Date: May 17th, 2009
Title: How Sweet it is!
Bible Text: Ephesians 2:1-10
Subject:
Complement:
Main Idea:
Intro: There is a time that some people face that is really difficult for all involved. I have experienced it with several families over the years. The scene is one of family members gathered around a hospital bed with lights down low and the only sound heard is the sounds of machines, with their beeping and humming, keeping the loved one alive.
Inevitably someone speaks about the decision needing to be made. The doctor says she is in reality already dead, it is just the machines keeping the heart going but there is no brain activity. So the family is faced with turning off the machines and letting their beloved pass from this life to the next.
That is gut wrenching stuff! Sadness beyond belief.
Everyone knows that mom wouldn’t want to be hooked up to some machine. It really isn’t life at all.
And such a statement immediately begs the question;
“What does it mean to be truly alive?”
And that leads to some deeper philosophical questions about quality of life and is a person really living if they are not living up to their God given potential.
Today in our text God answers the question about truly being alive!
Paul begins making a clear distinction between “life before Christ” and “life in Christ” which will form the basis for much of the rest of the letter. Look at it again . . .notice the number of contrasts that Paul makes.
1. living in transgressions & sins vs. living in good works prepared by God
2. this world vs. the heavenly realms
3. death vs. life
4. sinful nature (lit. “Flesh”) vs. union with Christ
5. wrath vs. mercy & salvation
6. under the “ruler of the air” vs. seated with Christ
7. by nature vs. by grace
8. not from works vs. thru faith
Paul wants to make sure that the Ephesians understand that this new salvation to which they are called makes a radical
difference in their lives in three areas: (1) their past (2) their present (3) their future.
I. Paul Reminds Us Of ‘How Bad it Was’ Before We Invited Jesus To Be Our Lord & Savior. (Eph 2:1-3)
A. Before We Accepted Jesus We Were Spiritually Dead. (v.1)
1. Notice the language that Paul chooses to use . . .
a) We WERE Dead.
b) Do you remember your life before you came to know Christ?
c) Was it anything like your life today?
2. Paul very much viewed life before Christ as spiritual death!
3. What is it to be spiritually dead?
a) Does it mean that we know very little about the Bible or religion?
b) No, that’s ignorance to spiritual and religious knowledge.
4. Paul was a pretty knowledgeable guy!
a) He was a good Jew (a “Hebrew of
Hebrews”, he would refer to himself.),
b) A good Pharisee, a keeper of the law, & zealous for doing what he thought was defending the faith! (Cf. Phil 3:4-6)
5. He may have known religious rules, laws and facts, but no matter how good he might have been at religion- from the perspective of his new life “in Christ”, all life “before Christ” is characterized by death!
6. Paul says that he was simply ‘dead’.
B. Spiritual Death Is Caused By Our Transgressions And Sins. (v. 1b-2)
1. Elsewhere Paul views death as a tyrant that dominates unredeemed humanity, both in the here & now AND in the grave! “The
wages of sin is DEATH” Rom. 6:23
2. Death in the Bible is always a matter of separation.
a) When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they became separated from their relationship with God.
b) They didn’t “die” as if poisoned by the fruit.
c) Their relationship with God was broken, it died, they were no longer in relationship.
3. Spiritual death simply means to be out of relationship with God with no way of winning it back.
a) We can’t fix it.
b) It is dead!
c) Only God can breath life into a dead person or a dead relationship!
4. We are born spiritually separated from God.
a) We are born spiritually dead.
b) It isn’t until we accept the work of Jesus on the cross on our behalf that we suddenly have spiritual life.
a) It is much like an old movie where the father is unhappy about a child’s decision and the father disowns the child. – The child is treated as if he/she is literally dead.
ILL. I meet people every now and then who I would call spiritual people. They are hungering for spirituality and looking for spiritual life in all sorts of places. They have an eclectic approach to spiritual things and their theology is compilation of spiritual tidbits they pick up where ever. Their view of life after death is taken from the latest Hollywood movie on the subject. They gain their understanding of spiritual tolerance from TV talk shows. All such pursuits are dead according to our Bibles.
5. Paul says it is, “following the ways of this world.”
a) Looking to this world for our spirituality.
b) Looking to mother nature, mother earth, crystals, the many God’s of Hinduism, seeking Allah, or just to have the “force be with you”.
c) People are hungering for spiritual life but it can only be found in one place.
d) Care must be taken not to be like Paul and look at religion for spiritual life.
6. And Paul reminds us of just who is having tremendous influence in this world, without mentioning his name.
a) He’ll come back to it in chapt. 6, but for now its enough for us to make note that this ‘ruler’ has been handed over “authority” concerning the affairs of this world.
b) John confirms what Paul has said. I Jn 5:19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. (NIV)
c) This ruler, this spirit is at work in all those who are disobedient!
7. What people find outside of God’s Word is pleasantly presented to the world in a well marketed manner by the devil himself.
a) His only desire is for us to look anywhere but the Bible for our spiritual life.
b) But in the end, such pursuits are death.
Trans: Such a life of being spiritually dead rules our world!
C. The Walking Dead Are Easily Recognized Because They Are Driven By Gratifying Their Cravings. (v.3)
1. We WERE Worldly.
2. This is the way we ‘used to live’ when we followed the ways of the world, the “ruler of the kingdom of the air”.
3. This was our former way of life; the way we used to walk. And ALL OF US (Paul is including himself) lived among them!
a) The problem wasn’t so much that we lived with them, but that we lived like them!
b) We were one of them!
c) Following the pursuit of gratifying any desire that came our way!
4. Our society, our way of life here in the US is the result.
a) From murder to teenage pregnancy to drugs, sex, and rock and roll.
b) We have arrived at where we are today as a society because of this verse of scripture before us!
c) People living according to the standards of their own hearts desires and whims with no consideration of the consequences for their actions!
5. It is nothing new – back in the OT in
6. Judges 21:25 - In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.(KJV)
7. The result is that we were objects of wrath!
a) Whose wrath? God’s?
b) You might have thought of God as ONLY a ‘warm & fuzzy’ loving grandfatherly type;
c) You might have thought of Paul as ONLY the Apostle of Grace & Mercy; but even in his letter to the Romans (the gospel of grace) he talks about God’s wrath. (Rom. 1:18)
8. Wrath is an important concept in the Bible.
a) The Greek word here for wrath is orge (or-gay’).
b) It means to have a violent passion or [justifiable] abhorrence); by implication punishment:
c) KJV-- anger, indignation, vengeance, wrath.
9. Because of our sin we were at enmity with God!
a) His wrath was against us! No hope of relationship;
b) No hope of reconciliation, because we had broken it!
c) BUT, NO LONGER! Paul points out that God took care of that for us.
Trans: That was the way we were.
II. Paul Reminds Us Of ‘How Sweet It Is’ To Know Jesus As Our Lord And Savior! (Eph 2:4-9)
A. We Have Spiritual Life Because Of His Great Love For Us. (vss. 4 & 5)
1. Paul points to our past only to emphasize how good we have it NOW! In the present!
2. The stark contrast from the past is reflected here in Paul’s use of words.
a) It seems that he can hardly contain himself.
b) Like a child that is just bursting out all over to tell mom or dad about their latest discovery.
3. Paul says, “Even when we were the walking dead spiritually, God made us alive spiritually!”
4. The good news is this….The dead can live again!
a) People everywhere can have their spiritually dead existence brought to life!
b) Our eyes can be opened!
5. This all happens, we are told because of God’s great love for us!
a) It is not because we are deserving
b) It is not because of anything to do with us… it is all about God and His love!
6. We see in verse 5 that we are made alive with Christ.
a) This movement from death to life has taken place as a result of God’s Love exhibited in His Son’s work on the cross.
b) Jesus paid the penalty for our sins and transgressions so we could be saved.
7. It is by grace – God’s Riches At Christ Expense
Trans: So we have spiritual birth because of God’s love demonstrated in Jesus.
B. The results of this great love is heavenly representation today and life for eternity. (vss. 6&7)
1. We are raised up from our life of death so that we are seated with Jesus in the heavenly realms.
a) Because we were dead to God, we needed someone to come between God and ourselves and bring us back to Him.
b) We needed a mediator who could represent us to God and represent God to us.
c) Someone to speak on our behalf.
d) Like a trial lawyer who goes into the judges chambers to speak to the judge on our behalf.
2. There is only one person who could fill this role.
a) God’s Word says it well in 1Tim. 2:5 – “There is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
b) I Jn 2:1 - My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense-- Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
3. In essence, we are seated with Jesus and we have God’s attention, his ear because of our association with his son.
ILL. It is like, in a small way, how associations affect us. I get many requests to come to meetings and to speak with people who are interested in selling me quality Christian Education supplies, magazines, you name it. Fortunately, I have a great office staff in Rhonda, Stacy, and Dawn and they help keep some of these requests from salespeople ever coming to me or I would be on the phone all day talking with sales people.
But when someone calls and says, “Hi, I’m so and so from the Billy Graham Association, well, that is a whole different story. They have my ear, my attention because of their association with Billy Graham. The same thing is true here in our text. We are able to have access to God via our association with His Son. Because of who we “hang” with!
4. Verse 7 goes on to say that all of this intimacy we enjoy with God through Christ in the heavenly realms is for a purpose.
a) It is so that others around us can see the truth too!
b) Not only in the here and now, but God has a future plan for his church and it will be full of grace! What is that future?
c) Jump forward to 3:10 just a second . . . “His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. . . .”
5. God’s plan for the church: reveal God. Show Him to the world.
a) All that God has done for us through His Son is for the benefit of all those in the ages to come as they will be able to look at Christians and look at the church and say, “I want that too!”
b) It is God showing off His incomparable riches expressed in His grace to us!
Trans: So we see that we are the recipients of God’s great love both today and for eternity. WoW! But before anyone can construct some system of steps or formulas that a person can follow to earn this love, Paul goes on to explain the cost to us and the reason for the cost.
III. We Must Never Confuse Ourselves With God. (vss. 8-10)
A. People too quickly want to have a part in their salvation. (8-9)
1. We are all sheepish and untrusting around anything that sounds too good to be true.
a) It’s amazing to me that we will send away in the mail for some gadget we see advertised on Home Shopping Network that sounds too good to be true but not trust God’s Word.
b) Throughout the centuries people almost always want to make salvation something they must do!
ILL. An interesting fact I learned this week about the horror of
the Holocaust was a picture from Auschwitz. Above the entryway to the concentration camp were the words, Arbeit macht frei. The same thing stood above the camp at Dachau. It means, "work makes free"—work will liberate you and give you freedom.
It was a lie—a false hope. The Nazis made the people believe hard work would equal liberation, but the promised "liberation" was horrifying suffering and even death.
Arbeit macht frei. One reason that phrase rings relevant for today is because it is the spiritual lie of this age. It is a satanic lie. It’s a religious lie. It is a false hope—an impossible dream for many people in the world. They believe their good works will be great enough to outweigh their bad works, allowing them to stand before God in eternity and say, "You owe me the right to enter into your heaven."
It is the hope of every false religion—arbeit macht frei.
But it’s the love of God that liberates. It’s the blood of Jesus Christ that liberates. He died in my place, and I am free.
SEE PICTURE
Bill Hybels, the senior pastor of Willow Creek Church in Illinois says it like this. Most religions of the world spell religion with just two letters, “DO”. What can you do to earn heaven. These religions always have a long list of things people must do to become saved. Knocking on doors, keeping the five pillars of Islam,
Or for some, just being somehow “good enough” that we earn access to heaven. Hybel’s says that Christians spell religion “done”. Jesus came a did everything necessary on our behalf to make freedom and salvation real! He did it all so we don’t have to “do” anything except receive the free gift!
B. We are not saved by “works” but we certainly were saved For good works!
Paul doesn’t want anyone to misunderstand: we’ve never done anything to come close to deserving this salvation! God has
done it all; ‘this is not from yourselves’. Salvation is not by works but the evidence that it is real in our lives is demonstrated by our Good Works.. He created us in our mother’s womb; he re-created us in Christ– we are his creation, his ‘workmanship’ (poiema- from which we get poem) . . . we’re His work of art! . . . Sculpted, painted, crafted TO DO GOOD WORKS! A life being lived ‘in Christ’ is a life that is ’purposeful’ ...always on the lookout for good works.
Conclusion: Is your life characterized by obedience & good works?
It strikes me that many people have trouble in the Christian life because either . . .
(1) they’ve forgotten ‘How Bad it Was’
(2) they don’t appreciate ‘How Sweet it Is’
If we’re really honest with ourselves, I don’t believe many of us really believe our situation was as bleak as Paul says. I don’t
know about you, but I saw myself as a pretty good person. I never murdered anybody and was polite to my elders and tried to basically be nice to people. I went to church every Sunday or else!
But I also did some things I’m not proud of and most importantly, I didn’t know God. And I didn’t know that I was dead in my sins! But, I was! My situation was as bleak as the murderer awaiting execution on death row!
Your neighbors around you may be pretty good folks. They keep the yard cut, they love their kids, they’re good citizens. But do they know God? Do they have a relationship with Him? A famous TV preacher is known for saying, “Before you can get a person saved, you’ve got to get him lost.” There is tremendous truth to that! Before individuals make a decision to follow Christ, they’ve got to be convicted that they need Christ!
That’s exactly what happened at Pentecost when Peter preached to the crowd and Luke tells us that when they heard Peter’s sermon ‘they were cut to the heart.’ They were convicted and responded by asking, “What can we do to be saved?”
Have you ever really been convicted that your life WITHOUT Christ was dead? You’ll never appreciate ‘How Sweet it Is’ (in
Christ) until you remember ‘How Bad it really Was’ (without Christ).
Another problem many have is in truly taking hold of just how good it is to be in Christ! Can it be THIS good? Isn’t this just too good to be true? The answer to that, of course, is NO . . . it IS true-- when you’re talking about a loving God who would rather die than spend eternity without you.
“It is by grace you have been saved through faith - and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God– not by works, so that no one can boast.”
What good news! Have you been saved from death this morning?
God is telling us today here in His Word that living apart from Jesus Christ is like the person I mentioned at the beginning today who was, in essence, medically dead and it was just the machines making her organs work.
Are you ALIVE with Christ experiencing the riches of His grace? Are you enjoying the good works he has prepared for you?
If not, how can we encourage you this morning to leave your old life of death, take a step of faith today and commit yourself to being a disciple of Jesus Christ by being buried with him in baptism and raised to walk a new life!
