Ephesians 2 - Made Alive And One

Paul stresses to the church in Ephesus how much better off they are in Christ  and they are "no longer..."

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Transcript

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Johnny needed to purchase a special wedding gift for his sister and his soon-to-become brother-in-law. He went down to Bed Bath and Beyond store where they had their wedding registry. He got a list of all the things they wanted. Johnny wasn't going to be able to attend the wedding, but he knew that Bed Bath and Beyond was always willing to gift wrap and ship things he bought in their store, so he figured he'd have everything made. Just go down there and get something. He was looking at the towels and the bedding and the cutlery and all the little gadgets that were on the registry, and then he noticed that they had wanted a crystal punch bowl. Johnny searched the store for the crystal punch bowl. He found it was really special. It really looked nice. It was slightly over what he wanted to spend. But he thought, why not? It's not every day my sister's going to get married. He picked it up, he went to the cash register, and as he was setting it down on the conveyor belt, it slipped from his hands, it crashed down on the floor. Broke in about 30 or 40 pieces. He apologized to the clerk and he asked about getting a replacement one, but the clerk pointed to a sign and read it to Johnny. You break it, you bought it. There was no way Johnny could afford a second crystal bowl. The first one was over budget. He was just really gonna do something special, but now it was broken in 20 or 30 pieces. That's not gonna do. Then Johnny had a brilliant idea. Bed, bath, and beyond. How to gift wrapping and shipping policy. They could wrap it up, ship it. When it arrives broken, he could just say, Oh, that's too bad that the shipping company broke it. Blame it on them, tell the sister, well, there was a thought that counted. Johnny asked the clerk, Do you still do the wrapping and the shipping? Oh yes, we do for free. Johnny paid for the broken crystal punch bowl with a smile, knowing his sister would never find out. And he could blame the shipping company. He filled out a little card and asked them to gift wrap it and ship it to his sister for their wedding day. On the wedding day or the day after, he got a telephone call from his sister. Johnny, thank you for the crystal bowl. But when it arrived, it's broken. I think there's 37 pieces. Before Johnny could say it must have been the shipping company, she continued on, but you didn't have to wrap each broken piece individually. You know, a crystal punch bowl arriving in 37 pieces is not exactly a great gift. Some things really need to come whole and complete. As Paul's writing to the Christians in Ephesus in Ephesians chapter 2, Paul wrote about how that in Christ we have been made alive and one. We are whole in Christ Jesus. Today I want to look at the second chapter of Ephesians and see what we are no longer and what we are now. But first let's begin with prayer. Lord, I do thank you for your love and I thank you for your blessings. And help me, Lord, to share your word. Help us to realize how great it is that we've been made alive. We've been made one in Christ Jesus. Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm going to trust that each of you have prepared yourself for today's sermon by having read this past week from Ephesians chapter 2. So I'm not going to read the entire chapter today. If you haven't read it, go ahead and read it now. Pause this video if you need to, or just read during church. So just go right ahead and do that. But I'm going to start here with the first ten verses that I call made alive in Christ. Made alive in Christ. Our banner for Ephesians points out right back there that our theme for Ephesians is no longer. This chapter really brings that up. It starts out telling us that Christians are no longer dead in sin. No longer dead in sin. Or as Paul writes, verse 1, and you were, past tense, dead in your trespasses and sins. All those outside of Christ, all those who haven't yet become a Christian, are considered by the Bible dead in their sins. That's what our Bible teaches. I know our world doesn't believe that. Our world still thinks that it doesn't matter who you are, you're probably going to go to heaven. Only the worst of the worst are considered sinners who won't go to heaven. And that's why you hear people who don't have a thing to do with church, don't have a thing to do with Christ, tell about some relative of theirs who died, well, at least now they're in a better place. They're not necessarily in heaven if they don't know Jesus Christ according to the scriptures. They are considered, as this passage points out, they are dead in their sins. And basically, even though people claim that most people are all good, that's not what the Bible teaches us. The Bible tells us that not everyone is good. No one is good, none except God. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. No one is righteous, no, not one. Our sin carries the wages of death. And yet the world tries to perpetuate a lie that all people are good and is perfectly fine. And that's done by Satan, who tries to convince all people. You don't need Jesus, you don't need the church, you don't need to follow what Christians are saying. You can just do your own thing, you'll be fine. But the scriptures teach us if we don't know Jesus as our Lord and Savior, it doesn't matter that we're not the worst of the worst. If we don't know Him as our Lord and Savior, you are dead in your sins and your trespasses. And Paul pointed out to the Christians in Ephesus that prior to knowing Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they were all dead in their sins. And thus we need to have our sins washed away by the blood of Christ. We need to go through the waters of baptism to rise up a new creature in Christ. We need to have his grace that we could be saved by faith. Because we were dead in our sin. But as Paul also points out, not only were they dead in their sins, that we are no longer living like the world, verse 2. As Paul worded it here, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. For Christians, we used to live just like the people in the world, following after the lust of our flesh, lust of our eyes, the boastful pride of life. But why would Paul want to remind the Christians in Ephesus of what they used to be? I don't know his exact reason, but I can come up with a lot of reasons. Because I think there are some Christians who start thinking, well, I'm so much better than everybody else in the world. I'm so much better than other people. We look down our noses on them, and we need to get off that high horse and realize we used to be just like them. We are not perfect people who have never sinned. We have sinned. The only difference is we've had our sins washed clean by the blood of Christ. We're forgiven people who used to do the exact same things that people who don't know Christ are still doing, who haven't turned their lives over to Jesus. Second, we need to be reminded that just as we used to be in all those things, but we have been changed by the blood of Christ, so also those who are dead in their sins, they can be changed. So tell people about Jesus so they can be changed just like you've been changed. And Paul starts out by reminding these Christians of what they used to be, what you are no longer. And then he brings up the contrast. But now, but now we are alive together with Christ. We who were dead in our sins, but now through Christ Jesus, we have been made alive together with him. Verse 5 words it so plainly. Remember in Romans chapter 6, and it starts out with a strange question, what shall we say? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? And the answer is absolutely not. And he continues on and points out, you once were dead in your sins, but may it never be that we continue in it. How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Therefore we now have been buried with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. We once were dead in our sins, but now we have been made alive together with Christ. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin, for he who has died is freed from sin. And Paul is basically stating in Romans what he's stating here to the Ephesians Christians. You once were dead in sin. You were dead in the transgressions of your sin, but now you have buried that old self as sin. You've been raised up so you can walk in newness of life, alive together with Christ. Our body of sin is done away with. We are to be new creatures in Christ Jesus. How'd this happen? Paul states twice here in Ephesians chapter 2 that by grace we are now saved by grace through faith. Yes, we once were dead in sin, living like the world, but we are no longer that way. We are now alive together with Christ, saved by the mercy of God, verse 4, saved by his great love, verse 4, and so we are saved by his grace through faith, verse 5, and again in verse 8. In fact, Paul continued on in verse 8 to state, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves that is the gift of God, verse 9, not as a result of works that no one should boast, verse 10. So for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. Because God is so rich in mercy, verse 4, because of his great love with which he has loved us, verse 4, God allowed us who were used to be dead in our sins to be made alive together with Christ, no longer dead in sin, no longer living like the world, but because his grace reaches out to us through our faith in Jesus, what he did for us on the cross, dying for us, shedding his blood, all for the forgiveness of our sins. You know, when Jesus set aside the bread and the cup that we call the Last Supper, in Matthew chapter 26, Matthew records for us this verses 27 and 28. Drink from it all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is to be shed on behalf of many for forgiveness of sins. This is the exact same phrase that we'll find in Acts chapter 2, verse 38, when Peter is preaching to a crowd. He says, Repent and let each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. I've had people tell me, Well, you know what, baptism has nothing to do with forgiveness of sins. It's because Jesus already forgave us of our sins. I have people tell me that quite often. And then I look at them and I go, So why did Jesus shed his blood? Jesus said his blood was shed for forgiveness of sins. Was it because our sins were already forgiven that Jesus shed his blood? I don't think so. I think he had to shed blood, as the book of Hebrews points out, that we could have forgiveness of sins. I believe that's what the scripture teaches us. And even though we are saved by grace through faith, I don't think that negates this need for baptism. Paul links it in Romans to the words that are very similar here: formerly dead in our sins, but in baptism we have been made alive together with Christ. Baptism alone, though, without the mercy of God, without faith, without the love of God, without grace, without faith in Christ Jesus, without repentance, without confession of who Jesus is, without a change in our life, that's not going to save. But with all of that, we can believe the scriptures, like what it says in 1 Peter chapter 2, or 3, verse 22. Baptism now saves us. Not a removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a clean conscience by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, Savior, Jesus Christ. We who once were dead in sin, living like the world, we have now been changed. We are no longer that. But now we have been made alive together with Christ. We are now saved by grace through faith. And Paul continues this chapter to teach. We have also been made one in Christ. Verses 11 through 22. Again, he starts out this section, verses 11 through 22, pointing out what we are no longer. No longer called uncircumcised. Paul specifically words this about the Gentile Christians who had been sent the gospel, that he had been sent as a preacher, as an evangelist, as a messenger to the Gentiles to bring them the good news of Jesus Christ, the gospel message, pointing out that those who formerly were the Gentiles in the flesh who were called the uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision, they are no longer to be considered exiled or excluded or strangers, no longer excluded or strangers. Paul isn't endorsing that Christians, the formerly uncircumcised, need to be circumcised as some Christians were trying to get to happen. Remember when we went through Galatians? Galatians chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4. If you remember there, the people were there trying to go to another gospel, which wasn't a gospel at all. That they were trying to force Christians to get circumcised. The Gentile Christians, you have to be circumcised, you can't get saved. You need the Old Testament law system. Remember Jared and his illustration about the pinto? You don't go to the pinto when you got the great Honda CRV. Those who wanted to go back to the law, the pinto, and the condemnation, the slavery, rather than going to the promise as found in God. And Paul didn't command the Gentile Christians to get circumcised. Circumcision or no circumcision was no longer people going to exclude people from the promise. No longer were the Gentiles excluded from the commonwealth of Israel and even strangers to the covenants of promise, as it tells us here in Ephesians 2. No longer do we need to be divided by circumcision or no circumcision. No longer is there that exclusion or being strangers, or even as verse 12 points out, no longer without hope and without God. Amen. Under the Old Testament law system, under that old covenant, the law, or as Jared called it, the pinto, Gentiles, people like you and me, who could not trace our ancestral record all the way back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we had no hope of salvation, no hope of having the Lord be our God. The law system was closed and kept adjusting the blood of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, basically. But now, but now we have been brought near by something so much better. We have been brought near by the blood of Jesus. And that's what verse 13 is teaching us. But now in Christ Jesus, you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. What a contrast. The blood of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob had become an actual barrier that prevented Gentiles like me, like you, from going before God. But the blood of Jesus tore down that dividing wall, that barrier and opened up salvation for all people, even people like us. There's a lot of discussion in today's world about borders and walls and whether it's right or wrong to have borders. Some people even argue from passages like here in Ephesians chapter 2, where it tells us that God has broken down the barrier, the dividing wall, to teach, well, we shouldn't have barriers. We shouldn't have dividing walls. But they're forgetting that this passage is teaching us that there's still only one way to have this barrier broken down, and that is by the blood of Jesus Christ. And without the blood of Jesus, some people are still outside. They're still divided off. They are still stopped by the dividing wall now of the blood of Jesus. Not everyone makes it to heaven. No one comes to the Father except through Jesus. And that is by having the grace, by faith, by the blood of Jesus, we're washing our sins away. But I am so thankful that God has made a way possible for Jew and Gentile alike to be able to come to the Father. Yet it's still only through Jesus. Some of you might remember last week's sermon about the blessings in Christ, in him, in him, in him. You might remember I said that word a few times, that phrase. Those blessings are only for those who will come to the Father in or through Jesus. And Paul continues that thought here in chapter 2. We once were excluded, we once were strangers, we once were without hope. We once were without God. But God broke down that barrier wall, he drew us near by the very blood of Jesus, so that now, now we can be at peace with God and with others, for he himself is our peace. God has made Jew and Gentile into one new group of people, abolishing the division and hatred and the of enmity that divided us up, and he has allowed us, Gentile and Jew, to become one new people group. The true Israel of God, the true people of God, a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. That's what Peter writes for us in 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 9. Here Paul writes, verse 19 and following, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household. Having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you are also being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. We have now been made one in Christ, so that now we are part of God's household. Now part of God's household. Over my lifetime, I can remember leaving our house unlocked many, many times. As a youth, my parents often left the house unlocked. Sometimes we might be surprised to come home and find my grandma in my house or my aunt and uncle in our house. Those were pleasant surprises. A few years back, Deborah and I were both over here at the church building when she went home and she immediately called me because she found some stranger in our house. Not a pleasant surprise. That made us go out and immediately buy an electronic lock that just automatically locks if we forget to lock the door. More recently, we have found people we don't know wondering about our place. And so what did we do the next? We went out and purchased security cameras to record who's out there and what they're doing out there. Locks and security cameras are good. They're good things to keep your place secure, to keep people, whether you know them or not, know them, that you know who they are and what they're doing out there, what they're doing. But we can never, we never would have installed them to keep family out. Our relatives, our kids, our grandkids, they can come to our house anytime. Because family is always welcome. And Paul points out that we are no longer strangers, we are family. God's household, God's family, all because of what Christ did for us. No longer are we dead in sin. No longer do we live like the world, following after Satan in our lust. No longer are we excluded or strangers. No longer are we without hope and without God. No longer are we excluded. But now through Christ we have been made alive with Him, saved by grace through faith, brought near by the blood of Christ, that we could be at peace with God and with all with one another in the household of God. Because we are now all God's household. What a blessing we have in Jesus Christ. Lord, I thank you for this passage. I ask, Lord, that we would live it. To realize that we have been made alive and we are now one in Christ Jesus. Let us live truly as one. Let us have love for one another. Let us reach out to one another. Thank you, Lord, for all the blessings found in Jesus. May we continually share Jesus and his blessings with others. In Jesus' name. Amen.