Ephesians 2:1-10

Intro

Hey everybody, I am so glad to be here with you all tonight. My name is Jacob Smith, some of you may know me from the fall retreat last year or some other time I have been around legacy. I grew up going to church here. I was sitting where you are sitting just 6 years ago which makes me feel old, but I bet it makes Brandon feel way older. I am currently a student at Dallas Theological Seminary getting my Masters in Christian Leadership and I am on staff at Denton Bible Church as the College men’s discipleship coordinator. So I am working with guys just a bit older than y’all and I love it.

About a year ago now, I started working for Frost Bank in North Dallas. It was my first “big boy” job out of college and I was a little terrified to be honest. I had made my way through my first month of training on computers, and now I was on to the real life stuff. I was greeting customers and holding the door open for them. The next step for me to take was to start answering phones. Again, I was terrified. My training partner prepared me and said “okay, next phone call that comes in I am going to have you answer it.” So I start hyping myself up, I start getting ready, I am discussing with my training partner on what to say. We go through it. “Hi, thank you for calling Frost Bank, this is Jacob, how may I be of assistance?” Then it happens. The phone rings. You know when you are in a really intense circumstance and your heart starts beating really hard. That is what immediately started happening when that phone rang. So I look at my training partner, and she looks at me with those eyes like “Well… do it. Do the thing.” . I picked up the phone and these are the words that came out of my mouth. “Welcome to Frost Bank…can I uh this is Jacob…Sorry.” Needless to say I was bad at my job and I needed more help. I eventually got the phone thing down, but the reason I tell you this is: I know there are a lot of people out there and maybe even some in this room that treat their spiritual lives how I treated my job. That they are struggling in life so they just need a little Jesus to help them out. The reality is is that we are not bad people that need help to be good. We are dead people that need spiritual life. This is the gospel message and it is central to our faith.

We are going to go line by line in Ephesians 2:1-10 and we will expand on this reality. My hope is that through this you would get a clear understanding of the text that would serve you for years to come. My prayer is that if you are here and don’t know Jesus as your LORD and SAVIOR that you would come to know him as such, and if you do know him, that this would draw you closer into deeper relationship with him.

Here’s the first thing you need to know.

GIVE SPACE TO LET THEM FIND IT

We are Spiritually Dead

Ephesians 2:1 ESV

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins

We were dead in our sins. What is Paul saying? Obviously, we know that Paul is not saying the Ephesians are physically dead or else it would be pointless to write them a letter. Rather, we were spiritually dead. We were separated from God and the life that he gives. Far from him, running the opposite direction. A commentator described spiritual deadness like this “The unbeliever is not sick; he is dead! He does not need resuscitation; he needs resurrection. All lost sinners are dead, and the only difference between one sinner and another is the state of decay.” Another commentator describes spiritual deadness as “We have no good within ourselves and no desire to submit to our Creator. We are dead spiritually and have no way to make ourselves alive. Just as a corpse cannot do anything to help himself, so we cannot save ourselves or make a move to cleanse our sins.” We were dead and hopeless to make ourselves right with God.

Reexplain quotes or

Ephesians 2:1–2 ESV

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—

What does it mean to follow the course of this world? We live according to what the world says is right, and not what scripture says is right. We pursue the things that the world and culture says is permissible, and not what scripture tells us to pursue. I remember for me in high school I knew a lot of people that consistently drank alcohol and got drunk at parties. This wave of “party culture” was how some people pursued popularity, that if you drink you will fit in and be part of the “in” crowd, you will be popular, you will have a good time, and all of it is deception. The alcohol won’t satisfy, the popularity won’t satisfy, the pleasure you get from those things won’t satisfy. It leaves you more empty than before. That is what all sin is. The prince of the power of the air is satan. Satan is at work, and influencing our culture as a whole. A commentator said “Satan, in his craftiness, places the things in front of us that we, in our sinful condition, find attractive, and, therefore, pursue as though they were our ideas.” We are dead, and apart from God, being influenced more and more into spiritual deadness. The spirit that is at work in the sons of disobedience influences us in a similar way to the spirit of enthusiasm at good sports game. It is normal, accepted, and encouraged to yell, cheer, jump up and down, and celebrate. That is how the course of this world, the prince of the power of the air, and the spirit at work in the sons of disobedience influences unbelievers. Sin is normal, accepted, and encouraged.

Good latter part. Definitions are not necessary

Ephesians 2:3 ESV

among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

We were all, at one point, influenced by that culture. We were born with a natural bent to be selfish. To desire what our body and mind thinks is good rather than what is good. Our “flesh” is described as sinful humanity, our innate desire to rebel against God. Our nature, being children of wrath, means that from the beginning of our lives we naturally rebel from God because of that rebellion we are deserving of God’s wrath. I guarantee you, you do not have to teach a baby to lie and manipulate to get what it wants. My nephew LOVES ketchup. The first time he discovered ketchup we were at a restaurant in Arkansas on family vacation and he tried it with one of his french fries. Immediately, you could see his face just light up. So, naturally, he just starts DIGGING his finger into the ketchup scooping finger fulls of ketchup into his mouth. My brother stopped him and explained to him gently “hey buddy, if you are going to eat ketchup you have to eat a french fry with it.” So he picks up a french fry dips it in the ketchup and sucks the ketchup right off the french fry. He manipulated the circumstances to get exactly what he wanted. We have all done it, its in our nature.

Here’s the second point.

We are made Spiritually Alive

Ephesians 2:4–5 ESV

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

Here, the theme switches, and it indicated by two words. BUT GOD. He made us alive with Christ because he is merciful and he loves us. “Mercy” is, not receiving a punishment that you deserve. “Grace” is, unmerited favor. Our sins had made us spiritually dead. They separated us from God. The resurrected Christ overcame death. God lets us share in Christ’s life. In doing so he caused us to no longer be spiritually alienated from himself. Why give us life when we deserved death? Because we earned it? No! We deserved the death we got. We are alive because of God’s grace.

Ephesians 2:6 ESV

and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

I know I am going to sound like your english teacher here for like a couple minutes, but bear with me. I want to call your attention to 3 verbs. These verbs explain what is the focus of this passage and what is summarized in verse 8 and 9. God “made us alive together with Christ”, God “raised us up with him”, and God “seated us with him in the heavenly places”. This is what it means to be saved we are made alive, raised, and seated with Christ. We were made alive, God sparked spiritual life in us. We are raised, spiritually God raised a new type of life, he changes our desires, and gives us a true desire for him. We are seated with him, God made ,what is a physical reality for Jesus, a spiritual reality for us. We are made right with God spiritually. The eternal consequences for our sin is gone and eternal life with God has replaced it. How does that work? For God to be completely just, he needed to punish sin. Just like we pay a speeding ticket there needs to be payment for laws broken. We broke God’s law, the payment was God’s wrath. God sent his son Jesus to step in to take that payment for those who would have faith in him. Why did he do this? Why did he save us?

Ephesians 2:7 ESV

so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

To show us his grace in kindness. He saved us simply because he loves us. Not because we could do anything for him. He didn’t save us to coerce us into doing what he wanted or because he needs our worship, but because he is generous. He loves us.

Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Here’s the last thing you need to know.

You were dead, and have been saved by God’s work alone.

Using our definitions from earlier it this first section reads like this. For by God’s unmerited favor you have been made alive, raised, and seated with Christ through belief in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. This is not done by our works at all. We did not earn it. It is a gift from God. Some of you may be asking if our salvation is due to us having faith doesn’t that mean faith is a work? To you I would say, no. A commentator described it like this “Suppose someone anonymously sent you a check for $1,000,000. The money is yours if you want it, but you still must endorse the check. In no way can signing your name be considered earning the million dollars—the endorsement is a non-work. You can never boast about becoming a millionaire through sheer effort or your own business savvy. No, the million dollars was simply a gift, and signing your name was the only way to receive it. Similarly, exercising faith is the only way to receive the generous gift of God, and faith cannot be considered a work worthy of the gift.” he goes on to say “To take this a step further, true faith cannot be considered a work because even faith is a gift from God, not something we produce on our own. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them” (John 6:44). Praise the Lord for His power to save and for His grace to make salvation a reality!”

Ephesians 2:10 ESV

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

That word workmanship is translated in other versions as handiwork or masterpiece. God created us with intention and care. God has laid a road ahead of us. On our path forward in our new life he has prepared good works for us to do. These good works are for his glory and for our good. The purpose of our new life is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. These good works are a part of that.

This is the clearest picture of God’s love for us. Helpless and dead on our own, he sent his perfect son to die in our place so that we could have eternity with him. And that is not some future reality for the believer it is a present reality. Your eternity with God started when you were saved. As a believer he is utterly pleased with you right now. We are not bad people made good or unhealthy people made healthy. We aren’t people bad at answering phones that need help. We are spiritually dead people made alive. We were spiritually dead, we were made spiritually alive, and it was God’s work not ours.