Spiritually Alive

Prayer-

Introduction-

One of my favorite books of the Bible is the Book of Ephesians. The reason is that the book of Ephesians lets us see how important we are to God.

Chapter one tells us that as believers we are sealed with the approval of God and that the Holy Spirit of God wants to dwell within us.

Chapter two, we get a close look at Apostle Paul’s description of a person who is spiritually dead and the great cost that God has gone to make us spiritually alive.

My question to you this morning is do you want to be spiritually alive in Christ or spiritually dead in yourself?

Paul calls God’s people faithful!

He offers up a prayer of Grace and peace and points them back to Jesus.

He reminds them that every spiritual blessing you will ever have or will ever get comes from Jesus Christ.

Jesus chose by going to the cross a plan of redemption for us.

In Him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of his grace.

He tells us that we can have wisdom and knowledge, we can know the mystery of his will, and we can find purpose for our lives.

Check this out- Ephesians 1:11-14

“In him you were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you were also included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession- to the praise of his glory.”

Don’t race through that passage-

We were in need of a savior and Jesus said yes to the Father to be that savior-

Jesus said that he would work it all out- I will be that redemption that is needed.

We (Jews) who were the first to believe and put their hope in Christ, to lift up the name of Jesus as Lord and savior. We are excited that the gracious God of peace extended that plan of salvation to the Gentiles also.

Those In Christ

(13) “And you were also included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.”

Don’t get hung up on some words! “Predestined” and “chosen’.

North American churches have a different meaning for these words than in the original Greek.

Predestined- in the Greek means “pre- before” It means that God’s prior decision was that his children through adoption to the family of God through Christ, both Jews and Gentiles would have an opportunity to be saved by the power of Christ at the Cross.

Paul’s first readers may not have realized the depth of what that means, but we should because it was God’s prior decision to include us to experience Christ and his salvation.

The word Chosen translates to mean “inheritance”

Most consider redemption on a human plain- “what must I do”!

Paul wants to shift that focus onto God’s plan that included both Jew and Gentiles- which is all of us. All believers in Christ- those who have put their hope in Jesus shall inherit what God intended them to have.

In Christ we have been chosen to inherit the inheritance intended for God’s people (That should get your praise on this morning!

Paul prays for the saints at Ephesus (and all future believers) - he is happy that they have been given the glorious opportunity to inherit the kingdom of God by believing in the power and work of the resurrected Christ. He says that the same power that resurrected Christ Is the same power that dwells in us as believers. He is who makes us alive in Christ or dead in our own sins.

Let’s look as Paul pulls the trigger on this passage-

Ephesians 2:1-10 Read from Bible

He makes a clear distinction of who you were before Christ and who you should be after you accept Christ.

You were dead in your sins (offense against God) and transgressions (an act that goes against a code of conduct; an offense)

You use to follow the ways of the world(against God)

You use to think more of yourself than of the savior who saved you

You were the one who was disobedient and rebellious all the time

We were all on that path- by our nature, by our own path, we were on that road… but because of God’s great love for us, he made us alive in Christ and dead in transgressions. (Someone should be praising the Lord this moring!)