Sermon Tone Analysis

Ephesians 2:1-10

 

! Introduction

Pet dragonfly, throw them up in the air and command them to fly.

I’ve got a problem, I tell my fly to fly and he just falls to the ground.

Artificial resuscitation, would anyone like to try.

CPR.

O not!

I squished him.

Do you know that that is you and me?

Listen to Ephesians 2:1-10.

!

I. How Dead We Are

!! A. Dead in Sins 1

      We will never reach it.

Get the best long jumper to jump and the worst.

Who is better.

Then tell them where they have to jump.

God demands perfection.

We all do some things wrong.

!! B. Dead Lifestyle 2-3b

      Trip to Brandon to see the basketball team.

Life is a series of choices.

The choices we make in life are influenced by three things according to this passage.

!!! 1.The World

      We walked according to the age of this world.

The world forces which are not in submission to God influence our lifestyle.

Whatever people without God did, we also did.

The influence of TV and movies has brought people to the place where sex outside of marriage is no longer seen as sin.

!!! 2.The Devil

      We lived and walked according to ways that were Satan motivated.

Satan is the prince of the power of the air.

He is the spirit at work among those who disobey.

We were following his promptings in every way.

!!! 3.The Flesh

      Can’t just blame the world and the devil.

The power of sin is that we want it.

That is what makes us dead in sins.

We can’t control the power of sin in our lives.

When we do wrong things it is because we believe there will be some advantage to us.

It might be that we don’t want our parents to find out so we lie.

It may be that we want to do well on a test and so we cheat.

Whenever we sin, we do so because we want to.

!! C. Dead End 3c

      One summer, we were at a lake and watched as a mining engineer placed several sticks of dynamite under a large rock in the water that was always causing problems for the motor boat.

He lit the fuse and we watched nervously as he walked away from the live fuse and waited for the explosion.

Once the fuse had been lit, it was inevitable and only a matter of time before the explosion.

A few minutes later, when he was safely on shore, there was a loud bang and water shot up some hundred feet into the air.

The rock was scattered all over the place.

When people live in sin, it is like a lit fuse and sooner or later, the wrath of God will explode against that sin.

As a result of sin, we were children of wrath.

The wording makes it clear that all people who are apart from Christ, are under the wrath of God.

The attitude of God to sin is very clear in Scripture.

He hates sin and judges it.

All who live in sin are under his wrath.

God's justice and holiness demands his wrath.

Where sin is concerned, God has only one attitude, if it continues, it will be dealt with.

It is important that we realize our former spiritual condition.

We were dead, and children of wrath.

It is only as we realize who we were that we can really rejoice in what we now are.

!

II.

But God Made You Alive 4-10

      The words of transition are powerful.

We read "BUT GOD."

These words should be in capital letters in our Bibles for they speak loudly of several important things.

!! A. Basis Of God's Action

      God did something to reverse death.

Why did He do it?

God saw our spiritual death and being a life giving God, could not leave it as such.

God is love, and so acts with mercy and grace on our behalf.

Thus when we read, "BUT GOD," it tells us that God chosen to act in love.

!! B. GOD'S Action

      We also notice, that there is a powerful emphasis on God's action in the text.

We are not saved because we decided that we were tired of being sinful.

We were not redeemed because someone said to God, "we need help."

The initiative, the saving action, the possibility of being saved from the wrath of God, the way to be saved from destruction, the means of being released from sin comes from God himself.

That is why it says, "BUT GOD."

Notice the Word of God:

GOD made us alive.

GOD raised us with Christ

GOD seated us with Him in the heavenly places.

it is the GIFT OF GOD

we are GOD'S workmanship

GOD prepared us for good works.

Throughout the text, the emphasis is on God's action and this is powerful.

When we feel weak, when we are not sure of our salvation, we must remember that we are not being kept by us, God started it and brought us to himself and keeps us.

Our part is small and simple.

"Through faith" is the only word which speaks of our part.

It is our response to the work of God.

Even this appears to be a gift of God.

Of course there is great debate on this, but even though I am convinced that we must respond to God and that it is a genuine personal response I do not believe that in this passage we can get away from the fact that from beginning to end it is God's work.

!! C. God's WORK

      Have you ever heard the term "isn't he a piece of work?"

It is usually meant in a derogatory way.

I would like to turn the negative into a positive when I say, "aren't we a piece of work."

This is what the text says of us, we are God's workmanship.

What is it that God has done in us?

 

!!! 1. Spiritual Quickening

      First of all, we have been made alive through Christ.

Those who were once dead are now living!

Imagine what this means in physical terms.

It means the same in spiritual terms.