In television news, producers are in charge of the newscast. The producer is the one who decides the stories you and I watch each day. The producer plans it.
The producer works with the reporters and photographers who gather the news. And the producer sits in the control room making sure the broadcast goes off without a hitch.
Here in his letter to the folks in Ephesus, Paul reminds them that God is the Great Producer behind the Good Newscast.
It's God who "worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places" (Eph 1:20).
It's God who "worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places" (Eph 1:20).
God planned it all. God executed it all. And now God sits in the heavenly control room making sure it all goes as He planned.
God is the Great Producer behind the Good Newscast.
The Apostle Paul writes to the folks in Ephesus to remind them exactly who Jesus is and what He's done. He had made that clear during his three-year gig in there just a few years ago (Acts 19).
But something's come up. A team of spiritual snake oil salesmen have duped folks just down the road in Colossae into believing some not-so-good news.
They've convinced Christ's followers that He might have been good but He wasn't God. He might have gotten us into His kingdom but it's up to us to stay in.
According to these morons, we've gotta follow the rules. We've gotta eat certain foods. We've gotta observe certain holy days. That's the only chance we stand of salvation.
But Paul wrote a letter to the Colossians letting them know that Jesus was not only God but more God than we can wrap our brains around (Col 1:15-20).
And now he writes a second letter to Ephesian believers trying to prevent them from falling for the same con. The apostle opens this second letter with a spectacular picture of exactly who Jesus is and what He's done for us (Eph 1:3-14). Call it the Good Newscast.
Paul lets them know that he's praying all the time for them (Eph 1:16). He prays that God will flip on the lights so they can clearly see Jesus for who He is and how He's powerfully working in their lives (Eph 1:18-19).
The apostle says that the very same power source that's working in our lives is same power source that "worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead" (v20). God the Father raised His Son from the dead through the power of His Holy Spirit.
Paul confirms that idea in Romans. "If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you" (Rom 8:11). So resurrection is a powerful picture of Trinitarian teamwork!
Don't miss the fact that Jesus was dead. No pulse. No brain activity. Dead. He wasn't asleep. He wasn't in a coma. He didn't swoon. He was dead.
There's absolutely no way Jesus could have survived the brutality of that bloody Friday. The Romans beat Him unmercifully, ripping Him apart with a cat o' nine tails. They punched and kicked Him.
They forced Him to carry the massive crossbeam on His bloody back through the streets of the city where He fell several times. Soldiers then pounded railroad spikes through His hands and feet, nailing Him to cross.
He hung naked and bleeding on that cross for six hours, struggling to breath.
Eventually when He eventually stopped breathing, a professional Roman executioner rammed a spear through His ribcage and pierced His heart, causing the loss of a massive amount of blood and fluid.
He was dead.
Some of His followers took His body down from the cross and prepared it for burial. They wrapped His corpse in burial cloths and covered it in about 100 pounds of spices.
Eventually they placed this remains into a tomb carved out of rock and rolled a huge stone over the entrance. Jesus was dead. Dead. No pulse. No heartbeat. No brain activity.
Because He was really, actually and literally dead, He couldn't raise Himself. He didn't set His alarm for three days and simply wake up Sunday morning.
Paul makes it clear in this letter to his friends in Ephesus that it was God who "raised Him from the dead" (v20). It was Jesus' resurrection that lit the fire in His followers.
This was the lead story to the Good News throughout those incredible first days of the church we read in Acts (Acts 2:24; 3:15, 26; 4:10, 33; 5:30; 10:40; 13:30; 17:3, 31).
God brought His Son back from the dead. Paul Himself saw Him first hand when the risen Jesus jumped him just outside Damascus (Acts 9:27).
This is the ultimate proof to Jesus' first followers that He is EXACTLY who He said He was. He rose from the the dead. And because God raised Jesus, His followers knew for certain He would raise them too.
Paul tells us that God "worked" (v20) to raise Jesus. He uses a very similar word to one in the previous verse. It's the Greek verb energeo/ενεργεω, which means to provide power, energize, work effectively and produce.
God provides the power for raise Jesus. God energizes Christ's resurrection. God works effectively to raise His Son from the dead. God produces a risen Jesus.
God is the Great Producer of the Good Newscast.
We see a VERY familiar phrase here: "in Christ" (v20). Paul uses some form of this idea 28 times in this letter alone. Everything we have and everything we hope for is "in Christ.”
These two little words remind us that He lived the perfect life of obedience to the law that we failed to live. They remind us that He died the awful death of punishment that we should have died.
They remind us that God raised Him up to a glorious new life we don't deserve. They remind us that He did for us what we could never do for ourselves in a gajillion years.
We trust "in Christ" (v20). We believe in that it truly is finished, over and done with (Jn 19:30). There's nothing more we can do to earn or merit His blessing of salvation. That's what it means to believe "in Christ" (v20).
God didn't just stop at resurrecting Jesus. Through the same power of the Holy Spirit that brought Him back from the tomb, He "seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places" (v20).
A few weeks after His resurrection, Jesus headed home to heaven right before the eyes of His followers (Acts 1:9-10). Reunited with our heavenly Dad, He sat down. He sat down just to the right of Father God.
That's the place of ultimate honor. That's the place of ultimate power. The authors of the books of the Bible talk about it all the time (Ps 16:8; 110:1; Mt 22:44; Lk 22:69; Acts 2:33-34; 5:31; Rom 8:34; Col 3:1; Heb 1:3, 13; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2; 1Pet 3:22).
Jesus is sitting at the right hand of His Father in heaven. Yeah, it's kind of a big deal. It's a very important way of saying He's in charge.
He's in authority. He's running the show. We can trust Him completely. God raised Him from the dead. God put Him in power.
He’s able to do that since God is the Great Producer of the Good Newscast.
©2013
Jay Jennings
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