Easter Service _ Ephesians 2:1-10: "The Mercy of the Cross"

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

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Part of what we do on a Sunday morning is open a passage of Scripture and seek to understand what God says about whatever is in that passage.

And this morning I would like to direct our attention to the book of Ephesians in chapter 2.

We've been looking the last week at aspects of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we arrive this morning to the mercy that is found in the cross of the Lord Jesus.

Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

Have you ever thought about which words are the most essential words in the English language?

It's a difficult question, especially when you realize that the third edition of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary has entries for 600,000 words.

Okay, about 50,000 of those are obsolete.

So 550,000 words.

Which ones are most essential to the English language?

That's a lot of words, even for someone who speaks a lot.

To put it into perspective, the average number of words spoken daily by a single person is around 16,000 words.

Yes, you say that many.

That means it would take an average person with a typical day of speaking more than a month to cover all of the words in the English language.

So ask yourself, of all the words that you say in a typical month, which words are most essential?

Only 500 to 1,000 of the 16,000 words we use daily have substantial value.

The vast majority of the words we use are filler.

Now that doesn't mean to tune me out, that just means keep listening.

All of our words have a place in speaking.

But only a small portion of our words have actual value in our communication with one another.

And we might argue that it is impossible to determine the value of words in a language.

For example, the importance would vary by situation.

The words I need to use at the grocery store might have far less value than the words I need to use at the doctor's office.

But if forced to decide, we could argue that words pertaining to life and death might be the most important.

Of those involving life and death, the two words found at the beginning of Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 4 are the most important words you might ever hear or use.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

But God.

If you have a Bible, I encourage you to follow along as I read Ephesians chapter 2, beginning in verse 4.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ.

By grace, you have been saved.

And 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.

Amen.

I think it's easy to get sidetracked in this passage by the prevalence of pronouns.

Us, we, you, us, us, us.

Over and over again.

There's this collective sense of all of us together, packaged together, God does something for us.

And it's exciting to get to know what God has done for us, what we get to take away from this morning, what we get to walk away with on Easter morning with an empty tomb.

And what is said about us is not insignificant.

But it is secondary.

These pronouns here that I've just recited identify the subject of the sentences.

They show us who receives the action.

But it is the object of the sentence that is dominant.

The one that is acting is God Himself.

If the emphasis is placed on the subject, we might say, look at Swen, look at what's been done for us.

But if the focus is placed on the object of the sentence, we would say, can you believe what God has done for us?

Do you see the difference?

One diminishes the attention on God and gives a weightier focus on us.

The other is a primary focus on God and a secondary focus on us.

Now, why is that important?

You didn't come to Easter Sunday morning service for a grammar lesson.

That's okay.

I'm not a grammar teacher.

It's important because if we emphasize the subject over the object, we overlook the two most essential words in the English language.

But God.

The words but God are the two most important words in our language because of the reality in which you and I exist.

That's all presented in the first three chapters of first three verses of this chapter.

He says in verse 1, without God we are dead in our trespasses and sins.

Without God, human beings are spiritually dead.

We are walking dead.

We live in the physical realm, but in the spiritual realm, we are dead.

Our nature is entirely opposed to God.

We are like Lazarus in the tomb, unable to do anything but exist in the realm of our death.

But God.

Those words split the eerly, eerie silence of death with glorious power and clarity.

Those two words shake us like thunder, breaking the stillness of the night.

They're the equivalent of John chapter 11, verse 43, where the Lord Jesus stands before an open tomb and speaks to a dead and stinking corpse.

John 11:43

Lazarus, come out.

Be born again and live.

God says to the dead, live.

Live.

But here in Ephesians, the recipient of that call of God is not Lazarus.

Instead, the recipients are described for us in the first chapter of Ephesians.

We see beginning in verse 3 that these are people who have been called by God, blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, people that have been chosen by him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him.

The recipients are those predestined to be adopted as daughters and sons of God through Jesus Christ.

So they are those who are redeemed by the blood of Friday's cross and granted the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.

These people have heard the word of truth, the gospel of our salvation.

They have believed in Jesus as the Messiah and have been sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.

The richness and glory of God's work of saving his people from their sins in the first chapter is the background of these four verses in chapter two.

Now look more closely at them.

Noticing the emphasis not on what we receive, but what God has done.

But God.

These verses answer three questions about this captivating phrase.

Who is this God?

What has this God done?

And why has he done this?

First, let's ask the question: who is this God?

Going back to the first chapter, I didn't make sure that I counted them all exactly, but there are at least 14 characteristics of this God.

The emphasis is not on us, the emphasis is on what God has done.

Who is this God?

He is a God who chose his own people before the foundation of the world.

He is a God who predestined those people for adoption as sons.

He is a God who redeemed us through his blood.

He is a God who lavished us with his grace.

He is a God who has made known to us the mystery of his will, a God who grants an inheritance, who seals with his spirit, who calls us to assure hope.

He is a God who set Christ in a position of all authority and power and rule.

He is a God who gave Christ as the head of the church.

He's a God who gives a spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge in Christ.

He's a God who enlightens the eyes of our hearts.

A God who extends his immeasurable power and grace towards those who believe.

That's who this God is.

He is a gracious God who acts on behalf of others.

This is not a capricious God.

It's not a God who acts because he just wants to have fun with people.

I'm going to act on the benefit and behalf of others who don't have anything to offer to me.

He is a gracious God who acts on behalf of others.

That's what the first chapter sets up for us.

But as we move into the second chapter, we see a little bit more about this God.

We see that he is a God who is exceptional in his character.

But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us.

I see two aspects of his character here.

The first is that he is rich in mercy.

This means to have compassion that results in action.

Think of Luke chapter 10 and the story of the Good Samaritan.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

The one who had mercy on the beat-up man.

You remember that story, right?

There's a man who's traveling through some dangerous regions of ancient Judea, and he was assaulted by some robbers and left for dead.

Some people came by.

Jewish priests.

Series of people came by, and they just walked right on by him.

But the one who stopped was the despised Samaritan.

And the despised Samaritan took out of his own pocketbook to care for this man's needs.

He was merciful to him.

He took him and bandaged his wounds.

So you can see then that God's actions are based on his character.

He is rich in mercy, and therefore he acts towards those who need his mercy.

He is gentle, he is lowly, he is compassionate to shepherdless people.

Mercy is often expressed in giving undeserved kindness, help, aid, forgiveness to those who are in need.

And God does not merely have mercy, but he is rich in mercy.

There's a parable in Matthew chapter 18 that illustrates this.

Matthew 18 · chapter mention

There's a man who has an unpayable debt.

Comparable to you or myself having a billion-dollar debt that we could never repay in multiple lifetimes.

Who is just forgiven.

That's being rich in mercy.

How needed is that mercy?

Well, if you believe the scriptures in chapter 2, verses 1, 2, and 3, you will see that it is a matter of life and death.

The dead, the spiritually dead, we're living, we're walking, we're breathing, but we are spiritually dead, are bound to our sin like Lazarus to his wrappings, desperately needing mercy whether we realize it or not.

Each of us is in desperate need of God's mercy, and he has that mercy available to you and not just to you, but to you in great riches.

So much so that if he gives his mercy to you in the greatness of his riches, there's nothing of it diminished for the next person who needs the greatness of his mercy.

Not only does he have so much mercy, but he's infinite in his love.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us.

Notice who is that little word there, that adjective great.

It's abundant.

These are character qualities that exceed what is expected, what is beyond anything that we could ever imagine.

He is more excellent in mercy and more gracious in love than you could ever think to imagine.

How do we comprehend that?

How do we process such great love?

Well, thankfully, he tells us in 1 John chapter 4, verses 9 and 10, you might have heard these verses.

1 John 4:9

John says, In this, in this was the love of God made manifest, or in this way, God's love was shown to us.

That God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him.

And in this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us.

And sent his son to be the propitiation, the satisfying element for our sins.

How great is God's love for you.

It is so great that he sent his son, who existed in another realm, into this realm, ruled by Satan and evil, just so that he might show you his love by dying for you.

You didn't ask for it, he gave it.

That is how great his love is.

And God's love is first shown, displayed in his love for his only son, his unique son, his only begotten son.

Two places in the Gospel of John, in chapter 3 and chapter 5, it says the Father loves the Son.

The Father sent his son and he loved his son.

It's interesting that if we compare that to Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 4, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him, in love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

If we now hold the same identifying characteristics as God's only begotten Son, then that means we are the recipients of his great and magnificent and infinite love just as his only son.

So what is this God who is rich in character?

What has he done?

The answers are given in general terms before being specific.

God's character, his rich mercy and his great love motivated his grace to save his chosen children from the power of death and slavery to sin.

And that same power, we're told, was exercised in raising his son from the dead and now gives new life to the redeemed.

So think about this.

The Father loves the Son.

God the Father loves God the Son.

Therefore, those he loves are now adopted as daughters and sons.

If you have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have the authority to be called a daughter of God, a son of God.

And he loves you.

The Father raised the Son.

Therefore, he raised his adopted daughters and sons.

The Father seated his beloved Son at his right hand in the heavenly places.

Consequently, he has seated his adopted children in heavenly places.

Do you hear that repeated connection with Jesus, with the Son?

It's particularly emphasized here.

I find this fascinating.

The Apostle Paul coins some new words in his language that we don't find anywhere else but here in the Apostle Paul.

He said, We are made alive with Christ.

Even when we were dead in our trespasses in verse 5, he made us alive.

You might translate that as we were co-made alive.

Together with him, right with him, we were made alive.

We were co-raised with him.

With him, we were raised up from the dead.

We were co-seated with him.

So when Jesus has these actions done, it's as though all of God's sons and daughters are there with Jesus, being raised with him, made alive with him, and seated with him.

The Father loves the Son and would not let him face eternal corruption of death.

So he raised him from the dead, undoing Adam's curse of death and elevating Jesus to the place of supreme honor and authority.

And God the Father has caused us to be a part of that work in his beloved Son.

Because, get this, He is rich in mercy and great in love.

In a spiritual sense, we've been made alive.

We were dead, but in Christ, we were made alive by the power of God.

In Christ, we were raised from the spiritual death and transferred to the kingdom of Christ.

The power of God displayed in the resurrection of Christ gave us life.

Maybe you don't experience that life.

Maybe you're here and this is this is kind of your first time at an Easter Sunday, and you're thinking, this is weird.

Welcome.

We love you.

We want you to know Jesus.

We want you to know this new life.

A new life that is offered to anyone who sees Christ crucified on the cross, buried in a tomb, and risen again to pay the price for your sin.

Trust in him.

Verse 5.

Even when we were dead in our trespasses.

Lazarus was in the tomb when Jesus came.

You remember that he'd been there for three days, and his sisters were afraid that by opening the tomb they would smell the decay.

We were dead.

How?

In the realm of our trespasses, in the realm of our sins.

That's why Romans chapter 5, verse 8 says that while we We're still sinners.

Romans 5:8

Christ died for us.

Titus chapter 3, verse 5.

Titus 3:5

He saved us not because of works of righteousness, not because of good things that we did, but according to his own mercy.

What has he done?

He's done three things specifically.

First, he's made us alive together with Christ.

The dead, the walking dead, are made alive.

The rotten stench of our sin before the holy God is gone, forgiven, separated from him as far as the east is from the west.

And if God could ever forget, they are forgotten, put behind him, thrown down into the depths of the sea, the illustrations tell us.

Like Lazarus in body, we have been made alive in spirit by the power of God.

And so our first birth is born as children of wrath.

We're told that in the first three verses.

That's why Peter would rejoice.

Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For according to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

It's his great mercy.

The cross is offensive.

But if you can see through the veil of that offense, you get to see there's mercy there.

There's hope there.

The spiritual part of us that was dead as new life in Christ, it's alive in a way that has never been.

And that comes from the riches of his glorious grace.

God's mercy and love motivate his grace to make us alive.

He's made us alive with Christ, but as his mercy was not content to leave us dead in our sins, he was not content to make us merely alive.

For as Lazarus was made alive in the tomb, he still had to come out of the tomb.

And so too, he has raised us together with Christ.

The Lord Jesus was not the only one to leave that tomb.

With him was every person whom God has redeemed, raised to new life.

This declaration parallels chapter 1, verse 20, raising Christ from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavenly places.

It parallels what was told to the Colossian church in Colossians 2.12.

You also were raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead.

If you belong to his family, you were raised from that tomb.

Because you also were crucified with Christ, and it's no longer you who live, but Christ lives in you.

Those whom God has chosen to make alive in Christ are no longer entombed in death.

You are as God intended humanity to be in the garden.

No longer are you the walking dead, for you've been raised to new life.

God's children live because his only begotten lives.

Death is dead for all who live in Christ.

It's amazing what God has done in the richness of his mercy.

But we're not done.

He also seated us with him in the heavenly places.

The risen and ascended Jesus has the honored, exalted position of sitting at the Father's right hand.

But God has seated me there with Jesus.

And seated you there if you have faith in him.

Every one of his chosen, adopted, redeemed, and forgiven children who are given new life in Christ and are raised from the deadness of their sin are also raised to the honored position of being seated with Christ in the heavenly places.

So we have a new position.

We are seated with Christ.

We possess a new identity as children of God.

And we have obtained a new home with God.

How could that be?

It's all because of two words.

But God.

Now we have a third question to answer.

Why has he done this?

But before we do it, before we answer that question, we need to note that everything here in Ephesians 2, verses 4, 5, 6, and 7 depends upon an empty tomb.

Ephesians 2:4

If there is no empty tomb, then we do not have Ephesians 2.

Consider with me 1 Corinthians chapter 15, beginning in verse 14.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

Apostle Paul asks, if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain.

Because we testify about God that He raised Christ.

We will be liars.

For if that my right one?

Yeah.

For if in Christ the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.

And if Christ has not been raised, then you are still dead.

In the tomb, in your sins.

And your faith is futile and you're still in your sins.

So if Christ did not rise, everyone remains dead in their trespasses and sins, walking in the trespasses and sins that they were born in as children of wrath from Ephesians 2, 1 and 2 and 3.

And faith is pointless without the resurrection.

If Christ is not out of the tomb, then any faith we might have is pointless.

There is no hope for those who have died.

And we ought to be pitied as foolish people.

But thankfully, the passage continues.

But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead.

It is true.

The tomb is empty.

Christ has been raised from the dead.

He is the first fruits, the first ones of those who have fallen asleep.

Everyone who has died in Christ will be raised from the dead, and he's the first one.

For as by one man came death, by another man has come the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam everybody dies, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

Each in his own order in Christ.

The first fruits, then it is coming those who belong to him.

Death is no more than falling asleep for those who are in Christ.

There is hope of new life.

There is the completion of the grace promised, of being with him.

Why?

Why?

But God.

That's why.

See, Ephesians chapter 2, verses 4, 5, 6, and 7 cannot be true if Christ does not rise.

Ephesians 2:4

If Jesus is still entombed in death, then we are not made alive.

We are not raised, nor are we seated with Christ.

If Christ does not rise, then God is not rich in mercy toward anybody.

But the tomb is empty.

Therefore, those whom God has chosen to be his adopted, redeemed children are no longer allowed to remain in the deadness of their trespasses and sins.

Instead, his rich mercy and his great love reaches out and gives them new life, raising them from the deadness of their sin and seats them with his son.

Why would God do that?

Why this display of his mercy and his grace?

Why take on the terrible cost of becoming sin for rebels such as me?

Why the incarnation?

Why take on flesh?

Why?

Why the suffering?

Why the cross?

Why the tomb?

Why the resurrection?

Verse seven tells us.

So that he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Now remember, this is not ultimately about us.

We are merely the thankful, grateful recipients of the Father's immeasurable grace.

And that grace is so immeasurable, that mercy so rich, that love so infinite that the Father wants it on display forever and ever in any age that might ever exist.

And those who become his children by faith in his crucified and resurrected Son are the living displays of that grace.

They are the living Lazaruses.

They are the ones who have been given new life, who have been raised from the dead and seated with Christ so that all can see the riches of his mercy and the infinite measure of his love.

Christ the Son was crucified.

He was buried.

And he was raised so that the adopted daughters and sons might too be raised to new life to glorify God through the eternal display of his rich mercy and his infinite love.

God's power in raising Jesus from the dead became the avenue for him to give new life to his children.

Jesus must live if we are to have that hope.

He must be raised if we are to be granted new life.

I like the way that A.

W.

Tozer wrote it.

When through the blood of the everlasting covenant, we, we children of the shadows, when we reach at last our home in the light, we will have a thousand strings to our harps.

But the sweetest one may well be tuned to sound forth most perfectly the mercy of God.

Six months into his stay in a mental hospital and thinking himself beyond God's redeeming grace, William Cooper found an intentionally placed Bible laying on a bench in the garden of the hospital.

Later he wrote down what he experienced when he found that Bible.

My eyes filled with tears, and my voice choked with transport, and I could only look up to heaven in silent fear, overwhelmed with love and wonder.

Maybe you are where William Cooper was.

Having a sense, a bit, a taste of hope about God's willingness to rescue you, to forgive you, but maybe you feel beyond his power.

Trust in his life-giving power on your behalf.

Receive his life by the grace of God the Father.

For our Lord's death offers payment for your debt of sin so that you might be freed, raised up, given new life, and seated with him.

Through his burial, he takes away your sin forever.

And through his resurrection, he offers you new life in him, rest forever in the butt God.

And if you are already a Christian, praise God from whom all blessings flow.

It's my prayer that you would go from this place with the same joy that filled William Cooper.

My eyes filled with tears and my voice choked with transport.

I could only look up to heaven, overwhelmed with love and wonder.

Lord Jesus, may we be overwhelmed with your sacrifice on our behalf.

May all of your people be filled with the joy and the wonder of your great mercy, of your infinite love, to be consumed, that you, in the midst of our deadness, would give us new life.

We give all of this day, our prayers, our reading, our thoughts, our worship, our singing, all of it to you that it might honor and glorify the King of Heaven who gave himself for us forever and ever, remembering and being overwhelmed with your great mercy and your infinite love.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

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