Sermon Tone Analysis

Get out of those grave clothes!

(Slide) The sufficiency of Christ has been proclaimed by Paul, :received by the Ephesians and believed.

They had been born again in the baptism of Jesus into His possession.

(Slide) The Riches of His Grace has been shown (Eph1:4-14) - How rich are we spiritually speaking when we are in Christ Jesus?

Remember this letter is written to believers, to Christians, to remind them who they are in Christ, and then who we are to be in Christ as the Church.

(Slide) The Riches of His Glory has been displayed (Eph1:15-23) - One of the things Paul wants us to understand is what we have in Christ.

We have our salvation, but that is only the starting place, we, like Lazarus are told to “come forth” to be loosed of our graveclothes in baptism and live a resurrected life!

(Slide) Paul has told us about our spiritual possessions in Christ; now in this section he moves on to our spiritual position in Christ.

- We have done the song “Low in the grave he lays” and it is a song of victory for He was raised up so we could be raised up to be His possession and have our position with Him in the heavenlies and we will get to that verse today.

Paul does not mince words, he is pretty point blank, he “tell’s it like it is” and has no trouble with that is this continuing section of where and who we are in Christ and the best way to explain this is to read the section and then break it down to “Works”

(Slide) Sin’s work against Us! (Eph2:1-3)

(Slide) God’s work for Us! (Eph2:4-9)

(Slide) God’s work in Us! (Eph2:10a)

(Slide) God’s work through Us! (Eph2:10b)

READ THE ENTIRE SECTION EPH2:1-10 (EMPHATICALLY)

I. Sin’s Work Against Us!

(Insert a slide showing a zoom lens on a camera)

We are all used to zooming in to see things closely these days, but if you want to get a fuller picture you need to zoom out.

Paul here in these verses zooms out to show the full condition of the one who is unsaved, the horrible spiritual condition of the person and some characteristics of the person.

A. The Person is Dead (spiritually speaking) (v.1)

Spiritual things, they cannot understand spiritual things

Dead people are unable to respond to the spiritual things.

A corpse cannot hear or understand what is going on around it.

It’s dead! - They cannot function without God giving them life

(Slide) The obituary would read - “Cause of death, sin and trespasses”

We know the wages of sin is death (Rom6:23) and that sin separates us from God

This world is full of a bunch of dead people so when you think of that line from movie Sixth Sense you do, as you look around this world we see people who are spiritually dead, eventhough they are physically alive

Someone who gives themselves over to wanton pleasure leads me to our next point.

(Slide) B. The Person is Disobedient (v.2-3a)

Want to point out a couple of things real quick as a reminder

(Slide) (v.2) says “you formerly walked”

(Slide) (v.3a) says “formerly lived”

The reminder is this is not who we are anymore.

This is who we were before we were made alive in Christ!

This letter is written to Christians to remind them who they are in Christ and to know that they need to remember who they were before.

Disobedient to the will of God

Disobedient to the will of God.

Well that started back in the garden when Eve and her husband who was with her believed the lie and were disobedient to what God said.

There are three ways, three forces that encourage man to be disobedient to the will of God.

(Slide)The world

(Slide) The devil and his pinions

(Slide) and the flesh

The world wants us to conform to its way instead of us being transformed to God’s way

See our ways is not of this world since Jesus is not of this world.

Jn

speaking to unbelievers who are of the world

But you, you who are believers are not of this world so we need not conform to this world but be transformed!

We cannot let the things of this world control us, it’s values to compromise us and it’s attitudes to condemn us.

Now as for the devil and his pinions, the devil is the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

His spiritual forces are at work

Though they may some power; but they do not have victory!

For satan is a liar and has been from the beginning

For satan is a liar and has been from the beginning

When a person believes and practices a lie, then he is a child of disobedience.

(expand on this briefly; false/different gospel, not a gospel at all, offers no salvation)

The Flesh is against us - There is a story of an evangelist who entitled a message “Why Your Dog Does what He Does” - many came out to hear the message having no idea what it was about, and it was about the nature of dog is the nature of a dog, it does what it does because it is a dog, if you changed the dog nature to that of a cat then it would have a cat nature.

A man in fallen state does what a man in a fallen state does, it is his nature, we cannot change the nature, we need God to change the nature.

A sinner behaves like a sinner for that is his nature

Paul elaborates on that in Rom7, but you can go read on that on your own.

We cannot change our fleshly nature, we cannot overcome the world or the devil we need God to do that, we need His help, it can only come from Him.

(Slide) C. The Person is Depraved (v.3b)

The sinner who is conformed to the world has his mind and his flesh depraved, his actions are sinful because his appetite is sinful.

- now don’t read too deep into this, the sinful person, does not necessarily have to be evil, but in God’s standard falls short and cannot save themselves.

The person cannot earn salvation.

Even Jesus says the lost sinner does good to each other, but not to the standard of God.

Good works cannot save you, without God and His help through the blood of Christ you are doomed.

D. The Person is Doomed (v.3c)

By nature children of wrath , by deed children of disobedience, condemned already

Judgment given, sentenced passed “condemned” but God, rich in mercy stayed the execution of the sentence

But God in his infinite mercy, abundant grace changed everything for he did work for us

II.

God’s Work for Us

Whew, thought we would never get over the severity of the sinful man, we need to understand that so that we can understand what God has done (His work) for us .

- A change happens here from the sinner to God, and what He has done.

(Slide) A. He loved us (v.4)

Rich in mercy, why? because His great love, because of His great love He loves us.

(Slide) Love for God is truth = God is faithful

(Slide) Love for God is Holy = God is just (shows justice)

(Slide)Love then equates out to = mercy and grace (vv.4,

7)

(Slide) Believe it or not, we are not saved by God’s love, but by His mercy and His grace because of His great love for us.

(Slide) B. He

(Slide) B. He quickens us (v.5)

So what does quicken mean?

It means He made us alive, even when we were dead in our sins.

That means resurrection, for resurrections is someone that is dead being brought back to life.

Slide) Like widow’s son - Lk7:11-17

(Slide) Like Jarius’ daughter (Lk8:49-56)

(Slide) And like Lazarus (Jn11:41-46)

How were each of those made alive?

By the Word of God

We are made alive together with Christ and for Christ, we are united.

One more thing on the Word it is powerful, it can bring the dead to life as in the cases mentioned but look at

Heb4:12

The Word gets to the heart and soul of the matter.

(Slide) C.

He exalts us (v.6)

We are not raised from the dead to stay in our graveclothes in the graveyard, we are made to be exalted in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus!

Sure physically we are here but spiritually we are seated in the heavenlies with Him.

Picture this, we like Lazarus have been invited and have accepted the invitation to sit with Jesus.

All this because of the riches of His mercy! - He keeps us alive