Death to Life

Today's reading is from Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 through 10.

Ephesians 2:1–10

And you were 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 body in the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

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

By grace you have been saved, and 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 and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

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.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

This is the word of the Lord.

Please be seated.

That's uh one of the most wonderful passages in in all of Scripture, Ephesians 2, verses 1 through 10.

Ephesians 2:1–10

So I'm looking forward to uh moving through this with you this morning.

First of all, happy Father's Day uh to the fathers in the room.

Uh congratulations, your father.

Um thanks for joining us on Father's Day.

Um this uh this Father's Day is is uh kind of well interesting.

I just got back last night from Florida, uh, was down there for my grandfather's funeral.

Uh he had just passed away.

And it just in February, my uh wife's grandfather passed away.

It brings just sort of a sense of depth uh of uh gratitude to our fathers.

Um so uh yeah, uh fathers are are uh central.

It's amazing that God calls himself father and then calls us fathers too.

Uh it's an incredible humility that God shows.

All right, a couple of announcements before we get into our text today.

Uh we've got two book clubs this summer.

One is about to wrap up on Wednesday, and that's going through this book, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Shelf.

These will both be outside on the bookshelf.

Uh you can scan them if you'd like.

Uh, this is uh an excellent book.

I'm gonna do it again.

Anyone in the book club?

Yeah, how's it going?

Every time I love how underwhelming the response is each Sunday, so I've kept doing it.

Uh this is an excellent book.

It's uh it's a uh I was talking um with Brandon, who didn't say anything just then, uh, who's who's also in the book club just before service started.

And he was saying, this book's really getting popular, and it's kind of like a book that you would think you'd have to be forced to read in college.

But I think that uh our culture right now is uh really uh um what was the word that I used?

Do you remember?

Confusing.

That works.

Uh and uh it's it's no longer intuitive.

When uh we used to just feel like we fit into the world that we were a part of, I think we're at a time where it no longer does our culture feel or seem intuitive in any way.

And this book is really helpful with describing the story of how our culture wound up in the place that it's in and gives us some tools to understand it from a biblical perspective.

So that's the rise in triumph of modern self.

I recommend that book, even if you can't join us on uh Wednesday at 5:30.

Next up, uh on July 14th, we're doing a book, another book club, uh, which will meet for the first time on July 14th on this book, which is called Gentle and Lowly.

Have you heard of this one?

This book's like all the rage on Christian Girl Instagram.

Uh but it's it's wonderful.

This is like oh uh I I bought this book because I was listening to a podcast with another pastor who was speaking, and he said that uh this was the best book about God that he's read since J.I.

Packer's Knowing God, which is incredibly high praise because that book's like 40 years old and a masterwork.

And this book uh sits at that sort of a level, at that sort of a tier uh with that.

And it's it's a uh look at the heart of Christ.

This is not a book about Christian living.

This is not a book of like Christian disciplines, or uh this is a self-help book in no traditional way.

This is a book about Jesus.

It's a book about Jesus, and it has uh really transformed my understanding of Christ's heart towards us.

Uh so uh join us, go ahead and grab yourself a copy of this book, Gentle and Lowly, by Dane Ortland.

It's on Amazon, which is this little website, sells books.

And uh uh you can uh join us on July 14th.

Okay, that's the book club news.

Let's pray and get into our text for today.

Holy Father, the wonder that you have for us in Ephesians 2, verses 1 through 10 is so glorious and so personal.

Ephesians 2:1–10

Father, I pray that you would enlighten the eyes of our hearts that we might see it this morning.

Lord, let us see the story of redemption, let us find our place in it.

Holy Father, we pray that your gospel, which is so clearly explained in these ten verses, might transform our hearts in the hearing of it, and might create in us the very thing that it that it promises, which is that you take us from our death and you bring us into your life.

We praise you for that, Lord.

We ask that we would see that clearly this morning.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

So we're at our third week in Ephesians, and we're at the first half of chapter two.

This is Ephesians chapter two, verses one through ten.

And this is one of the most excellent summaries of the gospel in all of Scripture.

If you're ever wondering, is the gospel really in there?

Is it really true that we are saved by grace alone, that Christ died for us and brought us to new life, and we can be rescued by faith in him?

If ever that wonder crosses your mind, if you think that this is some narrative that was constructed by uh like televangelists that are trying to sell you something, but of course, a hope that good couldn't really be there.

If that doubt ever creeps in your mind, grab your Bible, go to Ephesians chapter 2, and read verses 1 through 10.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

And if you don't believe it, at the end of reading those verses, read it again until you can see this is really here.

The news of the gospel that God saves sinners and came to rescue us in Christ, is really here.

We're gonna look at that clearly this morning.

I hope that your heart leaves today completely convinced that the gospel is the heartbeat of our faith, that it is the center of the biblical story.

Now, our church's tagline, nobody says it, but maybe we'll start saying it, is Find Your Place in the Story of Redemption.

It's a really good tagline.

Just uh just saying, not to toot my own horn.

Uh but the ad agency that we hired to brainstorm, come up with that, uh, came up with a really good one.

And the uh find your place in the story of redemption, here's the point.

Your life has a story.

But if your life doesn't connect to a bigger story, then you'll find that it's meaningless and that you're unable to conjure some sort of meaning just from within your own life.

And the the Bible is this grand narrative of redemption that stretches from creation and the fall, and then all of redemptive history, which culminates in Christ, and then ultimately into the new heavens and the new earth, where all of creation is redeemed.

And the Christian's life finds meaning because it fits into that grand narrative, which is about the glory of God.

And there's so your life, in order to have meaning, it must find meaning in a narrative sense.

It's un you're unable to communicate your life's meaning outside of a grand picture and narrative.

Now we know this, but this also makes us particularly susceptible and particularly vulnerable to competing narratives.

We are wide open to competing narratives of life that we find our meaning in, which don't ultimately help us to find our place in the true story, the one story that really matters, the story of redemption of creation.

You're an easy target.

So why is it that you're so vulnerable to these false stories?

You're vulnerable because life, considered on its own terms and from its own experience, is a tragedy.

Now, do you know how uh uh Greek tragedies or one of Shakespeare's tragedies end?

What do they all have in common?

Death.

That's right.

Everybody dies.

That's what makes it a tragedy.

And consider it on its own terms, your life, it must be thought of as a tragedy.

It's a story from life to death.

But a story that ends in death, we know, is ultimately a meaningless story.

It's one in which all that was accomplished goes away.

And so this this creates in us this capacity to want to grab on there's a spider right there.

Not anymore.

Dominion.

Object lesson, Genesis 2.

Um this it's still there.

Uh object lesson, Genesis three.

Okay, the uh uh this makes us susceptible to all of these competing narratives, which will try and convince you that life isn't a tragedy.

We'll try and convince you that there's some way to develop meaning and some way to skirt this issue of death.

And it here's there's all sorts of ways that we try and pretend that life isn't a tragedy.

There's all sorts of we're so vulnerable to all these little false narratives that try and convince you that true meaning is actually it's just around the corner.

Uh, one that I think is a pretty typical Denver narrative is I'll move to Denver and then I'll be able to go on these weekend adventures.

And then once I go on these weekend adventures, uh I'll no longer feel this stress and difficulty that I feel back here in my life in Michigan.

But then you move to Denver and this terrible thing happens.

You go on a hike, and you realize I'm stressed on this hike.

It didn't work.

There's still an incompleteness here, even in the glory of these mountains.

But we're susceptible to all of these narratives which say meaning is just around the corner.

It's a technique, it's a tweak, there's a fix, and you'll be able to conjure meaning into your life.

But here's the simple reality life is constantly hurtling towards death.

And if we're honest, we must face that death.

But there is one story in all of history, which is not a story from life to death, but is a story from death to life.

And it is the one story in which we truly find meaning.

We read these creeds each week, and in them we'll say that uh that uh Christ was crucified, died, and was buried.

On the third day, he rose again and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father.

Now, that story, that story of Jesus, here's the wild news of the gospel.

That story of Jesus is true.

And for us by faith, that story of Jesus can be our story.

The word that Paul language that Paul uses is yours.

Your story.

The story of Christ can be yours.

How do you find your place in the story of redemption?

You find your place in the story of Christ.

So we're going to look at death, we're going to look at life, and then we're going to look at what this means for the future.

All right, these are intense verses.

This is just one of those don't drop the ball texts of scripture.

Ephesians 2, 1 through 2.

And you were 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.

So Paul begins by describing to Christians the condition that they were in when they came to Christ, that they were dead in their trespasses and sins.

As I shared, we had two funerals in the past several months for one of my wife's grandparents and then one of mine.

And both of them, there were no tragedies.

They were in their late 80s, you know, lived these full lives.

But leading up to death is uh this terrible time of sickness.

And they both uh they both had this season of months that they just felt horrible and were in this intense sickness.

But there's a difference between sickness and death.

And the difference is hope.

When someone is sick, there's this hope that they might recover.

There's a hope that they they might rally and get better, and that there might be a recovery and they might return to a way in which they were.

But with death, there is no hope of return.

Notice Paul does not describe us as sick in our trespasses and sins.

But we treat ourselves like we are merely sick in our trespasses and sins.

And that the cure is just around the corner.

Perhaps it's once you finally get married, then the sickness of loneliness will go away.

Or perhaps it it's in the next book that you get, it will finally have the answers that you've been looking for.

And you know what your problem really is?

You haven't really committed to practicing meditating yet, have you?

Right?

So once you do that for 20 minutes every morning, then you won't feel like this anymore.

That emptiness will go away, I promise.

See, we're always trying to technique our way into skirting around death.

We're treating ourselves like we're merely sick.

But in order to understand the gospel, we have to see the position that we are actually in before God, which is not sickness, but death.

We are dead in our trespasses and sins.

This isn't just a matter of discovering and sorting out that childhood wound.

Even to do that, you would find I'm still dead.

Now look at the precise location of your death.

You are dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.

So this is a pattern of living which is death.

Now, Paul's describing some counterintuitive and strange terms here.

You're walking in death, which means you're walking in futility, in something that results in nothing.

It is meaninglessness.

And where is the location of that?

It is in our trespasses and our sins.

So a trespass, what happens when you trespass?

There's a line that you shouldn't cross, and you know that, and then you cross it.

A sin is like missing a mark.

There's a standard that you didn't measure up to.

So Paul is saying that you are both rebellious, as described in your trespasses, and you are a failure, as described in your sins.

For some of you, one of those might resonate more than the other.

You know, you'll think, uh, I can see clearly where I'm rebellious, because there's a location of sin in my life that try as I might, I am unable to throw off.

Or others of you might deeply resonate with this idea that you are a failure.

I am not here this morning to tell you that you're not a failure.

You may be.

I'm not here this morning to tell you that you're not a rebel.

You are.

You see?

In order to understand the gospel, we need to not treat ourselves as though we're sick and we're just misunderstanding the depth of evil that exists within our present condition.

In order to understand the gospel, we need to see clearly the location of our very own death, which is in our trespasses and in our sins.

Both of those things assume this idea of what it means to be a human, which is that there is a moral fabric to existence.

And as a creature, as just the type of thing that you are, a human person that happens to find yourself out here in a world like this, that there are real standards and real realities, it's redundant, and realities of what you need to live up to and be.

There are requirements of your humanity.

And you fail to meet them and you intentionally disregard them.

This is death.

This is death.

Now, the way that this rebellious failure takes place, Paul goes on to describe, and it happens in these three complementary forces of evil.

Things are gonna get worse before they get better.

These three complementary forces of evil are the world, the flesh, and the devil.

This is later developed more explicitly by Paul, but here we see the same pattern of his thinking unfold.

The world, the flesh, and the devil.

Okay, so first we see Paul explain this.

He's saying, in which you once walked following the course of this world.

What is the course of this world?

This is any institution or cultural framework which sets up our existence as though God doesn't exist, as though this is all there is.

This is ordinary materialism.

That the world as you see it is all there really is.

Now, secularism we often think of as any design or worldview without God in it.

You know, secular music is music where God isn't mentioned, which you're not allowed to listen to, which we'll get to later.

So but secularism is actually better understood as nowism.

Secularism is a is a framework which says that the only priority of existence is now.

This is the only thing that matters.

Your present state, your present internal psychological experiences are the only place of meaning in life.

And this is the pattern of the world.

The world is constantly getting you to chase some next material thing because of some minute iteration.

The world is teaching you to celebrate a sexual revolution which says there is no meaning to your sexuality beyond your immediate enjoyment of it.

Whatever desire you find within yourself that needs to be satisfied now, that is the Truth of existence.

Do you see how it's just a denial that there is any sort of moral framework or moral fabric that we need to deal with and live with in order to find life?

Instead, it is saying that the desires that take place in your heart and their satisfaction is the only true reality.

And the denial of those is the only true death.

That is the world.

Anything which says, which says to you that the satisfaction of your immediate desires is where meaning lies.

That is the pattern of the world.

And it is everywhere.

Next is the devil.

Paul writes here as the prince of the power of the air.

He says, You're following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.

So we consider ourselves as free if we are able to do other than we're commanded to do.

That's what we think of freedom in terms of.

But the biblical description of freedom is different than that.

The biblical description of freedom says that you are always following something.

That's what it means to be a human.

You are a creature designed beneath a God.

And there's no opportunity to say, I'll no longer be a creature anymore, I'll be the one that other beings follow.

Sorry, you don't have that option.

You are made in this particular way, as a human, in this creaturely way.

So all that you can do is choose to follow another so that you're inverted in following this other being who is the devil.

That choice to deny God is the choice to become enslaved to following the devil.

Now, the devil, I know, that's strange.

We don't talk about him much.

I'm trying to think of ways to communicate this idea, but we're we're so materialist and psychological in our thinking that we interpret the world just in terms of like all of the negative that takes place in the world is purely sociological.

Or all of the negative that takes place in materialist terms is just economic.

But scripture doesn't think in these cold, um, impersonal ways to describe reality.

Scripture's description of reality is undergirded by spiritual personalities.

And these spiritual personalities have intentions and designs for beings like us and for places like where we are.

Now, if you step back out of your materialist, you know, matter is all that there is way of looking at the world, you see that understanding the world as participating with personalities actually explains a lot of features of existence that we can't explain in purely materialist terms.

You know, when you see it right now, like oh, this is an incredibly conspiratorial time, right?

Conspiracy theories all are all over the place.

And what a conspiracy theorist is doing is they're recognizing some trend in the world.

And they're saying, look, there is this trend here of existence, and I can't explain it, but I know that I can see it.

And then all the tools that we have in our culture are all materialist and sociological.

So they're about just person-to-person relationships, or they're about materialism, which is there is no spiritual world at work.

And so you hear conspiracy theorists talk, and it's like, okay, I can see that you're recognizing a trend, and it's one that we all see, but then the only tools of explanation that they have, oh, let's check for our musician, or whoever gets it first.

500.

That's gonna translate on the podcast.

We uh we see this trend that we can all see and share, but the conspiracy theorists, the only tools that they have, interpersonal and um uh materialist, and so they have to invent these superpowered people who are behind the scenes manipulating in very ordinary personal terms these trends that we see happening.

Or there's some like alien force that's doing that's that's causing these sorts of trends to take place.

And you see what they're what they're doing is, and we look at that and it's like, okay, now you're just being absurd.

Like, have you ever met people and tried to do anything?

It's it's like impossible, and yet you're imagining these superhumans that are pulling off these global schemes, and then we all roll our eyes and think this is they're just being ridiculous.

And but we need to locate where they're being ridiculous.

They're not being ridiculous in recognizing the trend, they're being ridiculous in only trying to explain the world in sociological and materialist terms.

But the biblical picture says there are beings, the chief of which is Satan.

And he works as a personality to cause degeneration and to turn people away from God.

Do you see how when you look at the world that actually has incredible explanatory force?

Because you can visit places that just revel in their degeneracy.

You know, a friend of mine, actually a mutual friend, and Paulina, you've been there as as well, but who's described these stories of visiting these places in Southeast Asia, which are just these these dens of sex tourism.

And it's as though the whole place has made this mutual agreement to deny the realities of the of the personhood of these women.

That way we can just gain an immediate satisfaction for this other class of people who we will describe as people.

Now, there's a trend there.

And we could say that there's some magical uh working of humans behind the scenes.

Or we could say, you know what, there's there's something of the devil happening here.

You know, the personality of this place is personal.

See, when when we when we snap out of our ordinary materialist worldview, and then we click into the biblical worldview, then we're able to see, you know, this actually has real explanatory force for reality as it presents itself to us in ways that we're unable to explain otherwise.

It says, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.

So, how do we feel this?

It creates a spirit of the age.

Now, this is not a word spirit, this is not communicating spirit like we have a particular demon possessing us.

Uh, not that that's impossible, but that's not what Paul's communicating here.

Paul is saying that the presence of the devil's work creates a spirit of the age.

And it's like this Satan elsewhere in scripture is described like a lion who's prowling around trying to devour you.

Now imagine you're camping in a tent, and you hear outside of, and you're playing uh cards.

And you're while you're camping in the in the tent, you're playing cards, and it's like, man, this is really fun.

I'm so glad we came out here.

And then you hear a lion roar prowling around.

The spirit of the tent changed when that happened.

All of a sudden, your that game that you were playing is now colored in fear.

And your whole rest of your time is going to be painted in this fear and terror.

The devil is prowling around our world.

And he creates a vulnerability of fear and terror in you, and then he offers to you solutions which say, just focus on now.

Your immediate satisfaction is the only hope of salvation.

He creates the world.

So here we stand as victims of the world and the devil.

But we participate as well.

Paul now moves on to the flesh.

In Ephesians 2, verse 3, he says, Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Ephesians 2:3

The flesh is that part of ourselves that says the meaning of your life will be found in the satisfaction of your desires.

And in our in this description, we see that we ourselves are active participants with the world and the devil in this scheme to see the world as just satisfying ourselves and just existing for the purpose of satisfying our own immediate desires.

Now, when you think flesh, don't just think your body and your physical desires, because it says the flesh of the body and the mind.

You see, we create whole ways of viewing existence which celebrate the immediate satisfaction of ourselves as the highest end and good.

And we call it all sorts of terrible and therapeutic terms.

And we even call that type of enslavery freedom, and we celebrate it as casting off the bondage that we used to be under.

But the Bible calls it slavery.

We are living in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.

We are by nature children of wrath.

Now, there are two typical paradigms in our culture.

We have a liberal paradigm and a conservative paradigm.

And it is typical of the liberal paradigm in our culture to say that people are intrinsically good.

And the problem is society creates these structures of oppression which force people to live in negative ways.

And so any of the negative results that we see in society are due to the systemic structures surrounding any individual.

You see how that looks like the world and the devil minus the flesh.

You don't participate with the evil.

You are merely made to be evil by the world and the devil.

Then there's, and so the way that we reform society is we we cast off the burdens of the world, and in doing so, we free people to live out their desires which are intrinsically good.

Does that narrative sound familiar?

Now the conservative paradigm says that people are born intrinsically fleshly and intrinsically evil.

And the way to reform them is to create institutions which will reform this person back into the way that they're meant to be.

It will educate them into the processes of success, which will then create a full personhood, a full personhood out of this person.

Do you see what that is a denial of?

The world and the devil.

Look, we are trapped in this.

The systems are broken.

The individuals are broken.

Do not try and technique your way out of the position that we find ourselves in before God.

We live in a world of complete corruption, and we ourselves are participants and creators of that complete corruption.

This is the final description that Paul gives of humanity in our state outside of God.

He says, we are by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

This is total.

No one is outside of this.

Children of wrath.

The good God looks at the wickedness in us and in the world that we participate with and create and says, that is an object of my wrath.

If I have any goodness in me, that is something which I must destroy.

Paul paints a complete cosmology of death that we participate in, that we create, and that we uphold.

A cosmology of death.

Ephesians 2, 4 through 5.

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

By grace you have been saved.

Okay, these two words insert themselves into this dreadful state.

But God.

Do you see how those are the only possible words which could inject any hope into the situation that Paul has described?

The only possible words are but God, because there is no way we can claw ourselves out of the situation that we're in.

All the tools that we have to use are either our own heart, which is corrupted, or the institutions that we have, which are likewise corrupted, or appeal to the spiritual realm in our world and find only the devil as assistance.

We are surrounded by death, but God.

We have to be saved from outside of the system that we're in.

And who is the only one who stands there, who stands before creation as the one who is not a part of it, but who is truly transcendent?

Only God holds that position.

And only He can insert Himself in to our rescue.

We need help from the outside.

But what did we just cover?

Why would God help us?

What's the last thing we were described as?

Children of wrath.

Children of wrath.

That's children in relation to God of wrath.

We're objects of his wrath.

We are the thing that deserves his destruction.

That's the way we stand before God.

So the only thing, the only being in existence that could possibly offer any help, how do we stand in relation to that being?

Objects of his wrath.

That he would just as well honor his goodness by destroying us.

That is the position that we stand, that we stand before God in.

We are objects of his wrath.

So how is it that this but God injecting into this situation of death might bring us rescue?

But it's because of who God is.

This is why the gospel is about the glory of God.

Paul, you can tell, is already starting to explain this to us.

He says, but God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, who is God?

God is rich in mercy.

He has a great love towards us.

Do you feel the explanatory force of these words, of this character of God?

He is rich in mercy.

Oh, we need that.

We need our only hope of rescue is if God himself, within himself, looks towards us and says, I am merciful.

So when I show myself to you, I have abundant mercy that I can pour out upon you.

We need the God who rescues us to have a great love within himself, and then that he would love us with that greatness of his love.

And that is precisely what we see in God.

He rescues us.

This happens once a week, we'll just get used to it.

I think it's that Volkswagen.

Here's what this means.

If you guys can focus right now, you're better than me.

Here's what this means.

Why does God rescue us?

It is not because he looks at us and sees some goodness worth rescuing.

That's not the story.

That's how we do it in our stories.

You know, we we show the thief stealing and he does something terrible, but then cut scene, he's back at his mother's house, and we realize that he's only stealing to take care of her, you know?

And so we think, okay, let's let's help this one out.

That's how we do it in our stories.

There's nothing that God sees in us that draws out his love.

We do not draw God's love towards us.

God's love flows freely towards us from him.

Do you see the difference?

This is not, we do not come before God and say, look, but look at these things that I've really done.

See, I only did steal to take care of my mother.

You know, I I only I really did get into making meth just to pay off my medical bills.

The it we come to God with nothing in our hands.

It is the character of God.

He is rich in mercy, he is loving, and that is why we are rescued.

That is why we are saved.

Even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

And then Paul introduces this phrase that he'll come back to again.

By grace you have been saved.

This is the grace of God.

It is total and complete.

It is absolutely responsible for your salvation.

This is why we sing things like, Nothing in my hand I bring.

Simply to the cross I cling.

We bring nothing to God.

He is the one who accomplishes our rescue.

By grace you have been saved.

And then look at how this starts to recreate our future.

We look off not no longer towards death, but towards this incredible newness of life.

Ephesians 2, 6 through 7.

And 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 and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

See, this is the story.

All that is Christ's becomes ours.

Jesus' story becomes your story.

What was described just last week of this glory of Christ, that he was raised from the dead.

God demonstrates his power and that he raises Christ from the dead and then seats Christ at his right hand.

All authority is given to Christ.

All this glory is given to Christ.

He's seated in the heavenly places.

That's why it becomes our story in Christ.

This is the future that we have to look forward to, that we are seated in the heavenly places.

Paul is describing our union with Christ.

This is the most beautiful aspect of the whole gospel.

It's the whole point of the gospel that we are united to Christ.

So that the death that he took on counts as our death.

The life which he receives becomes our life.

This is not because we were able to convince or we were able to measure up in such a way where God looks and says, Oh yeah, you're Christ-like enough.

I'll treat you like I treated Jesus.

No.

This is only condescension.

This is only humility on the part of God who identifies himself with us.

Do you see the glory of God?

What type of richness of mercy might this God have?

That he leaves the heavenly places and identifies with us creatures from the dirt, to borrow Arcee Sprohl's phrase.

God becomes that and identifies with us so that we might be united with him.

And why does he do that?

Why does he raise us with him in the heavenly places?

Well, I can answer that question because verse 7 begins with so that.

And when it begins with so that, that means it's answering the question, why?

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

Did you hear that?

Let me read it again.

Why would God see this in the heavenly places?

Well, so that in the coming ages, in these eternity futures, do you know what the coming ages are going to be like?

No, you don't.

We don't, well, I don't even ages?

What's after the new heavens and the new earth?

Is there just more glory?

Are we just going to be moving from glory to glory for eternity?

Yes, we will be.

That's what being seated in the heavenly places means.

Why?

So that God, this fountain of goodness and richness of mercy and glory, might perpetually pour out his love and kindness towards us and show over and over again look what I accomplished for you on the cross.

Look what I accomplished for you on the cross.

This new depth of glory and satisfaction and wonder that you never would have allowed yourself to even dare to begin to hope for while you were thinking that it was going to be that next weekend trip that was going to save you, or you were thinking that it's going to be once you finally start meditating and taking cold showers.

I'm sharing things that I do, okay?

A literally.

C.S.

Lewis is right.

We're playing with mud pies on the beach when there's this glory that awaits us.

An unthinkable glory.

How good is God?

How good is God?

How long will it take for him to show his goodness?

It'll take eternity.

Ephesians 2, 8 and 9.

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.

How do we how could we possibly boast in such a great salvation?

I brought more nothing in my hands to the cross than you did.

I was, I was, uh I participated slightly less in this cosmology of death than you did.

How could we boast in such a great salvation?

Do you see what this is a restoration to?

What this causes in us when we get the gospel, it makes us become people whose deepest desire is to glorify God.

Do you know what that's a restoration to?

This makes you a person again.

This makes you the creature who is made by God that you were meant to be in all of God's creation.

Look, I was trying to think of a way to describe this.

It's what is what does God do?

It's like he recreatures us.

Paul says this in Second Corinthians.

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

You're a new creature.

The world is put back right.

It all comes down to this.

God is God.

You are a creature.

Your highest calling is to treat God like He is God.

That is where life is found.

Paul returned once again to that summary phrase, by grace you have been saved through faith.

And he steps back and he says, This whole story is not your own doing.

It's the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

And then this glory that's shown to us in the this gospel of grace, it starts to spill out into the world already.

In Ephesians 2, verse 10, it says, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:10

That's a sentence.

And what does it describe?

The cosmology of life.

And what is the spiritual being that assists you in doing that?

It is the devil who is constantly trying to turn you inward and describe to you your lack of satisfaction.

And that is supported and creates this world which just tries to convince you perpetually that it's just around the corner.

That death is, we're just a technique away from overcoming it.

It denies the tragedy all the way down the line while it walks you towards your death.

But Paul here describes the cosmology of life.

We are God's workmanship, this masterpiece.

And he creates us in Christ Jesus.

We're this new type of being because of what Christ has done.

Created for good works.

We're no longer tossed about by the passions of our flesh.

Instead, we look out into the world and we can see true goodness and then step into those good works.

This means even seeing such beautiful things in the world like self-sacrifice.

What is fatherhood other than self-sacrifice?

What are we honoring when we honor fathers today?

Other than the ones who said, I'm gonna lay down my preferences now for the sake of my family.

These good works that we're called to step into.

And then who is the spiritual being that is assisting us in this process?

God Himself prepares beforehand these good works that we might walk in them.

Breaking into this cosmology of death is this picture of a world of life which God shows to us in the gospel.

God is the creator and the redeemer.

And those two are always working together.

God is doing here what he's done since the very beginning.

He's making life.

God comes in to his broken creation.

He takes on the punishment of its brokenness.

And then he recreates it towards his glory.

Creation is restored.

That is the story that Christ calls you to find your place in.

And it is accomplished by placing your faith in Jesus, which means the denial of all the other narratives that are vying for your attention.

All of the other little techniques and little hopes.

All of the other things that you know that if you just accomplish this, you'll find fulfillment.

And instead it says, Christ has accomplished that for me.

And what that means is you don't get to hold anything up before him and say, look how marvelous and wonderful I am.

You must come to him with an utter humility.

And in that utter humility, what do you receive?

But an eternity of his grace and kindness towards you.

This is the gospel.

We have any questions today.

Great.

We haven't had questions in a while.

Any questions?

Five more seconds for the introverts.

Good.

We'll take communion together.

Paul says, For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you.

That the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread.

And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

I think it's in Mark's account of the Lord's Supper, where Jesus sits down to have the meal of the Last Supper.

This is moments before he'll be betrayed.

And he says, I've longed to have this meal with you.

Moments before he'll be betrayed and arrested and taken to the cross.

That's what's on the other side of this.

And Christ says, I've longed to have this meal with you.

Why?

Everyone at that table would betray him before the end of the night.

Everyone there would betray him before the end of the night.

That's what was in them.

That's what's in us.

And Christ says, I long to have this meal with you.

Oh the riches of his mercy.

The greatness of his love towards us.

Christian, Christ longs to have this meal with you.

Come to the table.

Savor the depth and riches of his mercy and the greatness of his love towards you.

Begin to step into his whole world, his cosmology of life that he has purchased on your behalf.

If you're not a Christian, don't eat.

It wouldn't make any sense to.

But if you are, come to the meal of Christ's broken body and poured out blood.

He longs to eat it with you.

Holy Father, we pray that you would bless this meal, that in it we might come with nothing in our hands, and that we might understand this calling of our lives to honor and glorify you.

What else can we do?

How else could we respond to such a great salvation?

We praise you, Lord.

Lift this up in Jesus' name.

Amen.