Sermon Tone Analysis
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If there was one massive misunderstanding I had about Christianity growing up as child and then a teenager was this.
I thought Christianity was about teaching you to be good.
I’m not saying that is what was taught in my church, but it is the attitude that people had about Christ.
Oh sure, I knew that Christ had come and died on the cross and rose again so that I could be saved.
But that was so that I would be good.
If I was asked what the goal of following Jesus was I’d probably said something like “so that I can keep the 10 commandments.”
Keep the 10 commandments and make God happy.
My life changed when I learned the reality that following Christ is not primarily about being good, and not bad.
It’s about finding life in Christ and living in the life he gives.
Part of the problem may come from how we do evangelism or share the gospel.
We tend to think that sin produces death.
And, therefore, righteousness must produces life.
The point is really just the opposite.
His point in context is this: death produces sin and life produces righteousness.
That’s the point that Paul is wanting the Ephesians and us to understand about where we are with God.
So a couple of weeks ago, we started this text and I’ll review what we talked about.
I. Everyone without Christ is spiritually dead.
()
Why are we dead?
We were born dead.
This goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve.
Their sin did bring them death.
But what many don’t realize is that is that their sin brought death to all humanity.
That means our natural state is dead.
That means separated from God.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
So
What Jesus is saying is that humanity only hope is the hope that God has sent us to save us.
There is no other hope, for a number of reasons.
A. They have no ability to change their condition.
Spiritual dead in that we can do nothing about the condition that we are in.
B. They live in active disobedience.
Our actions don’t please God.
C. They face eternal punishment for their disobedience.
C.
They face eternal punishment for their disobedience.
The natural condition of man is to live in deadness, which means living in rebellion and sin as children of wrath, deserving punishment from God.
II.
God saves by giving spiritual life to the spiritually dead.
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But God has sent us a savior in Jesus Christ.
Our problem is not our sinful actions.
The problem is our spiritual deadness which produces our spiritual actions.
The fruit is bad because the root is bad.
So Jesus didn’t come to make you good.
Jesus came to make you alive.
He came to restore you back to a living God.
And just like death produces sin.
Life in Christ produces the righteousness of Christ in our actions.
You change the root, you change the fruit.
That is what vv.
4-5 are saying.
It’s the gospel.
We were in a place of no hope.
What does God do to bring us the the gospel.
A. God loves sinners.
(v.
4)
God is love.
That attribute has crucial implication for sinners.
Who God is impacts his relationship with mankind.
We know that God is truth.
So when God relates to us that truth becomes faithfulness.
When God speaks to us, he is true to his word.
God doesn’t change his mind.
You can’t absolutely count on him.
We know that God is holy.
So when God relates to us that holiness is translates into justice.
God doesn’t sweep unrighteousness, sin, and evil under the rug.
And you wouldn’t want him to.
When Paul speaks of Gods great love and John says that God is love realize that when that love is related to us, it becomes mercy (v.4) and grace (v.7).
Yes, God judges sin because he is holy, but he also saves sinners because he is love.
You are heard is said rightly, in Christ, God didn’t give us what we deserved (eternal punishment), but he gave us what we didn’t deserve (eternal life).
This is what God accomplished for those who would put faith in him at the cross.
B. God resurrects sinners from the dead and makes them saints.
(v. 5)
B. God resurrects sinners from the dead and makes them saints.
(v. 5)
E
Eph. 5:
“Made us alive”… that’s the good news of the gospel!
That spiritually dead people separated from God and under judgment can live in forgiveness and live for the glory of the one who gives us life.
In the gospels Jesus raised 3 people from the dead: the widow of Nain’s son (), Jairus’ daughter (), and Lazarus ().
Have you ever thought, “what was really the point?
They all still died later.”
The point is to display that Jesus has power of death.
And that Jesus is a life giver.
Yes they eventually died.
The reason is that Jesus didn’t come to give us physical life forever.
This world is full of sin and heartache and suffering.
Jesus came to give us life forever with God.
Did you catch the way v.5 was worded, “made us alive together with Christ.”
(v.5)
Those resurrections where to point us to the ultimate resurrection anyone can have that puts faith in Christ.
This resurrection is to restore us to God forever.
C. God exalts saints to a new spiritual position.
(v.6)
Warren Wiersbie said it like this, “We are not raised from the dead and left in the graveyard.
When you put faith in Christ, you don’t have to wait until you die to be resurrected.
When Jesus was resurrected, believers were resurrected.
Spiritually we get resurrected immediately when we have faith.
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