More Than Alive

Okay, friends, when you are able, would you please grab a Bible with me and open to Ephesians chapter 2. Paul did not write the letter to the Ephesians in order to solve a problem or address a crisis. He wrote the book of Ephesians to show the people in Ephesus in the mid 60s A. D. while he was in prison.

Listen, what is the beauty of the church? The church is a broken, full of sin. It's an organization that is rooted in his spirit that is not perfect until glory. And yet it is mysteriously beautiful because it is rooted in the life of the triune God. And to be part of the church means something. It means that you have been grafted in together so that what you do is intimately connected with what every other person in this room does, sees, and experiences, because God has called us together to be His local church in this place.

And so, as you listen to the sermon this morning, would you pray for me, even as you pray that you would have ears to hear it? That you would be able to see the wander, the power, the privilege, and the purpose of God's grace for you. Now, the people who heard this for the first time read this letter lived in a, as I've said, a city called Ephesus.

It was a great economic engine of the time. It had the Temple of Artemis in the midst of it, which is one of the seven wanders of the world. It was a temple that was about the size of Chapman Stadium at tu. It was massive. People came to it, they had all kinds of particular liturgies around the temple of Artemis.

And so these people, when they heard the idea of being dead in their trespasses and sins, as you'll hear me read in just a second, it would not have fallen on deaf ears because they were steeped. They cut their teeth on the pagan practices of Artemis, of Diana, of Apollo's sister. And they worshipped her for years and years and years until the gospel broke forth in their life.

And so would you stand with me as we read from Ephesians chapter 2. I'll read verses 4 through 7. Men and women have died to have the Kwone Greek translated into Latin and then into English for your ears. And so please hear it in love. It is given to you by our forefathers who died for the faith. In love.

Let's give our attention to it. But God

Being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us. Even when we were dead in our trespasses. Made us alive together with Christ. Hallelujah? By grace you have been saved and raised up. He raised us up with him and seated us with him. In the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So that in the coming ages.

He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. The grass withers, the flowers fade, but God's Word stands forever. This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Please. We saw last week in Ephesians chapter 2 that the Gospel is not about making good people better.

It is about raising dead people to life. It is about giving you a completely new nature, not of the flesh, but of the spirit. And this week, we see that in Christ, you are made more than alive. You are raised from death. You are seated in victory, and you are secure forever in Christ. In Christ, you are more than alive.

You are raised from death, spiritual death. You are seated in victory. And you are secure forever in Christ. Isn't that good news? I wonder if you know it. The wonder, the power, the privilege, and the purpose of grace. Let's look together. First, the wonder of grace. Notice what he says in verse 4. Those first two words.

Ho de theos in Greek. But. God, we spoke last week about how it just spirals down all the way down from verses one to three. And then Paul interjects this great conjunction through which God saved the world, God moved. God's grace flows from God's deep mercy and love toward undeserving sinners. The word, but God reveals his heart for sinners.

Notice first God's initiative. It is not our effort. It is not our merit. It is not our desire that moves God to act. It is not how emotional you get in worship. It is God's sovereign act to open our hearts to believe. This is a theological word called regeneration. Can you say that word with me?

Regeneration. It means to be made alive again. And why does God initiate salvation class? What does it say later in the verse? But God. It describes His character. God initiates salvation because He is revealing to us His character. And what is His character? It says being rich in mercy. The Greek word for rich is Plautos.

It means, it's over 60 times it's used in the New Testament. And almost every time it's used in a literal meaning of like wealth. Or like the rich young ruler. It's used of riches, it's used of treasure, and sometimes it's used metaphorically. Spiritually rich, like it is here, and like you'll see a little bit later in the passage.

He is rich, and how is he rich? Of all the ways you could describe God, He's rich in holiness! He's rich in power! All of these beautiful, incommunicable attributes of God. He is, He is transcendent, He is infinite, He is eternal. But what does Paul say from prison? He writes, But God, as Paul was shown very little mercy in prison, he says, But God, God, He is rich in mercy.

Ephesus, as I mentioned before we read the scripture, was a, was just this economic hub. It was awash in economic prosperity. If you're an Ephesian, it means that you had it made in the shade. You were probably a person of means. It was a middle class, upper middle class town, and The temple of Artemis was the center of what drove so many of the visitors that came to visit this incredible site, this temple of Diana, of Apollo's sister.

She was the, she was the god of chastity. She was the god of sailors. She was the god of hunters. She was the god that women, after giving birth, they would bring their birthing clothes, and they would lay it at the altar of Diana. If a woman died in childbirth and her family was obligated to bring as a sacrifice to Diana the clothes in which she died, I mean, they had some crazy liturgies in this temple of Artemis and they were economically prosperous and for many of us, we live very comfortable, don't we, in our Western lives?

We live very comfortable, sufficient, cozy lifestyles and we think that we have worked hard to be able to provide for our families. And notice, what does the gospel do for us? We, we say, well, we've avoided all these major sins. But Paul teaches that spiritually, without Christ, you are dead in your trespasses and sins.

Which is not just about a behavior, it is about the nature of you being fallen as a human being outside of His grace and forgiveness. And as we learned in verses 1 to 3, The gospel is not about making good people better, O church. It is about making dead people alive. Which means that the grace that you experienced when you came to believe the gospel is the same means by which you continue to walk in the gospel all the days of your life.

So that if I were to ask a question, Who's the greatest sinner in the room? All of us would shoot our hand up because we are utterly aware of our need for grace.

But don't you know the air you breathe, the way, the things you listen to, the content you produce, the products you sell, so much of your life is built on a counter gospel that says you deserve what you have, that I've worked hard for these things. Don't tread on me, we like to say. But it is the gospel that breaks forth into that to remind us again and again and again the good news, but God being rich in mercy for sinners like me.

Do you know the mercy of God?

I was talking to somebody this week and they were telling me, um, I love conversations where people don't know that I'm a pastor because they treat me normal. And I was talking to somebody this week, and they were talking about the church, and they were talking about, you know, they'd been burned by the church, and the self righteousness in the church, and I was like, I hear ya.

I hear ya. Nobody, nobody likes to be in environments where there are people who are self righteous. Ugh.

I wonder how people experience you.

When you think of God, do you think about Him being powerful because you want to be powerful? Or do you think about Him being rich in mercy because you know you need grace?

Lent is a season that invites us to reflect upon His mercy for us and giving His one and only Son to be the sacrifice, the atoning sacrifice for our sins so that by faith in His work for us, we can be made right with God and then have the power and the endurance by His Holy Spirit to move toward each other in love, not selfishness.

And care for the other, not greed. And I wonder if we manifest that, O Trinity. As I listened to this young man talk about how he'd been hurt by the church, I thought, would he be healed by this one? A lot of you have been healed. That's why you're here. And we welcome you into that healing. And we want you to know that we will let you down because we are a sinful people.

But, oh, we are striving together to be the lead repenters. And a walk to magnify his manifold mercy because God initiated salvation for us in order to reveal to us his character. There's a story of Luke chapter 18 where Jesus is talking to the rich young ruler. You know this story verses 18 through 30.

And he says to the, to, to Jesus, What do I need to, to do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus says, Well, you know the law. And Jesus gives him the second table of the law, all the commandments, the ten commandments that talk about the horizontal relationship, love toward one another. And he looks at Jesus and has the chutzpah to say to Jesus, All of these I've kept from my youth.

And what does Jesus say to him? There's this little line in Luke where Jesus says, Um, but there's one thing you lack, there's one area of your life where you don't really believe you need grace. And Jesus goes right to the heart and what does he say to the rich young ruler? He says, go sell all that you have and give to the poor.

Why? Because he knew that he had this great outward effect. He had this great behavior. He looked like this great moral person, but Jesus says, the truth of the matter is you've placed your identity in your money. And you don't know grace in that area of your life. Friends, Jesus is here by His Spirit in this room, and I wonder what He is saying to you.

What is the one thing you lack? Where do you believe you don't need His grace? That, during this Lenten season, is where the Holy Spirit wants to work in your heart. And in my area, He wants to work in mine.

Many think, well, I can't believe in a God like the God of the Bible because He's stingy. He wants everything to be about His glory. That's true. He does, but He's not stingy. Because notice what the next line says, being rich in mercy, then what does He say? Because of the great love. With which he loved us.

Twice he uses this word, agapeo. Because of the great love, a noun, he has loved us, a verb. Who God is always manifests itself in the way he acts toward us. He invites us into that love. He has loved us. It's as though if Paul were writing to Trinity, he might say Trinity, God's love is not passive or distant.

It is profoundly personal, active, and costly. God's love moved him toward you, O Trinity Church, in sacrificial action by sending Christ to die and to rise again for sinners. Love is not sentimental. This gospel Christianity about which we speak in this church is not sentiment or theory. It is demonstrated in history at the resurrection of the cross of Christ.

And He has extended to you the good news of rooting you in that history, that Jesus really lived fully human, fully God, and died in your place, so that you might know not just the riches of His mercy, but you might know that He died for you. Do you know that? Kiddos, do you know that Jesus Christ died for you?

Not just for your mom and dad, but for you. And when you were baptized, all those covenant promises over you, that God will be faithful to His promise, are yours if you believe. Do you believe this? It's important that you do, because some of you, oh children, you might be the next pastor of this church, young men.

Young ladies, you might be the ones who are helping lead the women's ministry one day. Oh, would you begin, kiddos, to know that this is your church too. This building is built for you. We want to be able to minister to the generations. And so know that we are praying for you even as you listen here in big church.

Verse 4 shows us at least three things. to help us stimulate the wander of grace. God's sovereign initiative, God's abundant mercy toward us, and God's active love. Do you know those three aspects of God's character? Secondly, verse 5 shows us his power. Grace is not merely improvement, it is spiritual resurrection.

Thank you, there it is. Somebody's awake, alright. I'm a lot, I'm awake on this, uh, daylight saving time. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, the adjective necros, Paul is trying to think, how do I describe it? Were we asleep in our transgressions and sins?

No, it's not strong enough. He says, I am dead. The first step in seeing the power of grace is by admitting your condition that you are dead in your trespasses and sins. Paul's argument in verse 1 and in verse 5, they're the same words, same five words in Greek, except for the pronouns being different. We were dead in our trespasses and sins.

And all the Christians in Ephesus, they would have recognized that so easily, because they lived such deeply pagan lives before they came to Christ. And they would have no problem cataloging the sins of their apostasy. And so they got it. We are dead in our trespasses and sins. As children, they had been raised to life through Diana, and now here they are raised to life in Christ.

And not only have we been raised from our trespasses and sins, but we had the opportunity to embrace Christ by faith. To have a new identity because now we are made more than alive. It says, what does it say next? That we have been made alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. And raised up with Him.

To be raised up comes from this Greek word that's a conjunction, it means to be raised and it means with, soon, with, S U N in Greek. It means that you've been raised together with Christ. Notice it's in the plural, you all have been raised. We have been raised together in this heightened time of individuality.

The gospel is for us as a covenant community. And we have all been raised together with Him. That means, and it's in past tense. The aorist in Greek, it means that it's as good as done. You have been raised with Him, and not only raised with Him, but you have been seated with Christ. You haven't just been raised, you don't just have the promise of the resurrection, but you have been seated in victory with Christ.

That means that you are secure forever, and there's nothing you can do to outrun God's love. Isn't that good news? Listen, it does, it just takes one comment, one comment from the geopolitical sphere for the stock market to tank. And a lot of you get nervous when you see the stock market tank, but isn't it great in Christ we have a security that can never be taken away.

He sings over you with His love. You are seated with Him in the heights and He's got you. The wanderer of grace, God's initiative, God's mercy, His incredible act of love toward us. And you see this power that when we were dead, we were raised again. That we can admit that we're fallen. That we can embrace our new identity in Christ.

And, not only that, but we can turn from our self saving strategies and look to Christ. To have true security. Notice the privileges that we have of grace. To be raised with Christ means to be given the position that Christ has in the resurrection. To be seated with Him means that we are able to have victory with Him.

There is a place for you with Christ, in Christ. Now listen, I know it's saving time, so we need an illustration. Anybody ever seen, um, the 1980s great theological movie, Trading Places, with Eddie Murphy? You remember that story? Okay, if you haven't seen it, it's, uh, I, I, I, I don't recommend it, so just go with the illustration.

It's a story about a, uh, uh, a street beggar named Billy Ray Valentine. And Billy Ray Valentine is in trouble with the law and these, these, uh, these Wall Street tycoons, um, the Mortimer and Randolph Duke see Billy Ray Valentine. Yeah, I see some of your faces if you're my age. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This, this connects, right?

Here we go. So they see Billy Ray Valentine begging. And they have this young protege. His name is Winthorpe. He's this Harvard, young Harvard grad. And they're like, he's the heir apparent to the throne of this Wall Street tycoon, uh, firm. And They make a bet with each other, and Mortimer says to Randolph, Listen, it doesn't take a lot to do what we do.

I bet. I bet we could take somebody off the street, and we could train them to be as good as Winthrop or better. And one of the brothers says, Okay, let's bet. And so they go and they get Billy Ray Valentine, and they bring Billy Ray Valentine into this totally new world, off the street, into this opulent, beautiful brownstone in New York City.

And he has this vase, and he's playing with the vase, and he drops the vase, and he goes, oh, I'm so sorry. They're like, no, no, that was your vase, Billy Ray, it's okay. And he's like, well, how much was that vase? And they tell him it was a lot of money, and Billy Ray's like, whoa! And he begins to experience the things the Duke brothers experience.

He begins to lead the life that the Duke brothers lead. He gets taken around the city in a limousine. He gets the, the front table at the restaurants. And he's like, it's hard for him to believe that that's real. That he has been given access to the Duke family. And it's the same in a Christian life. You have been given access to all that Jesus has by your faith in Him, that the Father doesn't just say, Hey, here's the keys to the kingdom.

He says you will rule together with Christ in worship of His glory forever and ever and ever. Mystery of mysteries. And He invites you in. So much of us have such a cynical spirit, though we always think, what's the catch? What's the catch? And, and Billy Ray Valentine, uh, his story, the catch was that he and Winthorpe end up working together, and they end up outsmarting the Duke brothers, and they end up running the firm themselves.

And indeed, the Duke brothers bet came true, that Billy Ray and this young Winthorpe are able to do trading as well as these Duke brothers. But in the gospel, oh, there's no catch for you. The catch was for Jesus. He was the one that was betrayed by his father. And he was the one who sacrificed himself willingly for you.

There is no catch in the gospel. His mercy is free. Oh, you are saved by works. But those works are Christ's works for you. So that you might be saved by faith alone on the basis of God's grace alone. Hallelujah. I wonder if you would wander at grace with me. The wonder, the power to raise dead sinners to life.

The privilege that we now have. Billy Ray Valentine's got nothing on you. You've been given, you are not only given the inheritance of the kingdom, but you are made Christ's inheritance. Don't you know you can fight sin in light of that power? You can become holy by His grace only in that power. You can obey His law.

Because of that strength. Listen, the law is meant to only remind you of your need for grace. And so we run to it with joy because we have experienced new life in the resurrection.

The wonder, the power. The privilege, and lastly, the purpose. Look at verse 7. There's a henna clause in Greek, a so that clause. Whenever you see so that, you know it's a purpose clause. So in verse 7, it says, so that, and what's the reason that he gives? Listen, Paul is trying to be as rational and straightforward as he can.

So that in the coming ages, it's plural, aeons. It's plural. There are more. He's just trying to communicate the fact that in a billion years time, maybe we'll be, maybe we'll be able to visit this place when the new earth is recreated and heaven comes down. Who knows? Maybe we'll be able to see each other.

And if so, we will be tempted, as C. S. Lewis says, to bow down and worship each other because we'll see each other in all their beauty without sin. Oh, I can't wait for my wife to see me like that because she doesn't get to see me. A good example all the time. And isn't it going to be amazing? Amazing. In the coming ages, a billion years.

It won't be boring. It'll be more exhilarating than you could ever imagine because the world will be without sin. He says, so that in the coming ages, he might show. Notice who's the one who's doing the action. It is the Lord Christ, the Father. He might show the immeasurable riches, there's that word again, not just of His mercy, the riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

That's the purpose of His grace, to reveal His character, and so that He might show us the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness. Where? This isn't the Greek, it's in the dative. It means the sphere in the heavenly places. In Christ Jesus. You are united to Christ, and because you're united to Christ by faith, you are given immeasurable spiritual security and wealth.

And I wonder if you know it. One diagnostic that helps me sometimes is to think about the heresies of the early church. And some of you who love church history, Know this as well. There's an early church heresy, an ancient church heresy called Gnosticism. Gnosticism wasn't a community. It was a worldview that bled into a lot of different kinds of communities.

It was a worldview that said the world is bad. It had a hatred toward matter and toward the body. And salvation was through a secret knowledge. Gnosis just means knowledge in Greek. And in the ancient world, the source of truth was that they would look inward for the truth and their divinity. But we have a kind of contemporary Gnosticism today.

And it says that you look inward to discover the real you. Have you heard this before? The ancient Gnosticism said matter is evil. You have to escape your material existence. The soul, the spirit is really what matters. And today, we don't say matter is evil as much as we say the mundane is evil. It's about experience.

It's about doing great things. Being able to experience these amazing opportunities. That's where you find the solution to your problems. In the ancient world, the path to fulfillment was to escape the material world. But in our day, it's to escape the ordinary life. For the life of pleasure, for autonomy, from independence of other people.

How anti gospel it is. The truth is that God reveals His truth eternally through the Word and Spirit. In Ephesians 2, 4, and 5, it says that the source of truth is that God acted decisively outside of ourselves. He did it, and He shows us that truth and salvation come from Him alone, not from within. But from without.

Outside in. Our primary problem is not Matter or the mundane aspects of life. Our primary problem is sin. And our rebellion against God in Ephesians 2, 5 emphasizes that we are spiritually dead but made alive in Christ. And repentance and faith depend upon His grace. Listen, the ancient world of Gnosticism said that you grow by moving toward perfection through some hidden spiritual knowledge.

Today we call those conspiracy theories. Some hidden spiritual knowledge that says you need to believe this. Some secret knowledge that is different than what Orthodox Christianity is. That's the key to the kingdom. We see today that we become perfect through self help or tweaks or hacks. Some curated experience, but the gospel says that you grow spiritually on the basis of being raised with Christ, being seated at His, with Him in the heavenly places.

Pursuing Christ's righteousness comes through daily repentance, faith, and obedience with other covenant believers. Listen, we could go on and on and on and on about the way that Gnosticism has woven its way into us as modern Americans today, modern Westerners today. Do you recognize the truth? Do you wander at the beauty of grace?

Do you recognize its power in raising you from the dead? Do you know the privileges that you have in light of that grace as one who has been raised up, past tense, and seated, past tense, with Christ, certain to be fulfilled at the resurrection? And do you know the purpose of that grace to reveal His character?

Let us wonder about those things together. One final thing before I close. In the book of Revelation, there's letters written to seven churches. Do you know the first one of those churches? Do you know which one it was? The church of Ephesus. And what was it? What was it that God challenged the church of Ephesus to do?

He says in Revelation chapter 2, I know that you are enduring patiently and you are bearing up for my namesake and you have not grown weary. But He says, this one thing I have against you, you have forsaken your first love. May we be a church that wanders at grace all the days of our life, that sees its power manifesting itself by raising us up from the dead, giving us the ability to live into those privileges, to fight sin, to push back darkness, to be His hands and feet in the world, with the confidence and security of knowing that we are His in Christ.

We can never lose it. And may we understand that our motivation is the purpose of God to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever because of His immeasurable, the immeasurable riches of His grace toward us in kindness and extending the gospel to you. Do you believe that? People, we are a community of the resurrection.

I'm alive. Because the work of Christ. Hallelujah. Let's pray. Father, would you strengthen us as a community to never get tired of your grace? I pray, Father, that you would help us to be overwhelmed by the privilege, the power, of it. To find that there is no room for self righteousness in a community where people are saved by grace.

And would you start with me? Would you start with each one of us? And as we come to this table in this Lenten series, may we be well aware of our need for grace. May you shape us by our worldview rooted in your word, in your truth, so that we can push back against all the Gnostic tendencies of our modern life.

And we may now taste the physical elements of bread and wine and be reminded of how much you love us. Minister to us, we pray, and help us to be generous in our tithes and offerings, which we give now for your namesake and glory. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.

Sermon transcript is computer generated.