Apocalypse Now: Part 4- Zombieland

Welcome to the River City Church podcast and a message by our

lead pastor Jason Powers. Our prayer is that this message

would inspire and encourage you, build your faith and point you

to the life changing love of Jesus.

May you enjoy the goodness of God as you follow him today and

greet you church and greet you in the name of Jesus who is

risen and in the love of the Father.

And I greet you in the life we share in the Holy Spirit who is

with us now. Grace and peace to you.

A little bit of housekeeping, if we can upfront, just if you've

got space around you, if you can kind of scooch in to make room.

If we've got more people coming in or those who don't have a

seat yet, that would be helpful. So if you see room, if you can

just kind of move together and make a little room on the end so

that people can get in, that would be really cool.

Other housekeeping points. My name's Johnny Griffiths,

volunteer member of the teaching team here.

My wife Sarah, and I've been married for 21 years.

Celebrated that this week. Thank you.

Sarah's my favorite human. Just so you know, none of y'all

can have that spot ever. So that's taken.

And we have four other favorite humans that we get to shepherd

into adulthood. And and so that's our spot.

We've we've been here with River City for just over three years

and it's just a joy to be with you. 2 are the housekeeping

things. Number one, yes, this accent is

a mess. I can't help it.

I grew up in the UKI spent 12 years in Idaho.

I went back to England for some kind of accent reform for five

years, but then I moved to Texas.

And this is what you get. And because it was asked by

people after first service, and I don't want you to be

distracted trying to figure out the puzzle.

My T-shirt says thou. That's what it says.

If you were thinking, it said thou, you were correct.

You, you win the prize of feeling right about something

today. And it is it.

My Sarah designed it. My wife designed it, drawing

from some teachings from a theologian called Martin Buber,

who talks about the distinction between I it and I, thou

relationships thou, because every single one of us is a

sacred thou, made in the image of God.

And yet we get weeks like this, weeks where we're asking what on

earth is going on. It has been a heavy and complex

week. I leave later today to fly to

the UK to visit my dad who lives with Alzheimer's, and it's my

first time to go back to the UK since my mum passed earlier in

the year. So I found that grief was

already waiting in the wings for me this week.

And then Wednesday came when we were celebrating our anniversary

and I saw a message from a friend who said, hey, some days

you just got to stay away from the news.

And I wish that I had, but the news would still have happened.

And as my phone showed me the headlines, I discovered that the

news feeds didn't quite know what to do with placing certain

stories. Because how do you prioritize

which awful thing you put first? And so somehow another school

shooting was lower down as all of us had to wrestle with and

reckon with the events of the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

A thou like you and like me, I want to say that my prayers are

with all those touched by these and other grievous events.

And some of you are carrying grievous events that are just

the part of your story and your life.

And they're not on the headlines, but you walk with

them today. And I want to acknowledge that

there's a range of possible reactions in the room.

Some are dealing with anger and fear and sorrow.

Some are trying to process shame that they may feel about some of

their responses. I got to tell you, some of the

community reactions have been deeply unsettling for me.

And as much as I feel the grief at this shocking murder, I also

know that that man has confessed his faith in Jesus.

And so I am confident about where he is.

And my prayers rest with his wife and children and family.

He's beloved not because he's perfect and not because he had

the right ideas and not because he raised his voice, but because

he's made in the image of God. And yet because we have as a

culture, come to a point of such polarization and dehumanizing.

I have heard reports, first hand accounts, and I've seen it on

the Internet, the celebration of his death, and it has wounded me

and what I found. I never thought that I would sit

at the dinner table and have my children tell me that they had

to decide what to do when classmates were celebrating an

assassination. Never thought that I would have

to figure out as a dad, how do I handle that?

And the words that almost automatically left my mouth was

what is wrong with those people? And then I realized, well, what

is wrong with me? Because as soon as I do that and

say those people, I have separated them and dehumanized

them in the same way they are. Thou's just as much as me, just

as much as you, just as much as Charlie Kirk.

It feels good to demonize those who dehumanize, right?

We feel like I got to say it. They got to get theirs.

I got to put the record right here.

And I feel the pull of culture that makes me want to respond

like for like. The problem church is that that

does not align with what the Scriptures say.

Not even close. See, Jesus didn't tell us to

tolerate our enemies. He didn't tell us to go and do

to them what they've done to us. He commands us in Matthew 5 to

love our enemies and there's no room for manoeuvre.

No one gets off the hook. So I feel so many different

things. And maybe you come to second

service thinking like they'll work the kinks out of the

message and it'll be like a little more on point and short.

I don't know what your choices are.

Maybe it's just you love brunch and it's like it's done and you

like 11:00 is cool. I came up here for the second

service feeling like I don't want to rob you with the

realness of the emotion that I'm feeling, but I'm also really

tired because I already put it all out there in first service.

I'm tired of feeling these things, but I have to give

consent and say, God let me feel what you want me to feel.

Because when our emotions are healthy, they reflect the heart

of God who grieves even over the death of the wicked, even over

the wicked. So I hope that today our message

is going to help give some understanding, some answers to

the question, what on earth is happening?

But I also want for us to get our eyes fixed on God's response

and what that means for us as a church.

It can be so easy to just breathe past and be like, I just

don't want to look at it, think about it, talk about it.

Some people ask, well, why are we so fixed on one tragedy when

there's tragedies every day? And I'm like, whoa, because my

little heart can only handle so much, but every single one of

them is tragic. And God cares for every person.

Before we get into the message, I think it's appropriate and

necessary that we come before our Father and make our weekly

confession our truth telling because the problem isn't those

people. The problem is all of us walking

in a way that doesn't reflect the love of God.

So our confession is a two-part statement that we make every

week. The frames the story of who we

are and how we understand life and what God's response is.

And so if you're visiting, if this is your first time here

today, I'm so glad that you chose to come.

You are so welcome here. I genuinely greet you in the

name of Jesus, and I call you beloved and a sacred thou made

in God's image. I also recognize none of us is

quite there yet. However long we've been walking

with Jesus, we've all got stuff in the shadows that we're

dealing with. And so we say this together,

that we are badly broken. We are deeply loved.

All right, Church, you know the series and this message was

prepped well in advance of this week happening.

And I find myself by God's Providence, being the one to

open the Scriptures today. And so we're going to continue

on with what we had because this is the Scriptures and this is

good for us, but it just happens to fall in a very timely space

with a message that we need at a heart level, not just

theological instruction, but soul formation.

And before we open these words again, I just want to give a few

pointers on big ideas that play out across Ephesians.

If you're first time in today, we began a Series A few weeks

ago studying the book of Ephesians from start to finish.

We're going to take 14 weeks to cover the whole material.

I wish we had like double that four times that.

It's the kind of books that no matter how long you give it for

teaching, you could fill it and more.

But we are just doing the 14 weeks.

Don't panic. There's not been a revision of

this. You're not going to live in

Ephesians for the rest of your life.

But some ideas will help as we work through the text.

One of those is around these phrases of the heavens and the

earth. What are we talking about?

What does Paul mean when he talks about the heavens?

In the time that he was writing, there was Hellenistic or Greek

thinking that considered the air.

I had space up there where now we watch planes and satellites

and everything go was the abode of demons kind of changes

stargazing a little bit, I think like what's going on up there.

But there was this idea that there was a spiritual reality

that was operating invisibly around us.

The Jewish thought had more kind of levels, levels of the heavens

and the air was the lowest of the heavens or the unseen realm.

I think we if we consider that there is a spiritual reality

that is as true as our physical reality, we think of them as

very distinct and separate places.

Much like in the physical we might think of Houston and Rome

as being distinct and separate. And the way you get from one to

the other is you get on a plane or a boat and you go there.

Whilst the heavens and the earth are distinct, they're also more

connected and interwoven than we tend to consider when we look at

it from a biblical perspective. Next up, the powers, not our

pastors. OK, just to be clear, it was a

kind of awkward when we got into the series and I was like,

there's some negative talk about the powers in the Scripture

here. And we just need to be very

clear when we talk about it. Paul talks about the powers, He

talks about rulers, Thrones, dominions and principalities.

These big words that were like, oh, what does that even mean?

There's definitely talk of spiritual created beings going

on and possibly talk of angels and demons makes you think of

outdated and redundant belief systems.

You may find yourself automatically translating these

terms into the realms of politics and culture and these

kind of forces at work in our life that we just kind of go,

well, those people didn't know better and we've got it all

figured out now. Modern psychology has told us

everything, right? And we dismissed the unseen

realm. Or maybe you're of a more

Pentecostal or charismatic theological background and

you're thinking about hierarchies of spiritual beings,

some of which are aligned with God and some are in rebellion.

And often times I think we have an either or mentality when

we're thinking about these phrases.

But in the biblical imagination, there's an interweaving of the

visible and the unseen realm so that the powers refers to

physical and spiritual beings, social and abstract structures

all operating in and through one another.

So was it Pharaoh or was it demonic forces?

Yes, right. The throne represents the human

authority going on through which other agencies are working for.

A great primer on this. We keep talking about the Bible

Project Classroom. It's a free resource.

It is a deep course that you can take on the book of Ephesians.

Eventually, I'm going to take a sip of water.

I promise I'm not going to hold this bottle the whole time

you're all wondering. You're like, is he going to do

it? I don't know.

Thank you. You just found one of my other

anxieties is eating and drinking in front of a crowd of people.

If you want to dig deeper, Bible Projects Classroom on Ephesians

has some great material on understanding the powers and

principalities. It will open your eyes in a

different way. So I just really recommend that

to you. So we've got the heavens and the

earth, we've got the powers, and then we've got the ages.

What are we talking about when we talk about the ages, when we

come across these phrases in the Scriptures?

Time is a big concept. I don't know if you've noticed.

And the Scriptures talk about the age now and the age to come

or the ages to come. And when we talk about this age,

we're discussing our ongoing experience of human history,

chronological from the from the garden until now.

Then the age to come refers to the coming experience of

restored humanity under Messiah's rule, right?

The age and the age to come. Now, back when Jesus was walking

and teaching and doing miracles, faithful Israelites who had been

waiting for the Messiah were expecting a very clear linear

progression. When Messiah comes, we will be

liberated from Rome. Spiritual oppression, injustice,

sin, wickedness, taxes. Here's the powers at work, this

whole conglomerate of different forces and systems, right?

That we would be liberated from these.

And the expectation would be that Jesus would finish the job,

usher in the age to come, and that we would be like, right

there We go from there to there in one move.

How bleak the first Holy Saturday must have felt because

it it wasn't just the Lord whom they loved buried in a tomb, but

all of their hopes of real time, real world liberation, what they

expected it to look like, were in the tomb with him.

But then the resurrection happened, and these things kind

of got weird with people's timelines, Like, theology books

needed diagrams to explain what on earth is going on here.

And over the millennia, we've come up with some theological

shorthand. And this one comes with two big

money words for you. OK, inaugurated eschatology.

If you can spell them, you can score well at Scrabble with

them. OK, They're big and long.

What we mean by this is the age to come has already broken in.

When Jesus says the Kingdom is near or the Kingdom has come,

he's saying that all of this promise of Messiah's rule and

reign, of Shalom, of peace with God and of unity with people has

broken into this point in our experience of time.

And the eschatology is the promise of the future when Jesus

the Lord rules and reigns and we are with him and under him and

living in freedom and true life. But it's been inaugurated, it's

started, it's now, but it's not yet.

It's it's like there's been the invasion of a force of

peacekeepers who have now taken up residence in occupied

territory and are living according to a different set of

rules and expectations. The coming age, which we will

one day fully enter, has already broken into this age so that

those who belong to Jesus are now living in between.

We're living in between, which explains why sometimes we're

just like what is happening. I feel turned around and

confused and conflicted and intention and some days I feel

disappointed, even disappointed in God.

Did you know that you can feel disappointed in God and that you

can tell Him and that He won't smite you?

Because there's a whole section of Scripture, the Psalms that

give voice to lament and sorrow and grief and confusion.

What you're feeling this week is acceptable to bring before God

and to hold it there in fear and trembling.

God, I'm, I'm wound up, I'm angry, I'm disillusioned, I'm

broken out. This is where I'm at.

And God says, come, sacred thou come.

So now to the text. Ephesians 2.

I'm reading this now from the NASB, which we're using as our

teaching text specifically because it is a bit more clunky

in the translation because it stays closer to the original

text in trying to express what's there and leaving us sometimes

going, what is this? Which is why we also are using

the message and the new living translation for our public

readings so that you kind of get the tip off ahead of time.

But then we're studying with this and a way to think of this

passage, which is like this wonderful condensed expression

of the gospel, is to think in terms of a medical process that

if you are not well, you may go to a doctor and the doctor might

give, may give you a diagnosis. And you might ask, what's the

prognosis? Here's what's wrong with me now,

what's likely to happen with this disease?

That's the prognosis. But then what you're hoping for

is that there is a treatment plan, and that from that

treatment plan there's a recovery plan that we don't want

to stay in sickness. We want to come into health and

life. And this passage provides that

sort of structure for us. But it starts with bleak news.

I remember Paul is writing to a church that is primarily made-up

of Gentiles, and he says, y'all a lot in the Greek, right?

It's official translation, y'all.

And then this is probably why I'm losing my British accent is

because I'm adopting y'all as like a really valid and

important word. Thank you, Texas, thank you.

And y'all were dead in your offenses and sins, right?

This isn't the start. How's it?

How's about that for an opener? You were dead.

And we're not just mostly dead. Not just mostly dead.

As Miracle Max says in The Princess Bride, there is a big

difference between mostly dead and all dead.

I knew my people were in the room this morning.

Come on. What kind of death could Paul be

referring to here? Because he's writing to people

that still, you know, all right. They didn't have their Keurig

and their croissant, but they had their, like, morning

routine, right? Like we were dead.

Pretty sure I had a pulse, did some stuff with my days, took a

stroll, went to the temple of Artemis, Right?

Like I did these things. You were dead.

Where were you dead in your offenses and sins?

And this immediately made me think of Genesis chapter 2, when

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

God has created this beautiful place, a Garden City in which

his people could dwell in union with him and exercise God-given

authority to steward the creation.

And he says you can have all of this.

There's so many good kinds of trees here for you, and you can

eat from every single one, but you can't eat from that one,

that tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Do not eat from it because on the day that you eat from it,

you will surely die. That's what he says.

Didn't say they couldn't climb the tree, paint the tree, ask

questions about the tree. He said just don't eat from the

tree. And what did people do?

I ate from the tree. That's what we did.

There's one area that God said, trust me.

We said, Nope, pretty sure you're holding out.

I'm going to eat that fruit. And Adam and Eve didn't drop

down dead. They ate and then they went and

hid and they like, got themselves some new clothes made

out of fig leaves because they were suddenly aware they were

naked and that that was some kind of a problem.

They didn't drop down dead. So what did God mean?

God meant that they would enter in the separation between people

and him that was never meant to be there.

And Mark Roberts says it this way, that this death is to live

apart from God in a death saturated existence.

The biblical picture from the fall onwards is of a people

marked by death and slowly dying.

The diagnosis and the prognosis is you are terminal with this.

You were dead, cut off from the source of life.

Much as we, we pick flowers and cut flowers and we stick them in

a vase and we put them on the table and we're like, they're so

beautiful, but also they're dying right there.

And we're just going to keep them there as long as we can

tolerate the death, right? Eventually the day comes, you're

like there's mold in there. Now you're laughing because

you've done it. I know we are terminal, which

lets me say welcome to Zombieland.

Welcome to Zombieland. If you didn't know it, zombies

are in the Bible. They're right here.

You were dead and you were walking verse 2, which you

previously walked. And some of you who are here for

the opening of this series and we're like, Johnny, you said

that it wasn't that kind of dystopian future apocalypse

we're talking about. You're like, I knew it.

I knew the zombies were coming. I was certain of it.

And you've tricked us. And here we are talking about

zombies on a Sunday morning. What is happening?

Well, actually there's a kind of a cultural fascination with The

Walking Dead and I I wonder why to Mark Roberts, just as a great

analysis on this, he says cultural experts offer their

reasons for the popularity of zombies in our day.

But I have my own hunch. I agree with those who believe

zombies embody our fears about a world run amok with apocalyptic

dangers. But I think many people are

drawn to zombies because they themselves feel like zombies

much of the time. Zombies experience no pleasure

in life, but still they keep trudging on in search of

something that will never satisfy them.

They are driven, insatiable, unhappy, helpless and barely

conscious, just like many people in today's world.

You had a day that felt like that recently at all.

Ever. Because I still get those days

sometimes. And I kind of get stuck in the

mire and the muck of what life can be like.

And I just, like, head down to if I could just get to the end

of the day. Here's the plot twist.

So, yeah, zombies were coming, but the apocalypse isn't the

zombies are coming, it's that they're already here, and we've

been walking in them and with them for a long time already

dead and dying. You were dead in your offenses

and sins in which you previously walked according to the course

of this world, according to the Prince of the power of the air,

of the spirit that's now working in the sons of disobedience.

How are we so stuck? Well, number one, we're dead.

There's no life in US to change this.

I'm just plodding along. And our way of life is a way of

brokenness. But not only that, Paul says

you're you're stuck. You walked according to the

course of this world or this, this cosmos victory, life being

stuck in a rut. Like when there's been heavy

rains, Texas, you bring the rain.

Good job. And then a heavy vehicle, you

bring those two drives through the mud and creates that Channel

that then Texas is really, really hot at times as well and

dries that mud solid, right? And now you've got a rut.

And if your vehicle falls into that rut and doesn't have bigger

tires than whoever made it, that's where you're going, baby.

You will stay in that course and follow it to its natural

conclusion. Paul's saying you were dead in

your sins and you were stuck in the course of this world, which

is like the whole of culture. Did you go on Facebook this

week? Did you go on there and find

yourself like, just want to throw up?

But also I want to say something, but I just want to

turn this off. But I have to, and I have to.

That you feel rise up in you is the tractor beam of culture that

wants to keep you in the course of this world.

See, we're in enemy occupied territory.

The enemy is on on, you know, is running away.

But we're still here and they're still marked by it.

And this is where we used to live.

But not only were we stuck in the course of the world, but we

were living according to the Prince of the power of the air,

which is like a biblical fancy title for Satan, Demonic force

at work. We like to think that we're

free, but we're not. Apart from Christ, we are

dominated spiritually. And Paul engages this idea

because he wants to stress that we aren't dealing with merely

human, tangible issues. This isn't merely a political or

a social situation, but equally we aren't talking about some

distant spiritual realm. It seems to me that one of the

apocalypses that Paul has and wants to invite us into is

around the idea of concurrency, things happening together at the

same time. The powers and principalities

are an unholy alliance between fallen spiritual, physical,

systemic and relational beings and structures and the whole of

humanity. All the nations have fallen

under this rule. John Chrysostom from the 4th

century wrote that humanity surrendered to the devil.

All are his voluntary and willing slaves, which dispels

the myths of secularism. Everyone is spiritual.

CS Lewis says that you have never talked with a mere mortal.

Right before that, he said there are no ordinary humans, which

gives you permission to turn to your neighbor and say, I knew

you weren't ordinary. I knew it.

Maybe some of you will do that. We'll see.

Since this spirit was working in the sons of disobedience.

You see, the issue isn't just that we do some bad things apart

from Christ, but we are completely stuck in the system,

enslaved to the spiritual forces to the point that it's our

spiritual DNA. We're in trouble.

And then just to show that this isn't at those people situation,

Paul says. And among them, we too, the

Jews, all previously lived in the lusts of our flesh,

indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were

by nature children of wrath, just as the rest.

Paul diagnosis that the entire human race, all people, have

been subject to spiritual forces and a way of being that has

brought us into and will lead us to death.

We're stuck and we're complicit in it.

The lusts of the flesh, the desires of our thought, life,

and our bodies line us up with this brokenness.

We want more and more brokenness, which tells us not

only is everyone spiritual, but everyone is badly broken.

Gentile and Jew, like some dystopian family tree said about

as bluntly as I found it in any of the commentaries.

The ESV gospel transformation notes said that mankind was

dead, disobedient, demonic, and destined for destruction.

Who knows what would have happened if he got into words

beginning with E as well. I mean, we were just like, we're

going to hang out in D. We are caught up in a cosmic

battle. You didn't just wake up this

morning to a normal Sunday morning.

You woke up in the midst of cosmic battle going on around

you and, and in the forces of the world that we live within.

It's pretty difficult news. And then we get to verse four

and the treatment plan begins, because verse four starts with

these two words. But God.

But God to God is not surprised by or thrown off by any of the

events of this week or the whole some of human history.

God has had a plan and has taken action in the plan.

But God being rich in mercy because of his great love with

which he loved us even when we were dead, in our wrongdoings,

made us alive together with Christ.

By grace you have been saved. Divine interruption is the

response to our plight and the whole of humanity.

And there's enough to go around. The Scriptures tell us God is

rich in mercy. He's not just got like some

leftover in his pocket. He's rich in mercy, abundant in

his mercy. Why?

Because we're so great? Because we could be so great?

Is this all based on our future potential?

No. We were dead in our wrongdoings.

And God acted because of his great love.

The great love with which He loved us when we were at our

bleakest, darkest, most despondent, most depraved, is

the love that compels Him to act for our welfare, not to rub our

noses in the dirt, not to shame us.

But to say You are beloved, I choose you is what God says to

us in Christ. Our brokenness cannot outweigh

His love, and His love is powerful enough to rescue us on

a cosmic scale. I think there's a reason that

grand narratives like Lord of the Rings stir things up in us.

It's because it's actually reflecting some of the reality

of what's going on around us. There is a real battle going on,

and there is a real king who will come again.

And I need a real rescuer right now because the gates of hell

are here and the forces are invading, and I don't know what

to do. Come Lord Jesus, His love is so

powerful and it is the precedent.

God's love comes first. It's found in Jesus and that is

the only place that we find our rescue.

The treatment plan is him. Even when we were dead in our

wrongdoings, he made us alive. There's there's the outcome.

How together with Christ, the life of Jesus is made available

for you so that this ache and this longing and this struggle

can find peace and comfort and hope made alive so that your sin

can be dealt with. Not pretend it never happened,

but dealt with so that there never needs to be a day when

you're looking over your shoulder going.

What if God finds out about that?

He already knows and He already made provision, that in Jesus

you can be set free. The apocalypse is this, that you

are already loved and wanted. You are already loved and

wanted. There is no performance needed

to gain His attention or admiration.

You are beloved to the Father, but you cannot have it on your

own terms. You must receive it as a gift in

God's way in Christ. So we have a treatment plan,

Jesus. He is the treatment plan.

What does recovery look like? Verses 6 through 7 and raised us

up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in

Christ Jesus in the Greek, who would be in the heavenlies?

NESP in my Bible puts places in italics so that I know, oh,

we're we're adding a word for clarity here.

But the heavenlies, that's why we need to know what do we mean

when we say the heavenlies Jesus is seated above everything and

we have been seated with him and raised with him.

So this salvation, is it like a ticket that I cash in later?

Not at all according to Paul, because of God uniting us in and

with Christ, there are some present tense realities

unfolding. The not yet has broken into the

now. And as one who belongs to Jesus,

you have been raised with him, which means that resurrection

life is already a reality in you now.

This body has done just over 40 years.

Thank you buddy. I have You know I am part body

and soul and mind and will. Now it's all here, but this body

will be renewed and changed and hopefully my hip won't hurt when

I run. Yeah, that'd be cool like that.

No one says you're going to hit 40 and wish you'd done a bit

more physical activity. You know, just they don't tell

you that or or they do and you're like blah, blah, blah.

I'm not listening. I've been raised up.

I have resurrection life. Therefore, I already experienced

victory over death, which means you cannot take this from me.

You cannot take the life I have in Christ from me.

Which means I don't have to be afraid and I don't have to

respond to people in fear and hate.

I don't have to meet violence with violence because you can't

kill this and you can't kill the church.

You can't kill the love of God at work in our lives.

So being raised up has real present day effect for us, but

it also says that we've been seated with Him in the

heavenlies. And that means that we share in

Christ's victory over demonic powers and sin, the cosmic

forces and fallen flesh. Which means there is nothing

that can separate you from the love of God, and there is not a

single urgent temptation over which you cannot say no.

There's a lot of lies that go on that tell you you're bound up,

but actually in Christ you have authority to say no to the ways

that don't reflect the Kingdom. Why does God do this now?

Verse 7 tells us that in the ages to come He might show the

boundless riches of His grace and kindness towards us in

Christ Jesus. We will glory in Him because He

has been abundantly gracious and shown it in kindness to us so

that we would know His grace and actually as a nod forward to

chapter 3, so that we would display to the whole cosmos His

kindness. God's kindness raises us up and

shares significance and ruling authority.

Can you imagine what our world would look like if we weren't

ones who grabbed for power, but we gave it away for the sake of

the Kingdom? The greatest others are, and on

to them. And I see the state of Thou in

the image of God. Is it on display?

I see it. We're not just talking about the

future age. We're not just talking about a

later resurrection. Our ruling and reigning with

Christ is happening now and not yet.

So these big theological ideas are like inaugurated

eschatology. Why are we talking about that?

It's because I don't want you to be afraid today.

I don't want you to live in the shadow of hate and fear and and

just trying to hold on to something.

Nothing can be taken from you that wouldn't be lost anyway.

Nothing. Your life is both now and not

yet. And this matters because the bad

news was really bad, and we saw the effect of the bad news

played out in the headlines this week.

But the good news is even better.

We were dead before Jesus, and then in Him we've been made

alive and raised with him so that this experience of

resurrection life is happening now.

I can go into the secret place and sit in the presence of the

Father because I'm in Christ, and I can have a genuine

experience of the presence of God because of what Jesus has

done. The future reality of living

before his face is already available experientially to me

in prayer and communion with him.

We are never separated from the love of God because Jesus has

done it. The ultimate death of sin has

been overcome. We were dominated and enslaved,

but now we are seated with Him. Above all, we're no longer

victims to either the spiritual powers or our old natures.

We live from the victory of Christ and His finished work.

Therefore, the truth can be lived out, though we are not

controlled and can actively choose to resist sin, temptation

and the powers. That's good news.

You are free. You are free.

Much like the Israelites were liberated from the enslavement

in Egypt. And then they had to learn how

to walk that out because, man, those cucumbers were good.

And they kind of had days where, like, I don't know, I could

maybe we should go back and God's like, Nope, that's death.

Those are death cucumbers. And we're not going back there.

We're moving forward to the promised land.

We're moving forward into the life of the Kingdom.

Why? Because because we're not just,

you know, nice, nice little puppy dogs that the God is like,

oh, you're sweet. We're not his pet.

We're his beloved children who he has given purpose to.

And in Christ, we have been restored to our purpose.

Verses 8 through 10. And maybe some of you were

hoping there was going to be like a big long section on like,

what does it mean to be saved by grace through faith?

And are we going to plow through all of the theological

constructs? I'm like, you've got 2000 years

of church history to read if that's what you need.

That's not what we needed today. Now, in light of this week, by

grace, you've been saved through faith.

And this is not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not a

result of work, so that no one may boast, For we are His

workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God

prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

So it is there. We are saved by grace through

faith, and there's a lot of different perspectives even in

this room on how that works out. But what we can agree on and

must agree on is that God is the one who takes action exclusively

in Jesus to rescue us from sin and death and to give us life.

And it wasn't because we were worthy, but because He is loving

and gracious and kind and merciful.

God acted on our behalf, but also we're not saved just to

twiddle our thumbs and squander it.

Tim Mackie from Bible Projects says that for Paul, the gift of

grace is unconditioned, but it is not unconditional.

It's not given on the basis of worth, but there is an

expectation that we will reciprocate by living for Jesus

through the power of the Holy Spirit.

I summarize that for myself by saying that salvation is given

freely but it isn't cheap. Some of us, we've left it on the

shelf and said I'll get to that later, thanks God.

Salvation is given freely, but it isn't chi Salvation is based

on love, not works. And we respond, So what?

He's saying you were saved through faith.

He was saved by grace, but it's not of yourselves.

It's a gift of God. It's not a result of works

because otherwise, what do we do?

We always do this. We're like, quick, I did

something cool. I need to get an Instagram

account, build a platform, let everybody know, let's hype this

thing up. And actually humanity's been

wanting to do that all the time. They wanted Jesus to do that.

And he was like, actually, we're going to go peace out from here

where all the cool stuffs happening and we're going to go

over there. Instead, Jesus resisted the

platform mentality. It's not about us and it's not

about boasting in us. We boast in God who has done it.

And then he goes on. He says, for we are his

workmanship. We've not been just saved from,

we've been saved to. We are his workmanship created

in Christ for good works which God prepared beforehand.

He already had a place for us as his people to walk into before

the treatment plan came. He knew what he was doing.

These words are so beautiful. We are his workmanship, like an

artisan crafting with intentionality.

We as individuals together are the temple now, right?

This temple language going on here, Just as God commissioned

artisans to craft things for the temple, God is the artisan who

crafted the church, us. And he says we were created,

which throws us back into Genesis 1.

We're in new creation territory, people.

We're back in the garden and we're back in the city and

dwelling place of God. Who you are is so significant

and wonderful and more than you imagined when you were eating

your croissant this morning, right?

I, I like croissants. I think they're thank you

friends and pastry chefs everywhere.

You are good and may your craft go on in heaven.

I'm not joking. This is nervous laughter.

Like, what if it's not? It's going to be we're good.

But you have been rescued to be restored and restored to our

true human vocation, union with God, partnership in his mission,

unity with people, stewardship of God's created order, but done

now from the place of spiritual life and victory won by Christ.

So this isn't actually primarily about your individual vocation.

I'm not saying the Lord has nothing to say about that.

We need accountants and we need artists and we need firefighters

and we need all the full gamma of ways that we work.

And God may have some specific things to call you into, but God

also has a great and glorious purpose collectively as the new

family of God, for us to live out as ones who build unity and

trust and love. And we cross borders both

literally and relationally in order to win people into this

family and share the love that we have received.

This is Our Calling. We haven't been commissioned to

kill zombies. We've been commissioned to

transform them. We've not been commissioned to

rehabilitate zombies so that they just act the right way and

stop eating brains. That's not what God is doing.

God is saying I'm taking zombies and I'm making people real,

full, truly deep, transformed human beings who live and love

in my image. And that's what.

We're called to participate. In and you thought you were just

like trying to get through the next tax return.

But no, you have a remarkable place to play in the mission of

God, and you do it from a place of victory.

And you get to walk now in the new ways of life, not in sin and

death and brokenness, but in life and love and goodness.

Mark Roberts says grace doesn't leave us untouched.

It leads to new creation, new community, and a whole new way

of living. And next week, Pastor Jason is

going to take us down the covenantal rabbit trail of the

rest of Ephesians chapter 2. You're welcome, pastor.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

I'm glad that I dished that one your way.

But what do we do with this week?

Well, first, know the story. There's so many stories

competing in the media and in our communities outside of the

church, even inside the church. Narratives that form how we

think of ourselves and other people.

Know the true story. Know what this says?

This is God's word and we can know it front to back if we'll

just spend time every day reading.

God, Tell me the story again. Rehearse your story out loud

with other people. This was my life before Jesus.

There I was, Mr. Zombie, and then gone broke in and brought

light Into Darkness and life, and I was freed from addictions.

And then it took me a few years to figure out how to not keep

doing those same things. But He was patient and merciful

and He gave me more than I could have asked for.

And now I get to walk with Him. Tell your story of Jesus at work

in your life. And secondly, receive new life.

If you don't know Jesus, this is the option in or out.

You can say, yes, I put in my trust, my allegiance, my faith

in him, or I'm going to try and do this my own way.

If you know Jesus, every morning your eyes pop open, or maybe

they don't, but the inner man wakes up and it's like the body

will get there and you just go, Jesus, I'm yours.

I need your life today because it's wild out there.

Receive new life that's found in Him nowhere else, and then align

it all with reality that you would live in a way that is

concurrent with His Kingdom. Live in a way that displays the

kindness of God to other people when you are so rock solid in

His love. This way when that comment comes

out that just turns you sideways and makes you mad, you can go.

God, I'm so angry right now, give me your love.

OK? I've got your love.

Let me look and see the downness of that person in front of me.

Let me speak life over them. Let me try and liberate them

from the shackles that they're in right now.

Let me not add to the course of this world.

This is the summons. So much more than just to save

it for later salvation. We are called to be ones who

represent the Kingdom to come right now.

And church, I just know it's been like, it's been a tough

week until Jesus comes. There may be more tough weeks,

but this one's been especially difficult for a lot of people.

So talking with Pastor Jason, we just thought it was appropriate

to have a time as we close. And thanks for your patience.

I went. I have more on the tank today.

Thank you. You don't have to go.

Anywhere we're playing this probably a little before the

summer. And so we, Johnny and I talked

this week like, what do you do in a moment like this?

And always just senses the Lord knew.

And So what I want to do is I just want to affirm everything

and he said this is not you're not sermon Part 2.

You're like I got lunch man, I got to go.

Here's what I want to say lovingly, gently.

If you're angry, if you're sad, if you are lost, if you are

hopeless, are you listening? You are feeling what it means to

be dead in your trespass. You are experiencing a culture

of death. And what I want to say is the

hope in this is that's what we're saved from now.

And so here's the hope. These verses we memorized in

grade school, many as if you've been around the church for a

long time and you take this great personal like I got them

saved by grace through faith. And this is not myself right

into this like that's what we're saved from.

So here's what I say Church, this is our moment.

Are you listening? How are we saved from a culture

of death? By what grace we are saved from

that by grace anytime in any fashion that our worldview

breaks down into us. And then it will always, always,

always end. And what we saw this week, there

is simply no room in the Kingdom for us and them.

It is Jesus and those who are with Him and the the

demonstration of strength and grace that we find in the person

of Jesus as a towel and a wash basin as he cleans those who

betrayed them in the very shadow of the cross.

There is no space in the Kingdom and the church for retaliation.

And you go, but it was so. But he didn't listen.

Jesus at the foot of the cross said what?

Forgive them or they don't know what they're doing.

The fact in this matter isn't whether you agreed or disagreed,

because if you, you know that. Here's the thing.

You can look on the news. Charlie Kirk.

We grieve the loss and the passing of Charlie Kirk that

happened right in front of us. I grieve that my 14 year old has

those images in her head. It's not just Charlie Kirk, it's

Melissa Hortman in Minnesota. It's.

Children in Denver, Co whose names didn't even make the news.

I remember 1999, April 20th, 1999.

You know what's special about that?

That's the day that students walked into Columbine, Columbine

High School and started blowing things up.

I was riveted, couldn't take my eyes off the TV for weeks and

now that doesn't even make the news.

Church, this world needs salvation, and salvation comes

when we all, y'all and me, we feel our feelings to the depth,

to the dregs of them. We let them empty us, we weep

and we lament before God and go. How could you?

How could this? And then we walk out of our

prayer closet with a towel and a heart to serve.

And we love, and we forgive, and we pray.

By grace you're saved. So Jesus, I pray that you would

give us grace today, not that we would ignore or minimize our

feelings or our pain or our loss or our hurt.

I pray that we would enter in it to it by your Spirit, that you

would need us in the pain and the grief and the sorrow, that

we would tell you all the truth. And then I pray that we would be

transformed, that we would know. Father, you've defeated the

powers. You sit enthroned over them, and

when we forgive, we win. When we humble ourselves, we

win. Oh Jesus, I pray that you would

make us like you. Your name, Amen.

Wait, don't get up. They'll be fine as you go.

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

May He make his face to shine upon you, give you peace.

May He lift his countenance, the smile of His eternal presence.

May He lift that to you and give you peace.

Thank you for joining us today. River City Church is all about

experiencing and expressing God's love in our lives and

community, and we hope that you've been able to experience

that today. As grateful as I am that you've

spent this time listening in this morning, this podcast is no

substitute for full participation in a local church.

I love it when River City people listen to other pastors, but it

is those who show up week after week faithfully giving their

support and time and resources that make all of this possible.

If we can help you get connected to a local church, pray for you,

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Thanks so much for listening. May the Lord bless and keep you

in all grace and peace.