What Is Christ Doing Now . . . and Why?, Part 3

It was the apostle Paul who said, This week we are giving our complete attention to a passage in Ephesians where the apostle Paul paints an eloquent picture of Jesus in heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father. This powerful position has wonderful implications for the believer, as we'll come to understand during this next half hour. Today's presentation is part of the series called Becoming a People of Grace. At Chuck Title today's message, What is Christ Doing Now and Why?, we begin in Ephesians chapter 1.

Let me make several observations. First, there is a struggle going on. Verse 12, We struggle not against blood and flesh. This is not some distant theoretical struggle that seminaries study about and a few theologians talk about and write about. This is the struggle of your life and mine. This is hand-to-hand combat with an enemy that is not only insidious in nature, he is invisible.

You don't know where he's coming from next. First, remember there's a struggle. Notice secondly that the contest is human versus supernatural. We don't struggle against blood and flesh. We, mere mortals, struggle against the supernatural forces that we cannot see.

Against the strength that is beyond ours. Don't flirt with it and don't play with it, is my warning here. Don't get around it knowing that you're messing in the demonic realm.

Don't go there. Let me say thirdly, there is a strategy going on. See the end of verse 11, Stand firm against the schemes of the devil. He's been studying Christians like us down through the ages. He knows the chinks in our armor. He knows the weaknesses. He knows the areas when we are quickly overwhelmed and overcome and he points attention to those. The enemy also knows the church. He knows how to get to the church.

He knows the way into the workings of a church and he knows how to disrupt a church. It is a method that has been perfected through the centuries. Hear me on this. It is going on. It has been going on for centuries.

It will continue to go on, but the good news, it is not above the power of Jesus Christ. That is the power we need. If we are disconnected from the power, then the enemy will get his way. The adversary will win the day. We are coming against a supernatural mafia.

It's the best way I know to describe it. The enemy's mafia is described as, look at verse 12, rulers, powers, forces of darkness, and spiritual hosts of wickedness. But you have nothing to fear because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world if you are connected. Back to Ephesians 1. When God gave Christ as head over the church, when God decided not to keep Christ to himself as we would have done, when God seated him and exalted him, God gave him a position of ultimate overall authority so that he would ultimately be the judge of the rest that lay before us in the future. Christ will be the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords.

That day is coming. He operates now in the invisible realm, fighting on our behalf, serving the cause of the Father, fulfilling the Father's desire. His power pervades. The enemy will bow when faced with the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. The power is there. He's been given as head over all things to the church, and that means we're in that group. We're among the all things.

And we are a part of his body, so he becomes for us the fullness who fills all in all. And I plead with you not to approach the day as though you were strong, but approach it knowing that you were weak and saying so. And quit acting to the contrary. Now does this mean we all shove our hands in our pockets and kick our toes in the dirt and learn to say aw shucks all through the day? Is that what God's plan is?

Of course not. I never saw Christ doing that, and he was the most humble who ever lived. And look at his life, by the way.

And he showed his strength and his humility and his dependence on the Father, and he modeled for us what this Christian life is about. He stayed connected. Connected. That's the term. Disconnections lead to dysfunctions.

Connections lead to victory. God's power is not like some body building, muscular, try to imagine this right now, okay? Some of you say could you have chosen a little better illustration?

Right now, that's the best that comes to me. God is not some, you know, iron pumping, impressive creature stumbling around heaven saying, the force! I am the force!

That's not the way it works. God's power is quiet, but effective. Incredibly, magnificently, invisibly overwhelming. The best prayers aren't prayers that are screamed, they are prayers that are uttered in great need. Help, Lord, right now. I find myself weakening, Lord, at this. I find myself thinking human thoughts. I find myself wanting to retaliate and fight back.

I find myself depressed and discouraged over this. Lord, change me. Take control. I connect to your power, and I ask you to put that power to work in me so that I have eyes that are enlightened to see what you can see, and I am not able to see in myself. The greatest evidence of power is change. Let me go to another subject. They all tie in. When is that power best displayed in us?

Get it. When we are weak. When we are weak, not when we're strong. Turn back to 2 Corinthians chapter 12.

Please do that. I know you're settled into Ephesians 1 thinking we'll be there until Jesus comes back, but we won't. 2 Corinthians 12, I really want you to turn to this, ties in beautifully with the whole message. Now, when you find verse 7, put your finger there, then look up. 2 Corinthians 12, 7. Paul, in a supernatural trance, stay with me, was caught up in the third heaven.

You can believe it. In this trance, some believe it was when he was stoned at Lystra, and while unconscious, he was in this trance. I don't know when it was. No one can say for sure, but at some part of Paul's life of ministry, he was caught up into the third heaven. 2 Corinthians 12 tells us this. And while it was there, he received divine revelations from God that he calls surpassing revelations, right here. Verse 7. Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh.

The word thorn refers to something that is sharp, like a stake, like you drive a stake in the ground, a sharp knife, a sharp, piercing pain. We don't know what it was. I think it was some form of migraine. It was a painful eye problem, some ophthalmalia. Some believe it was related to his malaria. I don't think that fits the idea of penetrating pain like this. That's a fever disease, but this is a penetrating, painful, thorn-like disease, or thorn-like affliction, let me use that word. There was given to me a thorn in the flesh. Why?

To keep me from being proud. I mean, he's been in the third heaven. He has heard from God as Moses had heard from God. He has received the revelation concerning the church, grace, God's plan for the Gentiles, God's plan for the future, Christ's plan for his return. All of the revelations that were given to him came from that third heaven encounter, and he said, because of the greatness of the revelation, I was given a thorn in the flesh.

Now, please observe something. He calls it, in an appositional phrase here, a messenger of Satan to torment me. When you go through an affliction, the enemy knows we are weakened, and he takes this as an opportunity to afflict further. You and I who have known fever and illness, some of you much more than I, but you know how weak you can be on a bed of affliction, and you can't get yourself healthy. And the physician's medications aren't working, and the therapy isn't getting the results.

And in that downstate, the enemy comes and attacks. He calls it here, it's like a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me. God's plan was to keep him from exalting himself.

Satan's desire was to defeat him and to finish his ministry. Paul, this is enough. I mean, after all you've done, take your life. Get off this earth. After all, you get to go to heaven.

Just finish it off. Satan's major message, ultimate message, by the way, is take your life. He's a murderer from the beginning, and so suicide is invariably in some way directly or indirectly related to his message.

It's another subject. So Paul said, concerning this, verse 8, I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. Don't let anybody tell you that praying once is enough. Paul prayed three times. He prayed three times that it might leave me.

Now watch what he said. He said, the H is capitalized, so it's God. God said in return to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected. There it is, in weakness.

Isn't that great? My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Now, Paul's there because the quotation ends, and God stops talking, and Paul responds, but I don't want you to go to his response. Quick, quick, quick, you're reading ahead. Stop right there, okay? All of you go, what did Paul say? Don't go there yet.

Wait a minute. I'll get there. I want to give you a principle to write in the margin of your Bible.

It's got some tough words in it, but you'll come back to it. Here's the principle. The greater our acknowledged weakness, the greater our acknowledged weakness, the more evident Christ's enabling strength. That's the principle. The greater our acknowledged weakness, the more evident Christ's enabling strength.

You got it? I don't want to hurry on, I want you to get that principle because a lot of us hangs on that principle. I acknowledge, Lord, I have a thorn in my flesh. I cannot get past the migraine. I cannot get past the pain of it. I cannot sustain this ministry at this level of involvement and energy required. I can't keep going. I need you.

Help me with it. Give me grace to endure it. Give me relief from it. I am weak. You are strong. Show me your grace, and I will walk in your strength. Connected, connected. He connected with the Lord, and he said, I cannot do this without your help.

And connected, he says this. Now we can read. Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses. When's the last time you saw that?

The Wall Street Journal. I will boast in my weaknesses. Why? So that the power may rest upon me, may dwell in me. Therefore, I am well content with, and he found himself at home with this list, the kind of things you and I run from. Weakness and insults and distresses and persecutions and difficulties. For Christ's sake, for when I am weak, you make me strong.

That's the principle. The greater our acknowledged weakness, the more evident Christ's enabling strength. That's why people who don't hide their weaknesses but tell vulnerably their story are so blessed of God. Who can't identify with weakness? Who in the entire group can identify with unending strength?

I don't know of a soul. But every person listening to me right now has known and now knows weaknesses. You've got to stay connected. Stop relying on yourself and acting like you're strong. Ray Stedman tells the true story of a young man who came to him in tearful emotional agony. He spoke to Ray about the feelings of temptation that were so strong as he struggled with these deep-seated feelings of lust. He feared he would never be able to overcome those temptations to sin.

Ray said, I sat down with him and we had an honest talk. You know, I said, I'm quoting Ray Stedman, God's power is made perfect in weakness. Your problem is that you're trying to feel strong. You want to feel powerful, but God says no. Resurrection power is the kind that works best when you feel weak. So if you feel weak, thank God.

How's that for a new counsel? You feel weak? First of all, say thank you, Lord, for the reminder that I am not strong in this. The next time you find yourself threatened with those attacks of lust, run to Christ in your helplessness. Say, Lord, I cannot handle this by myself. I cannot control myself.

If you don't help me, I'm sunk. Okay, said the young man dubiously. I'll try. A couple of weeks later, Ray ran into him. He screamed, it works.

He told me it really works. I kept reading that passage in Ephesians and I was struck by the two words far above. Remember I said we'd come back to them? Far above. It says that Christ is seated at God's right hand in the heavenly realms far above rule and authority and power and dominion. Those two words far above opened my eyes. I thought, hey, if God is at work in me, if he has that kind of power, then nobody else's power can even get close to me. No demonic force, no lustful urge can be greater than the power of Jesus Christ. When I saw that fact, I was able simply to rest in my Lord. It's been working and God has set me free.

Two questions. Have you been experiencing some changes as a result of God's power at work? Praise God.

Sleeping better even though tomorrow looks worse than today? Finding yourself encouraged even though there's nothing on the horizon to bring encouragement? That means God's at work.

That means God is at work in you. It's okay if it's not working out our way. We're not in charge anyway, are we? Are there some changes taking place?

Here's a searching question. Have you been trying to be strong? Next time I hear somebody say that, I'm going to put my arm around them and say, don't, don't try to be.

Admit you're not. Strength is from him. When we are weak, he is strong.

Stay connected. Charles Haddon Spurgeon was preaching on 2 Corinthians 12, verse 9. As he closed his message, these were his words, and they're my closing words. Dear brothers and sisters, go home and never ask the Lord to make you strong in yourselves. Never ask him to make you anybody or anything, but be content to be nothing and nobody. Next, ask that his power may have room in you and that all those who come near you may see what God can do by nothings and nobodies. Live with this desire to glorify God. Sometimes, Spurgeon adds, when God honors us in his service, a great eye stands in the Lord's way.

He gives this warning. Trimble when you see a poor, weak preacher made useful in converting souls. Then all the papers and magazines began to blaze his name abroad, and silly Christians, for there are plenty of them. I'm also relieved to know that 100 years ago that was also true.

It's not just a sign of our age. Silly Christians, for there are plenty of them, began to talk him up as if he were a demigod and say such great things about him and describe him as wise and eloquent and great. Thus, they do all they can to ruin the good brother. If the man is sensible, he will say, Get thee behind me, Satan, and thou savourest not the things that be of God. And if God moves him great grace, and if God gives him great grace, he will retire more and more into the background and lie lower and lower before his God. But if you once get a man to feel himself to be great and good, either a fall will happen or else the power of God will withdraw from him. The best of men are flesh and blood, and they have no power, except as God lends them power, and he will make them know and feel this. Therefore, neither exalt others nor exalt yourselves, but beseech the Lord to make and keep you weakness itself, that in you his power may be displayed. God grant it may be so for Christ's sake. Amen.

May we bow together. I understand today that I speak only to weak people. The difficulty is getting some of you to believe that.

If you're disconnected, you're still reading all the self-help books on how to make good impressions and be strong and rely on the flesh and develop your image, cultivate all the things that make for a good president, stupid plan, forget the image. Will you please stop looking for your clippings, stop expecting praise and adulation, no bodies and nothings. Those are the powerful people whom God empowers. Settle the fight today. Sit back. Tell the Lord where you're weak. Admit it even to close friends.

Say it. Go there, because when we're weak, he is so strong. And even a thorn in the flesh won't dislodge us from our appointed responsibilities. If you've never met the Lord, I speak to you as a weak man to you who think you're strong. You're just about to meet your match. He's going to crush you in bringing you to himself if he has to.

Save some time and energy right now by submitting. Just saying, I have nothing in my hands, I bring simply to the cross. I cling.

Come now, please. Our Father, we acknowledge that if it were not for your grace, we wouldn't be here. Who knows where we'd be. And our lips wouldn't be filled with your praises. We'd be fighting for our rights. We'd be looking out for ourselves. We'd be serving our own purposes.

We'd lack peace, joy, purpose, definition, direction. Thank you for finding us when we were not looking for you and for calling us to yourself. When we weren't on some mad pursuit for holiness, you found us in our sin, you took us as we were, and you're now in a process of cleaning up our lives. We're grateful. And for your grace, we give you our thanks. In Jesus' dear name, everyone say it.

Amen. Our study in the book of Ephesians is called Becoming a People of Grace. You're listening to Insight for Living. And to learn more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org.

And here at Insight for Living, we believe that some of your best learning happens when you have the privilege of sitting in a quiet spot along with your Bible and reliable study tools. Along these lines, you'll be pleased to learn that Chuck Swindoll has written a comprehensive commentary on Paul's letter to the Ephesians. In fact, it comes with his commentary on Galatians as well. It's called Swindoll's Living Insights Commentary on Galatians and Ephesians.

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The preceding message, What is Christ Doing Now and Why? was copyrighted in 2000, 2001, and 2009. And the sound recording was copyrighted in 2009 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.