4/6/25 Our Identity Before Christ

Ephesians 2:1–3 CSB

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. 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.

This is a comparison

The first chapter of Ephesians was all about who we are in Christ

And all the blessings, inheritance, and power

The redemption offered, the promise of the Holy Spirit

All of this is offered from God to us as believers

This is not just a couple of perks for being a Christian

This is the reality that exists for those who are followers of Jesus

In the last part of the first chapter

Paul prays that God would open believers hearts and minds

To remind them of all the blessings we’ve already been given

To continue the work of the Gospel

The reality is we need to be constantly and consistently reminded

that we have all the power we need

To accomplish all the things that God has for us to do

We come together this morning for that reason

Hebrews 10:23–24 CSB

Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, since he who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works,

So we are here to provoke one another

It’s fun to pause right there

Because I know some like to provoke one another

But we are to provoke one another for love and good works

Because He who promised is faithful

So we can have hope

When we get to chapter 2

Paul begins a comparison to the first part

All of the things that we get as a follower of Jesus

To who we once were before we became followers

Here’s the reason why

I believe the average person’s default lifestyle

Is all about self preservation and protection

It’s the fight or flight mentality

When bad things start to happen

you either want to get into it

or you want to run in the opposite direction

We want to make sure that we can take care of ourselves

We focus so much on making life comfortable

When things get awkward, or uncomfortable

Rather than persevering through and growing in maturity

We tend to want to run in the opposite direction

the average human doesn’t like conflict of any kind

There are those that when conflict happens

They will automatically begin to bow up

But the vast majority of people will shrink back

the ones that bow up, take action

these are the D personality people

the ones that are going to get something done

regardless of who they run over on the way there

Who wants to be uncomfortable this morning?

We’ll get to the point that if we don’t like the air temperature in the sanctuary

We’ll get up and adjust the thermostat to make ourselves comfortable

And completely disregard what anyone else in the room thinks about the temperature

Some will just change things because we want them to be changed

And then justify it by using vague pronouns like

Well THEY told me that it needed to be done

Unless you can give me the personal names of the THEY

THEY may not exist.

THEY may be three people that doesn’t outweigh the other 125 that we normally have

THEY is what people use to describe aliens

and to describe me, myself, an I when I want to get something done

but don’t want to take full responsibility for the actions I am asking to do.

Everyone uncomfortable now?

By the way I never set the temperature

It’s automatically set to keep the majority of people comfortable

And to not run our electricity bill through the roof

Just in case you were wondering

If you don’t like the temperature in the building

give more and we’ll change it just for you

Paul has no problems with making people uncomfortable

the very first words of the first chapter

Seem to indicate that with the phrase

Ephesians 2:1 CSB

And you

Can you hear that??

Whenever I read this for myself

I picture some old man with a crooked finger

Pointing at me and saying with quite a bit of disdain

“And You”

Can you hear it now?

I can already picture this

Just after Paul shares all these wonderful blessings in the first chapter

Paul begins with “And you”

Ephesians 2:1–2 CSB

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient.

Let’s examine this a bit and see what is actually being said

In reality, this isn’t what Paul is saying at all

After all, he just prayed that in Ephesians 1:15-16

Ephesians 1:15–16 CSB

This is why, since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I never stop giving thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers.

So Paul isn’t really looking to make them feel bad at all

This is a reminder that we all need from time to time

Where we all came from

What was our identity before becoming believers and followers of Jesus?

What was our identity before Christ?

The Zombie Apocalypse

Anyone like zombie movies?

World War Z? Resident Evil? Night of the living dead?

The Walking Dead TV show? Zombieland?

If we’re really honest, we aren’t watching those movies for the plot line

We are watching those movies for the effects

How zombies multiply so rapidly

How the makeup looks of a deteriorating walking corpse

And the idea of how the zombie apocalypse begins

Here’s the biblical reality

Before we become followers of Jesus Christ?

We are spiritual zombies, walking dead

As the great Scottish commentator John Eadie said,

“It is a case of death walking.”

Men apart from God are spiritual zombies,

the walking dead who do not know they are dead.

They go through the motions of life, but they do not possess it. 1

The biggest part of the zombie movies is trying to understand what caused it all

usually it’s some sort of bad lab experiment

That begins a process of mutation

And because it’s biological in nature

When this toxin becomes airborne

It spreads to everyone in the room

That turns them into zombies

And they begin to eat each other

And feed off of mankind

The more people they bite

The more people they infect

Here’s the reality of that situation

God creates man and women

Places them in the perfect situation and in the perfect place

They disobey God

And release this toxic DNA that inhabits every human being called SIN

And because they were the first humans ever

That DNA is passed down to every human that existed and exists and will exist

This is the zombie apocalypse

Romans 3:23 CSB

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;

Romans 6:23 CSB

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Ephesians 2:1 CSB

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins

Notice what this passage doesn’t say

It doesn’t say that we were bad

It doesn’t say that we were separated from God

Although all those may be true

It says we were dead

And we were dead in what state?

Ephesians 2:1 CSB

in your trespasses and sins

This is a specific Greek grammar that says this

This is the state, the sphere, the realm that we are in

Before we become followers of Jesus Christ

So as zombies with a dead spirit

The only thing we can do is eat sin

Do we do this because we want to?

No, we do this because that’s who we are

Are we dead because we committed sin?

no, we are dead because we live in sin

A person doesn’t become a liar because they tell a lie

They lie because they are a liar already

A person doesn’t become a thief because they steal something

They steal something because they are a thief

Everyone has the capacity to be a murderer, a cheat, a liar, a thief

All because it’s natural to us

It’s in our very DNA

There is no escaping that reality

But Art, I’m not nearly as bad as that person over there

Do you know what they have done in their life?

Do you know what they did last week?

Do you know what they have said about me in the past?

remember Paul didn’t say we were BAD in our trespasses and sins

He said we were DEAD in our trespasses and sins

If you look over a battlefield after a war

there would potentially be a ton of dead bodies

Some bodies may be in a greater state of decay than the other

Others may be in a worse shape than the others

But the fact of the matter is

Regardless what state or shape of decay they are in

They are all dead.

That’s the point

It doesn’t matter what flavor of sin you enjoy

Weather you are a drunkard, liar, thief, murderer, glutton

The point is, we all were dead before Jesus Christ

But wait, there’s more!

In these zombie movies, there is a theory in some

that if you can kill the main source, you stop the apocalypse

and that every one of these zombies is controlled

By a main source

This in science fiction is called the hive mind

The Hive Mind

There is a controlling force

sometimes it’s AI

Sometimes it’s a computer source

But in every case, there is usually some main source

a shared intelligence or collective consciousness

That controls the whole lot

We get the term hive mind

Because that’s how the bees or ants act in a hive

they have a queen and a collective thought

they aren’t really aware about what takes place in the rest of the colony

but their hive mind transcends their tiny little bee minds

and causes them to all work for the same cause

Ephesians 2:1–2 CSB

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient.

Welcome to the hive mind!

For every person that is dead in their trespasses and sins

You don’t have the capacity to walk any other way

and you don’t really have the capacity to know or care about

what the rest of the world is doing or saying

we aren’t concerned about anyone else but what we do

But we are dead in our trespasses and sins

so we aren’t able to think for ourselves properly

so our hive mind walks in the ways of the world

Which we would be convinced is a good thing

It’s a good thing to get ahead

It’s a good thing to be comfortable

It’s a good things to get money any way you can

It’s a good thing to climb the corporate ladder and make a name for yourself

Even if it means climbing over other people and trampling them along the way

It’s a good thing to do all these things

That’s just the way of the world

Until we learn that the way of the world is actually controlled by

The ruler of the power of the air

The spirit now working in disobedience

This is the controller of the hive mind for those that are the walking dead

The collective consciousness main source

an overall spirit that is in control

That spirit has a name

His name is Satan

Satan would have us to believe that the way of the world is a good thing

It’s good to want to get ahead and be comfortable

And there’s nothing wrong with that

Unless you do that at the expense of living the abundant life

We’ll get to that in a moment

There’s a large group of people in the world

following a “scientific trend” called transhumanism

You can’t make this stuff up

Yuval Noah Harari is a best selling author, historian, public intellectual, and an athiest

And he says this

Science is replacing evolution by natural selection by evolution by intelligent design. Not the intelligent design of some god above the clouds, but our intelligent design and the intelligent design of our clouds, the IBM cloud, the Microsoft cloud, these are the new driving forces of evolution. - Yuval Noah Harari

This new philosophy called transhumanism

believes that we may be the last generation of Homo sapiens.

Within a century or two,

The earth will be dominated by entities

That are more different than us

Than we are different from Neanderthals or from chimpanzees

Because in the coming generations

We will learn how to engineer bodies and brains and minds

This philosophy is dedicated to

improving the human condition through advanced technology

The transhumanist dreams of eliminating aging

Enhancing the intellectual and physical abilities

And overcoming fundamental human limitations

Through tools like genetic engineering, artificial intelligence

And even mind uploading

It rejects the existence of God

dismisses traditional religions

And dismisses the possibility of transcendent truth

It’s a worldview centered on human autonomy

Transhumanists are trying to create a smarter, fitter, humanity

and make humanity 2.0

Being able to upload ourselves into computers

Living forever in a virtual world

Sound like science fiction?

It is, and it’s not

There are people on this planet that are pushing forward with this very philosophy

And we can see it begin to creep in through places that effect our minds

Such as social media and entertainment

Think about the movies that have come out about this

Terminator, Robocop, I Robot, Blade Runner, Transcendence, Lucy, Avatar, The Matrix, and more.

Social media and computer now has the AI programmed into it

All of these things being brought about by this science fiction philosophy

Not all of it is bad

personally I liked to have AI help me write a letter or a paper

In order to auto correct my spelling

Or to help me make a sentence clearer

But never to the point of having it completely write the original thought

This is the subtlety of the enemy though

not that AI or computers will take over the planet to my knowledge

But that we as humans can improve ourselves

By trying to reprogram our dead spirits

Into something we are incapable of doing on our own

We begin to lose the ability to recognize

God as the creator

And elevate technology as the ultimate savior

This philosophy replaces humanity with pride,

dependence with control

And the biggest issue is

the promise of salvation rooted in human effort

It redefines humans as nothing more than flesh and machines

The enemy isn’t flashy or brash

He is subtle and wants those that are dead

To believe that they can save themselves

That there isn’t any such thing as an

Archaic religion, ultimate absolute truth

And wants us to live in fear of going through life

With the fear that in the end

Our lives were meaningless

So that we will come up with all manners of things

To try to struggle to survive this zombie apocalypse

The Struggle for Survival

Ephesians 2:3 CSB

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. -

Fleshly Desires

Carrying Out the Inclinations of Our Flesh and Thoughts

By Nature Children Under Wrath

Here’s the reality of this situation

There are three parts to a new life with Christ

This is what God and we can expect

The first is a forgiveness of sins

The second is eternal life

The third one that we often forget about is abundant life right now

1 John F. MacArthur Jr., Ephesians, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1986), 53.