Ephesians 2:1-10
CELEBRATE THE DIFFERENCE GOD MAKES
Write
the outline on board
Ask people to call out world religions and
write names on board. Ask if anyone has personal experience
with any of these.
Is there a real difference between these religions
and Christianity? Muslims preach five pillars and lifelong obedience
to the Qur’an. Jews must obey the Torah. Buddhists seek
the path of enlightenment to Nirvana. Hindus spend their entire
life in a lower caste believing they are paying for some sin committed
in a previous life. Mormons must give two years to personal
missionary work and Jehovah’s Witnesses spend many hours each month
in door-to-door witnessing.
When we see the sincerity and sacrifice
of these religions, we have to ask, “Is Christianity right and these
other faiths wrong? Is there anything that makes Christianity
unique?”
Our society today is marked by two characteristics that
need our brief attention. They are postmodernism and pluralism. Postmodernists say that truth is situational and there is no absolute
truth. In other words, what you believe to be true is true for
you but not necessarily for me. Pluralism is tied with that
in saying that since there is no absolute truth then all religions
are “right” and all lead to reconciliation with God. While we
don’t have time to discuss this at length today, you need to know
that these beliefs are quite prevalent in our political and educations
systems all over the world. The devil is very busy exploiting
these lies. I would encourage you to read How Now Shall We Live by
Charles Colson. He is a great modern Christian apologist and
this is a very good book. I believe, in fact, this was studied
by the Restorers Class several years ago.
Anyway, is there a
difference in Christianity and other religions? Yes, there is! It is the difference between do and done. Every other religion
centers in what we must do. Christianity stands alone, unique,
on what God has done for us done for us in His Son, Jesus Christ.
The
tragedy is that so many do not know what Jesus has done for them.
Sadly, many Christians suffer from the same spiritual ignorance. They
live by works rather than by grace. You and I are saved by grace,
and we live by grace. We are to work not so God will love us but because
God already does. We are to be motivated not by guilt but by gratitude. When we understand all that Jesus has done for us, is doing for us,
and will do for us, we will understand that service is an immense
privilege, not a legalistic requirement. We will be freed from the
ritual of religion for the life-transforming experience of relationship.
Do
you live by grace? Let’s find out.
1. From Death
– vv. 1-3
Have someone read passage.
1As for you, you were dead in your
transgressions and sins, 2in 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. 3All 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.
What were we before we knew
Christ – BC? We were dead. All of us. Paul is talking
to both Jew and Gentile. Where else does Paul mention sin and
death? Someone read or quote Romans 6:23 – “the wages of sin
is death.”
What kind of death is Paul talking about? Physical? Intellectual? Moral? No. Unsaved people are walking
around – eating, breathing, etc. They are thinking, sometimes
brilliantly. And non-Christians are capable of living morally
upright lives. But they are dead spiritually in their transgressions
and sins.
Have you ever taken a wrong turn, lost your way, taken
the wrong path? Share Dakota story in
Have you ever missed
being the kind of person God intends for you to be? That is
what a sin is. The great theologian G. K. Chesterton replied
to an editorial that asked, “What’s wrong with the world?” “I
am,” he said. We all miss the mark; we all fall short of the
life that reconciles us to God. We are sinners.
When we
followed the ways of the world and the “ruler of the kingdom of the
air”—who is that, by the way?—Satan—we were dead with no hope for
the future. And we were also enslaved to the devil. Separated
from God and connected to the enemy. That’s a bad thing to be. And non-believers are still there.
And then, because of that, Paul
tells us in verse 3 that we were condemned. And Paul makes sure
that everyone knows they are included—Jews, including himself, as
well as Gentiles. All of us, he says. All of us made ourselves
at home desiring or lusting after whatever we wanted. Being
greedy and selfish. Our sinful nature.
To summarize: Before
we came to Christ every one of us was dead, enslaved to Satan, and
condemned by God. There are no exceptions. Mother Teresa or Billy
Graham would have been in hell without Jesus, as would I and every
one of you. Our relative morality in contrast to the famous sinners
we sometimes see on the news can lull us into a false complacency.
We can think that we deserve our salvation, that we are good enough
for God. So long as we persist in such delusion we will never serve
God with the gratitude he deserves.
Have we considered lately
our eternal condemnation in hell except for God’s grace? Have
we thanked God for saving us from hell lately?
2. To Life
– vv. 4-5
Have someone read passage.
4But because of his great love
for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even
when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
Now
we read one of the great contrasts in all Scripture. What does
the reconciliation to God provide for those of us who were spiritually
dead, enslaved, and condemned? We were made alive in Christ! Doesn’t Paul say it beautifully? Can’t you just feel his grateful
heart.
Whose idea was this salvation? What does John 3:16
say? This was not purchased by loving Son and conferred by a
grudging and wrathful Father.
Is God, indeed, rich in
mercy? The word means compassion or pity. It refers to
an emotion aroused by a person in need.
Years after the death of President Calvin Coolidge, this story came to light. In the early days of his presidency, Coolidge awoke one morning in his hotel room to find a cat burglar going through his pockets. Coolidge spoke up, asking the burglar not to take his watch chain because it contained an engraved charm he wanted to keep. Coolidge then engaged the thief in quiet conversation and discovered he was a college student who had no money to pay his hotel bill or buy a ticket back to campus. Coolidge counted $32 out of his wallet -- which he had also persuaded the dazed young man to give back! -- declared it to be a loan, and advised the young man to leave the way he had come so as to avoid the Secret Service! (Yes, the loan was paid back.)
Someone
look up 2 Cor. 5:21
That is mercy! And in this mercy the Lord
“made us alive with Christ” and when?—“when we were dead in our transgressions”! Paul says literally we were made alive together with Christ. The main verb of this entire text. It is most concisely stated
in 2 Cor. 5:21.
As a result, it is by grace we are saved. The verb tense used means it was something done for us and to us,
not by us. It points to a completed action with continuing permanent
results. Salvation is a present and future experience but is
rooted in the past fact of our salvation by grace. Grace—what
a difficult term, but God’s grace is made up of His unique, spontaneous,
strong, sovereign, everlasting, and infinite love and mercy. And this grace gives us new life—abundant life!
3. By Grace
and Through Faith – vv. 6-9
Have someone read passage.
6And God raised
us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in
Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the
incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us
in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through
faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9not by
works, so that no one can boast.
Paul then identifies both the
present and the future results of the gift of life that God has provided
through Christ. God has “raised us up with Christ and seated
us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” Imagine
that! We were once lost and without hope; now we have the highest
hope in all the universe! This is what we experience right now. We are already raised up and we are already seated with Him in the
heavenly places. We are listed; inscribed, in fact: on heaven’s
register. Our business is there; our homes are there; our interests
are there. Heaven’s blessings are already descending on us. We already enjoy the power and position of being children of God. Philippians 3:20a says:
20But our citizenship is in heaven.
But
there’s more! Someday, in the future, God will “show the incomparable
riches of His grace.” This is talking about stuff we can’t even
conceptualize. When Jesus comes back and consummates God’s plan,
we will experience these unimaginable things. Was that good
news to the first century persecuted Christians in
Patrick Henry said this, “I have
now disposed of all my property to my family. There is one thing more
I wish I could give them and that is faith in Jesus Christ. If they
had that and I had not given them a single shilling, they would have
been rich; and if they had not that, and I had given them all the
world, they would be poor indeed."
So how can we experience this
present and future blessing? Paul answered that question using
two key words: grace and faith. What does grace mean?—to show
favor to those who deserve none. We are saved “by grace.” That is God’s part of the transaction. It is the unmerited favor
of God; God’s riches at Christ’s expense. Grace describes the
willingness of God to love us when we were unlovely. And we
are saved “through faith.” That is our part of the transaction. Faith involves both the mind and the will. We believe with our
mind that the gift of life is available through Christ. And
we decide—using our will—that we want this gift and are willing to
let Christ take control of our lives—to let Christ take control of
our lives.
Now our faith does not save us, rather, it
positions us to receive God’s grace. Paul is adamant about this. We did not deserve to be saved and neither can we earn it. Paul
tells the same things to the Roman church in 3:22 and to the Galatians
in 2:15-16 as well as many other places.
And in this passage,
to make sure we understood that faith is our response to what God
had already done rather than something we merely do, Paul added two
phrases in verses 8 and 9—“this not from yourselves” and “not by works.” Grace is first and faith responds. Saved by grace and through
faith.
Understood? We are not saved by works but we are
saved to work.
4. For Good Works – v. 10
Someone read.
10For we
are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which
God prepared in advance for us to do.
We, all of us, are God’s workmanship. God worked to make us. And the word has the connotation of a
work of art such as poetry or drama. It can be rendered “masterpiece.” Do you think of yourself as a master work of art?
When we respond
to God’s grace with faith we are reconciled to Him in a new life. What does the word, reconcile, mean to you? The Beliefs and
Values Statement of First Baptist Church says in part that we believe
God’s mission is to reconcile people to Himself. Did you remember
that? One of the consequences of this reconciliation is that
both our actions and our relationships will be changed. According
to verse 10, we will no longer be doing the evil acts of sin but instead
we will begin to do the good works of faith. Our actions will
change.
(someone look up Romans 12:2)
We are made to be a living
demonstration to the world of God’s power and purpose. Our works
aren’t just any works, they are those which God has planned for us
to do! What does Rom 12:2 say? God has a good, pleasing
and perfect will for every believer. He has a job for you every
day—today, tomorrow, and the next day until you are with God forever. He has already prepared just those works which are perfectly suited
for your life and gifts. I spend a great deal of my ministry
teaching just that doctrine as most of you know personally.
(someone
look up Matt. 5:16)
Our church body, FBC, has taken up and endorsed
a new emphasis on this doctrine. We have, through the Vision
Waxahachie strategy, begun to try and live out what Jesus expressed
in Matthew 5:16. We want the people in our community and beyond—to
as far as we can reach—to see us do God’s good works and give Him
the praise. And we expect that to be manifested in changed lives. That is, people becoming baptized believers saved from hell. And ultimately those and others becoming mature, fruit-bearing Christians
that are building the
Max Lucado tells this story in his book, No
Wonder They Call Him the Saviour
Longing to leave her poor Brazilian neighborhood, Christina wanted to see the world. Discontent with a home having only a pallet on the floor, a washbasin, and a wood-burning stove, she dreamed of a better life in the city. One morning she slipped away, breaking her mother's heart. Knowing what life on the streets would be like for her young, attractive daughter, Maria hurriedly packed to go find her. On her way to the bus stop she entered a drugstore to get one last thing. Pictures. She sat in the photograph booth, closed the curtain, and spent all she could on pictures of herself. With her purse full of small black-and-white photos, she boarded the next bus to Rio de Janiero. Maria knew Christina had no way of earning money. She also knew that her daughter was too stubborn to give up. When pride meets hunger, a human will do things that were before unthinkable. Knowing this, Maria began her search. Bars, hotels, nightclubs, any place with the reputation for street walkers or prostitutes. She went to them all. And at each place she left her picture--taped on a bathroom mirror, tacked to a hotel bulletin board, fastened to a corner phone booth. And on the back of each photo she wrote a note. It wasn't too long before both the money and the pictures ran out, and Maria had to go home. The weary mother wept as the bus began its long journey back to her small village.
It was a few weeks later that young
Christina descended the hotel stairs. Her young face was tired. Her
brown eyes no longer danced with youth but spoke of pain and fear.
Her laughter was broken. Her dream had become a nightmare. A thousand
times over she had longed to trade these countless beds for her secure
pallet. Yet the little village was, in too many ways, too far away.
As she reached the bottom of the stairs, her eyes noticed a familiar
face. She looked again, and there on the lobby mirror was a small
picture of her mother. Christina's eyes burned and her throat tightened
as she walked across the room and removed the small photo. Written
on the back was this compelling invitation. "Whatever you have done,
whatever you have become, it doesn't matter. Please come home." She
did.
God loves us with grace like that. Don’t we owe him our
best?
Ephesians 2:1-10
CELEBRATE THE DIFFERENCE GOD MAKES
1. From
Death – vv. 1-3
What kind of “dead” were we?
Who is dead? Any exceptions?
Have we considered lately our eternal condemnation
in hell except for God’s grace?
Have we thanked God for
saving us from hell lately?
2. To Life – vv. 4-5
What does
the reconciliation to God provide for those of us who were spiritually
dead, enslaved, and condemned?
Whose idea was this salvation?
Is God, indeed, rich in mercy? What is mercy?
3. By Grace and Through Faith – vv. 6-9
What
are the present and future results of God’s gift of life?
Where
is our citizenship?
Compare grace and faith.
4. For
Good Works – v. 10
Do works save us?
What about “reconciliation?”
Explain
how works and salvation go together?
Homework: What
do you need to do this week so people will see your good works and
praise your Father in heaven?