Our Calling in Christ (3)

Introduction:

Image: John Newton’s Conversion story

John Newton was a hopeless sinner. He was a sea captain of a ship during the mid 1700s that transported men and women from Africa who were forcefully taken from their homes to the New World to be slaves.

Newton later recounted how, on the voyage, they were shackled in heavy irons the entire time and could not rise up or lie down without hurting themselves or each other. Disease and epidemics were also common and claimed the lives of many. It was not unusual for as many as two-thirds of the slaves on board to perish during one voyage across the Atlantic. All these things Newton witnessed and contributed to.

God, however, began to do a work on Newton’s heart. A great storm arose during a trip back to England and he began praying for God’s mercy. After this, he didn’t see slavery the way he did before. He felt an intense weight of guilt over his mistreatment of fellow human beings.

It was so heavy, that he eventually wrote the words, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.” He later became a minister of the Gospel and a politician, mentored a young man named William Wilberforce, and both were a driving force behind the end of the slave trade in Great Britain.

Need: What John Newton wrote in Amazing Grace is true for all of us isn’t it? At one time we all were in the same situation as blind, lost wretches until we came face to face with amazing grace. This is the story of our lives we need to hear often! We can’t lose our awe and wonder of what our great God has rescued us from!

Topic: We will be looking at what God has done for us in Jesus Christ and what he is calling us to.

Reference: Let’s all turn together this morning to Ephesians 2:1-10.....Ephesians 2:1-10

Organization: In this passage this morning we will be talking about our past beforeChrist, then our present position in Christ, and then looking ahead to our future service for Christ. Past, present, and future.

I. PAST: The Perilous State of Unbelievers. (1-3)

“2 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 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— 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.”

A. Transition from Chapter 1 to Chapter 2

Paul is writing to the first-century believers who are in the city of Ephesus. The main thrust of the entire letter has to do with God’s grand plan to unite all things into Jesus Christ. Chapter 1 talked about this grand plan from God’s perspective for the entire universe. Chapter 2 now shifts to the move of Gentile believers to faith in Christ.

B. What it means to be spiritually dead in verses 1-3

1.) To be unresponsive to God and His ways

The first word that Paul uses to describe the Gentile unbelievers is that they were dead in their trespasses and sins. This is a significant word! To be dead is to be completely unresponsive.

Now one might say, “What do you mean dead?! Aren’t unbelievers alive and making choices every day?” My answer is yes. Paul isn’t saying that they are dead physically, but dead spiritually. What this means is that they are totally unresponsive to the things of God. This is describing our sin nature.

**In other words, we’re not sinners because we sin, we sin because we’re sinners!!

2.) To walk in trespasses and sins

Paul goes on to describe deadness in terms of walking (there will be more on this later).

3.) Three major influences

The Ephesians were dead according to the “course of this world”, their inclinations, and that they were influenced by evil powers (Satan).

i. The world

ii. Evil forces - Satan and demons

iii. The Passions of our sin nature

4.) By nature sons of disobedience and children of wrath

In the ESV, Paul says that at one time they were sons of disobedience. But the interesting thing about this is, as one commentator says, is that they actually were obedient – just not to God!

John Stott puts it this way: “Such people are blind to the glory of Jesus Christ and deaf to the voice of the Holy Spirit. They have no love for God, no sensitive awareness of his personal reality, no leaping of their spirit toward him in the cry, ‘Abba, Father’; no longing for fellowship with his people. They are as unresponsive to him as a corpse.”

What is the result of this? That those who walk these ways are subject to the wrath of God, which is why they are called “children of wrath”. There was no hope for the Ephesian believers prior to their conversion.

C. Relevance

Of course not just the Ephesians, but for us as well! We were once in this dead condition in which we were unresponsive to the things of God as well.

I have heard comparisons to the TV show “The Walking Dead”. I’m not so sure that it is like we were walking around like flesh eating zombies. The similarity, though, is that we were in a spiritually dead state. Though we could think and reason and even make moral choices, we were in desperate need of a heart transplant. The prophet Ezekiel spoke of hearts of stone being changed into hearts of flesh.

Transition:

So this was the past, who were in our natural state before Christ. A pivotal change happens in verses 4-7

II. PRESENT: The Position of Believers in Christ.(4-7)

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

A. BUT GOD!

Notice how verse 4 starts – BUT GOD!! This is worth highlighting and underlining! Paul is telling the Ephesians they were once children of wrath, sons of disobedience, dead in their spiritual rebellion – BUT GOD!

B. His great love caused us to be alive

God who is “rich in mercy” and who loves with a “great love”. Paul connects this phrase with what was said before, “even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ!”

C. Change of nature

Also notice that, before, those who were dead and disobedient were by nature children of wrath. But here, by grace they have been saved. Before – by nature wrath. But now – by grace saved!!

D. Our Position in Christ

Not only that! But were raised up with him and seated in the heavenly places!

1.) So we have 3 word that describe our relationship to Christ

i. “co-enlivened” (to make alive)

ii. “co-raised”

experiencing spiritual resurrection

iii. “co seated”

This is our position that we find ourselves in as followers in Christ! Once we were doing our own thing, living in sinful rebellion, not loving God or desiring him, but because of his great love and grace breathed life into us, raised us up, and now we are seated with Christ, who is at the right hand of God the Father. Notice we don’t sit at the right hand, but we are positioned with Jesus who is at that right hand of the Father.

Co-enlivened, co-raised, and co-seated.

E. For what purpose???

So that he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward those in Christ Jesus. God saving us as individuals is living proof of his grace.

F. Relevance

If you have entrusted your life to Christ, this is your story as well. You have been rescued from the bonds of sin and death, brought to life by his love, grace, and kindness.

Back in 2016, the Kern County Sheriff’s Department got a call about a 15 month old baby girl who was at home and not breathing.

After rushing to the scene, deputies were told that the child was left in the bathtub and possibly drowned. They evaluated the baby girl and checked her vital signs and realized that she had not drowned, but was choking on a piece of food.

They immediately started performing the CPR procedure and were able to reestablish her vital signs.

As incredible as that story is, that is a perfect picture of you and I spiritually speaking. The difference though is that we weren’t unconscious, we had no signs of spiritual life at all! Yet God established our vital signs and brought us to spiritual life.

Transition:

So at this point one might ask, “what’s the point?” So God saves us from a dead, sinful state, saves us by his grace and elevates us with Christ. So what are we to do now? I’m glad you asked!

III. FUTURE: The Perseverence of Believers. (8-10)

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

What we looked at before was what God did for us. This describes the means by which he did it. Verse 8 is one of the most pointed to verses when we tell someone about what it is to be saved. Again the phrase is repeated: BY GRACE. The first two words to describe our fallen nature was “DEAD in sin” now it is that we are saved by GRACE. This means that it is completely undeserved completely unmerited on our part!

Paul is reminding the Ephesian church, that is by grace they were saved by means of faith. God is not only sovereign over our very salvation but also the means. So many try to insert faith where it says “God made us alive”. Faith comes after we are made alive, after the heart transplant.

We see this further when Paul says that it is not “your own doing” or “that not of yourselves”.

The question is where do grace, salvation, and faith come from? The answer: it is a gift of God!!

This is not something we work for or merit, it is not of works.

RC Sproul rightly says “that faith is not the CAUSE of regeneration (heart transformation), but the fruit of it!” (paraphrased)

Here is the second “so that” in verse 9: “so that no one may boast”. There is no room for boasting in the Christian life at ANY point!

Here is the main emphasis of what this passage is leading up to: “For we are HIS workmanship.” We are who we are because of what God has worked in us.

Philippians 1:6 - “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ”

1 Corinthians 15:10 – Paul says, “But by the grace of God I am what I am…”

By workmanship, Paul reminds the Ephesians they are created in Christ Jesus FOR good works.

These good works also come from God! Because it says, “which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Just to clarify. It’s not saying that we are saved BY good works, but FOR good works. Good works don’t lead us to saving faith, it’s saving faith that leads to good works. Good works are evidence of those who are truly saved.

How we live as Christ-followers matters because works are evidence of saving faith.

In 2021, a man named Yang Jianxin was arrested and imprisoned for five years and six months for “conducting illegal business operations” which included the printing of Bibles in the country.

Twenty years earlier, also in China, a Korean man named Chung Yong Cheol was also arrested by Chinese authorities for studying the Bible! He was deported to North Korea where he was sentenced to ten years in an intense labor camp. To this day, his status remains unknown.

In both cases, they were doing what God prepared beforehand for them to do. To reach their fellow countrymen with God’s Word and the Gospel. This was so evident in their lives that they were arrested for it.

Transition: The question for us should be this: “If Christianity became illegal in our country, would we become convicted?” Do our lives show evidence to the world that we follow Christ?

We need to ask ourselves, “What does it look like to live out our faith?” “How can we walk in the good works that God has prepared for us to do?”

IV. Show off Christ: Do Good Works!

If you are a true follower of Jesus Christ, then He has work for you to do! God did not save you to live aimlessly!

The first step is to pray about what God has called you to do. The next step is to be willing to do whatever he calls you to do. The third is to do it!

Application:

Here is one way that I know God calls all of us to do. Make a goal to have a spiritual conversation with at least one unbeliever in your life this week.

Find those inroads where you can lead the conversation in a spiritual direction and even share the Gospel!

As you are having this conversation, be praying in your mind about what God may be leading you to share.

Conclusion:

Paul reminds us who we were before Christ, who we are in Christ, and what he calls us to do for Christ.

Pray that God would show you who he wants you to show off Christ to. Be on the lookout this week. Be courageous knowing that it was God who has saved you, keeps you, and uses you for His glory.