Good Grace of a Great God

Intro -

Uncle/Passage List

Ephesians 2:1–10 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— 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. 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— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 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. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

One quick note (Guilt, Grace, Gratitude from Kevin DeYoung)

Letter written to church in Ephesus, copies may have been sent to other churches as well. Unlike many of Paul’s letters there is very little personalized information.

Laid out in two parts 1-3 establishes who we are in Christ, and 4-6 is the application.

Meant to be read in whole (Piper reading it)

hard to be broken down into individual pieces, so in order to understand our passage, we really need to start with Eph 1, we’ll break this part down a little bit then we will get into our passage.

Ephesians Ch 1:1-23 - God has been good to us, is doing work in us.

Paul does a lot of run on sentences in this section. Beautiful section of Extolling the Beauty and Goodness of God and His plan.

Specifically in 15-23 he explains what God the Father has done through God the Son Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 1:19–23 ESV

and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

God the Father is creator and ruler over all things, he has placed Christ over all things.

Ephesians 2. Thanksgiving and Prayer (1:15–23)

The words “who fills all in all” mean that Christ fills all the universe in all respects; that is, the entire universe is not only dependent on him for the fulfilment of its every need but is also governed by him in the interest of the church, which, in turn, must serve the universe, and is replenished by his bounteous gifts.

Christ sits on the Throne over all creation, that is His rightful place.

That’s where we are when we come to our passage.

All of that buildup for the Greatness of God and Christ, so what is Paul going to say now? ....And You

Really strong change of tone. No longer praise, but now accusatory. (Even this will turn back into praise)

Turns his attention towards his audience — One note grammatically, Paul interchanges You and us/we freely throughout this passage. So when he says “YOU” it’s meant for emphasis, he is including himself in this as well. (3)

This is us as humanity, this is who we are. (Were)

Seeing our Guilt (1-3)

2:1-3 Who we are (were)

-Dead, following the course of the world

-Sons of Disobedience (still going on, anyone not in Christ)

Following dead path. Sin permeates all everything that we do

-Not “you were murderers and thieves”

We tend to conflate the idea of moral evil with sin. Look at ourselves and say we aren’t as bad as....(Hitler)

Yes that is sin, but...

Sin is following the course of the World, the spirit of the prince of the power of the air.

Real enemy, real satan, Same as serpent in Gen 3.

Vs 3 makes it clear what that looks like. lived in the passions of our flesh, desires.

It means following what we want rather than what God wants.

Back to ch 1, God is over all creation, he reigns and has made Christ the rightful King.

It’s a matter of the heart, putting ourselves in the place where God should be.

Created as image bearers, to reflect Him.

We supplant God, we make ourselves Kings and Queens over him, makes us traitors.

Not unique to Paul’s time, still the path of the world around us.

“Follow your heart,” is the mantra of today.

Do what you want, that is the only thing that is “right”

Wingfeather - “Don’t follow your heart, because your heart will betray you.”

Jeremiah 17:5–10 (ESV)

Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

Our place is to trust in the Lord, to put him on the throne, but we follow after our own desires, making our own flesh our strength, and that is our sin.

This doesn’t mean we can’t have dreams and hopes. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work towards them. It means that we have to keep God on the throne.

When we “follow our heart” without any regard to God and what he commands us to do, then we put ourselves on that throne.

Being a traitor is a really big deal.

There is only one criminal offense in the U.S. Constitution, that of the traitor. It’s the only offense the founders felt was severe enough to enshrine there with the punishment being death.

That’s precisely what we deserve from God as traitors and Paul says we are dead in our trespasses, not just outside the walls of the kingdom, but dead.

and if that were it there would be no hope.

My two favorite words in all of Scripture.

Surprised by Grace (4-9)

2:4-6 ....But God.... 3 Short verses about us, and now back to God and what he has done. (Here we turn tone back to praise)

Read 4-6

He did it, He bridged the gap between us, Made us alive in Christ.

Dead - some say “I’m too far gone” (can’t be farther than dead)

It’s worse than you thought, because not only do you have your sin, but now you are doubting God’s grace.

We are traitors, we deserve death and He makes us alive.

Christ died and defeated death so we could be alive with Him.

The End of the Gospel is God. - (Chief End of Man - To Glorify God and Enjoy Him forever)

Being with God is better (Better is one day - Psalm 84:10

Psalm 84:10 (ESV)

For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

So God made us alive in Christ, and the beautiful part of that is that we get to spend eternity with Him!

Why should God do this? (4, 7-8)

Vs 4 - being rich in Mercy, because of His great Love

-John 3:16 ““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

1. Read 7 Show the riches of Grace/Love and Kindness

Demonstrates love and kindness in the most incredible way (Phil 2)

Christmas - Incarnation (God the Son became flesh) Left His throne Phil 2:6-7

Philippians 2:6–7 ESV

who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

Good Friday/ Easter - Humbled Himself to death Phil 2:8

Philippians 2:8 ESV

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Later in this letter Paul calls on husbands to lay down their lives for their wives like this. We make sacrifices for those that we love, but this is the sacrifice of all sacrifices.

2. Read 8-9 So none may boast

What put us in this position in the first place, we put ourselves on the throne that belonged to God.

We didn’t do it, we didn’t save ourselves, so we can’t put ourselves back on the throne. (We can’t)

So, How do we respond to this Gift of Grace and Love?

If this is new to you, or something that you are realizing today that you fall into the category of sons of disobedience, then the answer of what to do is simple. Repent and believe, leave the old dead person behind, and trust in Christ. Put God back in his rightful place on the throne.

If you are a believer, or place your faith in Him now, what’s next?

Responding in Gratitude (10)

Read 10

We are made to honor Him with our works.

-Writing to Christians, all this is past tense verbs.

-Now a new creation in Christ, with a new heart to serve God.

What kind of works? Paul lays alot of these works out in Chapters 4-6

Matthew 22:37–40 ESV

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Love God

Put Him on the throne.

Ask ourselves, is this honoring to God.

Love Neighbor

Past tense (were) - Sons of Disobedience now, can be brought into this fold.

St. Patrick - Story

Love our neighbors by sharing this Gospel, here, nationally (Annie Armstrong), internationally (Lottie Moon)

Humble ourselves and serve our neighbors

So many ways to be a good neighbor, and we want to be thinking of ways to serve our community.

We end each service with the Lord’s Supper. It is a visible reminder of the sacrifice Christ made for us. A reminder of the Gospel that is presented in this passage.

-This is not the real thing, if not a believer, don’t take this, but we would love to walk with you through that process.

-If you are wrestling with unrepentant sin, keeping the throne for yourself, abstain. No Judgement here. We all have struggles.

Lord, we are so grateful for the grace you have given us in the person of Christ. So often we desire to go our own way and put ourselves on the throne that belongs to you. I pray this evening that you would change our hearts to put keep Christ on the throne in our lives. That we would be able to confess with our brother Saint Patrick:

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me, Christ in the eye that sees me, Christ in the ear that hears me. I arise today Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, Through a belief in the Threeness, Through a confession of the Oneness Of the Creator of creation.

You are our King Lord,

Amen