Made Alive in Christ
Ephesians 2:1-10
CCCAG, January 30th, 2022
Scripture: Ephesians 2:1-10
(God is not dead video)
Today we are continuing our Ephesians series. That video we just watched from the movie God’s Not Dead is a very graphic description of the state of those who reject God.
One of the major teachings in the bible- something called the depravity of humanity isn’t talked a lot about today. We want to have a positive picture in our minds that our neighbor or friend who isn’t saved or even remotely religious, but seems to be a nice person, is just fine in God’s eyes.
It’s probably because in our heart of hearts, we want to think the best of them. Particularly here in West Central Wisconsin, we have the “Nice gene”. Typically, people here do not like to be confrontational, so they won’t ever say anything negative to your face, even if what you are doing is very obviously wrong.
This is exacerbated by our current age of pluralism and not wanting to say anyone’s opinion about anything is wrong, we just try to keep our heads down and our thoughts to ourselves.
However, the bible is very very specific about the reality of those who refuse the Gospel message.
They aren’t good people with wrong ideas.
They aren’t just entitled to their opinion and God will forgive them anyways.
They are, as we will see in a moments, dead men/women walking.
They are as the TV show would say, the Walking Dead.
Let’s read God’s word this morning-
Eph 2:1-10
2 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. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 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. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
NIV
Prayer
I mentioned a few minutes ago that sometimes our desire to be nice and kind will have us play a mental game. Often, particularly if we like a person who doesn’t follow Christ, we want to place them into a category of- “Well, they are nice people”
But we just read in the bible what the reality is- They are not good people. It’s central to Christian theology throughout the last 2000 years has been that humanity apart from Christ is dead.
Going back to the beginning- God did not lie to us in Genesis chapter 3. God told Adam that the day you rebel against me by taking of the forbidden tree- you will die.
Not a little bit.
Not just get a small sniffle or head cold that you recover from.
Not a minor cut that will heal some day
The soul that sins will die.
Dead. Morte. Pushing daisies.
Direct admit to the eternal care center.
Dead
That is the condition you, and everyone born since the Garden of Eden is born into.
The real you- the spiritual being that inhabits this physical body is dead without Christ.
Think about that for a moment (pause)
If you have not surrendered to Christ, you are dead.
This right here is why Jesus said you must be born again.
John 3:5-8
Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.'
NIV
The reason people reject this teaching that comes directly from the Son of God himself is because they reject the teaching that they were spiritually dead in the first place.
If you are listening this morning, and have not turned from your sins and been born again than you are a dead person lumbering toward a grave we call hell. Hell is the ultimate expression of God’s wrath against sin and rebellion.
Let’s review-
2 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
If you are following this world and it’s ways, and rejecting God’s rulership over your life and His offer of forgiveness and salvation which were bought for us through the death and resurrection of HIS SON-
you then, as the bible describes- are going to drink of the cup of his wrath for all of eternity.
But that is after our physical death.
Many may ask, what about now? Are we, in 21st century America experiencing God’s wrath?
To answer that, define terms-
There are two primary kinds of God’s wrath- the direct wrath of God, and the indirect wrath of God.
First the direct-
Question- where in the bible- hint Old Testament, Genesis in particular did we see a direct example of God’s wrath?
Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah. Fire and brimstone falling from the sky and burning everything it touches is a pretty direct and incontrovertible example of God judging sin and rebellion.
But what about the indirect? What does that look like?
Indirect wrath getting into an argument with your spouse, and then they are not talking to you or wanting to be around you.
Similarly, God’s indirect wrath is God removing his presence and blessing over your life.
Best example of seeing this on a national level is Roman’s 1:18-32.
We won’t read it for times sake, but you will see the further God’s presence is removed from a society, the worse that society falls into degradation and sin. I strongly suggest you prayerfully read that because you will see the current state of our society and culture, and what will cause it’s fall. You will see America.
You see another example of God’s indirect wrath in Ezekiel 10.
In the Old Testament, the physical, manifest presence of God was seen in the Holy of Holy’s in the temple. It was blocked by the curtain, but HIS manifest presence could be seen and felt.
However, prior to what is described in Eze 10, there is a description of the moral fall of the people and their religion- turning to pagan practices and worship.
Ezekiel 10 describes God’s reaction to them turning their backs on HIM-the presence leaving the Holy of Holy’s and moving to the outer area of the temple.
Do you know what the tragedy was?
No one noticed.
No one noticed that the very God they claimed to worship is no longer in HIS temple.
Seeing that- God’s spirit continued to move far away…and again, no one noticed.
Tie Ezekiel 10 with Roman’s 1 and we see why we are running straight into God’s judgment, and why HIS spirit and blessing is no longer on our nation.
God’s indirect wrath is meant to save us from his direct wrath.
It’s like you are walking in the deep woods in the middle of the day. You have a rifle and a backpack with a tent and survival gear so you’re ready if something happens.
Suddenly the sun goes down. You’re in pitch dark, you turn your flashlight on, and it’s light is dim- the power has left the batteries, and before long the batteries are dead, and you hear wolves, bears and other predators closing in on you. You just went from the top of the food chain to dinner for an animal.
That’s an example of how the indirect wrath of God will lead to the direct wrath- the spiritual battery power fades, and you become food for the spiritual forces of evil.
I hope the weight of all of this is heavy in your spirits right now. I pray that your gut is twisting a little thinking about your walk with God and many of the “quote” little sins we tolerate in our lives that we push the Holy Spirit’s conviction aside over.
Because it’s only then, that we can appreciate what Paul Harvey used to call, the rest of the Story-
This is where verse 4 comes in-
Eph 2:4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved.
Repeat
A moment ago I referring to Ezekiel’s vision of God leaving his temple. That wasn’t the end of the story- In Ezekiel 43, when the people repented, God’s spirit RUSHED back into the temple. There was no hesitancy- the Spirit of the LORD instantly flooded the place again when the people turned from their stubborn rebellion and repented of their sin.
I’m going to share one more scripture from Ezekiel-
I’m going to my favorite prophetic scenes in the bible. It’s directly referring to Israel as a nation being reborn, but we also see what happens when God’s grace enters a person, and they move from dead men walking to living creatures filled with the presence of God.
Ezek 37:1-10
The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?"
I said, "O Sovereign Lord, you alone know."
4 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.'"
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
9 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.'" 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet — a vast army.
NIV
God’s grace did that. His love and forgiveness brought a people back from the dead and raised up a huge army that would stand against the forces of hell and declare God’s Goodness to the earth.
Grace did that.
If you have been around the church for while, you have heard several different definitions for this term grace-
The proper, theologically correct definition of Grace is the unmerited favor of God. Breaking that down- you did nothing to earn God’s forgiveness, blessing, or presence in your life.
You contribute nothing toward grace as the bible says that our acts of righteousness apart from God are as filthy rags- utterly worthless because it’s tainted with our sin nature.
Therefore, God did it all through Christ.
As the hymn says-
“Jesus paid it all
All to him I owe
Sin had left a crimson stain.
HE washed it white as snow.”
A great acronym for the word grace is this-
Grace-
G- God’s
R- Riches
A- At
C- Christ’s
E- Expense
Christ paid the penalty for your sin.
Remember- God said the soul that sins must die.
Jesus Christ was and is both God and Man that took the penalty upon himself.
The God part being the infinitely powerful God- big enough to carry all of that sin, condemnation, rebellion, and guilt.
The man- identifying with us so that he could be the 2nd Adam- the one that did the will of God and therefore can serve as our representative to God completely righteous.
Eph 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
When you approach God’s throne of grace, God’s spirit rushes back into the temple HE has always desired- your heart.
He isn’t impressed with bricks and stone structures. If you look at the history of the great cathedrals, the vast majority of them were built upon taxing the poor to the brink of starvation. If you read about Solomon’s temple in the bible- it was built upon taxing the people so bad they demanded his son repeal them.
The people that built these huge buildings weren’t always looking to honor God, but to build a huge building in their name.
But really, God never wanted that-
God wanted our hearts, minds, and souls. It’s there the God of the universe has always wanted to dwell.
Why do we think that the God who spoke into nothing and created everything would be impressed by a structure built of the very rock He created?
Compare a building here on this minor, small little planet to the majesty of just our solar system, much less our galaxy, or the entire universe and you will begin to understand the foolishness of concentrating on making a grand building here.
God wants YOU. Yes you. With all of your inperfections, all of your sin, all of your rebellion and stubborn pride
He wants you.
He wants you even when you were dead in trespasses and sin.
When a person accepts Jesus as LORD, God, Savior, and King, God declares “DEAD BONES- Here the word of the LORD- LIVE!”
LIVE!
LIVE!
God breathes his spirit into us, and we become not only saved, but children of God. The bible says we are joint heirs with Christ- having the same authority and privileges as any child of a king.
The brings us to the last point in this section of Ephesians-
10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
This may very well look differently in these last days than what we are used to.
I’ve often said, and this is according to Jesus’ teaching about the last days in Luke 14 that God’s call in the last days will be to those who most of us thought would never come to Christ.
In Luke 14 Jesus describes a wealthy landowner who invited people to a feast. Everyone who was on the “who’s who” list- being popular and wealthy themselves refused the invitation.
That is most people today- so caught up in their lives here that they don’t’ consider the kindness and goodness of God’s offer to them.
Luke 14:21
"The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.'
The last days army might be full of tattoos, have piercings, crazy hair. They aren’t going to be the nice put together church person we are used to.
But you know what- they will be trophy’s of grace just the same.
10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
They will be raised up for such a time as this- to reach a people that will be as messed up as they are, but they will be at the wedding supper just the same.
God is putting out the call now- come. Come as you are. Join Him in this great adventure, and let your life matter into eternity.
All rise. Final song- heard this on the way to take my nursing exam this week, and it just fit with our ending today.
