Ephesians 2:1-10 (audio)

Emmaus Christian Church  June 10, 2012

Ephesians 2:1-10

Last week we started a multi-week series on the good news about Jesus, The Gospel.  What it is, and what it does.  Last week we took a look at some major points in the story.  We stood back and looked at the beauty of the whole story through the lens of Romans 1. We saw that God created to world to point us to Himself, and how our response was to worship the creation rather than the creator. How God then responded by revealing His law, to show us our sin, and then he sent his son Jesus, to be the fulfillment of the law and to bring us into relationship with himself.

This morning we are going to take a closer look at the gospel and one of its many facets.  We are going to look at what it means to be born again, or as some people call it, “regeneration.”  the text we are going to be looking at is Ephesians 2:1-10.  So you can go ahead and turn there now.  If you are using at pew Bible, you can find it on page 1038.

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PRAY

Before we get into this, I want to ask you a question.  What did Jesus come here to do in your life primarily?  What was His purpose for your situation?  Did he come to make you good, or to make you safe, or to make you wealthy, or comfortable?  Now, if you are wondering what your core belief is about this question, let me ask you this. What are the things in your life that cause you to question God’s goodness, and power?  Let me explain, if you believe that Jesus came here to make you comfortable, you begin to question His goodness and power when you find yourself in a situation or circumstances that make you feel uncomfortable. If you feel that Jesus came to make you wealthy, you will question his goodness when you find yourself lacking in finances. You get the point.  Our own reactions are a good indicator of what we expect Jesus to do for us. If you believe that Jesus came to make you a good person, you can become discouraged and doubt his work in you when you find that you are struggling with a particular sin. Furthermore, if you believe that Christ’s work was to make much of you, you will be upset when you find that the things that he calls you to do make much of Him.

From this passage, I think it is clear that Jesus’ work on earth in our situations was to do one thing. He did not come to make bad people good, He came to make dead people live.

Now i want to be clear on something here.  When I say that Jesus’ work in our situations, I am being specific in my qualifications, because as we will see from this passage, his ultimate goal in making us a live is to display His glory. But the primary way he does that in us, is to make us alive, not to make us “better people”.

With that said, I want to look at how this takes place in our lives, as a result of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that good news of all that he has done in history that we looked at last week.  There are three distinct truths contained in this passage that I want to draw out for us so that we might understand the amazing gift we have been given as Christians.

1. We all either were, or are spiritually Dead.  

1. He is speaking specifically to Christians. 1:1.
2. He says the Christians were dead. v. 3
3. everyone else is dead. v. 3. it was our nature that we were children of wrath.
4. Now, how can one be dead, and alive at the same time? Dead Man Walking. 30 Story Building

1. If you are dead, you cannot raise yourself.

1. He made us alive. v. 1, 5
2. by His grace. v. 5, 8
3. We did nothing to make ourselves alive. You may have walked an iasle, or signed a card, or prayed a prayer, but this text tells us that God is the one who makes us alive.
4. Lazarus Story. Who was the major player in that story?

1. God makes us alive to show the riches of His Grace.

1. in our new life. Our new life is a mirror to Christ’s being raised from the dead.
2. in our good works. God has works for us to do. He didn’t make us alive to just sit and do nothing, he made us alive for a purpose. We have a calling to declare the riches of His grace to all the nations.  Any goodness we exhibit is a result of our regeneration, not in any way contributing to it.  They display the riches of God’s grace when His people are laying their lives down for other people, just as Christ did for us.
3. So the world will know that God is Great!  v. 9. God Gets the Glory for raising you to life, not anyone else.  This is good, because there is no one else who can do that kind of work in people. No other hope for salvation, no other way to be brought back to life. Jesus said

so, where are you…?