Who Wants to be a Millionaire?:
Enjoying Your Position
in Christ
Scripture Reading: Ephesians 2:1-22
Michael Dell.
Sanford Weill.
Gerald Levin.
John Chambers.
Henry Silverman.
Ever heard of those people?
Do any of those names ring a bell?
They’re all millionaires.
And they are the 5 top-paid CEOs in America, as of this year.
Michael Dell, CEO of Dell computers,
made $235,000 last year.
Sanford Weill of Citigroup: $216,000.
Gerald Levin of Time-Warner: 165,000,
John Chambers of Cisco: $157,000, and
Henry Silverman of Cendant: $137,000.
Henry Saas just missed making the top 5,
I think because the data was compiled
before he started his new position
in the bursar’s office at MU.
But I mention those individuals,
not to make anyone jealous because
those guys are millionaires and you’re not,
but for something they have in common with many people here:
they’re all fabulously wealthy
because of their positions. . . Just like you.
Now, don’t snicker, Daryl Zimmer.
He’s the Chief Executive Officer of Zimmer Tractor--and the King of Brookville, Indiana--but that position hasn’t made him fabulously wealthy...
But that’s okay;
that’s not the position I’m talking about.
No, I’m talking about a different kind of position
and a different kind of wealth.
Good morning. My name is Bob Hostetler,
and I want to welcome you all
to Cobblestone Community Church,
a church that wants to love people
into life-changing encounters with God.
And last Sunday we started a new series entitled, “Who Wants to be a Millionaire
(when you can be infinitely rich)?”
And for the six weeks of this series,
we’re going to find the answer to that question
by looking to the book of Ephesians in the Bible;
by the time we finish the series on November 11th,
we will have studied
an entire book of the Bible together.
So, let’s get started;
let me ask you to turn in your Bibles to
the second chapter of Ephesians,
which is the tenth book of the New Testament,
--you’ll find it on page #811 if you’re using one of the Bibles we’ve provided for you on the floor under the chairs throughout the auditeria.
And I encourage you to follow along in the Bible
so you can read for yourself
with your own eyes
what’s being taught up here at the front.
And if you don’t own a Bible that you can read and understand, please feel free to take one of ours home with you, absolutely free. That’s why we don’t put stickers on ‘em or stamp ‘em with “Cobblestone Community Church,” because we want people to feel free to take ‘em outta here and use ‘em at home.
So, having said all that,
please open your Bible to Ephesians 2,
and be prepared to follow along with me
as I talk about how you can enjoy
your position in Christ Jesus,
if, that is, you have experienced new life in Christ- and if you haven’t, you’ll certainly have the opportunity to make that choice here this morning.
Last week we discussed your possessions in Christ, and how “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. . . has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3, NIV).
We talked about
redemption,
forgiveness,
the riches of God’s grace,
the knowledge of the mystery of his will,
and our guaranteed inheritance,
all of which is ours in Christ.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
I wanna impress upon you 3 things this morning that Paul,
the great church planter of the first century,
has to say about everyone here
who has asked God’s forgiveness
and found new life by following Jesus Christ.
And if you’d like to take notes,
we’ve provided inserts in this morning’s programs
to help you do that.
So, I’ll ask you to notice the first thing
Paul says about you, about me, in Ephesians 2 is:
1. My past condition (Ephesians 2:1-3)
Look at what Paul says, in Ephesians 2:1-3:
As for you [he says], 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 (Ephesians 2:1-3).
Let me just take a minute to unpack this. Maybe some of us have been following Christ and enjoying “every spiritual blessing in Christ” for so long that you’ve forgotten your past condition . . .
So let me just remind you.
I’ll boil it all down into four words. Paul says I was:
• dead.
Not sick.
Not handicapped.
Not “Spiritually challenged.”
Dead.
Some of you remember what that felt like,
to be spiritually dead,
“separate from Christ,” as Paul says in verse 12, “without hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 3:12).
Paul also says, I was:
• disobedient,
following “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” (Ephesians 3:2).
Not only that; I was also:
• depraved,
“gratifying the cravings of [my] sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts” (Ephesians 3:3a).
And, finally, I was also:
• doomed.
“By nature,” Paul says, I was --we all were- “objects of wrath” (Ephesians 3:3a). I deserved nothing except the judgment of a perfectly, infinitely holy God.
Now, those may seem like harsh words to some of us,
but I have no trouble admitting my past condition.
“Separate from Christ,” I was--and would still be--
dead, disobedient, depraved, and doomed. And I know I’m not the only one.
Sir Arthur Coyan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, once played a prank on some very important people. He sent an anonymous telegram to eight prominent men in England. Just seven words:
“All is found out, flee at once.”
He meant it as a joke. But within 24-hours, all eight men had fled the country.
A great many of us in this room would have to leave town, too, if all were found out . . .
If it weren’t for what Paul says next.
Look at verse 4, where Paul details:
2. My present position.
Verses 1-3 is “the way we were.”
Verses 4-10 is “what it is.”
Look at what Paul says about my present position:
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. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 1:4-10, NIV).
Wow, those are some powerful words!
And many Christ-followers never grasp the full implication of these verses.
Let me point out to you, first,
that verse 6 is an echo of something Paul said
in the first chapter.
Ephesians 1:19 and 20 talks about the mighty power that’s available to everyone who follows Christ, saying:
His incomparably great power for us who believe. . . . is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come (Ephesians 1:19-21, NIV).
He “raised [Christ] from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms.”
Now look back at chapter 2, verse 6, which says,
God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6, NIV).
My current position-
your current position, if you’re a Christ-follower--
is seated with him in the heavenly realms.
Now, this is so significant--
and it has been expressed so well by someone else--
that I’m going to quote at length from Watchman Nee’s study of Ephesians, Sit Walk Stand:
Most Christians make the mistake of . . . [thinking] What can we attain without effort? How can we ever get anywhere if we do not move? But Christianity is a [strange] business! If at the outset we try to do anything, we miss everything. For Christianity begins not with a big DO, but with a big DONE. Thus Ephesians opens with the statement that God has “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (1:3) and we are invited at the very outset to sit down and enjoy what God has done for us; not to set out to try and attain it for ourselves. . . .
God says that we are saved, not by works, but “by grace . . . through faith” (2:8). We constantly use this expression, “saved . . . through faith”, but what do we mean by it? We mean this, that we are saved by reposing in the Lord Jesus. We did nothing whatever to save ourselves; we simply laid upon Him the burden of our sin-sick souls. We began our Christian life by depending not upon our own doing but upon what He had done. Until a man does this he is no Christian; for to say: ‘I can do nothing to save myself; but by His grace God has done everything for me in Christ’, is to take the first step in the life of faith. The Christian life from start to finish is based upon this principle of utter dependence upon the Lord Jesus. There is no limit to the grace God is willing to bestow upon us. He will give us everything, but we can receive none of it except as we rest in Him. ‘Sitting’ is an attitude of rest. Something has been finished, work stops, and we sit. It is paradoxical, but true, that we only advance in the Christian life as we learn first of all to sit down.
What does it mean, then, to sit? To be seated?
When you stand or walk or run,
you’re expending effort.
You’re putting weight on your legs, your feet;
but when you sit,
you relax.
Your muscles, your legs, your feet,
no longer do the work.
Your weight, no matter how much you weigh,
is borne by the chair, the couch, the bench,
whatever you’re sitting on.
So it is with your spiritual position.
If you are in Christ--
that is, if you have called out to him for mercy,
and forgiveness,
and deliverance,
you are seated with him in the heavenly realms.
What does that mean, in practical terms?
It means, to quote Watchman Nee again,
“Every new spiritual experience begins with an acceptance by faith of what God has done.”
Are you trying to forgive your husband, your wife,
your child, your parent, your friend, your neighbor? Stop trying.
Instead, say, “God, I accept your word that I am seated with Christ, and that in him, I forgive so and-so. . . Help me to live out what you have already done in me by grace, through faith.”
Are you striving to overcome
your drinking problem,
your foul language,
your lust,
your anger,
your jealousy,
your self-centeredness?
Stop striving.
Instead, start each day by saying, “God, I accept your word that I have been raised to new life with Christ and am seated with him, and so I will let you live out your righteousness,
your purity,
your holiness in me by grace, through faith.”
When I rest in my present position,
God will not fail to “show the incomparable riches of his grace”--in me. . .
And he’ll do it in you, too.
Let me just mention one more example,
one more reason to say,
“Who Wants to be a Millionaire
(when you can be infinitely rich)?”
Look at verse 11, where Paul details:
3. My perpetual admission.
You know, of course, that if you want entrance into Kings Island or Cedar Point or Disney World, you have to pay big-time for the privilege of entering those places, right?
And you know, that it’s possible at such places to buy a three-day pass, or a four-day pass, or even a season pass, right?
And some special people--usually by virtue of their position as the founder of the company or the Chairman of the Board or something like that--get a lifetime pass. Wouldn’t that be cool?
Well, guess what?
You don’t have a one-day pass,
a season-pass,
a lifetime pass. . .
You have the privilege of perpetual admission into the theme park of God’s grace. Let me just touch briefly on three things, three privileges that belong to you, according to Ephesians 2, and I’ll phrase each one in the first person:
• I have been “brought near”
When the Jewish rabbis of Jesus’ day and Paul’s day spoke about accepting a Gentile convert into Judaism, they said that he had been “brought near.”
Almost every one here--unless your last name is Saas, at least--needed to be “brought near.” Having been born Gentiles instead of Jews, we were far away--estranged from God and his chosen people.
But God prophesied, through Isaiah, that there would come a day when he would say this:
“Peace, peace to him who is far and to him who is near,” Says the LORD (Isaiah 59:17, NASB).
So here in Ephesians 2, Paul, after reminding his Gentile readers of how things used to be, says, in verse 13, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13).
Not only that, but you can also say . . .
• I have been brought in
Look at verses 14-18:
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both [Jew and Gentile] have access to the Father by one Spirit (Ephesians 2:14-18, NIV).
You have been brought in. . . To the very presence of God. You have access to the Father. You and I can “approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16, NIV).
And then, finally,
• I have been “brought together”
Paul says, in verses 19-22:
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
YOU BELONG!
I BELONG!
You have a family,
a home,
a place where you belong.
And it’s with me.
It’s with Mike and Cheryl Johnson.
It’s with Jill Kreuger.
It’s with Emily Marks and Madeline Isaacs.
It’s with Eliah Seal,
Dan Parkinson,
Todd and Monica Spohn,
Nate Miller,
Barbara Jenkins,
Dalton Conrad.
You belong, because you have been “brought together” with “God’s people and . . . God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.”
WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE
when you can be THAT rich??!
All of which leads me
to suggest two practical applications . . .
First, if you’re a seeker here this morning,
someone who’s checking this God thing out,
or someone who just feels uplifted once a week
by a little prayer, a little singing, a little Bible,
I wanna say:
I’m glad you’re here.
In fact, YOU are the main reason I’M here.
And that goes for many others in this room, too.
And it would be SO great if today were the day you picked to call out to God,
confess all the wrongs you’ve done that separate you from him,
and experience his forgiveness,
and the new life and riches that only he can give.
In fact, you can do that right now by praying silently these words as I speak them aloud:
“God, here I am.
I’m sorry for the wrong things I’ve done,
and I ask your forgiveness.
I invite you into my life,
to change me,
to control me,
to give me all the things I’ve heard about this morning, in Jesus’ name, Amen.”
Now, if you’d like a little help with that, or
if anyone here would like someone to pray with you--for any reason--or offer guidance--of any kind--prayer counselors will be available at the two tables to the south of the auditeria as we conclude this celebration, and other prayer counselors will be available throughout the auditeria following this celebration, wearing bright green name tags so you can identify them easily.
We do that to make it as easy as possible for anyone who needs
comfort or counsel,
guidance or prayer,
to find the help you need before you leave.
And for any here this morning who are Christ followers, I would urge you,
if you’ve been trying to please God,
trying to live the Christian life, to stop it . . .
And instead, from now on,
start each new day by saying something like this:
“God, I accept your word that I have been raised to new life with Christ and am seated with him in the heavenly realms, in order that he might show the incomparable riches of his grace through me. Help me, Lord, to rest,
to repose,
even to recline,
on your mighty power, as you live your life in me,
in Jesus’ name, Amen.”
