Ephesians 1:18-21 NASB
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, [19] and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might [20] which He brought about in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, [21] far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. [22] And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, [23] which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Paul prayed that every Christian would come to know in their own personal experience the surpassing greatness of the power of God in their lives, and he defined the greatness of this power by saying it is the same power that God exercised in Christ when he raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in Heaven. Because we were in Christ, the same power that raised Him from the dead, raised us from the dead in Him, and the resurrection power that He is infused with now is also ours to live by. When I think about resurrection power, there are a number of things that come to mind, and I want to point out a couple of them that can help us see life through the lenses of the power that raised Jesus from the dead.
In Luke’s gospel, we are told that there were some women who watched the crucifixion from a distance, and after observing the body of Jesus was placed, they went and prepared spices and perfumes for the body, and then rested for the Sabbath. Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Salome on the other hand, went and bought spices after the Sabbath, which means they would’ve purchased them after sunset on Saturday evening before the morning of the resurrection.
As some of the women were approaching the tomb, they were asking one another who would roll away the stone from the entrance of the tomb so they could anoint the body in light of the fact that it was extremely large.
When Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Salome went to sleep Saturday night, it seemed that all had been lost because everything they had believed in had just died, but within a few hours, as Mary Magdalene went to the tomb in the dark by herself, she discovers. That the stone was rolled away, and soon after that, Jesus appeared to her, and she knew that everything that she had dreamed for, and that she thought she had lost, was even better than she could’ve ever imagined even before the crucifixion.
The risen Jesus is now our life, and we live in the sphere of his life and his resurrection power, and because of that, we can always know that no matter how bad things may look, joy comes in the morning. Resurrection power reminds us to never lose hope just because it seems like everything is lost or moving in the wrong direction because the power of resurrection can turn things around entirely in the course of one evening. Mary Magdalene went to sleep in sadness, discouragement, and despair, and when she awoke the very next day, everything had turned around and turned out better than what she had believed in the beginning.
The other thing about resurrection power is that there are no obstacles, no matter how extremely large the stone might be, that Jesus can’t transcend. It is vital for those in union with the risen Christ to remember that they live in the sphere of His resurrection power, that they should never never believe that the resistance the enemy offers, represents the slightest hindrance to God fulfilling his promise.
We Easter people can live every day in the unwavering faith that the power of resurrection can turn things around in just one night and can overcome any obstacles no matter how big they are. Paul prays that all who are in Christ, we know these things.