Sunday Thoughts - 4/12/09

Sermon Topic: “The Wonder of Salvation”
Sermon Text: Ephesians 2:1-7

In 1982, ABC Evening News” reported on an unusual work of modern art, a chair attached to a shotgun. It was to be viewed by sitting in the chair in the chair and looking directly into the gun barrel. The gun was loaded and set on a timer to fire at an undetermined moment within the next hundred years.

The amazing thing was that people waited in lines to sit and stare into the shell’s path! They all knew that the gun could go off at point blank range at any moment, but they were gambling that the fatal blast wouldn’t happen during their minute in the chair.

Yes, it was reckless, yet many people who wouldn’t dream of sitting in that chair live a lifetime gambling that they can get away with sin. Foolishly they ignore the risk until the inevitable self-destruction.

How many of us today live our lives looking down the barrel of a gun, not literally but figuratively. Many lives are lived suicidal in a since that our concern is not in developing a meaningful relationship with God and God’s people. Instead, they would rather live life playing the field, looking over the fence, and playing the lottery with their lives not realizing that at the end of the day we all have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give account for every deed done in this body.

But lest I be too long let’s make something very clear upfront before I loose you and we all can be honest in church today:

- SIN IS FUN (at least until you get caught)
- It’s hard to let go of certain sin
- Everyone makes mistakes
- Sin can lead to your destruction

But the good news of the day is there is a cure for sin, the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.

Paul writes this letter to encourage the church then and church now that we are blessed people who serve the Risen Savior. And in chapter 1 verse 3 we are told:

Blessed be the God and Father or our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

People of God let me declare before God and all these witness that we are blessed in Jesus Christ. If you have Jesus then you are blessed, today.

Chapter 1 calls us into worship. We can worship because:

- God planned our salvation – 1:4-6
- Jesus provided our salvation – 1:7-12
- The Holy Spirit protects our salvation – 1:13-14

In chapter 2 the celebration continues and in verses 1-7 we can celebrate not for who we were but for we are in Christ. In other words, life without Christ is like a body without air, you can’t make it without Him.

Let’s look at the principles of this text so we can celebrate our before and after salvation experience:

I. Humanities Condition Before Salvation – v. 1-3

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, [2] in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, [3] among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

In order to appreciate where you are sometimes you need to know where you’ve come from. This text can be viewed in what I want to call the good, bad, and ugly of our human condition before salvation.

The Good – “And you He made alive”

Many translations omit “And you He made alive” and go straight into “you were once dead in trespasses and sins. However, I think its important to not look past the opening statements in this text because it’s the beginning of the end resolve, “Only Christ can bring life to a dead man. (Illustration: Raising of Lazarus – John 11).


The Bad – “who were dead in trespasses and sins”

We were dead in trespasses and sins. Trespasses meaning to fall of course and sins meaning to missing the mark. The text says apart from Christ we are dead in our failures and horrible mistakes.


The Ugly - in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, [3] among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others

If sin brings death, why do we sin? Verses 2-3 explains:

- The World – The world does not refer to the physical earth. It refers to the system of values that governs this world

- The Devil – “the prince of the power of the air” and “the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience”

- The Flesh – refers to our sinful nature..


II. Humanities Change In Salvation – v. 4-5

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, [5] even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),


- The Source for Change – “But God” –

- The Sufficiency of Change – “Who is rich in mercy” -

- The Supremacy in Change – “because of His great love with which He loved us” -

- The Strength of Change – “even when we were dead in trespasses and sins made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)

We are saved by the act of God and God alone.


III. Humanities Purpose After Salvation – v. 6-7

and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, [7] that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.


Through the richness of God’s grace and kindness:

- He can save anybody – “And raised up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus

- He’s still changing lives today – “that in the ages to come…”

- He never runs short of grace – “He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus”