A Hopeless Life Series

A Life Without Hope

Ephesians 2:11-22

· Ephesians is filled with mighty truths, fantastic statements which remind us of what if means to be a Christian. IF we ever grasp these truths we will never be envious of a lost world, never wish to be like them in any way, and never be drawn back to those patterns of life.

1) 2:1 – Dead in trespasses and sins

2) 2:2 – Walked in the ways of the world

3) 2:2 – Under the power of satan’s direction

4) 2:3 – Indulged the desires of the flesh

5) 2:4 - Under condemnation as ‘children of wrath’

(2:5-7) BUT GOD – rich in mercy…because of His love…made us alive….raised us up….seated us in the heavenlies….to show His grace in us through Jesus Christ.

· 2:8-10 Explains how our salvation was God’s work in our lives and that it continues in us as ‘His Workmanship’. We can be confident that God is working in and through our lives for His great purposes.

· Starting in 2:11 Paul becomes more specific with regard to the Ephesian Church which is primarily non-Jewish or Gentile. He begins to contrast their condition in three ways:

1) WITHOUT CHRIST

2) IN CHRIST

3) THROUGH CHRIST

· Paul uses the term ‘REMEMBER’ in both 2:11 & 2:12. Do you remember what it was like to be outside of Christ? Lost? Blind to the truth? Keeping pace in the world but ignorant of God’s purposes and especially His design for your life? REMEMBER: When we remind ourselves of the hopeless condition of those days it inspires us the gratefulness and service in our commitment to Christ.

WITHOUT CHRIST: (11) Therefore, remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called ‘uncircumcised’ by the so-called ‘circumcision’ which is performed in the flesh by human hands – (12) remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

1. The word that best describes a Gentile is the word WITHOUT

(without Christ, without citizenship, without covenants, without

hope, without God)

a. We like to describe someone as ‘with it’. They have what it

takes or what everybody else would want.

A Panel of Women debated on what they thought was a perfect man, a guy who was ‘with it’. You would have thought they would have decided upon some actor or athlete even a wealthy tycoon. They decided that the perfect man was MR POTATO HEAD. 4 Reasons: ‘He’s tan, he’s cute, he knows the importance of accessorizing, and if he looks at another girl you can rearrange his face.

Problem is that in our blindness we often misdiagnose

people with that term: money, popularity, certain job,

1) Paul says people like that are really ‘without it’.

Trying to fill the emptiness with the things this world

offers.

RAY STEDMAN says that the GENTILES of Paul’s day were primarily characterized by two things:

1. IMMORALITY: often highly educated…civilized..but if you visit the

temples of Rome & Greece and other places you find a tremendous

emphasis on the sensual.(SOUND FAMILIAR)

2. RELIGIOUS IGNORANCE: They didn’t know God.

They were surrounded by gods on every side. Romans, Greeks,

Persians, all had their lists of gods but their gods were as irritable and

undependable as men were.

They certainly didn’t show love and there was never any thought of a

‘loving God’. No suggestion in any writing. They never felt loved by

their gods and had no sense of belonging in their relationships to them.

South American Indian told a missionary who had led him to Christ, ‘When I was living in the jungle, we never knew a day without fear. When we woke up in the morning we were afraid, When we went out of our houses we were afraid, when we walked along the river, we were afraid, we saw an evil spirit in every stone and tree and waterfall. And when night fell, fear came into our huts and slept with us all night long.

Our minds are often occupied with what we fear the most: When you consider what people are most preoccupied with you see what scares them:(TV & Movies, books) Fear of death: movies that toy with it abound Fear of not belonging: movies on relationships

Fear of not being significant: Rambo, Arnold, Jackie Chan

3. THIRD MIGHT BE VIOLENCE: Live in a day of RAGE. New term in

the news is ‘rink rage’ because of a hockey day killing a coach. That

goes along with ‘road rage’ and ‘air rage’ and ‘supermarket rage’(one

woman attacked another at the checkout stand).

Watch hockey for the fights, racing for the wrecks, and football for the

big hit.