I. The Apostle desires that the Ephesian Christians may know what is "the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe." I can easily imagine that a person who has been wont to speak of the privileges of believers till he has brought himself to think of them as separated by their belief from the rest of human beings I can easily imagine that such a person will exclaim triumphantly, "See, then, the clause determines the meaning of all that follows. Whatever glory the Apostle, or rather the Spirit of God, may unfold, these are the persons to whom He will unfold it." Even so. I rejoice to think it. And therefore let us consider who these persons were. They were a very small society, aliens from the synagogue, aliens from the Gentile temple, regarded with scorn by those whom they met in the market-place. They were obliged to live much within their own circle. It is to these persons that St. Paul speaks of a fellowship that was quite illimitable. The reward of their faith was that they could not separate themselves from any creature bearing the form of a man. To do so was not to believe in Christ. To believe in Him was to acknowledge One who represented mankind at the right hand of the Father.
II. Such a faith as this, carrying them so far above all appearances, contradicting the conclusions of their natural understandings, overcoming the temptations that most beset them, could not be attributed to anything less than a Divine operation on their spirits. The power which raises any man into the largeness and freedom of fellowship with God and with the universe is the power which exalted Christ to the right hand of the majesty on high.
III. The Resurrection and Ascension are held forth to us as the object of faith. He who wore a crown of thorns was proved to be the Prince of all the kings of the earth. He who had gone down into hell had triumphed over the principalities of hell, making a show of them openly. This St. Paul held to be the true faith of a Christian; hereby it was marked out as different from the faiths that had gone before it or that still struggled with it in the world.
IV. St. Paul, who had thrice suffered stripes; St. Paul, who had hardly escaped from the mob at Ephesus; St. Paul, who was in Nero's hands at Rome St. Paul dares to tell these disciples of his that the powers of the world are put under Christ. The confidence with which the Apostles believed that the kingdoms of the world had in very deed been proved to be the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ explains the longing with which they looked forward to the final unveiling of Christ, their zeal to keep the longing alive in their disciples. They could not define the limits of His conquests, who had ascended on high that He might fill everything.
V. But what is the witness of our constitution in Christ? What is it that lives to prophesy of this ultimate victory? "He has given Him to be Head over all things to His Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." All the blessings which individual men have ever received from the Gospel of Jesus Christ can be traced directly to the belief, which our Communion Service expresses, that we dwell in Christ, and that Christ dwells in us; that we are very members incorporate in the body of Him that filleth all in all. Take away that faith, and you do not take away some grand mystical conception of Christianity: you take away all that has made it practical, all that has made it dear to the hearts of sinners and sufferers, all that binds together men of different races, classes, countries, ages.
F. D. Maurice, Sermons,vol. ii., p. 85.
References: Ephesians 1:19-23. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. ix., No. 534.Ephesians 1:20; Ephesians 1:21. Homilist,2nd series, vol. iv., p. 97. Ephesians 1:22. W. Cunningham, Sermons,p. 237; S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Sermons,vol. iii., p. 237; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines,p. 89. Ephesians 1:22; Ephesians 1:23. A. Blomfield, Sermons in Town and Country,p. 32; J. Vaughan, Sermons,15th series, p. 229. Ephesians 1:23. J. B. Heard, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxviii., p. 317; L. Davies, Ibid.,vol. xxxv., p. 353; Congregationalist,1872, p. 454.Ephesians 2:1. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. iii., No. 127; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines,p. 65.Ephesians 2:1-3. R. Elder, Family Treasury,Jan., 1878. Ephesians 2:2. E. Paxton Hood, Preacher's Lantern,vol. ii., p. 435.Ephesians 2:3. J. B. Heard, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxii., p. 120; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. i., p. 20. Ephesians 2:3-5. F. W. Robertson, The Human Race,p. 163.Ephesians 2:4. J. B. Brown, Clergyman's Magazine,vol. i., p. 392.Ephesians 2:4; Ephesians 2:5. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xiv., No. 808.