Death to Life: Ephesians 2:1-10
Notes
Transcript
Death to Life: The Family of Grace
Intro:
Intro:
Last weekend I was blessed to spend the better part of a weekend with the leaders of our church. Between time with Elders and Deacons, we spent about 15 hours in a room prayerfully seeking to discern together God’s will for this body, taking breaks only to eat, sleep, and get embarrassed by Shandon in basketball.
Next month on September 8th, during our Anniversary Gathering, we are going to take some time to talk about what we took away from that retreat in detail, but in the meantime I will tell you this. As we pondered the past and prayed to the future, one thing was made abundantly clear through Spirit who dwells within each person in that room…Family is a Pillar of Rooted Church.
This is not a church where it’s ok to just occasionally pop in on Sunday and and not be known by anyone.
This is not a church where it’s ok to hide your pain and sin, we don’t carry our burdens alone.
This is not a church where we are going to be defined by our programming, service time, or building address, but by our gospel heritage.
We are a Family, and everything we do, flows from that reality.
So, from now until the end of October, we are going to be considering what it means to be made family through Christ and how we live in a way that reflects that glorious reality, this is the major theme of the book of Ephesians.
In Ephesians 1, we saw that Paul, while under house arrest, writes a letter to the church so that they might be encouraged by all that God has done to make us His own.
In todays’ text, Paul teaches that while we are certainly son’s and daughter’s of the king, if that reality leads us to boast, or to think too highly of ourselves, then we have completely missed the mark and in fact, you might not actually understand the gospel.
Because for every member of this holy family, your story begins with three words:
You were Dead:
You were Dead:
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) was a renowned philosopher and the founder of utilitarianism, which was a philosophy that taught that “good” was basically defined by whatever made the most people happy. Advocating for whatever makes people happy is a popular philosophy that can make you a lot of money, and thus, Jeremy was very wealthy.
So In his will to divide his fortune, Bentham made a unique request: he left a large chunk of his estate to a London hospital on one condition, that he be present at every board meeting. So for more than one hundred years, his preserved remains were wheeled into the boardroom each month and placed at the head of the table. His skeleton was dressed in 17th-century clothing and topped with a little hat, positioned on a wax replica of his head. The minutes of these meetings would note, “Mr. Jeremy Bentham, present but not voting.”
To understand the gospel by which you were saved, you must understand the implications of this verse.
Human beings appear to be full of life, and in some ways, we are.
Consider the olympics going on right now. We watch captivated as human beings take part in physical feats that defy logic and are surely filled with life.
Amongst humans, we see brilliant ideas, acts of kindness, and works of ingenuity that inspire us to awe.
And this is true even amongst those who deny the gospel.
So, in what sense are we “dead?’
The answer is spiritually.
Every human being has an extraordinary capacity for creation, because we were each created in the image of the Creator.
We create art, and sport, and business and buildings…but, we do not create life.
Humans life is created by God, and spiritual life is given by God.
Each of us, though born physically alive, are spiritually dead. Consider this theme throughout scripture:
Psalm 51:5 - "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Romans 5:12 - "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.
Genesis 8:21 - "And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, 'I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.
Jeremiah 17:9 - "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?"
We can thrive and find happiness in our physical, temporary world, for in our flesh, we are physically, and thus temporarily, alive. So, we can grow, develop, and enjoy our time in this physical reality. However, one of the central themes of Ephesians—is that physical reality is not the ultimate reality. There exists an eternal, spiritual, cosmic reality beyond what we can see, and the glory of that reality, is God Himself, and the gospel upon which the angels long to look.
We are born unable to perceive these truths, because we are spiritually dead.
Not dying, not at risk of death, not “symbolically dead” but actually dead.
Present? yes….but not voting. Like Jeremey, we are at the table, present, but unable to see what is truly happening.
And our state of death is evidenced, by the way we live. From birth, we live in way that reveals that we are blind to spiritual realities, the fear of God is not in us.
Paul describes this in verse 2, describing these sins and trespasses as those:
2 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—
I am gonna lean on you here, and will continue to throughout the book of Ephesians, because we are far too prone to ignore verses like these. Let follow Paul’s path here:
You were born spiritually dead, unable to see the glory of the gospel, and so, you simply fall in line with the world. Unable to discern anything greater, you follow your instincts and you get in line with the world and its ways, and Paul says that in doing so, you follow:
the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience
There are going to be a lot of opportunities to shed light on the spiritual realm throughout Ephesians, for now, I want to consider a word Paul wrote to the church in Corinth and how it shed light on this particular title, “prince of the power of the air.”
In:
Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.”
Now, that’s the kind of verse we’re very comfortable with. The church in Corinth is all ate up with the ways of the world, and specifically, with sins that are attributed to idols that the people worship. When we read about idols in scripture, it is comforting to think that these people were just really foolish, and they worshipped statues that didn’t represent anything real, and if this were Paul’s final word on this matter to the Corinthians, we could interpret this verse that way.
But, Paul follows up on and clarifies this two chapters later in:
Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
Paul says that while the statue has no real existence, that doesn’t mean there is no power behind it, there absolutely is. He tell the church, that when they follow the world’s lead in worshipping worldly things, they are actually participating with demons. Drinking from their cup of counterfeit purpose and power.
And if you drink of that cup, you cannot also drink of the Lords.
There is an enemy in this world, that knows exactly what to offer to your flesh in order to evoke idol worship. You don’t have to have a statue on the mantel to participate in this, the enemy is happy to have you worship anything other than God, whether through legalism or license.
In Paul’s next letter to the Corinthians he writes this:
In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
In our text today satan is called “the prince of the power of the air” because he has authority, not over God, nor over His people, but over every man and woman who lives according to the world. He is the king of the dead, and so those born dead follow him naturally, for he offers the spiritual zombie that which makes him feel alive!
He does this in two primary ways:
First, he offers power:
First, he offers power:
All throughout scripture, we see that there are spiritual beings that vie for the affections of man by seeking to divert worship away from the glory of God at all costs. Again, in the text we read in Corinthians, the people are not sacrificing to merely empty statues, but demons, demons who are portraying themselves to be gods. Make no mistake, these people weren’t captivated by nothing, these demons, these false gods of the world, can do incredible things:
Exodus 7:11-12:
“Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. For every man cast down his staff and they became serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.”
Acts 16:16-18:
“As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and us, crying out, ‘These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.’ And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’ And it came out that very hour.”
2 Thessalonians 2:9:
“The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders.”
Have you ever seen a counterfeit item? Whether a purse or a watch or a cigar, a counterfeit is something that looks like the real thing, but lacks it’s quality. It has a false label, it’s brand is deception. The watch isn’t a Rolex, the purse isn’t actually Gucci and the tobacco in that cigar wasn’t grown in Cuba.
Now the thing is, that doesn’t mean these item’s aren’t technically real, they’re just fake, and they’re created to offer you a cheap substitute for the real thing.
The prince of the power of the air offers power, but it’s counterfeit, a cheap substitute for the real thing.
Second, he offers purpose:
Second, he offers purpose:
In Matthew 4:1-11 Satan tempts Jesus in the wilderness by offering him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory if Jesus would bow down and worship him. While on the surface this might appear as an offer of great power and authority, it is a deceptive temptation to divert Jesus from His divine mission. It’s an offer of a counterfeit kingdom in hopes of preventing heaven on earth.
We see this same kind of counterfeit glory in Acts 8:9-24 Simon the magician, practiced sorcery and amazed the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great. The ancient tales about Simon, even outside our bible, depict a man who could do truly incredible tings. However, he became intrigued by the preaching of the gospel, and then he saw the apostles laying hands on people and the Holy Spirit came upon those for whom they prayed, and so this sorcerer is amazed by the sight of real, Holy Spirit power, and so he offers them money for the Holy Spirit, so that he could also give this gift to people by the laying on of hands as well.
The enemy is fully prepared to let this man do acts that appear to be holy and for God, as long as he thinks he earned this right, and he seeks his own glory.
In this we see that:
satan is fully ok with you doing mighty things in the name of God, as long you seek the glory for yourself and teach others to do the same.
satan is fully ok with you talking about your gospel, as long as its a gospel of your own works.
satan is fully ok with you believing you have the Holy Spirit, as long as the power actually comes from him.
satan is fully ok with you being part of the church, as long as you don’t treat it as a priority and you save your real investment for earthly endeavors.
These are the traits of those who believe they belong to God, but are doing the work of the prince of the power of the air, again in the second letter to the church in Corinth Paul writes:
2 Corinthians 11:13-15 (ESV):
"For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds."
He is the prince of this world, in that we automatically do his bidding apart from God’s intervention. For his bidding is ANYTHING other than that which honors God.
He is the prince of the power of the air, in that his authority is all around, like air. His influence can be found anyplace where humans dwell and breath.
But I promise you, if you love Jesus, and you seek to live a life that honors Him, and you engage in the ministry of the church, seeking to help lead others toward Jesus, you will witness the spiritual devastation the enemy causes. You will see people do things that cannot be explained, you will people you thought were sheep, that get exposed as wolves just like the enemy who so easily appears as an angel of light. People you give your life to, will walk away from you and everyone else because they heard a whisper they couldn’t shake, to seek after an idol you would have never dreamed. You will regularly witness worldliness threatening church unity, and gospel counterfeits being peddled as grace.
The prince of the power of the air is at work amongst the sons of disobedience, and we know this, because:
3 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 are not a people surprised by the debauchery of the world, for we too once followed the prince of the air, living lives centered upon whatever made us happy in the moment. We did, because by our very nature, we are just like the rest of mankind.
Like everyone else, we were guilty of following the worlds ways and thus bowing to it’s counterfeit king, committing treason against the great I AM, and the penalty for our wickedness would have been ours to pay….
But God:
But God:
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
I want you to see what Paul is doing here in Ephesians 1 and 2. Last week, we finished chapter 1 and here is how it ended.
having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 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,
Last week I said that the same power that raised Christ from the dead, now resides in you through Christ. And Paul is saying that this is the power by which you were saved.
Salvation is resurrection, to understand this, you have to know that you were DEAD!
Salvation isn’t self-help or self-realization. Salvation is a lifeless corpse, to whom Jesus says “come forth!” and air fills it’s lungs, and sight enters your eyes. Resurrection is what happened to your soul, you were dead, Christ called out and made you alive! Salvation, cannot be accomplished by man, you can’t save yourself nor another, our only hope is one who can create life at his very word! And so He has!
This connection, is the truth to which Paul wants “the eyes of your heart to be enlightened so that you know the power that has worked toward you” (Ephesians 1:18).
So, do you want to see what your salvation looks like?
We’ll close by considering the magnificence, a salvation attained:
By Grace:
By Grace:
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
We cannot understand salvation apart from resurrection, Paul has made that connection abundantly clear. Resurrection was not Lazarus’s reward for coming out of the grave, obedience came in response to resurrection came first.
You did not initiate your salvation, God did.
God did not give you life after you believed, you believed, because God breathed life into your spiritual corpse.
This distinction is subtle, but the gospel implications are vast.
Now make no mistake, as I said last week, you must respond. For by grace you have been saved, through faith.
You must choose to put your faith in Christ, to call out and trust Him with your life.
Faith is the human response, to spiritual resurrection.
When a baby emerges from the womb, it cries out, and clings to and find’s safety with it’s mother. It’s been given life, and now has faith it’s mother will keep it safe.
When life enters the body that was previously lifeless, we respond in faith to the one who called out to us!
Faith is the response to the gift of resurrection:
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
You can spot a fake cuban by observing the cigar band.
You can spot a fake Rolex by the engravings and spacings.
You can spot a fake Gucci bag by the shape of the intricate logo.
And You can spot a counterfeit gospel by it’s boasting.
The prince of the power of the air peddles all forms of false idols, gods and gospels…but they all have one tell, their boast is something other than Christ.
You were not saved in order to make much of your superior decision making skills or morality, your salvation, by grace and grace alone, is to the glory of the King of kings.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
When God opened your eyes and breathed life into your soul, you were made a new creation! You are no longer who you once were, for previously, your existence was composed only of the physical you could see, but having been made spiritually alive, the spirit now supersedes the flesh.
Not as a result of works, but for the purpose of works! Works that boast of Christ’s resurrection power, displayed amongst the church, His gospel family.
All throughout this sermon we have used Paul’s letter to the Corinthians to provide commentary on this letter to Ephesus, so it’s fitting we conclude doing that one final time.
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Get this. Paul just explained our salvation through the resurrection of Christ, and now he describes our life by referencing God’s creation of the world.
In the same way that God spoke into the void and said “let there be light” so He gives light to the world that is spiritually dark, through us!
The prince of the power of the air works in the darkness, but our love, our unity, our mission, is to be a people of light!
Our works do not earn us favor, in Christ our favor account is overflowing. No, our works serve a far grander purpose, to make much of Jesus!
Let us pray to that end.
