Death to Life
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Introduce yourself. Short engaging story.
Just a few weeks ago during Spring Break, Kevin and my wife and I went on the BCM’s Spring Break mission trip to Panama City Beach called Beach Reach… yadda yadda yadda
During Beach Reach, we saw God do incredible things:
3,338 Gospel Conversations
173 Professions of faith
Group of 13 rededicate their lives and threw away their alcohol
Group of 5 all accepted Christ and turned away from the bars to go back home.
Personally met a young girl who had no way home, we got to get her home safe.
It was an amazing experience and hope that everyone of us on that trip have been challenged to expect God to move in our hometowns, too.
One of our favorite transitions during conversations with our shuttle riders was to ask the question, “If you were to die today and God asked you, ‘Why should I let you into Heaven?’ what would you say?” 9 times out of 10 they would say:
I think so.. I’ve been a good person.
I know I haven’t lived the best life, but I haven’t murdered anyone or done anything really bad.
On the off chance that they did truly have a relationship with Jesus and answered correctly, they tended to have a miriad of doctrinal issues that showcased their spirtual infancy and need for dicispleship or their misplaced priorities in life.
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
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.
James 2:14–26 (ESV)
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?
So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
DEAD IN SIN
DEAD IN SIN
Ephesians 2:4–5 “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—”
In fact, this idea of being “dead to sin” goes all the way back to Adam.
1 Corinthians 15:22 “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 5:8 “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Ephesians 2:1–3 “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.”
Paul is saying that we once were like the rest of the world, but now something inside of us has changed.
DEAD FAITH
DEAD FAITH
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
I think that a lot of misconceptions about salvation come from an incorrect understanding of faith.
Faith is not just believing. Belief is only step one.
(ABC’s of Salvation are not just the B’s of Salvation!)
“Taking a Leap of Faith” Analogy
“Sitting in a Chair” Analogy
Faith is believing in God AND trusting in Him completely.
James 2:19 “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!”
The demons believe in God, but where are they headed? ABC’s of salvation are starting to make sense!
See, salvation is not the result of works, but works are the result of salvation.
There is no possible way to claim that Ephesians and James contradict each other on the topic of salvation with what Paul writes in verse 10 of Ephesians 2:
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
That is why we were made alive in Christ. Not to cruise through life, waiting to be next in line at the pearly white gates, but to do the good works which God prepared for us before we were created.
ALIVE IN CHRIST
ALIVE IN CHRIST
Ephesians 2:4–5 “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—”
Luke 9:57–62 “As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.””