Father, thank you for your love for us in the Lord Jesus.
Thank you for this passage.
Lord, you need to break through so we can understand how deeply, deeply, deeply we need you.
And what you've done to bring us home to you.
So help us to come home to you today and we ask it for your sake.
Amen.
Many years ago, I worked at a place.
It was one of the best jobs in the world as far as I was concerned.
It was Mount Capitan National Park.
I worked for the National Parks and Wildlife Service.
And Mount Capitan's claim to fame is that it is the highest peak in Australia outside of the Snowy Mountains.
It's not a massive claim to fame if you live in Europe, but it's a claim to fame.
It's 1,510 metres above sea level.
It's hardly even called a mountain, really.
It's really a hill.
But it's not so impressive.
But what makes it impressive is it stands beside the total contrast of the northwest slopes and plains of New South Wales.
Just 55 kilometres west of Mount Capitan is the town of Narrabri, where I grew up.
And it stands at a staggering 200 metres above sea level.
And it's on the edge of the vast plains of western New South Wales.
And the contrast between Capitan and Narrabri is quite staggering and very significant.
You see, the view from Narrabri is pretty pathetic, really.
You can't really see anything at all.
But on a good day, at the top of Mount Capitan, you can see 11% of New South Wales.
That's even more than what you can see from the top of Mount Kosciuszko.
Mount Capitan is at least 10 degrees cooler than Narrabri.
And it got almost twice the amount of rain that Narrabri received.
A wonderful oasis.
And there is a similar staggering contrast when you look at the passages that Sam just read to us that's on our sheet this morning.
The contrast is from death to life, from hell to heaven, from slavery to freedom, from pessimism to hope.
It's a staggering contrast.
The contrast from who we are without Jesus and who we are in Jesus.
For those of us who have joined us for today, the theme over the past few weeks we've been working through here at St. Paul's is the journey home.
And it might seem a bit strange, after several weeks into that theme, that my goal today is to take us back to the beginning.
And where the journey begins.
But Good Friday is where the journey begins.
For all of us.
And there are three things that I want you to see in these verses this morning from the Bible.
Firstly, the journey that we need rescuing from.
Secondly, the journey that we're rescued for.
And thirdly, how you begin that journey home.
So, first of all, the journey we need rescuing from.
It's in verses 1 to 3.
And it's really important as we get into this that if you've got an illness, you need a correct diagnosis.
On the side here, I've got an insulin pump.
I'm a diabetic.
It's no good me going to a doctor and a doctor saying to me, what you need is some Panadol.
You need to understand the illness you've got in order to get the correct medicine to deal with the disease you've got or the issue that you've got.
And the first three verses are a comprehensive panoramic picture of the human condition outside of God.
And it says quite bluntly, dead, dead in transgressions and sins.
Now, the Apostle Paul, who wrote these words, is making an absolute statement.
He doesn't mean that the Christians at Ephesus were merely in danger of death,
but that they were in a state of real and present death before Jesus intervened.
Death is not a figure of speech here.
He's not using hyperbole.
These people are absolutely dead.
Now, although he speaks of Gentiles in verse 1,
he includes his fellow Jews in verse 3.
The state of spiritual death is universal, is what he's saying.
He's not describing some decadent, depraved segment of society,
but all of humanity from top to bottom,
dead in transgressions and sins.
All people are spiritually dead apart from Jesus.
And when Paul says dead, he means it to have universal and an absolute application.
No exceptions here.
No exceptions.
So what does it mean to be dead in transgressions and sins?
After all, you know, look at us here today.
You know, people whose bodies are active and minds are sharp
and whose personalities are brimming.
What does it mean?
It means to be enslaved.
Notice the word followed in verse 2,
and it's there again in verse 3.
It says in verse 2,
you followed the ways of the world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air.
And then again in verse 3, it says,
gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts.
And the word followed there means to be mastered.
It means to be controlled by something.
The reason we are dead in trespasses and sins
is that we are as helpless as a dead body.
Completely controlled.
Totally mastered.
Unable to move.
Unable to act on our own.
There are three things here that we are enslaved to.
Verse 2, it says,
we're enslaved to the ways of this world.
Verse 2 also says that we're enslaved to the ruler of the kingdom of the air.
That's talking about Satan, devil.
This morning I want to notice just the key idea.
It's in verse 3.
Now, the term flesh there in verse 3 doesn't mean human flesh and bones.
Like, you know, that stuff.
It literally refers to self-centered human nature.
It's the self-centered human nature which drives us,
which masters us, which controls us.
According to the Bible,
the reason we are dead in trespassions and sins,
the reason we are enslaved to sin,
is because the human heart is profoundly self-centered.
Every one of us.
The 16th century church reformer and theologian Martin Luther
put the condition of the human heart quite succinctly.
He described it as curved in on itself.
Curved in on itself.
Absorbed in self.
Looking inside self-centered.
That is what it means to be human apart from God.
And Luther said that our nature is so deeply curved in on itself
that it, to quote him,
wickedly, curvedly, and viciously,
seeks to use all things, even God, for its own sake.
It's like all of us had this little computer
in the center of our heart
that never, ever, ever stops.
It is constantly analyzing everything,
every person, every object,
every interaction, every event,
every setting.
It's analyzing the basic question,
what's in it for me?
Everything is being analyzed
by how it benefits my happiness,
how it benefits my glory,
how it benefits my comfort,
my reputation,
my control of all things.
How does this help me?
How does it serve my interests
and fit my interests?
How does this make me happy?
Everything gets put through that grid
and the computer never stops.
Now, it's obvious to most of us, I think,
that self-centeredness can make us a pretty cruel person.
You know, it's not hard to identify the dictators
and the tyrants who were egotistical and proud
and self-centered and murderous
and they want to get their own way
and they will do whatever it takes,
even immoral things,
in order to get their own way.
More often than not, though, however,
self-centeredness actually makes you
a really moral person.
It makes you a good person.
If everything is about my need
to feel good about myself,
then there is no better way
for that to happen
than for me to be a good person,
a moral person.
You see, self-centeredness drives most people
towards attempting to live a good life,
trying really hard to serve the needy,
to be a good child to a parent,
to honor my parents in some way,
to be a good parent to my children,
a good friend who assists wherever they possibly can,
a good person,
a dutiful person who does what's expected of them.
And what lies beneath all of that
is a self-centeredness
where we do it for ourselves,
where we do it to help ourselves.
We do good things to be noticed by people,
to receive the applause of people.
It's so we can feel like we've got a meaningful life.
We feel like we're a good person
when we've got the acclaim of others.
Now, I'm not sure if you remember
one of the greatest Hollywood classics
of the last century,
the first Rocky movie,
starring Sylvester Stallone.
Now, quite frankly,
he's an underrated actor
who should have by now won an Academy Award.
Nominated three times,
pipped at the post each time.
Poor guy.
It's amazing he was nominated three times, frankly.
His love interest in that movie
asked him why he was fighting
the world champion, Apollo Creed.
It was a spectacle fight.
He was not expected to win in any sort of way.
And his reply,
if you can get through the mumbling
and get the translation right,
his reply is,
I want to go the distance.
Then I'll know I'm not a bum.
Now, deep down inside of us,
if we ever allow ourselves to go
to that recess of our hearts,
we all feel like bums.
We're trying to do something
to convince ourselves
and to convince the world
that we're not
and that we're good.
And so we evaluate everything
in terms of whether it makes me look good
or whether it doesn't make me look good.
Self-centeredness can make you a tyrant.
Self-centeredness can make you
a moral and a good person.
But self-centeredness can almost,
so make you a very religious person.
We can devote ourselves to obeying God
and turning up to church
and reading the Bible
and praying and giving
and doing all the sorts of things
that we've been doing right here,
right now,
all good things and right things to do.
So how do I know
when I'm doing it for me?
When things aren't going well
for you in life,
you start to pull away
from these good things.
It's because you're doing these things
in order to do,
as Luther says,
use God.
We do good things
and expect God to come through for us.
Be generous to someone.
God's going to be generous to me.
It means it's all about us.
It's awful to think about it,
but it's possible to, in fact,
even to get into Christianity
to have God serve us
rather than for us to serve God.
It's astounding.
Self-centeredness clings to everything
in our lives
like a rash.
Verse 3 uses the word craving
to describe our self-centeredness.
It's a word that means inordinate desire.
It means that our egos
are addictive.
The little computer is addictive.
It means that we are living for our own glory
and it will never be enough
in the same way that a shot of heroin
for an addict will never be enough.
There's got to be more.
The little computer in us
is in overdrive,
running evaluations,
but no amount of glory,
no amount of acclaim,
recognition,
comfort
will ever be enough.
It's addictive.
And it's never satisfying.
And it makes you miserable.
C.S. Lewis,
the Oxford professor
and author,
wrote that there is nothing more
enslaving and miserable
than self-centeredness.
He wrote that it is hell
begun in us
that will eventually
take us to hell
because it's taking us
towards the person
that we are becoming.
The ruler of the kingdom of the air
as Ephesians 2 says.
The framework that every human being
begins with without Jesus
is that if you,
is that you
give your life
for me.
It's me first.
You serve my interests.
That's even how we relate
to our creator,
our sustainer,
our God.
It's me first.
And the Bible's view of sin
is that every part
of the human person
is tainted by sin.
It doesn't mean that humans
are not capable
of any good.
It doesn't mean that
there's no dignity
in human beings.
In fact,
I would argue
the Bible places
more than any other world
worldview,
supreme value
on human dignity.
But it means
that no part
of the human being,
the mind,
the emotions,
the heart,
the will,
is left untouched
by sin and self-centeredness.
And so the consequences
at the end of verse 3
is shocking
to our modern context
that says
we want to be able
to live how we want
without any consequences.
Not only dead,
but condemned.
That's the consequence.
Not only dead,
but condemned.
Verse 3,
like the rest,
we were by nature
deserving of wrath.
That's God's anger.
God's anger
is not like human anger.
It's not a bad temper.
It's not spite.
It's not malice.
It's not animosity.
It's not revenge.
It's not arbitrary.
It is predictable.
And it's not governed
by mood
or by whim.
It is God's personal,
righteous,
constant hostility
towards all
that is evil,
unjust,
and sin.
It is his settled
refusal
to compromise
with it
and his resolve
to condemn it.
And that is
the life journey,
the trajectory
that we are all on
and that we need
rescuing from.
Now in a moment,
I'm going to talk
about how God
saves us
from that life.
But first,
I want to take us
to the end
of these verses
where it talks briefly
about the life
that we are
rescued for.
This is the kind
of life
that God wants
to give us
and this is the life
he wants to bring
us into.
Starting at verse 8,
for it is by grace
you have been saved
through faith.
This is not
from yourselves.
It is a gift
from God,
not by work
so that no one
can boast.
For we are
God's handiwork
created in Christ
Jesus to do good
works which God
prepared in advance
for us to do.
Now there are a couple
of fascinating terms
right in there.
The first is in verse 8,
it is by grace
you've been saved
through faith
and this is not
from yourselves,
as a gift
from God.
It is saying
that we are not
saved,
we do not
give ourselves
the evaluation
of being a good
person by doing
good things
and being moral.
We are not saved
by anything
that we do.
God's salvation,
his gift
is a gift.
This new life
that he wants
to bring us into
is a gift
and once we get
this gift
we start to see
everything in life
as a gift.
It's not my
entitlement,
it's not there
to serve me.
Even faith
is something
that God gives us.
The life
that God
wants us to have
is a life
where we see
everything as a gift.
It's not a life
where we divide
the world up to
into makers
and takers
to quote
a taxi driver
that we had
in the United States.
Everything
is a gift.
We don't
deserve anything.
It's a life
that is lived
through faith
as we're told
here
and faith
isn't just
about intellectual
belief.
It means that
but it means
much more
than that.
Faith
means trust.
It means
resting.
See,
a Christian person
is a person
who's at rest.
They are
characterised
by what
verse 9
says,
no longer
boasting.
They're not
boasting
anymore.
Now,
when we hear
the word
boast,
we hear
bragging.
You know,
look at the
things I've
done and
achieved.
Now,
boasting
meant something
a bit
different
and probably
more profound
in the first
century.
Boasting
for them
was to
give yourself
confidence,
to gee
yourself up,
to face
something really
hard.
That's what
boasting
was in the
first century.
So,
imagine a
military leader
got his
troops there,
rallying his
troops,
getting them
pumped up
because they're
about to run
in and face
death.
He would
stand there
and he'd
boast,
look at the
size of
our spears,
weeny little
spears,
these guys,
and look at
how many guys
we've got.
They've only
got a few
over there.
Look at
our tactics.
We've been
winning all,
our tactics
are much
better than
their tactics.
The soldiers
would go,
yeah,
grab these
spears,
yeah,
I'm going
to die.
That's what
boasting
is.
This is the
sense here.
The boasting
here is
about
where your
confidence
is placed.
And we
are told
here that
one of the
great things
about the
Christian life
is it
brings to
an end
of all
boasting
in self
and into
placing my
confidence
in my
fickle
personal
hope that
I'm trying
to build
for myself.
everyone
is looking
around for
something to
boast in,
to have
confidence in,
to trust in,
to rest in,
in order to
face life.
Everyone is
trying to find
something to
give us that
sense of
value,
that sense
of worth.
Some of us
look to
careers,
some of us
look to
our family,
some of us
look to
salaries,
some of us
look to
moral decency,
some of us
look to
religious
performance.
A life
looking at
things to
boast in is
a life
that's
scrambling,
scrambling
for identity,
scrambling
for self
worth,
and it
is
exhausting.
And as
C.S.
Lewis says,
it makes you
miserable.
And the
new life
that God
gives us
is a gift,
and because
it's a gift,
we are set
free from
that,
liberated from
trying to
find our
boast,
trying to
find our
confidence,
from within
ourselves to
pin our
hopes on,
and in
verse 10
it says
this wonderful
vision of
the new
life,
he says,
we are
God's
handiwork,
created in
Christ Jesus
to do
good works,
which God
prepared in
advance for
us to
do.
In the
old life,
we are
dead in
our sins,
but the
new life
is described
as God's
handiwork,
we are
his artwork,
his
masterpiece.
No longer
dead,
but instead
remade,
set free to
do good
works without
the constant
calculation of
whether I've
done enough
to get the
applause that
I so
desperately
desire.
God's
greatest
masterpiece is
humanity
saved from
condemnation,
made alive and
set free from
slavery.
The old life
means we work
hard in the
hope of getting
the applause,
the praise of
the praiseworthy,
the new life
because we have
the praise of
the most
praiseworthy
already.
We are set
free to serve
and love with
free abandon.
So we've
seen the
life that we
need to be
saved from
and the
life that we
are saved
for.
So how do
we begin
this journey?
Where does
it start?
And the
answer to
that is
both profound
and simple.
It says in
verses 4 to 7
that God has
done something
incredible in
Jesus.
It says,
because of his
great love for
us,
God who is
rich in
mercy made
us alive
with Christ
even when we
were dead in
transgressions.
It is by
grace you've
been saved.
And God
raised us up
with Christ
and seated us
with him in
the heavenly
realms in
Christ Jesus.
Notice the
last verse in
verse 6.
God has
raised us up
with Christ
and seated us
with him in
the heavenly
realms.
Now the
first recipients
of this
letter knew
exactly what
that meant
in the
Roman world.
You see,
in the first
century Roman
world,
the conquering
war,
the general
would return
from a great
victory and
he was given
as a reward
the greatest
place of
honour in the
capital city.
And that is
the seat
beside the
throne of the
emperor.
right hand
seat.
Jesus died,
he was
raised again
and he was
given the
place of
greatest honour,
the seat on
the right hand
throne in the
heaven.
It can't
mean that we
are raised
from dead
literally
because I
don't think
that I've
died just
yet.
I'm jet
lagged but
I'm not
dead.
It can't
mean that
I'm in
heaven because
I'm still
here.
It doesn't
mean that we
are literally
seated with
him there
just yet.
It means
that we are
legally seated
with him
there right
now in
Jesus.
You see,
when you
believe in
Jesus,
all your
sins are
so hidden,
they are
so covered
that you
are treated
as if you
have done
everything
that Jesus
has ever
done.
Through
Jesus,
God delights,
he honours,
he accepts
and he
rejoices over
us in the
way that he
has his
perfect
obedient son.
How can
that be when
we have
been so,
so self-centered?
The key
there is in
verse 7,
he might
show the
incomparable
riches of
his grace
expressed in
his
kindness
to us
in Christ
Jesus.
The word
kindness
there of
Christ
Jesus
literally
means a
costly
action.
It's more
than just
saying,
you know,
I love
you.
It is
putting your
money where
your mouth
is,
as we say,
or for
Jesus'
sake,
it is
putting his
life where
his mouth
is.
The first
three verses
tell us
that the
essence of
sin,
which is the
reason why
we are
dead,
is putting
ourselves
where only
God should
be,
the center
of our
lives,
on the
throne of
our lives,
in control
of our
lives.
That is
what sin
is,
is putting
ourselves
where only
God
deserves
to be.
Salvation,
according to
the Christian
faith,
is the
exact opposite.
And salvation
is God
putting himself
where we
deserve to
be,
on the
cross.
That's
what Good
Friday is
all about.
Jesus took
the just
and the
righteous
punishment
from God
that we
deserve for
putting
ourselves
in the
place where
only God
belongs,
on the
throne as
rulers of
our lives.
The punishment
he took on
the cross
was much
more than
the cruel
and the
excruciating
physical
punishment
of
crucifixion.
It was
a cruel
way to
die.
He took
the wrath
of God
that verse
3 says
we deserve.
He was
cut off
from his
father and
he experienced
the agony
that we
would experience
if we were
cut off
from God
for all
of eternity.
And I
cannot
imagine,
even begin
to imagine
what that
was like
for him.
He sat
in our
seat so
that we
now can
sit in
his seat.
One
person put
it so,
so succinctly,
the essence
of sin
is us
substituting
ourselves for
God,
while the
essence of
salvation
is God
substituting
himself for
us.
And that's
what Good
Friday is
all about.
We have
put ourselves
where only
God deserves
to be and
so God
chooses to
put himself
where we
deserve to
be.
And so
the way
to be
blasted
out of
our
self-centeredness
is to
see that
Jesus saved
us by
doing the
exact opposite
of us.
He saved
us through
the most
radically
unselfish
thing anyone
has ever
done.
Though he
is equal
with God,
he emptied
himself of
his glory,
he came
down,
he took
our place
as a
servant,
he traded
his life
for ours,
and the
contrast of
these verses
is startling.
The very
next words
after verse
3 that
says that
we are
deserving of
God's
wrath says,
but because
of his
great love
for us,
God who
is rich
in mercy
made us
alive with
Christ.
Even when
we were
dead in
transgressions,
it's by
grace you've
been saved.
We were
dead in
our
transgressions,
but God
intervened.
We were
bondage to
sin, but
God intervened.
We were
objects of
wrath, but
God intervened.
God who
is rich in
mercy intervened.
Our condition
was hopeless,
but God
intervened in
grace.
From hell to
heaven, from
bondage to
freedom, from
gloom to
light, from
despair to
hope, from
wrath to
glory, from
death to
life, that
is the
glory and
the magnificence
of Good
Friday.
That's why
it's called
Good Friday.
And when
we see him
doing that,
when we know
he has done
that, when
we see his
mercy, his
love, his
grace, then
it helps us to
see that our
sense of who
we are is
already filled
up.
You can
disconnect the
computer.
His
selflessness has
overcome our
selfishness.
We see
ourselves as
complete because
we are seated
with God in the
place of honour.
We have all the
acclaim, all the
honour, all the
approval, all the
acceptance that you
could possibly want.
There is only one
boast that will
stop all boasting.
One boast that
stops us scrambling
through life trying
to figure out a
way to find the
confidence that we
need in order to
face life, whatever
it's going to throw
at us.
And it's the same
Apostle Paul who
wrote in Galatians
chapter 6,
may I never boast in
anything else but
the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ
through which the
world has been
crucified to me and
I to the world.
Now I'm assuming
that there are some
people in this room
today and you may
even have been a
regular in this
church for decades
but you need to
start that journey
today.
The journey needs to
begin for you today.
You need to get off
one road and on to
the other.
You need to switch
roads, stop looking
to self, start looking
to God and whatever
you've done, whatever
you've become on this
good Friday,
day Jesus has
possible for you to
come home to him.
Make this good Friday
the day that you come
to Jesus and experience
his love and his grace
and his mercy the day
you go from hell to
heaven, from bondage to
freedom, from gloom to
light, from despair to
hope, from glory to
wrath, from death to
life.
Sorry, from wrath to
glory, death to life.
If that's you, then
there's a really
crucial prayer for you
on the back of our
service sheet.
It's called the
prayer for belief.
I want to encourage
everyone to pick one
up.
Pick one up and look
at that prayer at the
end of the back of the
service sheet.
It's really simple.
Lord Jesus, I admit that
I'm weaker and more
sinful than I've ever
dared to admit, but
through you I'm more
loved and accepted than
I ever dared to hope.
I thank you for praying
my debt on the cross,
taking what I deserve in
order to offer me
complete forgiveness,
knowing that you've been
raised from the dead.
I turn from my sins and
receive you as my Lord
and Saviour.
Amen.
We're going to, Sam's
going to lead us right
now.
Come on up, Sam.
He's going to lead us
into the Lord's Supper
right now, which is
again a reminder of
what Christ has done for
us.
And as he does that, as
we go through this, can
I just encourage you to
ponder over the words of
that prayer and whether
or not that prayer is a
prayer for you to pray
today and to begin the
journey to follow
Jesus.