Ephesians 2 Sermon

Introduction

Good morning Woodlands Church! We are in Ephesians 2 today, which includes two of my absolute favorite verses - Ephesians 2:8-9. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves it is a gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast.”

And these verses were really internalized for me in AWANA back in 3rd and 4th grade, here at the Evangelical Free Church of Stevens Point Wisconsin, which later became Woodlands Church. In the old building over on Dearborn - I have so many sweet memories of that community, and many of you, over the years, who have invested in me and taught me. It’s just a really sweet thing.

So we’re looking at these verses this morning in the context of this series titled, ‘The Glorious Community,’ talking about God’s church - God’s people. And we’re continuing at this point in the book where we’re seeing the theological background to why this community is so glorious - why it’s so magnificent. So just to situate us in the book of Ephesians, the second half of the book is all about living out the truths introduced in the first half. And the first half - the first three chapters, roughly, is building a theological background for how we’re to live in this community.

The first chapter of Ephesians has been talking about Jesus and who He is, and then right at the end of chapter 1, Paul says of Jesus that God, “put all things under his feet and gave him - Jesus - as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” And so chapter 2 is going to explore the theological background to the church, and to the unity in the church.

Thoughts on Communion

But before we dig in to Ephesians 2, I want to set up a different tension. Because this is a communion Sunday, something that we do on a regular basis around Woodlands - we take the Lord’s supper. If you’re watching online, be prepared, we’ll take communion together at the end of the service, so stick around, and either now or during the final song, press pause and grab some elements!

How cool is that, too? That you can press pause if you need to. That’s wild.

But I want to set up Ephesians 2 by exploring something in Scripture that I misunderstood for many years of my life. And this is a reminder, too, as Pastor Brian has been doing for the past couple of weeks - that it’s good to have our Bible’s with us on Sunday mornings! Let’s dig in.

Turn over to 1 Corinthians 11. Starting in verse 17, Paul is talking to the Corinthian church about the practice of taking the Lord’s supper - communion. You can see right in verse 17 that he’s not super happy: “I do not commend you.” And then verses’ 23-26 are kinda the ones we speak as we take the Lord’s Supper, and then there’s a few verses starting in verse 27 that I have misunderstood in my life. And because I’ve misunderstood them, I’ve misapplied them, and because I’ve misapplied them, I realize I’ve often missed both the beauty of communion and the fulless of the gospel. Sounds intense, huh? Read I Corinthians 11:27-30.

What do those verses sound like? Help me out - maybe these are your thoughts, too? When I was younger, I understood those verses to mean that before I took the Lord’s supper, I needed to, ‘examine myself,’ like it says, and make sure that I had confessed and repented from sins, so that I didn’t take it in a ‘unworthy manner,’ and thereby eat or drink judegement on myself! That makes sense right? Maybe you’ve thought that yourself as well.

I mean, Paul’s even got this scary phrase there - this is why people are sick and dying in your congregation! The implication is that they’re taking it in an unworthy manner, and so just like in the Old Testament when the nation would sin or grumble and God would send a plaugue, or in Numbers 21 when there’s those snakes - they’re bring judgement on themselves!

And I didn’t want to do that - in taking communion in an unworthy manner. And so for many years of my life, this was how I approached communion: the elements would be passed - we used to do it a little differently in that mythical time before COVID. And as they were being passed, I remember, I would hold the bread or the cup and I would pray Psalm 139, and say, God, search my heart and know me, show me if I need to confess...

And to be clear - that’s a really good thing to do! But, because of how I misunderstood 1 Cor 11 - and we’ll come back to that at the end - But, I came to view that act of making myself right with God as a prerequisit to my life in the church.

Said another way - I believed, or lived like I believed - that my healthy and appropriate participation in the life of the church was dependant, at least a little, on how good, how faithful, how right, how sinless, how diligent I’d been.

And, how good, faithful, right, sinless, and diligent others have been.

And that’s a mindset that, I believe, can lead to a fair amount of judgementalism and division in the church. I can lead to thinking:

“I can’t believe she serves in that area. Do you think the church leadrship knows what she does on Friday nights?”

“I was super surprised to see him at church. I only know him by reputation, but I can’t imagine what he’s doing here.”

“I could never be like him. He follows Jesus in a way that I can’t even begin to imagine in my own life. I just doni’t measure up.”

“If they found out what goes through my mind, I don’t know if they’d let me keep coming to church.”

Ever had thoughts like that? Either judgement, kinda leads to some resentment, honestly, or thoughts of inadequacy or faliure? I know I have. Ephesians 2 is going to challenge us in that.. and then we’ll come back to I Corinthians 11 near the end of the service.

So let’s turn to these amazing verses in Ephesians.

Dead in Sins

So, let’s set the stage and just walk through this passage. We’ve just finished this soaring, glorious hymn and introduction about who Jesus is - the victory and authorty that Jesus has - and now we move on saying, “This is who we are.”

Three things to remember when reading this passage: first the whole first half of the book of Ephesians is just declarative - it’s just telling the truth - it’s declaring what’s true! It’s not imperatives, like what we should be doing - it’s just truths.

Second, remember that Paul is speaking to a church here - a local body of believers. The letter is addressed in chapter 1 verses 1 to, “The saints who are in Ephesus,” those who have given their live to follow and know and be surrendered to God.

And then third, before we read these verseses - going to back to perhaps the overview that Pastor Justin gave three weeks ago - every time it says you in this passage - in these 10 verses - it’s plural. These words are all directed at the community of Christ in Ephesus - not individaul believes. They obviously apply to us individually, but they’re for the group.

And so the first three verses say: Read Ephesians 2:1-3

And so when he’s saying, “You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked,” Paul is of course talking about the time before they began to follow Jesus.

And so, before Jesus, y’all were dead!

Think of how profound this statement is? It isn’t the same as Genesis 1 - if you eat from this tree you will die. It’s not a future looking verse, or a warning, or the same as saying, “If you had died before Jesus you would face hell.” This is an absolute statement. Without Jesus, you are dead.

You’re dead to the purpose that God has created you for. You’re dead to the joy in Christ. You’re dead to the ability to resist sin.

Dead because you walked - you lived - you existed - in trespasses and sins! Verse 2 says, in our deadness, one, we were following the course of the world, secondly, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit - spirtual forces, demonic forces of darkness, and third, following, “the passions of our flesh” - verse 3.

Pastor Kent Hughes describes it as being under the sway of the world, the devil, and the flesh. Apart from Christ, we are under the sway of sin and death from without, from beyond, and from within.

And then verse three actually takes it even further - it says, you were - before Jesus - because of the sway of sin - you were by nature children of wrath - like the rest of mankind.

Who’s wrath - who’s anger? It’s God’s, of course. This speaks to the biblical doctrine of total depravity - not that sin affects every one of us as profoundly as it could, but sin that it affects every aspect of life. The very nature of the world is to go against God.

Before Jesus - without Jesus - our very nature and identity causes us to walk far from God, and that disobedience demands God’s just wrath.

This is the reality of the world apart from Christ. And so two things that I think are worth really processing in this:

First, we cannot know the glory and goodness of what Jesus has done if we’re not willing to wrestle with the ugliness of our own sin. This is why every extended explanation of the good news of Jesus in Scripture begins by clarifying the depth of the deadness of sin. We cannot have the good news of Jesus without the bad news of our identity apart from him.

And so if you’re here this morning, or listening to this online, and you’re not following Jesus - the bad news is that in your sins, you are dead. And I think you know that, and can feel that, and if you’re honest, you know that it’s more than just bad habits or shoddy character - there’s someting fundamentally wrong that you cannot fix. You’re dead. You need a resurrection. And the passage is about to share some good news… but don’t shy away from admitting that.

But the second takeaway, and this is for those of us following Jesus - can we pause for a minute and acknolwedge in this passage who our enemy is? Because far too often we fall into the trap of thinking our enemies - God’s enemies - are those who are dead in sin. But they’re not.

I had this point brought to my mind recently when I was listening to someone teach about the Garasene demoniac - you know this guy from Mark 5? Jesus and his disciples land in their boat and this guy comes up - he is tormented, filled with evil spirits, cut up, living in tombs - just… this is a guy who is living out verses 2-3, “following the course of the world, following thep rince of the power of the air, carrying out the desires of the body.” Like full out.

And as this professor who was teaching recounted Mark 5, he paused and just said, “Don’t you just feel compassion for this guy? Like, doesn’t your heart just break - he’s so tormented.” And I’ll confess, my heart never had. I had never felt compassion on the Garasene demoniac. But Jesus did - confronted with someone dead in their sins, under sway of sin and death from without, from beyond, and from within - compassion.

That is Christlikeness. Our enemy are not those under sway of death - our enemies are the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. I think this is important.

But God

We were dead in our sins. But Ephesians 2 switches gears in verse 4 with two words that, throughout the Bible remind us that what we might see and understand in the world - situation that we might face that seem hopeless or utterly broken always have hope. But God.

Let me read it: Ephesians 2:4-10.

But God intervened! But God, and then verse 5 - but God made us alive together with Christ.

You were dead in your sins - but God has stepped in and in, and through Jesus, has made us alive. Has brought us back. Has resurrected us! This is the good news of the gospel.

And why did he do this? Because of the great love with which He loved us!

And then, let’s just go through it! the passage goes on to give three results of that new life he has given us:

First, He raised us up with Jesus. This is the spiritual resurrection that comes from following Jesus - is the beginning of the process of the new covenant that the Old Testament writers are so desperate for.

It’s what God is promising he’ll do in Ezekiel 36 when he says, “I will take out your heart of stone” - your hard heart that doesn’t want to follow me - “and I’ll give you a heart of flesh.” A heart that wants to walk in line with God.

God has resurrected our ability to live for him, our desire to do right and live in line with how we were created to live. He has resurrected our ability to experience true joy, true purpose, and true life.

Secondly, He seated us in the heavenly realms. This is a crazy verse - look at this - this threw me for a loop - what tense is this verb in - future, or what? What tense is this verb in?

It’s the past tense! He seated us in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. I don’t know about you, but I feel very not seated in heavenly places right now? I’m definitely right here, I think?

But, as Paul expalins it - our being given spiritual authority isn’t something we look forward to - it’s something that was done the moment Jesus was raised from the grave. It’s something that’s already happened.

Back up a little - Ephesians 1:20 says that when Jesus was resurrected he was, “seated at God’s right hand in the heavenly places” and given authority to work in the world through his church.

And then jumping ahead a little, to Ephesians 3:10, we see Paul saying that through the church - that’s us, seated at in the heavenly places - through the church the “manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.”

Now, this is a little confusing, but I think this is the jist of what this is going for: when we are made alive with Christ, that moment! we are brought into sharing his spiritual authority so that God will declare his goodness and his character to spiritual forces through the church’s actions.

I mean, Paul asks in 1 Conrithians, “Don’t you know that you’ll judge angels?” And whenever I’ve read that, I’ve been a little like, “uh, I don’t think I knew that...” but that’s what it’s saying! In Christ, we have spiritual authority, that will amazed spiritual forces - forces we can’t even really comprehend. That’s a little mind trippy.

But then finally, thirdly, we have an inheritence - something to entirely look forward to and base our lives around - the promise of immeasureable riches of grace in kindness in the coming age.

So, quick recap. In Christ, you have been resurrected, you’ve been given spiritual authority, and promised an immeasurable inheritence for eternity.

Church. That is who you are. Look to your left - look to your right. That is who we are! In Christ, resurrected, spiritually authorative inheritors of the Kingdom of God.

And all of this - look, open your Bibles - stare at the verses! All of these things, verses 4-7 - they’re yours when you, when you what?

What do you need to do - what do you need to provide, or make, or what standard do you need to meet - in order to have resurrection, spiritual authority, and eternal perfect hope?

Nothing! It says nothing - nothing! about what you or I need to do or be in order to receive this eternity shifting blessing. It’s all God!

By Grace

And then that’s exactly what Paul goes on to stress in verses 8-9. For it by grace that you have been saved, through faith. And this is a gift of God, not by anything you’ve done, so that no one can boast.

A couple of quick, helpful definitions and clarifications: grace? Grace is a gift. It’s all of verse 4-7 - grace is being made alive, and being given authority, and living in hope as a complete gift. Not anything that you deserve because of anything that you’ve done - it’s something God has done.

And then faith? Faith is believing in - clinging to - trusting in - choosing - that which we cannot see. And what are we to have faith in? For by grace - free gift - you have been saved - from spiritual death - by - what activates that grace? By faith in what? By faith in Jesus.

By faith that Jesus is who he says he is and has done what he says he’s done.

And if you choose that faith, then you recieve grace and you are saved, resurrected, given spiritual authority and filled with hope.

That’s amazing. But I want to stress, here, in this text, why that’s important.

And it’s because this passages isn’t addressed to Joe Christian - not to Jenny Believer - it’s not addressed to individual believers. And it’s not written primarily to give you confidence or to explain how you can go from dead to alive.

Rather, it’s written to the whole community - the church - the ‘Saint in Ephesus from Ephesians 1:2, and throughout this passage every pronoun used - every ‘you’ - is plural. Let me read this again, starting in verse 4 - and listen for it:

“And you were dead in your sins, but God, being right in mercy, and because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our tresspasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you all have been saved, through faith in Jesus Christ.”

And so this actually brings up a whole new paradigm for church life.

Because we do not just gather as struggling or failing people - or as people on various stages of the process of sanctification. No, we gather as the redeemed inhereitors of the goodness of God, created for God’s good work.

And so that person accross the auditorium that you know you disagree with on political matters? They will sit and judge angels.

That peson who acts in this way, or your wonder about in that way? In Christ, they an inheritor of immeasurable riches.

Or kids! Kids - I love this! What in this passage says that you have less ressurecction, less spiritual authority in the heavenly places, or less eternal inheritence because you’re only in 4th grace? Nothing. In the exact same way that your pastor, or your parent is God’s workmanship created in Christ for good works - so are you. Don’t let anyone look down on your because of your youth.

Church, when you’re tempted to believe you don’t belong or can’t be a part of the church because of a past or a struggle or a failure? For it’s by grace that you’re saved. Salvation is not something that leads you to boast in your superiority, or cower in your inferiority.

And so here it is: we are not a church united by our moral purity or our theological perfection. Morality and theology are important, but they do not unite us. No, we are a church united in fellowship together by God’s grace - God’s sufficient work completed in us through Jesus. That is a profoundly different vision than any other community in the world.

What kind of a community is this? It’s a glorious one.

Communion in the New Sense

So let’s finish by going back and wrapping up our thinking about communion. I approached communion for years as a public testimony and acknolwedgement of my rightness with God. I thought that in order to take it, I needed to have all my sins confessed and repented from - which of course is a good thing. But it’s not what the text is saying in I Corinthians. Let’s back up and get some context: verses 18-22.

In the early church, the Lord’s supper wasn’t a little wafer and a plastic cup with grape juice in it - although, one of my favorite historical pieces of trivia is that Tom Welch literally invented grape juice as a non-alcoholic communion substitue in the late 1800’s. Pretty interesting!

But the early would come together for a whole meal, and in Corinth, the rich were bringing all their food and their wine, and eating it together in lavish feasts during church. They were likely celebrating what they viewed as the blessing of God on themselves, as rich folk. And the poor had nothing to eat and were going hungry. This is why Paul in verse 29, says, “anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgement on himself.” And who were weak and ill and dying? It probably wasn’t those eating in an unworthy manner - but those with nothing to eat!

The Lord’s supper - communion, Paul says, needs to be a celebration of our united identity in Christ, by grace, through faith. It is an act of humble admission of our dependance, in gratitude and worship.

Here’s the bottom line: we don’t take communion because we’re good enough for it. We’re not part of the church because deserve to be. We need to stop expecting that from ourselves, and from others. And we don’t follow Jesus because we’re worthy of it. We follow Jesus because he is.

Let’s pray, and let’s worship him.