From Shackles To Sonship Series

Dakota Community Church

March 6, 2011

Shackles to Sonship

Ephesians 2:1-3

1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

So far we have covered:

1. Dead in transgression and sin

Ephesians 2:1, 5 - As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins…

…made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions…

2. Conformed to the pattern of this world

Ephesians 2:2 - …2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world…

3. Enslaved to the chief enemy of God

Ephesians 2:2

… you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient…

Sickened by sin – Sabotaged by Satan – Sentenced to separation (John Piper Quote)

Therefore we were in desperate need of a great Savior.

This bad news is essential to properly grasping the good news.

If you underestimate the seriousness of your situation without Christ you will undervalue your savior and His gift of salvation.

Nobody is talking about these truths because they are unflattering to the human ego and because men are blind to them unless the Holy Spirit reveals them.

Bring these things up in a conversation around the water cooler and you will find yourself on the fast track to social Siberia!

If there is going to be any salvation at all, there must be a divine revelation.

God must reveal these things to us or we perish.

“you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient”

There are 2 important ideas from this little sentence that I want us to focus on today:

1. There is a spirit being who rules over the kingdom of the air.

2. That evil ruler is at work in the lives of every non-believer in Jesus.

1. There is a spirit being who rules over the kingdom of the air.

Between heaven and earth is the kingdom of the air where we all live.

Have you ever said or heard someone else say something like "There's excitement in the air." Or maybe you have someone describe the atmosphere as “electric”?

Sometimes at a large sporting event a momentum shift will take place and people will say you could “feel it in the air” before it ever showed on the scoreboard.

We live in this kingdom of the air, we interact with each other here and from the time of our birth until the day we die we never leave this place, and even our astronauts have to take containers of it with them when they venture outside of it.

Paul is saying that there is an evil spiritual entity that permeates this realm and rules over it!

This evil being can be called the power of the air.

The whole inhabited world is his domain and is subjected to his power.

Ephesians 6:11-12

Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

We struggle with them; they are not far away rather in the air we breathe

They are not locked away in hell; they inhabit our world.

They have a ruler over them.

Mathew 12:24

But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons that this fellow drives out demons.”

2 Corinthians 4:4

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

John 12:31-32

Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.

John 14:30-31

I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.