Ephesians 2:1–10 (partial)

[0:00] alive, raised, and seated in the heavenlies. It's counter to everything I understand. I've been thinking this week about how to get you to capture it, because I have a hard time capturing it.

[0:15] Then I thought about my first trip ever to Florida, sitting in a 15-passenger van with a bunch of basketball players, getting ready to go down and play a tournament. Well, I couldn't wait to get to Florida.

[0:26] Some of you are probably going there this afternoon, for all I know. We drove, and we drove, and we drove. I want to go to Florida.

[0:38] And then I saw the big sign, Welcome to Florida. I'm here! I'm in Florida! A little Midwest boy, down in the Sunshine State.

[0:52] And then, I think we filled up that van two more times before we got to our basketball tournament. That state is one long state.

[1:06] Having arrived, having been seated, I yet had a long run before I exited and put my feet on that sand.

[1:20] Same thing here. You are already home, not home yet. How do we get there?

[1:33] How does this happen? This is fascinating too. By what power do we find ourselves to be alive, not dead, raised, and seated?

[1:51] It's by the same power God used in raising Jesus from the dead. Take a look. Go back. Last week, chapter 1, verse 19 and 20.

[2:03] The same triad of indicators is there. What is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might, that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at the right hand of the heavenly places.

[2:23] That the power that God used to raise His Son from the dead, resurrection from the dead, and to seat Him above all things.

[2:34] It is that power that somehow we are regenerated in as we hold on to His work on our behalf. This is what happens then.

[2:48] No wonder the word grace keeps breaking out in the text. I mean, this is just astounding to Paul. This isn't something you do.

[2:59] This is something God did. You don't have the power to make yourself alive when you're dead. We need a miracle.

[3:18] Verse 1-3 These are the roots from which we came. Verses 4-6 This is the soil of who we now are.

[3:32] Verses 7-10 We now learn the purposes for which we are made and where we are going. Notice the two purpose clauses in 7-10.

[3:46] Verse 7 So that and in verse 9 So that. Why would God do all this? So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

[4:06] Why does God do this creation of his own own family from a universal vantage point?

[4:17] it's so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness. Get it this way then.

[4:29] The vision of Christ Church Chicago has a vertical not merely a horizontal direction. You normally think of vision and what am I supposed to do when I walk out the door on Monday?

[4:41] What was the takeaway of the text? The macro takeaway Paul says of what's going on in regard to God's vision for you the church is that you would everlastingly display the immeasurable greatness of his glories and graces so that his kindnesses would just redound through eternity.

[5:02] So that eternity will continually be praising God. So that get this when you die then physically you've just begun to fulfill the purposes for which you were saved.

[5:23] It's nice to know he's got plans. And then that latter one in verse 9 so that no one may boast. Why is he doing this?

[5:34] So that you all would know it's not from you. you and I can't do this. But we do have a work to do now that would demonstrate this eternal purpose.

[5:51] Look at verse 10 and with this I shut it down. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

[6:04] We do have a work to do. We are his workmanship. Literally the word there is the word you're going to get it's going to sound kind of like poema. It's where you and I are going to get a poem.

[6:18] We are what God made. Well what did God make? He made a poem in you. Let me put it this way. We are God's speech. That's what happens when you write a poem.

[6:34] We are God's speech. We are God's song. We are meant to be read. We are meant to sing. We are meant to live with one another with all the meter and rhyme and rhythm that conveys the strength and the beauty of the God who made us alive.

[6:54] That's what we do. What do we do? We sing. We speak to the immeasurable eternal praises of our God. Let me put it to you this way.

[7:09] The way the whole text walks. Look at that last frame. That we should walk in them. That early moment in which we once lived. In which you once walked.

[7:23] The whole contrast from the beginning to the end of the text. We have moved then from dead men and women walking to men and women who are now alive and walking among the dead.

[7:36] You're either the dead walking among the dead or you're the living walking among the dead and the total difference is whether or not Christ is in you or you are in him. The text opened.

[7:52] We actually learned that our sin caused a burial but by the end we become God's song in the midst of a world that is nothing more than a cemetery.

[8:05] You don't go to the cemetery. We live in the cemetery. We talk to dead people every day. Spiritually dead.

[8:20] I'll put it this way if you like. Don't get on me for art. We are God's tree art. We are what walks Lake Shore Drive and the path that signifies to the world there is a God.

[8:34] We are actually the ones who are alive. We are the ones who have been made alive to proclaim his life giving power to any who would hear. We are what God made because he desired some to walk among the dead.

[8:49] We are those that a dead world may be quickened by the mercies of God. we are the ones who are supposed to speak. We are the ones who are supposed to sing because dead men can't speak dead women can't sing and Christians can declare the glories of life that are in Christ.

[9:12] So sing Christ Church Chicago. Speak Christ Church Chicago. Walk Christ Church Chicago with the life that is in you through him that your dead friends might come to live in him too.

[9:39] Our Heavenly Father it's it's kind of mind blowing to spend a half an hour a week listening to your word to realize that we're not merely headed to a cemetery but we we were birthed in one but God and now great purpose may we be the most humble men and women in the city may we be the most purposeful church family may we be your poem to a world that needs the song of your son in whose name we pray amen well I hope you come back if you're new and even if you're not

[10:43] I would imagine as we're following the logic of the letter that we're going to begin to learn what that tangibly looks like to be walking together in Christ but let's