Title: “But wait! There’s more!”
Text: Ephesians 2:1-10 (John 3:1-18)
Thesis: If grace sounds too good to be true, it isn’t!
Introduction
Commercials are designed to get us to do something.
My current favorite commercial is the AutoNation commercial. A pretty young woman is the pitchperson. But the reason I like the commercial is that I know her. Her name is Monica. She is one of identical triplets… Leanna and Joy are the other two. She and her sisters have done stints on Growing Pains and were featured in one of the Disney Parent Trap movies. Their dad, Winston, and I are friends. I knew them when they were in high school and that’s about the extent of my claim to fame.
The commercial I like least is the one by the American Cancer Society that features a woman who has suffered the consequences of smoking… a once beautiful woman has become a poster child for what smoking can do to you.
The commercials I remember most are the ones featured as infomercials. I am going to use the late night television infomercial as a pattern for unpacking this text. Begin with the problem. Then the solution. And finally, “But wait, there’s more!”
People have a problem.
I. The Problem, Ephesians 2:1-3 (“Tired of doing things this way?”)
Once you were dead because of your disobedience and you many sins…” Ephesians 2:1-3
Verses 1-3 detail the nature of our problem. We have a sin problem. Two words are used to describe the nature of sin here. One is a shooting word that means to miss the mark or to fail to be what we should be or are meant to be or could be. The other means to lose one’s way or to slip and fall or stray off the path. In any case we are living in a sinful cycle of spiritual death.
The problem is we are…
A. Dead because of disobedience and sins, 2:1
And if being spiritually dead and separated from God were not enough, we are living in world that is characterized by satanic values and influences pursuant of satisfying the passions of our sinful nature.
B. Obedient to the devil, 2:2
The consequence then is that we are subject to God’s wrath poured out against all ungodliness.
C. Subject to God’s anger, 2:3
In Romans we read that God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. Romans 1:18
Because you are stubborn and refuse to turn from your sin you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself. For a day of anger is coming when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. He will judge everyone according to what they have done. He will give eternal life to those who keep on doing good, seeking after the glory, honor and immortality that God offers. But he will pour out his anger and wrath against those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and instead live lives of wickedness. Romans 2:5-8
But I can’t just leave it at that… God in his mercy and love does not want anyone to experience his anger. God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. II Peter 3:9
Injectable polio vaccinations started in 1952 when Jonas Salk developed the inactivated poliovirus vaccine. A few years later, in 1957 Albert Sabin developed the attenuated poliovirus vaccine which was an oral vaccine.
When I was in the 5th grade the children in our community received the attenuated poliovirus vaccination. It was taken orally… on a sugar cube if I remember correctly. Polio was an awful disease and we were eager to receive the vaccination.
As late as 1988 there were still 350,000 polio victims in the world but by 2012 there were 223. Polio was eradicated in the world until 2013 when another outbreak occurred in Syria. The World Health Organization quickly swooped in to quell that outbreak.
My point is not to get in the middle of a vaxer/anti-vaxer controversy but I am eternally grateful for those who offered a solution to a serious problem. My parents had us boys vaccinated against all the childhood diseases. And as an adult I have chosen to keep my tetanus vaccination current and I opted to receive the Shingles Vaccine.
In a similar way God intervened in the human condition. We were dead in our sins and destined to suffer the consequences of our circumstances.
In John 3 we read the story of how Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader, secretly made his way to see Jesus. His opening line to Jesus was, “We all know that God sent you to teach us…” And then we hear Jesus speak of the new birth and of God’s love for mankind.
“For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world, not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.”
“There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But to anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.” John 3:16-18
God’s solution may be likened to receiving a vaccination for a disease… we may gladly receive God’s mercy and grace or we may certainly opt out. Believing and receiving is a choice. Opt in by believing and receiving. Opt out by refusing to believe and receive forgiveness for your sins and the hope of eternal life.
Most of us enjoy receiving gift cards… but interestingly the Consumer Reports National Research Center claims one out of every five gift-card recipients never used their cards last year…. That means $972 million in unredeemed cards. The top reasons for not using gift cards include:
1. 50% Haven’t had time
2. 37% Haven’t found anything they wanted
3. 14% Lost their card
4. 12% Card expired
What a waste of gifts and what a waste of grace when anyone does not receive God’s goodness.
God is not a God who leaves us with a problem without a providing a solution.
II. The Pitch, Ephesians 2:4-7 (“How much would you pay?”)
But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. Ephesians 2:4-7
The television infomercial pitch-men always let us know we have a problem like a stain that won’t come out or something is just out of our reach or a bathroom tile that just won’t come clean or an onion that needs slicing. Then he lets us know that he has just the solution to our problem, OxiClean for our stains, a Gopher for reaching out of reach things, Kaboom for those difficult dirty bathroom tiles and a Vidalia Slice Wizard for slicing that onion.
We know how depraved humans can be just by looking around here in the Denver Metro area. Just reading the crimes in the weekly Hub and seeing the map pinpointing where stuff is happening right here in our neighborhood gives us a pretty good idea of just how sad the human condition is. Nearby, just this week, an angry, drunken man scrawled “My Wife Is a Cheater” on the outside of his house as he was purportedly attempting to burn the house down.
The James Holmes trial is finally on and he will face the charges of murdering 12 victims and injuring 70 others in the Aurora theater-shooting. A 1st degree murder conviction will result in a mandatory sentence of either death or life in prison without parole.
The carnal part of me often wonders if there is any punishment bad enough to compensate for the despicable things people do. There is no sentence that can ever make a wrong right. What can we do to a rapist or a pedophile or a white collar criminal that profits while investors lose everything, or the murderer that will ever fix or make right their evil deeds?
Perpetrators may serve a prison sentence without parole or even receive the death penalty which may satisfy the law… but nothing fixes or erases the damage done. Nothing brings back the dead. Nothing restores innocence. Nothing replaces the losses…
The only way a perpetrator may ever experience relief for his or her actions is if the victim forgives them… the only way is for the victim to absorb the loss and let it go.
That is what God does for us... God, in Christ (he who knew no sin), took upon himself our sin and our guilt and forgives us.
So for our messed up, disobedient, sinful natured life-crisis, God has a solution. And where the infomercial pitchman would ask, “How much would you pay for a solution to your problem?” God says, “I’ve just the deal for your sin problem. And because I love you and because there is no way you can ever fix it yourself, I will forgive your sin through Jesus and give you eternal life.”
Verses 4-7 breakdown like this:
A. God loved us, 2:4-5
B. God raised us in Christ, 2:6 (Making us alive forevermore…)
C. God made us examples of his grace and kindness, 2:7
God’s pitch goes right to the heart of the problem. “But God is so rich in mercy, he loved us so much that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when… It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved.” Ephesians 2:4-5
That sounds pretty much like the deal is done.
“But wait? There’s more!”
III. The Promo, Ephesians 2:8-10 (“But wait! There’s more!”)
We are God’s masterpiece. He created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Ephesians 2:8-10
Verse 8 reiterates what has been said in verses 4-7…
A. Salvation is a gift from God, 2:8
“God saved you by his grace when you believed… it is a gift from God.” 2:8
Verse 9 expands and explains what is meant by salvation being a gift.
B. Salvation is not a reward, 2:9
”Salvation is not a reward for all the good things we have done.” 2:9
Then in verse 10 we get the “But wait! There’s more!”
C. Salvation is a means to an end… there’s more, 2:10
“”He created is anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” 2:10
Verse 10 refers to us as God’s masterpiece. When we become followers of Jesus Christ God creates us anew. We are God’s workmanship or the result of God’s creative activity.
Coming off the awareness that we have a big problem caused by our sinfulness and the realization that God has acted to resolve our problem and then bothers to recreate us into new persons, we might think, “Well that’s nice! Now I’m good to go with God…”
But our text does not say that becoming a new person in Christ is the end of it… The idea is that God recreates us into his masterpiece intending that we be useful and productive. Our text says, “We are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Ephesian 2:10
We are not saved so we can be safely kept as precious pieces of art.
In Cremona, Italy, where most experts believe history's best violins were made, Andrea Mosconi has the tall task of keeping the precious instruments in shape. For the past 30 years, six days a week, the old musician has gone to the museum in Cremona's city hall where the 300-year-old violins are stored in display cases. Each morning, before the museum opens to the public, Mosconi plays each violin for 6–7 minutes. He starts with basic music scales and then makes his way to Bach, Tchaikovsky, and Bartok. Over the course of an hour, he plays three violins by the Amatis, two by the Guarneris, and four instruments—3 violins and a cello—by Stradivari.
Why does Mosconi do this day after day? A violin needs to be played to perform at its best level. (Bill Norman, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; sources: David Yoder, "Playing Italy's Finest Violins," New York Times, 6-3-07 and Ian Fisher, "Keeping treasured violins forever young," International Herald Tribune, 6-3-07)
We are not saved to be museum masterpieces… we are saved for more. We are saved to be played out in good works for the glory of God and the good of others.
Interestingly, you might say that while salvation is not the result of good works, good works are the result of salvation. We are created for the purpose do doing good works. When we come to Christ life becomes a long effort to show our gratitude to God for his mercy and grace.
That is the more… We cannot earn God’s love but we can show how grateful we are for it…. With good works.
Conclusion
I could never tell this story as dramatically as it occurred but Gregory Boyle tells the story of a 15-year-old gang member named Rigo who was serving time in prison. Rigo was getting ready for a special worship service for incarcerated youth when Boyle casually asked if Rigo's father would be coming. The following is a summary of their conversation: "No," he said, "He's a heroin addict and never been in my life and went on to describe the horrific abuse he remembered from his childhood.
Then Boyle asked about his mom. Rigo pointed to a small woman and said, "That's her over there … There's no one like her." Then Rigo paused and said, "I've been locked up for a year and half. She comes to see me every Sunday. You know how many buses she takes every Sunday [to see me]? Seven busses. She takes seven buses. Seven. Imagine.”
Boyle concluded this story with an analogy. God, as revealed in the person of Jesus, loves us like Rigo's mother loved her son—with commitment, steadfastness, and sacrifice. You could say that we have a God “who takes seven buses” to reach us.
We have a God "who takes seven buses, just to reach us." All throughout Jesus' ministry—his birth on Christmas morning, his meals with sinners, his healing of the sick, his death on the cross for our sins—he showed us the heart of God, the God who will take a long journey of love to find us. (Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart (Free Press, 2010), pp. 26-27)
The Lenten Season reminds us of the incredible journey Jesus made for us: “Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead he gave up his divine privileges. He took upon himself the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When we appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
Therefore, God has elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:6-11
“For God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done. For we are God’s masterpiece. He created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Ephesians 2:8-10
So, if God’s grace sounds too good to be true, it isn’t!
