves to be ‘ruled over’ by wine in a prevailing and pervasive way. We say that such a person is “under the influence” of alcohol. And of course, that always leads to excess, wastefulness, and harm. But instead—and in a similar way—we are to allow ourselves to be ‘ruled over’, in a complete, prevailing, pervasive way, by the Holy Spirit. We’re to yield ourselves to Him and allow Him to lead us, and empower us, and use us according to His will—trusting that He will do so.
That’s how we become “strengthened with might through His Spirit …” And dear brothers and sisters in Christ; that’s what we need to pray for. We need to follow Paul’s example; and pray for ourselves, and for one another as a church family, that we will become increasingly yielded to the Holy Spirit’s mighty enabling power.
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And there’s one more thing to notice in all of this. Ephesians 3:16 asks us the question:
3. WHERE DOES THIS NEED TO OCCUR?
And it answers that question very clearly in these words: “in the inner man”.
What exactly does that mean? What is ‘the inner man’? It may seem simple and obvious; but I think it helps if we think of it as the opposite of the ‘outward man’. The ‘outward man’ is the part of our being that our fellow human beings see. It has to do with our outward appearance, and the impression that we make on others.
I think that the apostle Peter gave us a very good illustration of what this means in 1 Peter 3:3-4. He was writing to his dear sisters in the Lord; and he urged them,
Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel—rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God (1 Peter 3:3-4).
He was, of course, writing specifically to his sisters in Christ. But I think that the same basic principle applies to all believers—to both sisters and brothers. The ‘outward man’ is the aspect of our being that ought only to be a reflection of the ‘inner man’. And it’s in the realm of ‘the inner man’ that the Holy Spirit seeks to work and exercise His power in us. It’s in the ‘inner man’ that He works mightily to conform us to the image of Christ; so that our ‘outward man’ is a reflection of our inward submission to His indwelling power and influence.
Many times, we err terribly in this. We try, in our own power, to make the ‘outward man’ appear ‘Christ-like’ through such things as ‘religious ritual’, or by concentrating on ‘religious works’, or by affecting a ‘religious spirituality’ that we don’t really possess. I think that this was my error in my early Christian days. I had been trying to achieve an ‘outward man’ kind of spirituality through my own human efforts; but I had not yet understood the ‘inner man’ necessity of being yielded to the power of the Holy Spirit. But it’s in the ‘inner man’ that the Holy Spirit has chosen to display His power at work in us.
In 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Paul put it in words that have become a great encouragement to me over the years. He wrote about all the troubles and trials that he suffered in ministry. He talked about how it had taken its toll on him and his other co-workers in the gospel. And then said this:
Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).
That’s where the work of the Holy Spirit really shows itself in us. It’s in the ‘inner man’; where we are being renewed daily in Christ. And the ‘outward man’ that people see is to be a reflection of His inward power at work—conforming us increasingly to Jesus’ image.
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Paul prayed earnestly for this. He got down on his knees in deep and passionate prayer that it would be so. He wanted very much for his dear brothers and sisters to be ‘filled with all the fullness of God’; and he knew that in order for that to happen, they needed to be ‘strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man’.
I am praying for that too. I’m praying for myself; and I’m also praying for us as a church family. Just think of what it would be like if every believer in this church was ongoingly filled with the Holy Spirit—habitually yielded to His prevailing and pervasive influence in every decision they make in every area of life—continually empowered with might by His work in their inner man—and all so that we would experience the fullness of God that God the Father Himself wants us to have! Just think of what He could then do through us!
Please, dear church family; join me in that prayer!
AE
