Sermon Tone Analysis
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(anyone wanting a much cleaner copy, with proper formatting, can email me at garretttyson32@yahoo.com)
Let's start today by rereading Ephesians 2:1-10:
And (it was) y'all --
the ones being dead in your wrongdoing and sins,
in which y'all formerly walked
according to the age of this world,
according to the ruler of the authority of the air-- the one now working in the sons of disobedience--
in which we also all lived formerly in the desires of our flesh,
doing the will of the flesh and of the mind,
and we were children by nature for wrath as also the rest of them --
Now God,
being rich in mercy,
because of his great love
with which he loved us --and us being dead in our wrongdoing--
he made us alive together in/by Christ--by grace y'all are saved--
and he seated us together in the heavenly places in/by Jesus Christ,
in order that he might show in the coming ages the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness upon us in/by Christ Jesus.
For by grace y'all are saved through faith,
and this not from yourselves,
of/from God (it is) the gift,
not from works,
in order that no one can boast.
For FOR HIM we are a made thing,
created in King Jesus for good works,
which God prepared before hand,
in order that in them we may/will walk.
The flow of Paul's argument in these verses goes something like this (put in outline):
(1) You Gentiles, and we Jews, were dead in our wrongdoing and sins (vs.
1-3).
(2) God loved all of us so much that he sent Jesus to die for us.
God made all of us-- Jew and Gentile-- alive in Christ.
He seated all of us--Jew and Gentile--in the heavenlies in Christ.
(vs.
4-7)
(3) The bottom line is that we are saved in Christ-- this is what means when Paul says we are saved by grace-- through allegiance to Jesus.
God's grace-- his favor, kindness, and help-- were given through Jesus (vs.
8-9).
(4) We are NOT saved through Moses, or the Mosaic covenant.
This is what Paul means when he says "not by works" (vs.
8-9).
(5) We are saved FOR good works.
God made all of us a new creation so that we could live FOR GOD.
So that we would walk in the good works God prepared ahead of us to do.
(vs.
10)
In truth, if there was one thing I hoped to do last week, it was to help you see that faith and good works are not two different things.
Faith really means something like allegiance, trust, and commitment.
If you join the U.S. army, they ask you to pledge allegiance to this country above everything else right?
They are asking for your faith-- for your allegiance.
(GET QUOTE ABOUT REPENTING AND FAITHING IN JOSEPHUS).
The Ephesian church is made up of Gentile Christians.
They have pledged their allegiance to King Jesus.
They have done this-- they have pledged allegiance-- but they have this nagging fear that Jesus isn't enough.
Do they need to become Jews to be made alive?
Are they second-class Christians because they are Gentiles?
Does the Mosaic covenant have something extra to offer them if they become Jews?
Are they missing out on some of God's blessings?
I think we can look at verses 1-10 and probably decide we don't-- but it'd be nice is if someone would sum up the argument and help explain how these verses relate to us as Gentiles.
Fortunately for us, we get a "therefore" in verse 11.
Our passage this week directly builds on Ephesians 2:1-10, but it's like everything in our Bibles works together to keep us from seeing this.
Verse 11 gets this enormous heading; it gets this big white space.
And we get to this heading, and this white space, and we do two things.
First, we stop reading.
We tell ourselves, "Dude, I read my Bible for the day.
I got to the white space."
And we tell ourselves, "Dude, this section is new.
It's not connected to what I just read.
You can tell because it gets its own heading."
But verse 11 begins with DIO, "therefore."
There are two Greek words translated as "therefore" in our English Bibles, but they don't mean the same thing.
Depending on your translation, there's one in verse 11, and there's one in verse 19.
But these are actually two different Greek words.
Verse 11 is DIO.
Verse 12 is OUN.
Basically, the point of DIO in verse 11 is something like this: "Since all of verses 1-10 are true, this is the conclusion you should draw.
So Paul is going to make things very easy for us-- as long as we ignore the white space in our Bibles and the extra heading.
Verses 11-12
Therefore , remember that formerly y'all--
the nations in/by the flesh,
the ones being called uncircumcision by the ones being called circumcision in the flesh made by hands-- ,
that y'all were at that time apart from Christ,
having been alienated from the citizenship of Israel
and strangers to the covenants of the promise,
not having hope
and without God in the world.
If verses 1-10 are true-- and they are-- what difference does it make?
What should we do?
The first thing Paul says we should do is (1) "Remember."
Paul keeps trying to remind the Ephesians of what their lives looked like before they placed their faith in Jesus.
"Y'all" were the nations according to the flesh-- according to human standards.
"Y'all" were called "the uncircumcision" by the ones being called "the circumcision."
This is an awkward way to put it, right?
Why doesn't Paul just say, "You were the uncircumcision, and Jews were the circumcision?"
Paul isn't willing to call you Gentiles the uncircumcision.
The reason for this is found in Romans 2:25-29:
25 For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision.
26 So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded[b] as circumcision?
27 Then he who is physically[c] uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code[d] and circumcision but break the law.
28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.
29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter.
His praise is not from man but from God.
A Jew might call you uncircumcised, but the true circumcision is the circumcision of the heart, the one done by the Spirit.
This is who you were-- the nations by the flesh, the ones being called uncircumcision.
But you know, and Paul knows, that it would be wrong to simply call you uncircumcised.
When you became Christians, you received a circumcision of the heart.
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