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Wanted: Dead or Alive - Ephesians 2:1-10

By Steve Jeantet | March 29, 2007

Intro: African rat story
Children find dog on beach, ask to keep
They do, play with dog, dress it up, put bow in hair
Dog has no problem with kids, but keeps attacking family cat
Take to Vet to find out why, he tells them it is not a dog, but an African rat

Transition: no matter how much you dress something up, it is what it is
Our text today starts very frankly about the human condition
No matter how we dress it, it’s still an ugly picture

Our identity: a sinner
Dead (vs 1) – our position before God
Condition of sin = position of dead

Disobedient (vs 2) – doing wrong things

Depraved (vs 3) – wanting wrong things
Not only do wrong things, but no good in us
“gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and followings its desires and thoughts”

Three Enemies
“Ways of this world” – the world
“Ruler of the kingdom of the air” – Satan
“cravings of our sinful nature” – flesh (depravity)

Doomed (vs 3) – condemned to eternal separation from God, hell
“by nature objects of wrath”

Sixth Sense
“I want to tell you my secret now…I see dead people.”
“In your dreams? In graves?”
“Walking around like regular people. They don’t see each other. They only see what they want to see. They don’t know they’re dead.”
How often do you see them?
“All the time. They’re everywhere.”

This is the state of our world. A bunch of dead people walking around not even knowing they are dead. But the text is clear. They are both dead and doomed because of it.

From “The Message”
“We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us.”

“We all did it, all of doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it” – depraved
“All of us in the same boat” – all of us stand under this – no one exempt
“It’s a wonder…”
God would have been perfectly right to say, “Humanity, you have failed, you’re done”. God could have honored His own just nature and own holiness by saying this. God can not have sin in His presence.
Exodus 34:6-7 – God is both love and just

But He didn’t say that, rather, we move to verse 4
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love for us”
before we move to verse 5, what does “But God” mean? What does “great love” mean?
Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Here is what “But God” means
Jesus left the glory of heaven to become a human
He lived a perfect life
And then…
He was beaten, spit upon, flogged, crowned with thorns, crucified and speared

With that picture in mind, let’s turn to verse 5
Made alive in Christ – a new position (from death to life)
Results of new position, of being made alive
Salvation (vs 5) – released from judgment/condemnation
Romans 8:1 – no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus
Raised up with Christ and seated in with him in heavenly realms (vs 6)
Eternally present with God in His glory
Blessing (vs 7) – incomparable riches of His grace expressed in kindness to us

The gift of faith (vs 8-9)
Well known verses – but question is, what is the antecedent of “it”?
“it is the gift of God” – what is the gift?
“I had a hamburger for lunch. It was good.” – “it” refers back to hamburger
two options – grace and faith
greek grammar points to “faith”, not “grace” being the antecedent
faith given from God, not our action of response

Verse 10
God’s workmanship – our new identity
“poihma” – word translated workmanship – where we get our word “poem”
We are God’s poem, His work of art, His masterpiece
Created to do good works
Gospel does NOT end with salvation
Not saved with a purpose
Created to do “good works”
Dead people can’t do good works (depravity, Rom 3)
For those who are alive, God has prepared good works

Two audiences, two challenges
To those who are dead: “I implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.”
To those who are alive: Do those good works!

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The documents below are the sermon notes that were printed in the bulletin for this message. These notes are available as both .doc and .pdf files.
Sermon Notes (doc)
Sermon Notes (pdf)

Topics: Ephesians |

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