It seems like so long since we last visited Paul’s letter to the church at Ephesus. In reality it was only a two week hiatus, but what a great two weeks those were!
On Easter I know many of you had a chance to take part in one or both of our services. At the Sunrise Service, we looked at how the resurrection completely transformed the life of Peter and how it can transform our lives as well. And later that morning, Denny shared a great message about how the resurrection satisfies the most important longings in our lives.
And I know how many of you have commented on just how meaningful our time was last week as we celebrated the Lord’s Supper together and just spent the time focusing on who God is and what he has done for us.
But this morning we’re back to our basic training from the Book of Ephesians. Just as a refresher, let’s go back to the beginning of chapter 2 and let’s read out loud together the first 7 verses of that chapter:
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 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. 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. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:1-7(NIV)
We began our look at chapter 2 by seeing what we were all like without Jesus Christ in our lives. As Paul writes, all of us were like that at one time:
• We were dead in our transgressions in sins
• We were dominated by the world, Satan and our own flesh
• We were doomed to face the wrath of God
But just when everything looked hopeless, when we were completely helpless to do anything about our desperate condition, God entered into our lives in order to do for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves. So this morning, we’re going to focus on what God did to address each of the three deepest needs that I have in my life.
HOW GOD MET MY DEEPEST NEEDS:
Although our English translators have provided them for us in order to make the passage readable, in the original language, there is actually not a verb at the beginning of Chapter 2 until we get to verse 5. Then beginning in that verse Paul uses three really unusual verbs to describe what God has done for us. He takes common verbs and adds the three letter prefix “sun”, which is Greek for “with”. He does this to emphasize the fact that each of the three actions that God has taken to meet my deepest needs has been accomplished through the resurrection of Jesus:
• I was made alive together with Christ
• I was raised up together with Christ
• I was seated together with Christ
Jesus was made alive, raised up and seated at the right hand of the Father as a result of His resurrection. And because of my identification and relationship with Christ, God’s grace has allowed me to experience those same three benefits.
It’s also interesting that all three of these verbs are in the aorist, or past, tense. My first thought is that doesn’t seem right. I haven’t yet been resurrected from the dead or been raised up or been seated together with Christ in the heavenly realms. But I think Paul is trying to communicate two things by using the past tense here.
First, I think he’s making the point that all this is a “done deal”. God has already done everything He needs to do to guarantee that I will experience all three of those benefits in the future. And that’s a really encouraging thought.
But perhaps even more importantly, Paul seems to be indicating that there is a present aspect of all three of those actions that I get to experience right here and now as I live out my life on this earth. And that’s what I’d like to focus on this morning.
So let’s spend a few minutes examining how God meets my deepest needs through Jesus Christ:
1. I was dead, but God gave me a new disposition
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins…
As we saw several weeks ago, before God came into our lives, we were in a spiritual morgue and the cause of death was our transgressions and sins. We were helpless to do anything about those sins and the spiritual death that resulted. So I have a need to be made alive and I can’t do that myself and no one else other than God can do it for me either. But God met that need for me:
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by grace you have been saved.
Because God is loving, merciful and full of grace, He chose to make me alive together with Christ even when I was dead in my transgressions. God didn’t wait for me to become a better person, or to engage in some ritual or complete some task. When He raised Christ from the dead, there is a sense in which He also made me alive, too. But exactly how does that impact my life right here and now?
In order to answer that question, let’s go to the parable of the prodigal son for just a moment. You’ll remember that the younger son asked for his inheritance, which he squandered on loose living. Finally after he had a change of heart, he returned to his father. And when he returned, here is what his father said:
For this son of mine was dead and is alive again…
Luke 15:24 (NIV)
What exactly did his father mean by that? His son hadn’t died, at least not physically. But when his father described him as having been dead and now alive again, I think he was making reference to the fact that he now had a new disposition, a new attitude. He had been transformed from a selfish, ungrateful son to one who now recognized the blessings he had and who was thankful for them.
He hadn’t gained any new abilities or skills. He hadn’t been transformed physically. The transformation had taken place in his heart, or his mind. Isn’t that exactly what God does for us through our union with Christ and our sharing in his resurrection? God doesn’t give us a new brain, or a new intelligence or any other new skills or abilities when we become believers. But what he does do is to give us a new disposition, a change of heart. Here’s how Paul described that change in another of his letters:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)
When we are in Christ, God transforms our hearts, so that we are able to do all the seemingly impossible things that Jesus has called us to do:
• Love the unlovable
I don’t know about you, but when Jesus commands me to love my enemies, I have a hard time with that. I have a hard enough time loving those I really like sometimes. But because Jesus has changed my heart, he makes it possible for me to love those who are hard to love.
• Endure the unendurable
There are many of you here this morning that I admire greatly. I know that you’re experiencing all kinds of pain in your life. For some of you, it’s consistent physical pain that you live wit day after day, with no end in sight. For some of you it’s the emotional pain of losing a loved one or watching someone that you care about go through some tough times in their lives. For some of you it’s the spiritual heartbreak of family and friends that don’t have any desire for a personal relationship with God.
And you’ve endured through all that pain, not because you have some supernatural powers, but because by God’s grace, He has given you a new disposition that allows you to endure.
• Achieve the unachievable
God often calls us to do things that are far beyond our own abilities. I know that when I first became a pastor, I hated to make hospital visits. I felt like I didn’t know what to say or do and frankly a lot of you don’t really look all that great in those fashionable hospital gowns.
But God has completely transformed my mind in that area. He has given me a whole new disposition to the point that I actually enjoy ministering to people in that situation. Only God could make that kin of change in my heart.
• Forgive the unforgivable
I know that many of us have been hurt deeply by the words and actions of others. In fact, as I say that, for most of us, some hurt comes immediately to mind. And without the new disposition we are given through Jesus Christ, it would be impossible for us to ever forgive those people. But as a result of God’s grace I am enabled to forgive even “seventy times seven” just like Jesus taught Peter.
2. I was dominated, but God gave me a new environment
…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. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts…
Without God, we were powerless to overcome the powerful forces of this world, Satan and our own flesh, or sinful nature. But once again, God met that need for us. In Jesus, He provided the way for us to overcome those powerful forces which once kept us in bondage:
And God raised us up with Christ…
When we become Christ-followers, we are not immediately physically raised up from this earth. That will indeed occur some day, but for right now, we’re still right here on this earth. But the moment we become Christians, our citizenship is changed. We are no longer citizens of this earth, but rather citizens of the kingdom of God. That’s why later in his letter, Paul will refer to us as foreigners and aliens. Peter and the writer of Hebrews also call us aliens and strangers in their letters
And one of the things that go along with that new citizenship is that we are raised up into a new environment that is completely different than that one we were subject to before our salvation. Being citizens of the heavenly realm gives us a whole new outlook on our lives. We begin to evaluate and live our lives based on the standards of the heavenly realm rather than those of this world.
Paul makes this even clearer in his letter to the Colossian church:
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
Colossians 3:1, 2 (NIV)
When God raised us up with Christ, he gave us the ability to set our minds on things above and not just on the things of this earth.
Although Paul doesn’t specifically refer to it in this verse, we’ve already seen that one aspect of creating a new environment for us is that God places us into a body of like-minded children of God who can hold us accountable and encourage us as we face the influence of the world, Satan and our own flesh.
Although God does not completely remove us from the influence of the world, Satan and our flesh, by being united with Christ we are placed into an environment where it is now possible to overcome those powerful forces. Without our union with Christ we wouldn’t even be aware that there was a heavenly kingdom, alone be a part of it.
3. I was doomed, but God gave me a new intimacy
Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
Without Christ we were doomed to face the wrath of a holy God. And once again, there was nothing we could do on our own to overcome that fate. But God met that need, too.
… and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
The idea of being seated with Christ in the heavenly realms has many aspects to it. One implication is that, like Christ, we have been raised to a position of superiority and authority over the evil powers that Paul wrote about at the end of chapter 1. In that sense, being seated with Christ also addresses our need to overcome our domination by the world and Satan.
Being seated with Christ also reminds us that we will one day be seated with Christ in order to reign with Him.
But, given the rest of what Paul writes here, he seems to have something else in mind. Throughout the gospels we see that being seated with Jesus put a person in a place of revelation and intimacy. Think about the woman at the well in John 4 or Mary seated at the feet of Jesus listening to Him. Or perhaps the best example occurs during the Last Supper. Let’s read a few verses from John’s gospel:
One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, "Ask him which one he means." Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, "Lord, who is it?" Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish." Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon.
John 13:23-26 (NIV)
During that meal, John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was seated “with Christ”. It’s very interesting that Peter did not ask Jesus directly who was going to betray Him. Instead, he asks John, who is seated with Jesus. By being seated with Christ, John was in a position of intimacy where Jesus could reveal to him what was about to happen.
Now go back and look at our passage from Ephesians again. Notice the purpose for which God has seated us in the heavenly realms together with Christ? “
…in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus …”
The purpose of seating us with Christ in the heavenly realms is so that God might reveal Himself to us and that He might demonstrate His kindness to us. This is in sharp contrast to the wrath that we face without Jesus in our lives. When we put all this together, we get a picture of a God who desires to reveal Himself to us and have an intimate personal relationship with us. And that is only possible through our union with Jesus Christ.
I’m not sure that we’re even capable of fully understanding the implications of what God has done for us in meeting our deepest needs. In Jesus, He accomplished what we could never do on our own. God has made us to be new creations – ones with new dispositions, new environments and new intimacy.
What Paul describes here in these verses is genuine Christianity – lives that have been completely transformed through our identification and union with Jesus. But unfortunately many of us have settled for something that it far inferior to a life where all of our greatest needs have been met by God:
Many of you probably remember when Coca Cola introduced their “New Coke” on April 23, 1985. The change in their formula was primarily designed to address to address the marketing campaign of their rival Pepsi which claimed that more people preferred the slightly sweeter taste of Pepsi. Less than three months after its introduction, Coke gave in to outside pressure and brought back the original Coke, which it renamed Coke Classic. Although it continued to sell the “new Coke”, which it later named Coca Cola II, the sales of the “new Coke” had dwindled to only 3% of the market six months later.
When it came to their cola, people weren’t willing to settle for anything less than the real thing. But unfortunately, many of those same people have settled for a counterfeit of the real thing when it comes to their Christianity. Rather than living a life that has been completely transformed by God, they are satisfied with something far less:
• Some have settled for what I call “fire insurance” Christianity – the kind that says I’ll just pray this prayer to make sure I go toe heaven when I die, but I’ll just keep living my life the way I want while I’m here on this earth. I know about that first hand because I did that at least once myself.
• Some have settled for “works” Christianity – one where they are constantly trying to do enough good things to earn their way into God’s favor. Many of the cults that claim to be Christians fit into this category. And yes, I’ve tried that one, too.
• Some have settled for “religious” Christianity – the kind of Christianity that figures if I go to church regularly, get baptized, and certainly if I tithe, then I’ll be OK with God. I’ll admit, I’ve tried that, too.
But none of those counterfeits are capable of meeting our deepest needs. None of them deal with the fact that I was dead, dominated and doomed. Only the life-transforming work of God that Paul descries in this passage can do that.
Some of you have never experienced that kind of genuine Christianity. Perhaps, like me, you’ve tried all the counterfeits, but they just didn’t meet those deepest needs in your life. This morning, maybe God’s been speaking to your heart and asking you to join together with Jesus so that He can meet those needs that you will never be able to satisfy on your own. In a moment, we’re going to give you the opportunity to make that commitment.
But I’m also convinced that there are some of you here this morning who made that commitment at one time, but you’ve been deceived into trying the counterfeits rather than sticking to the real thing. Maybe you’ve been persuaded to try some new formula that promises to satisfy you more, but you found out it just didn’t measure up to the original. I want to encourage you this morning to return to the real thing. Let God meet your deepest needs by giving you a new disposition that allows you to accomplish what seems impossible. Let God help you overcome the domination of this world by lifting you into the new environment of the heavenly realms. Let God reveal Himself to you as you sit with Him in His presence. That kind of genuine Christianity always satisfies.
