Ephesians 2:1-10

For some who did not grow up in church, you see the advantage to those who do. Those who have may know church life a little more and church terms may come more natural to them.

For me common words are sunday school, training union, potlucks, communion, Lord’s Supper, hymns, contemporary, modern, Prayer meeting, unspoken prayer request, pew, revival, camp meeting,

If you did not grow up in church, then you may not understand church terms as well as others who did grow up in church.

We are walking through this series of Prison Letters Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon

The author is Paul. Who before his conversion was Saul of Tarsus? He was a Pharisee and last week we learned that as a Pharisee he had Holy Zeal or Holy violence.

As a Pharisee what is he studying? He is a devout Jew. Being a Jew affected all of his life. He believed in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

He is seeking the Lord but does not at this point believe Jesus is Lord or the Messiah.

On the Damascus road, Saul has this encounter with the Lord. Ananias meets him and places his hands on him and Paul regains his sight and receives the Holy Spirit.

When I think of Saul/Paul, I have always only thought about him as a persecutor of the church. This week I realize that he was a devout Jew. He is trying to convert others to Judaism.

So when he comes to believe, he is one who has been seeking the Lord and then on the Damascus road he comes to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus is the one true King. Jesus is God’s son. Jesus is Lord.

The scales fall from Paul’s eyes and it clicks that Jesus is Lord.

Here is how this added background has helped me. Paul is seeking God. He wants to know God and he is passionate about God. It then clicks on the Damascus road that Jesus is Lord.

In this moment, Paul realizes that Jesus is Lord.

Knowing Jesus is the true Messiah changes everything for Paul.

This again helps because if we only understand Paul’s conversion as a persecutor of the way who has this out of this world experience then we are tempted to believe that Salvation is reduced down to out of this world moment and that is all there is to it.

So have an out of this world salvation then go and live your life however you please and wait till you die and go to heaven or until the Lord comes back.

Seeking the Lord is more than this. Salvation moments are the moments that it clicks that Jesus is Lord. From then on it is daily taking up our cross and following Jesus as Lord. It is seeking Him as Lord and seeking Him as King.

Ephesians 2 unpacks this for us

Ephesians 2:1–2 HCSB

1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins 2 in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler who exercises authority over the lower heavens, the spirit now working in the disobedient.

We as humans are made to reflect God. We are designed according to Genesis 1 for this. We have been made in His image. We are designed to worship God and to share his love with others.

When we don’t do this, we are turning away from the source of life. We are rejecting God. In essence we are dead in our trespasses and sins.

Through scripture it is clear that all human beings have done this. We have all turned away from the source of life.

Verse 2

Paul often writes and speaks of the present age and the age to come. The present age has all sorts of bad things happening in it. It is also as though the enemy is exercising it’s power in this present age.

The age to come is when God will sort it all out and make all things right. He will act Justly and make all things new.

As Christians, we can know that in Jesus the present age and the age to come overlap. You are going to see this in these verses today. Salvation is now. Through Jesus God is making all things new.

Greeks are following false Gods and walking according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler who exercises authority over the lower heavens

There is something in the air. There are bad things happening.

This is happening when people don’t follow God.

Ephesians 2:3 HCSB

3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.

Previous verses he is writing to Gentiles and then here he writes as a Jew and says

We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires

We carried out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts

We were by nature children under wrath as the others were also

Gentiles and Jews alike we were all sinners in need of a Savior.

Ephesians 2:4 HCSB

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us,

RICH IN MERCY

Mercy:

pity, leniency, compassion

I would be acting up as a child and I deserved to be disciplined but my mom who was rich in Mercy would rescue me from my father and because of my mother my father would be lenient towards me and I would not get the punishment that I deserved. That’s mercy

The statement is But God, Who is rich in mercy

The visual image of rich in mercy is the image of God supplying all the mercy that is needed.

I think of going to the store to buy food. Every year at thanksgiving we go buy food to make the baskets and it is a lot of food.

You go to the store to get rolls and you find out that they have all the rolls you could ever need.

It’s better than rolls

God who is rich in Mercy. He supplies all the mercy you will ever need. He is rich in Mercy. Rich in pity and compassion

Ephesians 2:4–5 HCSB

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, 5 made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!

Because of his great love for us

made us alive with the Messiah

even though we were dead in trespasses

at the very point that we were dead in our trespasses he made us alive in Christ Jesus. You have been brought through death. You are made alive now.

You are saved by grace

Grace giving you what you don’t deserve. Favor.

Nothing that any human being could do to earn this grace. It is God’s grace. It is his favor. It is His goodness. All because of His love.

Ephesians 2:6 HCSB

6 Together with Christ Jesus He also raised us up and seated us in the heavens,

What is already true of Jesus is in fact true of his people

Power has been redefined around the cross of Jesus.

This does not mean that we are God or we are in charge.

It does mean that we as God’s people have been seated with him in the heavens and we operate in love in the world around us.

What we do in the world now matters. The poor and the outcast matters to God.

In his book, Jesus Skeptic: A Journalist Explores the Credibility and Impact of Christianity (Baker Books, 2019), John S. Dickerson explores how Christianity spawned and perpetuated Western Civilization, including how followers of Jesus created the university and college systems, created literacy through public education, founded modern science, began the fight for women’s rights, ended open slavery and continue to drive racial reconciliation, fighting for justice and progress in a multitude of arenas. The following is adapted from Jesus Skeptic, displaying the unquestionable impact Christians have had on the field of modern medicine.

The Primary Evidence reveals that the seeds that produced the modern hospital and modern medicine were planted by devout Christians who were motivated by their sincere Christian beliefs. The Primary Evidence also reveals that many of the best-ranked hospitals today were founded by Christian pastors, ministers, nuns, doctors, or priests as houses of charity. The majority were enabled by Christian donations and were staffed by doctors who had trained at Christian universities.

Of the three oldest hospitals in the United States (each of which remains in the top twenty today), all three were started by overtly Christian organizations for Christian purposes of charity.

These hospitals began as Christian charities because, back in the 1800s, there were no hospitals as we know them today. The best (and most expensive) doctors only made house calls, which meant that only rich people could afford to see a doctor. The poor had to go without doctors. And so Christians — motivated by Christ’s teaching to “care for the least of these” — began building hospitals where the poor could receive the medical care they could not afford. This was the birth of today’s hospital.

Jesus in the Lord’s prayer prayed Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.

Through Jesus we are seated in the heavens when? NOW

The merging of the present age and the age to come is Now. We are seated now in heavens through Jesus

Cameron

We have been raised to this new life reality that competes with the world that often overlooks the poor or is content with keeping the poor poor.

Ephesians 2:7 HCSB

7 so that in the coming ages He might display the immeasurable riches of His grace through His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:8–9 HCSB

8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast.

You are saved by God’s favor through faith

This is not from yourselves

It’s God’s gift

Not from works so that no one can boast

We can’t do anything to earn it or keep it. It is God’s gift.

Ephesians 2:10 HCSB

10 For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.

Poiema:

creation object n. — anything that has been brought into existence (or compiled) by someone. (Poem)

Ephesians 2:10 HCSB

10 For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.

For we are God’s poem

Created in Christ Jesus for good works

We are the work of art in which God has made.

Being God’s work of art is not the end of the story.

We are created as a work of God to be co-creators in Christ Jesus to be doing good works.

Every vocation that any human has we are to be glad cocreators with God who makes things out of love.

(So, our good works (S@tB, remodeling Dockside, REACH, Adventure 1:16, small groups) actually matter and will remain… I think)

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