The Good News of Grace!
The GOSPEL • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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We are looking at the GOSPEL…the Good News of what Jesus has done on our behalf.
We are looking at it from many different angles…different perspectives… and different Scriptures.
When you go to NIAGARA FALLS…you don’t just drive there…get out…take a selfie & drive away. No…you stop & gaze.
At various points beside the Niagara river & Falls are stationary binoculars…
Allowing you to gaze at the beauty & grandeur of Niagara Falls…
You can ride on Maid of the Mist into the Niagara river at the base of the Falls…
You can also take a PATH under the falls…at night they put lights on it…
Why? Each look out point reveals something different……etc.power, geography, geology, majesty & power of water, the strength of the current
In the same way…we are looking at the GOSPEL from different angles/Scriptures in this series.
So for today…please turn with me to Paul’s letter to EPHESIANS.
For many years of my life…having grown up in church…at church every time the doors were open…
I heard the Gospel preached…every week. My father, my pastor faithfully preached the Gospel.
But in retrospect…I took it for granted…like I jumped out of the car…took a selfie & said: "This is beautiful!” and then I got back in the car and held it as a memory.
When in reality…EVERYTHING in the Christian faith comes back to our view of God & His Gospel.
OUR VIEW OF GOD…
IMPACTS EVERY PART OF OUR LIFE
How you see God…i.e. as He truly is…awesome, big & beautiful…it impacts every area of our lives.
The apostle Paul wrote this letter to the Ephesian believers
Wanting them (you and I) to see the entirety of the Gospel of Jesus and marvel at the graciousness of God.
In fact, that’s where he begins in Ephesians 1 with the Gloriousness of God's Grace.
BIG IDEA: See the Gospel and MARVEL at the Graciousness of God
1. The GLORIOUSNESS Grace of God on Display…Ephesians 1:1-12
Ephesians 1-2 Paul is putting….the grace of God on full display
Paul has experienced the power of the Gospel personally.
Notice…He uses the collective “we”.
Paul's perspective is that the miracle of salvation should lead us…
To the praise of His glorious grace.
Look at the OVERVIEW of the GOSPEL beginning in READ: Ephesians 1:3-10
As we read notice the beautiful Gospel themes
Blessed with spiritual blessing in Christ…
Chosen to be holy and blameless…
Adopted as sons & daughters…
Redemption…
Forgiveness….
And right in the middle, he says v.6 “…to the praise of His glorious grace.”
In v.12 & 14 he shortens the same phrase: “…to the praise of His glory."
Well, what does that mean?
Paul is saying that …the ultimate goal of salvation (God choosing to deal graciously with sinful people)
Is so that all creation would honour Him & praise Him!
Not just so we can sing songs to Him…or saying grace at every meal…good to do…but those are just tiny glimpses of .the ultimate finale
ILLUS: FIREWORKS Usually the beginning is beautiful…but it starts small with the little fireworks…then it builds with intensity & frequency…finally at the end you have this climax… a huge display of sound, light & explosions.
If you love fireworks…it’s the best part. The fullness of joy is found in the finale.
And Fellowship….we are still at the beginning of the firework show of God's grace
This is a picture of the glorious grace of God….there will be a day when God will display all the fireworks of His grace for all of eternity.
So why should this GOSPEL lead us to…the praise of His glorious grace ?
That's where Paul is going in Ephesians 2
Paul wants the GRACE of God to STAGGER us!
And so he begins with MAN’S PROBLEM.
He reveals MAN’S CHARACTER.
2. The UNIVERSAL PROBLEM OF MAN…Ephesians 2:1-3
1 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 flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
v.1-3 Paul describes the fallen condition of all humanity…this is ALL PEOPLE apart from Christ.
We know this because he uses the 2nd Person Plural…YOU…"You were dead…you once walked…"
And then he says in v.3 “….among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh...”
Paul is showing us….the UNIVERSAL PROBLEM
Every one of us…even if you came to faith at a young age like I did…apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ, these 3 things are true of us.
DEAD…REBELLIOUS…and…UNDER God’s wrath
DEAD…spiritually dead…incapable of helping ourselves... incapacitated…there was nothing we could do to solve our situation.
REBELLIOUS…We made selfish choices…lived for the world…ourselves…and not for God.
UNDER THE WRATH OF GOD… someone has described it as “…the crosshairs of God's justice were on us.”
Now, does this mean that every person is as bad as they could possibly be? No.
But we are as bad off as we could possibly be.
This is a dire circumstance. We are in big, big trouble.
Remember where we began…Paul’s main point…that all this is…to the praise of His glorious grace.
Paul shows us the DEPTH of our SIN PROBLEM…So that we can appreciate …God's gracious solution.
Here’s the thing…God’s grace will not impact you.
It will not drive you to your knees.
It will not shock you if you don't think your sin is a big deal.
Or if you think somehow you deserve it.
Understand…GRACE IS ALWAYS UNDESERVED.
3. The GLORIOUS CHARACTER of God…Ephesians 2:4
Paul is setting up the gloriousness of God's grace against the backdrop of how lost we were
And so Paul contrasts God’s Character with Man's character.
Look at
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us,
Ok. So despite our position as DEAD, REBELLIOUS and being under God’s WRATH something amazing happens
This dire situation of humanity is INTERRUPTED by the love & mercy of God.
This is awesome news…God INTERVENES…God shows up and changes everything.
My story changed in v.4… Your story can change in v.4.
It's a result of God's Glorious Character.
God INITIATES it here.
He's the main character…He sees our problem…and He responds…because of who He is.
We deserve death…but God offers GRACE.
And it's fuelled by the great love with which He loved us.
He is RICH IN MERCY…we are not being given what we deserve…
The wages of sin is death….the soul that sins must die….
Be clear…….God’s mercy does not save you…God's love does not save you
But His MERCY and LOVE motivated Him to offer a way for us to be saved…that is only through the life, death & resurrection of Jesus.
Jesus Himself is the means by which the love and the justice of God are satisfied.
Jesus Himself is the tangible revelation…of the grace of God.
So to talk about the gloriousness of the Gospel…it begins with WHO GOD IS.
His glorious character which motivates His gracious response
4. The GLORIOUS RESPONSE of God…Ephesians 2:4-5
Let's look at what God did. v.4-5
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—
Before we look at how God responds…let's think about GRACE…it can be difficult to understand.
We hear the word all the time that….we are given grace!
GRACE is a noun, right? We think of a noun as a person, place, or thing
But it's hard to define grace that way.
What did He give us? How big is it? Can't think of grace that way. Doesn't work like that.
Grace is the HOW…the manner in which God deals with His people.
It's really shortened version of the adverb GRACIOUSLY…God deals with us graciously
By grace…God gives a whole bunch of benefits like MERCY, FORGIVENESS, ADOPTION.
We know grace is…getting what you don't deserve.
But what is the getting? It's all of these benefits.
So when we speak of GRACE, we are speaking of…HOW God deals with us.
He gives grace. But it's not just a gift.
He is giving us benefits that aren't based on our merit.
God doesn't give us according to what we deserve…our skill…our competency…worth…or our works.
All we have ever earned…deserved is...death.
But instead…Scriptures teach that God deals graciously with us.
He gives us all of these benefits we don't deserve…because of His character.
And so here we see the BENEFITS OF GRACE described.
5. The BENEFITS of GOD’S GLORIOUS Grace…
a. We are MADE ALIVE together WITH Christ! Ephesians 2:5
And the first benefit is that we are made alive together with Christ!
That is a very big deal!
You and I were ONCE DEAD…(v.1)…
Spiritually dead…and now we've been made alive with Christ!
The idea is that we were….unable to get out from under the sin, guilt & wrath of God
But now we have this complete reversal…We are made alive together with Christ
That's incredible news!!
We know & understand that dead people stay dead. That's how it works.
That's why it is a spiritual miracle because God took us from death to life.
He made us alive. He changed everything for us. Ephesians 2
b. We Are RAISED UP WITH HIM in the Heavenly Places…Ephesians 2:6
6 and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
Notice the 2 very important verbs here…. RAISED and SEATED…
In English we have past, present & future…
But ancient Greek has a verb form that we don't have in English. It's called the aorist tense.
Paul uses this aorist form to describe…a past event describing a future event with absolute certainty.
That's why…notice the translators are describing a future event in the past tense because this is salvation from God's perspective
From our point of view, we're still in process.
But from God's point of view, this is as good as done.
One day we will be raised up and seated with Christ.
When Paul talks about being RAISED UP he's talking about our…resurrection
Remember Jesus was raised as the first fruits and then….we will be raised with Him
But it’s not just a resurrection to a previous state. We're not going back to what we have now.
Notice it's resurrection PLUS exaltation. It's both.
We are so connected to Christ that His inheritance becomes our inheritance.
We will be seated with Christ…in the heavenly places.
And so our salvation isn't just about taking care of our sin problem…
We are also made co-heirs with Christ. This is extravagant grace.
And so we start in the tomb in v.1…but by the time we get to v.6…we are raised up and exalted with Christ.
It's unbelievable. This powerful transformation displays the glorious grace of Jesus Christ.
WHY is this given to us? Ephesians 2:7
Ephesians 2:7
7 so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
The greatest display of His grace is future.
We’ve only seen a small taste. Fireworks are just beginning.
But one day we will all see all that God has done for us in Christ…In the coming ages…by grace.
On that day, none of us will say, "Look what I have done!."
Instead, we will say with Paul “Look what He has done for us...to the praise of His glorious grace
Paul's point is that God has graciously provided a future for His people.
THESE ARE THE BENEFITS that are offered to us GRACIOUSLY
That's why if you look back at , he says, in v.5 “By grace you have been saved.”
And when Paul says SAVED… he is including our JUSTIFICATION…freedom from condemnation & forgiveness…
These are all true and very much a part of our salvation.
Paul is also talking about us being taken from death to life…from low to exalted in Christ
And so when you hear SAVED…it is not just raising a hand or walking an aisle.
When you hear SAVED think about… the ENTIRE rescue of God's people by His grace
God offers a full pardon for sin…for all who call on His name
Because Jesus Christ lived the perfect life we couldn't live.
Because Jesus died the death that we deserve to die.
He rose again and conquered death to prove that He is God overall.
He offers us all these BENEFITS of grace free…forgiveness, grace, mercy, adoption, new life in Christ.
HOW do we RECEIVE this Free Gift? Ephesians 2:8-10
Ephesians 2:8-10
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.
This is our necessary response…saving FAITH
God invites us to RESPOND IN FAITH to this grace of God displayed in Jesus Christ.
Paul makes very clear…faith is not a work we do…it is a RESPONSE to what God has done!
God is the source of our salvation.
Every aspect of His entire rescue of us…should point us to God.
All of this is… to the praise of His glorious grace.
And so when we see the benefits of His grace…we are to respond in faith.
WHAT IS FAITH?
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
What does that FAITH look like?
There is a process to faith…
There is a BEGINNING of Faith…Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Romans 10:17
There is an OBJECT of saving faith… is important…
Faith in the wrong thing/person doesn't help anybody.
I can't have faith in the Kool-Aid guy or Barney. That’s not helpful. All right. I need to actually know the truth.
We need to to have faith in THE RIGHT PERSON…not the wrong person…to know the truth
There is a Need to understand…and agree with what I've heard…
I.e. it's not just enough to have heard that . I must affirm that Jesus is the Son of God
There is a CONVICTION to Believe…
I must come to my own conviction that what the Scriptures teach about Jesus Christ is true.
Understanding then moves to CONVICTION…into personal belief.
It's not just having knowledge…
It's not just temporary faith where you you pray to God because you're hitting turbulence on an airplane and then when you land you forget all about Him.
True Faith leads to allegiance to Christ and what He's done for us. (Thomas…struggled in his faith)
True Faith leads to reliance to relationship to action. (Disciples…experiencing the resurrected Saviour)
True Faith moves from just knowing about God…to fully trusting in Him.(big difference)True faith
ILLUST: If Roger got his pilot's license. It’d be easy for me to say: "I believe Roger is a good pilot. You should fly with him.”
It's different to climb into that plane & put my life in his hands. That's the difference.
Saving faith requires this trust element. You got to throw the full weight of your belief into Christ.
We must actually confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord of our lives and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead.
This is where we must actually transfer….trust from ourselves…to trust in God
We must rely fully on the finished work of Christ on our behalf and He will save us.
But What if My Faith is Weak?
If you're like me, there are times when my faith feels wobbly…not always strong.
We're in good company. Peter denied…only John was at cross….others fled, Thomas had doubts
And so when our faith is fragile, when it feels like it's breaking down…discouraged about our faith…
Lean on this reality:
It's not the amount of our faith that saves us…
…It is the OBJECT of our faith that saves us.
The God you put your faith in…saves you.
ILLUST: Imagine an ice covered pond…2 children…one with full faith walks out on to the ice & doesn’t fall through.
The other child is not so sure it will hold…looks at the ice….cautious…fearful.
Their faith is small “What if it doesn't hold me? What if I fall through?”
When they both step on to the ice…which one fell through into the icy water?
Neither…Because they don't fall through the ice based on the amount or intensity of their faith…but on the strength of the ice itself.
It's the ice that holds them up. Not their faith in that ice.
The only thing that matters is the OBJECT of your faith.
And if the object of their faith was actually strong enough to hold them…and if that ice is a foot thick, they're never falling through.
This is good encouragement…because we’re not saved by the amount of our faith…
But by the object of our faith, Jesus is the One who saves…our rock & salvation…our solid ground to stand on.
What is the RESULT Of True Saving Faith? Ephesians 2:10
a. We WALK in Good Works…
But then in v.10 says that the RESULT of this true saving faith is that we walk in good works
Salvation isn't just a Get Out of Hell Free Card …we don't pray a prayer & then live however we want.
No…works are the RESULT of a believer’s faith…we are saved in order to follow Jesus
In fact, Paul says in Philippians 2:12 that we should “….work out our salvation with fear and trembling.”
This can be hard work in the Christian life…not to earn grace…but because we've received grace.
Beware of “easy believe-ism”….All you have to do is believe in Jesus.”
But Jesus never asks us just to believe in Him…He also calls us to…FOLLOW HIM
b. We FOLLOW Jesus…
Jesus says: Luke 9”Deny yourself, take up your cross, and Follow Me.”
Now following Jesus isn't for the faint of heart …
It takes effort to repent of our sin and turn toward Christ.
It takes effort to fully follow Him to do the good works that have been prepared for us in Christ.
Our faith is always demonstrated in action. You're not just grabbing a gift. You're staking your whole life on the truth of who Christ is.
c. We are BROUGHT Near…Ephesians 2:13
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Make no mistake…sin always separates…Jesus reconciles.
d. We RELATE Differently…Ephesians 2:19
19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
Paul spends the rest of the chapter showing us how those good works are relational.
We are to live no longer as strangers… and aliens…but as family members…as sons & daughters.
We've been adopted into the family of God.
And so now we are called to live relationally with one another.
We're not just individuals…..We are part of a new family in Christ…sons & daughters of a King
God expects us to seek unity, seek reconciliation, to be at peace with our brothers & sisters in Christ.
v.13 “You were once far off, but you have been brought near by the blood of Christ “
And so we are actually .UNIFIED by the graciousness of God offered to us.
We are brought in together as heirs with Christ.
We are given eternal life, but that life is meant to be lived in the context of the body of Christ.
We all play a part as sons/daughters in the family of God.
Why? It's all for the praise of His glorious grace.
WRAP UP… Finish with a question: Have you personally responded to God’s grace shown to you?
God loves you so much that He graciously invites you to experience the benefits of His grace.
He graciously offers…
Forgiveness of sins…
Freedom from chains…
True life in Jesus Christ…a real relationship with the living God.
This is why Jesus came…so that He could take us from death to life…from low to exalted, so you & I could actually be trophies of God's grace for all eternity.
Maybe you have never responded personally to this offer of grace.
Know this…God is inviting you to accept this gracious offer of salvation.
Maybe you believe He is who He says He is…but you've never made the personal decision to transfer trust from yourself fully to Christ.
You've never repented of your sin and chosen to follow Jesus with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
You’ve never truly accepted that free offer of grace, this offer of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus that's given to you.
Know today. God is inviting you
No matter your past…what you've been through…or what you've done…He invites you to receive His gift of grace by faith.
2 Peter 3:9 God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Put your trust in the object of our faith…Jesus Christ.
He is the Saviour of the world and His grace offered to you and I…is GLORIOUS! It changes lives.
BENEDICTION… 2 Thessalonians 2:16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and deed. May the promise of the graciousness of Christ in eternity give us comfort even now and may it establish our works and our words in this life to the praise of His glorious grace.
