God's Grace on Display - Ephesians 2:1-10

Church, a question for you to ponder. What is the difference between an artist and a vandal? They often use the same material. Maybe the same techniques at times, but there's a stark difference between an artist and a vandal. An artist is seeking to build something, and if it's true art, it's aligned with beauty and truth, and a vandal. All they're wanting to do is destroy. Nothing to build. I'm just destroying a good thing that already exists. Let me show you a picture of a painting. Raise your hand if you know what this painting is. Who knows this? That's the Mona Lisa? Painted by Leonardo da Vinci between 1503 1506, probably one of the most, if not the most famous painting in the world. It's not owned by anybody. The French government owns it, and it can't be sold. I looked up its estimated value if they were to put it on the market and sell it. $1000000000 is its estimated value, and never be put on sale. The Mona Lisa has had vandalism attempted against it in the last 100 years, about six times. 1956, someone went in and threw acid on it. And then the same year in 1956, a person threw a rock at it. They then decided we need to put this behind some glass because of its value and worth. In 1974, someone tried to spray paint it. In 2009, someone threw a ceramic mug at it. 2022, someone threw a cake at it. And in 2024, people threw tomato soup at it. Now, the last several attacks were behind glass, but the intent was the same. There's this beautiful work of art. And the Vandals goal is just destruction. Not building anything, not creating anything, just to destroy. There was a movie made by Christopher Nolan. I am a superhero type movie fan called the Dark Knight. It about Batman. And there's a scene in there. If you don't know the movie, the Joker, Batman's Nemesis, played by Heath Ledger's, the main villain in this one. And there's a scene where Batman, played by Christian Bale, is asking Alfred the Butler, why is this guy doing this? What is the Joker's motivation? What does he want? What's his goal? Why is he doing? He trying to rationalize it. And Alfred the butler says this. It says some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn. That's a great encapsulation of a vandal. The goal is just destruction. There's a thing that's there. I'm not trying to build anything new. I'm not trying to create beauty. I'm just here to destroy. There's a Christian philosopher named Philip Reef. And he gave names to these things, so I want to give him credit for that. He said, the attempt to destroy beauty and truth in the world. He calls it death works. And he says a lot of what passes for art today is just death works. Its goal is to tear down the moral order, to destroy God's position in society. And he says, those things that affirm life, that affirm beauty and truth, he calls life works. And those 2 names, death works, and life works, connecting this idea of artists, and vandals. Those that are trying to destroy something and those that are trying to build up. Satan is the ultimate vandal. His purpose is just destruction. He's not bringing anything beautiful or good into the world. It's simply to tear down God's creation. And when you hear things like vandals or those who are trying to destroy the moral order and destroy God's good creation. If you're like me, your 1st response is probably to start thinking about all the vandals in the world that you know. When we look at Ephesians chapter 2 today, though, Paul starts, and he says, before we look out at all the vandals, we know that are destroying the world that are trying to deface it, like throwing soup on the Mona Lisa, we need to look at ourselves. and realize we're all vandals. We've all been vandals. And if that's all that Paul had to say, If all he says is, we are following the devil in his path of destruction, there's no hope. But he doesn't leave it there in Ephesians chapter 2. He goes on to talk about God has given us life in Christ, if we will but trust in him, so that, and this is the main idea of the message today. God makes us alive in Christ to carry out his life works. God makes us alive in Christ to carry out his life works as we unpack these 10 verses. You'll see that if you have your Bibles, pays 976 in your house Bible, the Bible under the seat. Otherwise, turn to Ephesians chapter 2. As you're turning there, we've been in Ephesians for 3 weeks now. And in chapter one, Paul lays out what it means to be a follower of Christ and all the blessings that we have. He says, we've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. We have an inheritance in this new heavens and new earth that's coming in Christ. We've been seated with him. Christ has overcome sin and death. He's been seated, enthroned as king of the universe, high above every earthly power and all the spiritual powers that exist. Christ has been enthroned. And now Paul, in chapter 2, does 3 things. He's going to show us our problem. He shows us the solution to that problem, and then the results of that solution. So if you look at me in verses one to 3 of chapter 2. We'll see the problem. And it's about our life among the death works, those things that are vandalizing God's creation. Here's what he says. And you are dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we're by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Paul starts and he says, and you were dead. Now, the you here is interesting. So in Paul's day, there were 2 groups that Paul, as a Jewish man, would have recognized. There was Jewish people, and then everyone else in the world that would be Gentiles, non-Jewish people. The Ephesian church is predominantly Gentile. And Paul, as he grew up, before he met Jesus, his mentality would have been this. God chose the Jewish people, which is true. And he has nothing for the Gentiles. So there's us and them. And so he's right into the Ephesians, and God has put together, and we'll see this in coming sermons, the Jews and Gentiles into one body, which was his plan all along, to be his people. But there's a lot of cultural animosity and problems. And so Paul starts with, and you were dead, which Paul would have affirmed, like, you Gentiles were dead in your trespasses and sins. The idea of dead is separated from God. God is life. The Bible's really clear, the fact that we breathe in and out. The fact that the universe exists is because of God. Psalm 369 says, for with you is the fountain of life, in your light do we see light. It's because of God that there's any life at all. And he says, and you were dead. separated from God, cut off from God, dead in what? in the trespasses and sins. Paul uses 2 words here to talk about the things we do that have kind of vandalized and brings destruction and death into God's good creation. The 1st one he says is in your trespasses. We all know that to trespass is to cross a boundary that you're not supposed to cross. Often, though, if you're like me, you see a do not trespass sign and you think, they're just trying to keep me away from something good. There's something good on the other side of that sign that I'm supposed to have that I should have, that I'm entitled to, and they're just keeping me away from it. Imagine, though, if you were at a nuclear reactor. And it says, do not trespass. Because they know, if you go inside of that reactor, What's going to happen to you is bad. It's not a good thing. It's devastating for you. So it's saying, don't trespass. If you come into this area, it's bad for you. But it's not just bad for you. If something happens to a nuclear reactor, it's bad for everyone around that reactor if it melts down. And so this do not trespass sign that God puts into the world for some of the things he says don't do for us. says, one, it protects us because doing those things is dangerous. And two, it protects those around us. Because when we trespass into areas God said we shouldn't go, it's not just about me. It's about all those around me who also become impacted by that. He says, look, you were dead in your trespasses. You've gone places you shouldn't go. Result of that is death, your spiritual death disconnected from God. He says you're also dead in your sin. Sin, we hear the word sin, and we just think you did something wrong. But in the Bible, the word has a nuance of you miss the mark. Like the thing you were supposed to be doing, you didn't do it. So if someone's throwing a pass, if Mahomes is throwing a pass, and he's off target, he missed his mark. Now, we wouldn't say he sinned by throwing an incomplete pass unless you're a really, you know, big time fan like Matt. Maybe he did sin. But we just say he missed the mark, but the idea of sin is you're missing the mark of what you are intended to be doing. Think of a lighthouse. Here's a picture. A lighthouse has a purpose. It's to shine a light into the ocean so that ships won't crash. Now, imagine a lighthouse that doesn't shine its light. It's not trespassing in an area. It shouldn't be, but it's not fulfilling its purpose. Its purpose was to shine this light so others could see what's going on. When it doesn't shine, its light. It's missing the mark of its creation. Paul says, that's what's happened. You are dead both in the places you've gone that you shouldn't go, and you're not doing the things you are intended, that was your purpose, which is to be kind of reflective of God. to live in a godly manner. God created humans for that. And we have it, and he says, you guys were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you once walked. This idea of walking in the Bible is just the way you lived, it's your lifestyle. If you were to talk with someone, hey, what's your lifestyle? How do you live? We would just talk about the things we do. The normal course of our life. No, every now and then you may step out of your lifestyle and do something different. But your normal day, day in and day out. Paul said this is how we walk. This is the way you lived. You once walked in this, following the course of this world, following the way the world, and its fallen state operates. You were just following. He says, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work and the sons of disobedience. He says, you Gentiles, this is what you were like. You were following the course of the world, following the prince of the power of the air. Who is that? If you look back, the Bible is clear that in this fallen world, Satan is the prince of the power of the air. He's currently ruling over this fallen world. He has been defeated in Christ. He says, you guys followed him. How many of you growing up when you were younger? Maybe you still do. Probably not. How many of you played follow the leader? Raise your hand. So you play, follow the lead is a pretty simple game, right? SLU just, someone's a leader, and they do all kind of stuff, you jump over the speaker, you try to make sure people behind you, can't follow, but the goal is just follow the leader. How many of you wanted to be the leader? Like, that's your place. I just want to, like, Craig, you probably be going, yes, want to be the leader. Here's the reality in life. None of you. of us are the leader. You don't get to lead your own life. You're following one of 2 people. You're following Satan? You're following Jesus. That's it. We're always followers. We're not the leader. As much as people want to think. I am the captain of my own ship. I control my own destiny. I'm the leader of my life. Paul's clear. You are following one of 2 people. You're following Satan, the prince of the power of the air, or you're following Jesus. He says, you are dead in your sins, following Satan. And then he says in verse three, look, among whom we all once lived. Who's the we? Paul has now said he's not exempt from this. He said, I once lived there too. Christians, we can have a tendency, especially if you grew up in church to kind of think there's us in them. There's like us, and we're okay. God loves us. And then there's them, the vandals, the ones out wrecking society. Paul's honest enough to go, we're them two. We all once followed Satan. This was Paul a Jewish man. who would have been in church. every Sunday, Saturday for him. Constantly were. He said, I lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind. The idea of passions, the word passions isn't a negative thing in scripture, it's what you're passionate about. That's the problem. If you're passionate about the wrong things, Paul says, you are being driven by the passions of the flesh. It says we're cared about by not just our flesh, but our mind. We have a tendency in our culture to think this way. I have these urges in my body that make me do things that I shouldn't, but my mind is, I'm thinking straight about things, Paul doesn't leave that option. He says, our flesh and our mind, we're following the prince of the power of the Asians. We were dead. This is who we once were. We all lived in this. That word lived has the connotation of to dwell. It's where you are a citizen, so to speak. It's your home. It says, we all once made our home in this place, and we're by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Children of wrath, sons of disobedience, characterized, Paul says, that's our problem. that our life is being lived among the death works, and we are contributing to those death works with our life, he says. And if that's all he said, if that's the Bible's story, then we would go, well, that's not good. I guess we're in trouble. We'll just wait for judgment. that we've been following the wrong person, and there doesn't seem to be a fix for that. So we'll just wait for the verdict to come down. But in verse 4 through 9, we see Paul gives the solution. Which is that we are made alive by God's mercy, love, and grace. Verse four, but God. If you've been to church any length of time, you've heard, you know, but God. If you just watch stories, or live your own life. You've had moments where that simple word, but changes everything. Several years ago, I was driving back from a speaking engagement out in Kansas and I got on I 70, didn't look at my gas tank and realized, as I was driving along, that I was almost out of gas. And I'm going to run out of gas in the middle of I 70 at night. And if you've been down I 70 in Kansas. It's just desolate, right? I said, I had plans that night. I'm going to run out of gas. This is over. What can I do? But then I saw a gas station. And the story changed. You may have heard stories of a house that was on fire and someone's trapped in the house, but then the fire department showed up. and the person was saved. That simple word changes the direction of the story. Paul says, but God. What about him? Here's what he says. Being rich in mercy. Being rich in mercy. What's mercy? Mercy is when we don't get what we deserve to get. So if you've committed a crime and you've been found guilty. You deserve whatever the fine is. If a judge says, hey, I'm going to show mercy here and not impose that fine. They don't have to. They show mercy. God's rich in mercy. He doesn't have just a little bit. He says he's rich, he's overflowing with mercy. Two weeks ago, we talked about like the richest people in the world. I think Elon Musk is about $700 billion rich. I would consider that rich, Josh. don't know about you. I don't know what you consider rich. 700 billion. Here's the deal. Elon Musk is rich. His money doesn't help me at all. You know why? Because Elon Musk doesn't know that I exist. Doesn't care about me, doesn't love me. God could be rich in mercy, but if he doesn't care about you, so what? But look what he says. But God, being rich in mercy. He has all the mercy he needs because of the great love with which he loved us. Even, when we were dead in our trespasses. You have to hear that, even when you were dead in your trespass. When you were vandalizing God's creation. It says he loved you. And he's rich in mercy. You, I deserve death. We deserve our separation. We were vandalizing God's creation. Paul understands this perfectly. He was a man who, before he met Jesus, was killing Christians. If anybody understands, but God, being rich in mercy. It's Paul. He said, I was killing followers of Christ. And even then, God loved me. And God's mercy was so much that he showed me that mercy. What did he do? He made us alive together with Christ. And then Paul interjects us by grace, I've been saved. come back to that. It so overwhelms me. just kind of, let me throw this in there. He says, we've been made alive with Christ. You once were dead, he said, you lived in that land. You are a vandal. Now he's made you alive. And look what it says. And he raised us up with him. And seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ, Jesus. He raised us up and seated us with him. This goes back to Ephesians one. Here's what he's saying. Jesus came into the world. God the son became human, lived 33 years, died on a cross. He took death. But death couldn't keep him. And so he rose again, which is great. This guy, a human being, rose 2000 years ago from the dead. death's been defeated. And then it says, he was ascended back to the Father, and then he sat on the throne of the universe. Go listen to Matt's sermon last week to get way more detail on that, that he's been enthroned as king. But now he says, Paul's saying that we also, when we trust in Christ, we've been raised. We were dead in our sins, now we're made alive. And we've ascended with him. And we've been seated with him in the heavenly places. This illustration could almost make us think that, like we've arrived. that I've raised with Christ, I'm seated with Christ. Everything's done. And yet we look around and we know, there's still vandalism in this world. There's still people doing wrong things. If we're honest, we still do that on occasion. I have vandal thoughts. I have Vandal Act, and I'm like, okay, I'm raised with Christ. I'm seated with Christ. Paul, but it's not fully done yet. Paul's saying this because our salvation in Christ is so secure. He's saying that it's not fully accomplished, but it's 100% guaranteed locked in. How does he know that? It says because Christ has been raised and seeded. Another kid's game. How many of you played king of the mountain when you were young? Several years ago, when they started doing the work across from the Target over in the Tiffany Springs area, they have that big mound of dirt, it's still there. First time they left that mound of dirt. My brain went, that's king of the mountain hill right there. Didn't little get had a lot of rocks. King of the mountains, easy, if you never played it, go home and play it today. Find a big pile of dirt, and try to get on top. And if you can get on top of that pile, anyone else who tries to get on that pile, you just throw them off. That's king of the mountain. But if someone's stronger than you, if they could sneak up behind you, know what they would do? They would throw you right off that mountain. And down you would tumble. Here's how it works. Jesus is king of the mountain. But he's not like at the top of the mountain. Paul says he's like seated so high above all the other people trying to crawl up that mountain. politicians in our world who want power, Satan and his evil spiritual forces who want that power. He's seated so high above it, no one can ever throw Jesus off the mountain that he's king of. No one can sneak up behind him. It's guaranteed, that we will be seated with him, that we are with him. But look at verse seven. Why is that so? So that, in the coming ages, he that's God, might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Why did he do this? Why has God, through his love and his mercy, raised us up with Christ and seated us with Christ? He says, here, Paul says, here, so that in the coming ages. Not just this fallen time, but for all eternity into the future, we're going to be on display, to show off God's immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. That'll always be on display. We'll see later in Roman, in Ephesians, that were also on display to the spiritual powers, that the angels are going to look at God's people and go, this shows us what God's like. Several weeks ago, in my last sermon, I got to talk about this, Leslie and I went to the Grand Canyon, and if how many of you have been to the Grand Canyon? There is the point where you just go, yeah, it's as grand as they say it is. And it's impressive. But by the end of the 2nd day, And we'd have been there 2 days. And it was still impressive, but it's like, that's a really cool big hole in the ground. That's really cool. But it less lost some of its luster. And I imagine if you looked at the Grand Canyon every day for a year. If you work there, you would kind of go, yeah, it's impressive, but I'm kind of common. It's every day, it's ordinary. I think Paul's saying here, for all eternity, We're never going to look at God's kindness towards us and go, that's just kind of ordinary. That's just kind of common. That will be on display for all of eternity. Then he says, for by grace, you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. This is a key understanding of our faith. You and I do not earn our salvation. It's not a paycheck. If the goal was for us to earn our salvation like we're workers, we've been fired already. We've already vandalized the job site. That's Paul's statement of the problem. We all vandalize God's job site. And if I have to earn my paycheck, I can't do it. I'm already out of the job. But he says, God has a gift that he gives us. Our salvation is not something I earn and then expect God to give me my paycheck. If we're all honest with ourselves, we would know, I don't want to do that anyway. If it's up to me, not just in my day-to-day outward actions, but in my inner thoughts, at the very core, at the very bottom of my heart, to be holy and righteous. I want to be humble enough to know, even times when I go, I'm having the right thought about someone who did something wrong to me. I don't know if that wrong got bad enough. If I'm being nailed to a cross, so to speak. I don't know if I'd say, Father, forgive them. I don't know, like if you squeeze me hard enough, at some point I would go, I don't think goodness is natural to me. I need Christ. Not my own. He says, you've been saved by grace through faith. Faith is in Jesus, by the way. It's not just faith in anything. It's not just trust something, just trust anything, and that lets you have hope for tomorrow, and then life will be good. That works for a little while. You can have faith in something that won't sustain you. And until you find out it won't sustain you is wonderful. Right? You can have faith in your car. Like, hey, I got faith. I'm getting my car tomorrow and it's going to start, then you get in it and it doesn't start, you go, well, that faith was useless. It's faith in Christ who has already defeated death, has already been seated with the Father. That's why we have the solution. That solution, though, was given not just to say, now you're set free from death. There's a result that comes with it. Look at verse 10. We have been made alive to do God's life works. We were trapped dead in sin. We've been made alive in Christ when we trust in him. Not do anything we do. We just say, God, I trust you. I want to follow it. He says, God then says, you're mine. And that's open to every single human being. to say yes to. He says, for we are his workmanship. cradling Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before him that we should walk in them. We are his workmanship. We are his craftsmanship. The idea here in the original language is of a person who's building something and they're really good at it. And so they've built this object and that's their workmanship. That's their craftsmanship. It has a purpose. When I was growing up, I used to play guitar much more than I do now. I don't get to play much anymore. And so I started looking up, like, what are expensive guitars that normal people can buy? It's not like collector stuff, but just if you went to a guitar store, what could you buy? in the Roma guitars. And one of the most expensive is a Martin acoustic guitar, the authentic series. I put one up there. It looks just like every other guitar. In some extent, you know. You could put that beside a $200 guitar. If you didn't know any better, you would think it's the same. That guitar, $9,000 to $15,000. Now, imagine, the Martin guitar craftsman who built that. If you bought that guitar, and you put it beside your door, in your house, the front door. And when you came home, you draped your jacket over it. Or you hung your wet shoe on the top? Or let's just say you laid it on the side and you filled it with dirt and you had a plant grow out of it. You can do that with it. It's not its purpose. It's not why it was crafted. It was crafted for someone to play it. And when they play it, you go, Beauty is made. Art is made. We are God's workmanship. Now, we can take this life that he's given us, and we've all done it, and we basically act like we're just a potted plant, like, hey, I'm going to use my life for something that's not my intended purpose. For sin and trespass. Paul says, oh, we're saved by Christ. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus. He made us, not we ourselves. What for? For good works. The God had already prepared that we should what? walk in them, that that should be our lifestyle. It should be the way we live, that we are doing good works to reflect God's creation into creation. So God creates this world and he puts humans here and he says, take care of it for me. Reflect me into all of creation. And we all became vandals. That's Adam and Eve in the garden sinning. We all became vandals. And God sends his son to die for us, to rise again, to recreate us, to say, now go do the good works that I've called you to do. And God prepared us to do this very thing. We have been made alive to do God's good work. So what do we do? What do we do today? First question I have for you is this. Are you God's artist or a vandal? Now, we've all been a vandal. No one in this room can go, ah, I've never sinned. I've never trespassed. We've all done that. But maybe you're here and you're going, I have sinned and trespassed against God, and I've never trusted him. I've tried to be my own leader, but now you're realizing you're not your own leader? You're either following Satan or you're following Christ. Those are the 2 options the Bible gives. And if you're here and you're going, I think I'm just a vandal. that I'm not God's artist. I'm not living my life the way he told me to live, the way he called me to live, the way he has created us to live, I've been living it my own way, I need to change. I need to be different. I need to be reborn. And that means you need to trust Christ with your life. Go from death to life. Don't trust church attendance. Simply coming to church doesn't make you right with God. Doing good things doesn't make you right with God. All the good things you can do doesn't negate the vandalism that we've done. And even if you're saying, I do a lot of good things. If you're not giving God credit for those good things. At the end of the day, you're saying, I've done good things, good works that God prepared for me, and I'm just going to take the credit. I'm going to get all the glory. And that itself is a sin and a trespass, that we are not acknowledging God for who he is. Trust Christ with your life. And a little bit, the band's gonna come up. We have a prayer corner back here. One of our pastors, Willie Hunter, is back there. If you want to go pray, you can. If you want to talk about what it means to follow Christ. Just head back, talk with Will and say, what does this mean? Who is Jesus? I want to give my life to him. I want to trust Christ with my life. But most of you in here are already followers of Christ. And so I think what Paul is telling us is this. Do God's life works. And that's not some massive project we think. What amazing thing can I do today that is such a big deal that everyone will know. I'm out doing God's life works. It's just the day to day things we do. In your home. What can you do this week with your family that shows them God's love? That could be as simple as doing a chore. Or are bringing them a snack just to say, hey, you relax. I'll take care of that How can you do good works in your family at your job? What are the things you can do this week in your job that reflects God's love for those around you, that cantanker his coworker? How can you show love to them? How can you reflect God's goodness into the world at your job, in your neighborhood? What are things you can do in your neighborhood that would bring joy to that neighborhood, bring happiness, bring goodness and beauty? How about on your social media this week? Say, what can I post on my social media? that brings life that brings hope, that reflects God's good works that he's doing? Today's love your neighbor day here at Northland. Love your neighbor day. We go out into the community and just do good things. We think here at Northland that the gospel, as we share the good news of who Christ is. There's kind of 2 ways we want to do that. One is we need to tell people about Jesus. Like, explain who he is. The other one is, we want to show them God's love. You can show God's love to people, but if you never say who Jesus says and what they've done, they may think. That's just a really nice person. And you can also tell people about Jesus in a way that isn't loving that doesn't show that you love them. We wanna do both. Today we have Love Your Neighbor Day. We're going to do things today, like go and take cookies and stuff to 1st responders. We write and thank you notes to teachers. We're helping clean up Riverside in anticipation of the World Cup. We're going to nursing homes to hang out with the residents there. A whole host of things. Simply, the good works that God prepared beforehand for us to walk in. Now, Love Your Neighbor is a day we do here. And we're going to try to go do nice things, good things. That's kind of symbolic, though, every day in your life should be Love Your Neighbor Day. that we should always be doing the good works that God's create us to do. Go out this week, and next week, and the week after, and be God's artists. Vandals who have been forgiven through Christ, saved because we put our trust in him, and now each day, saying, how can I do the good works, God, that you called me to do? We have been made alive. Made alive in Christ to carry out God's life works. Will you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for your son, for his death and resurrection, by that he frees us from our trespasses and our sins. Father, you, because you are rich in mercy and you love us, have given us grace. and given us life in your son. I pray if someone doesn't know your son, that they would put their trust in him today. And for those of us who know him, Father, remind us that we haven't done anything to earn your love. You loved us. You love everyone while we're dead in our trespasses and sins. We'll open our eyes to see you and this week to see the good works that you are prepared for us to do. May we walk in them. May that be our lifestyle. So in the name of Jesus, we pray.