SERMON MANUSCRIPT
A couple of weeks ago I learned that the long-time pastor of the church my wife and I used to attend was stepping down from his role. (I guess he decided that at 89-years old and after sixty-five years of ministry, it was time to slow down.) The church released a video announcing that he’ll continue to preach as his health allows while most other pastoral duties and burdens will shift to his successor.
As I watched the announcement, I was thankful. Not only for how God used this pastor to bless Patricia and me but for his life-long model of faithfulness. Over six decades of scandal-free service to our Lord. Tragically, that seems a rarity today. So, I was filled with gratitude.
But I was also filled with urgency because it was this same pastor who, more than once, spoke of his eventual death, saying that, in an ideal world, he wanted to finish a sermon, say “amen,” and have his chin hit the pulpit on the way to the floor. He wanted to go down swinging. He wanted to go out on his shield. And it was funny when he said it. The congregation laughed with a mix of imagination and appreciation.
I found it less funny last week watching that announcement because it seems less hypothetical now. This pastor’s last sermon could be close.
And then I quickly realized, mine could be even closer! There are no guarantees. And the words of a particular 17th-century pastor came to mind: “I preached as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men.” There’s urgency!
Now, I want to be clear: this is not my way of creatively breaking bad news. As far as I know, I’ve got many hours left behind this pulpit. But I have been feeling the urgency. I started asking myself, if I had just one sermon left, what would I want to say? If I knew I was addressing God’s people from God’s word a final time, what message would I bring? To what passage would I turn?
And, almost immediately, Ephesians 2 came to mind. While all Scripture is equally inspired and equally authoritative, not all Scripture is equally urgent. This passage, however, is urgent.
WHAT WE WERE BEFORE CHRIST
Writing to Christians like you and me, Paul opens this chapter with a reminder of what we were before Christ. [2:1–3]
What we all were can be hopelessly summarized by a single word: “dead.” “You were dead.” Brothers and sisters, we were dead.
And in case we’re not exactly sure what that means, Paul explains. First, it means we were walking in step with the world, living “according to the course of this world.” Like tossing a twig into a fast-moving river and watching it passively be carried along by the current, so were we moving through this life. And that wouldn’t be bad if the world wasn’t under the curse of sin, set against God, and barreling toward a waterfall of destruction. But it is. And we all ignorantly and enthusiastically marched in step to that fallen drumbeat.
Second, “dead” means we were influenced by the devil, “the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” Paul comes back to this idea in [6:12]. Satan is the ruler of this river—a judged and defeated ruler, but cunning and vindictive. And we all were oblivious to his presence, power, and influence, like an undetected cancer that consumes and kills without impediment.
Third, “dead” means we were ensnared by our flesh, indulging its destructive desires without hesitation or discernment. It wasn’t just the world around us and the devil about us, but the flesh within us. We weren’t mere victims or prisoners. We were active participants. We loved our sin and lived to satisfy all its poisonous cravings, ensnared by selfishness and self-righteousness.
So, what were we before Christ? Zombies. Dead people walking around unaware that they’re dead; in rebellion against God, separated from God, and useless to God. We were in step with the world, influenced by the devil, and ensnared by our flesh.
As the culture around us celebrates and normalizes sin, it often does so under the banners of freedom and fulfillment. “Free yourself from old-fashioned thinking, oppressive hierarchies, and objective truth. Experience the emancipation from biological realities, familial responsibilities, and the constraints of a God who’s not there anyway. Throw off the shackles of inhibitions, conscience, and a morality external to yourself and come into the light of true liberty. Enjoy the river! The water’s as life-giving as it is fast-flowing!”
The world, the flesh, and the devil write big cheques, cheques that tickle the ears and promise everything we could want. But without exception, those cheques bounce. And, instead, what do we get?
“And [we] were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest (2:3b).” Instead of freedom, joy, fulfillment, and life there’s divine anger. God is love, yes, but he’s also just and holy. And, because of that, he cannot let sin go unpunished or he’d cease being what he is. So what we were before Christ was dead, enslaved, judgement-deserving rebels.
And, by the way, if you’re here today and you’ve never placed your faith in the person, work, and promise of Jesus Christ, that’s you now. But it doesn’t have to be! Let’s look at the alternative.
WHAT WE ARE IN CHRIST
Verse 4 begins with two of the most precious words in all of Scripture: “But God.” And on these two words Paul pivots from what we were before Christ to what we are in Christ.
God could have left us in our rebellion, just allowed us to ride the current toward destruction like we wanted and deserved. But he didn’t. Why? Because “he’s rich in mercy” and [2:4b–6a].
Grace means we’ve been given something we didn’t earn or deserve and, in this case, we’ve been given life, salvation from the world, the flesh, and the devil, their hollow promises, and the wrath we deserve. We were frolicking in waters of doom when the inexpressibly gracious and merciful God threw us a lifeline and pulled us to eternal safety.
While we were dead, now we’re alive with Christ. God woke up the dead with the life which is in Christ and which flows from Christ. We have crossed from death to life, been regenerated, born again, enlivened by God’s Spirit. We are, right now, alive with Christ.
We’re also raised with Christ. We’re woken up and then we’re lifted up! While we will one day be raised physically (hallelujah!), we are currently raised spiritually, sharing in Jesus’s exaltation and power.
In fact, we are, right now, seated with Christ. Positionally, we are in heaven because Christ is in heaven and we’re in Christ. That’s our home. Our passports are eternal and from the glorious Country beyond. We are aliens and strangers in this world. While we used to “walk according to the course of this world” now we are “seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (2:6). The contrast is dramatic.
We were dead but now we’re alive with Christ, raised with Christ, and seated with Christ. Finally, we’re trophies of Christ. Why would God make rebels into royalty? [2:7] Some people fill a room with evidence of their success—awards and honours, medals and certificates, plaques and pictures, all declaring with a unified voice, “Victory!”
God the Father will fill, not a room but a new heavens and new earth, with living, walking, breathing attestations of his victory. That’s us. We are trophies of God’s goodness, pictures of his mercy, and exhibits of his grace, forever declaring his power to his creation.
Into a world crippled by insecurity, feelings of purposelessness and worthlessness, God shouts to his people: “Stop living like a zombie! You’re not dead anymore. I’ll tell you who you are: you’re my resurrected child, already in heaven with me. I’ll tell you what you’re worth: you’re worth my Son’s life. I’ll tell you you’re purpose: to reflect my beauty to the ugly world you were saved out of.”
When you’re not sure what to think about yourself, let your Creator clear the air. When the world wants to tell us who we are, let’s remember who God says we are. In Christ, we’re his treasure.
And as God himself said in Isaiah 42: “I am the Lord, that is my name; I will not give my glory to another.” And to ensure that his trophy room is all about the Winner of the trophies and not the trophies themselves, all about God and not us, look at [2:8–9].
Our salvation is all about God’s grace. He rescued us because he loved us and desired to show his magnificent character in waking us, lifting us, seating us, and parading us. It’s not something we conjure, create, or build; it’s “not of [ourselves].” God, and God alone, is the initiator, backer, engineer, contractor, manufacturer, and distributor of salvation. “It is the gift of God.”
And a gift is a gift because it’s a gift. If I give someone money to buy me a gift, it’s not a gift. If I buy myself a gift, it’s not a gift. If I insist on reimbursing someone for a gift, it’s not really a gift. All of these attempts to participate in the process undermine the generosity of the gift and steal glory from its giver.
So too in our salvation. “It is the gift of God.” Baptism doesn’t open the gift. Getting your life cleaned up doesn’t make you worthy of it. Sorrow over sin doesn’t save. Commitment to suffering for Christ isn’t a prerequisite. Church attendance, taking communion, evangelistic zeal, Bible knowledge,; none of these earn, open, or apply the gift of salvation and to insist they do is to undermine the generosity of the gift and steal glory from its Giver.
So, how do we open this gift? How do we move from dead to alive, from wrath to resurrection? “Through faith.” The saving grace of God flows through only one conduit and that conduit is belief. [John 3:16]
The gift of salvation is unwrapped by believing in the person, work, and promise of Jesus Christ; that he is who he says he is (the Son of God), did what the Bible says he did (died for your sins and rose from the dead), and can do what he promises to do (give everlasting life to all who trust him for it). As Paul and Silas once told a desperate man: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”
WHAT WE’RE TO DO FOR CHRIST
What we were before Christ was dead, enslaved, children of wrath. What we are in Christ is alive, raised, seated, trophies of his grace. But that’s not the end. In verse 10, Paul turns to what we’re to do for Christ. How now shall we live?
This week I spent some time reading accounts of near-death experiences—car accidents, medical mishaps, drug overdoses, things like that. As varied as they are, there are also commonalities, one of which what might be called a zeal for life. One person said, “My near-death experience … has given me a new sense of urgency to pursue my passions and live my life to the fullest, without fear of the unknown.” Deliverance brings joyful motivation.
The first nine verses of this chapter describe our near-death experience. We were all delivered from death, pulled from the wreckage, snatched from the river. How now shall we live? [2:10]
“Living life to the fullest” didn’t save that person I mentioned, but it was their response to being saved. For us, works don’t save us but they are a right response to being saved. And God has them ready for us.
What are they? Well, even if we stay in Ephesians we have a great sample: “Speak truth! Don’t steal! Work hard! Watch your mouth! Be kind to one another! Put away bitterness! Be imitators of God! Walk in love! Do not grieve the Spirit! Avoid immorality! Walk as children of light! Expose darkness! Be filled with the Spirit! Be strong in the Lord! Take up the armour of God! Stand firm!”
In other words, live godly lives. That’s what God has prepared in advance for us to do and he’s given us his Spirit to teach, empower, and guide us in that thankful and worshipful endeavour. You’ve been saved! Don’t waste it! Labour for your Lord, as the trophy of grace that you are.
There’s urgency in this passage, I think. An urgency for those here today who have never believed in Jesus. Consider these things, friend! For those who have been saved, there’s an agency to get to work, motivated by the salvation we’ve received. To kill sin, apathy, and lethargy, to build up the body of Christ, and to share the gospel of grace with those around us.
Finally, there’s an urgency to remember the cost, the grace, the life, the goodness of God. Lest we forget!
Josiah has served the Oakridge Bible Chapel family as one of its elders and one of its pastoral staff members since September 2018, before which he ministered as an associate pastor to a local congregation in the Canadian prairies. Josiah's desire is to be used by God to help equip the church for ministry, both while gathered (edification) and while scattered (evangelization). He is married to Patricia, and together they have five children—Jonah, Henry, Nathaniel, Josephine, and Benjamin.
