Blueprints for the Church: Bad, Good, Great
Blueprint for the Church • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Introduction: Mighty Change
Example of radical transformation
Outside versus Inside
Sentence #1: vv.1-7
Part I: Could it get any worse?
You were Dead: Rebels without a Cause
2 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 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— 3 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.
The Dead Life
A Walk in Trespasses and Sin
Walking according to the (age) of culture
“The course of the world.”
Lit. ‘age’ of the world
Walking according to the Prince of Pointlessness (foggy atmosphere)
“Power of the Air”= Lower influences of the Heavenly Places. “Proximity of this evil power and his influence over the world.”
“Foggy atmosphere” Stott
“In the New Testament the devil is not presented as the problem for which we need a solution. Our own sin and this evil age are. Moreover, to overemphasize the devil is to underemphasize Christ. In effect, this would-be ruler does not deserve our attention—a threat yes, but a minor player.” Snodgrass
“Any overemphasis on the role of the devil is wrong. This passage intends to remind its readers of their former plight, not to magnify the illegitimate ruler.” Snodgrass
Being Dead, you’re Sons of Disobedience
Lived in passions of flesh
Desires of the Body and mind
Being Dead, you’re, by Nature, Children of Wrath
“by nature, children of wrath.”
NOT adopted children, you just are, biologically, naturally.
Without God, there is NO HOPE!
Scope of the Bad New is Pretty All Consuming:
Internal and External Forces at play.
Internal, physical (world), and supernatural. Complementary forces at work.
All of humankind is stuck as Children of Wrath as a Chronic affront to God’s Wrath
God Wrath:
STOTT: “It is not like man’s. It is not bad temper… It is neither spite, nor malice, nor animosity, nor revenge. It is never arbitary… It is entirely predictable, and it is never subject to mood, whim, or caprice… The wrath that judges and the grace that saves are both personal. They are the wrath and the grace of God.”
“It is God’s personal, righteous, hostility to evil, his settled refusal to compromise with it, and his resolve instead to condemn it… Paul moves from the wrath of God to the mercy and love of God without any sense of embarrassment… He is able to hold them together in his mind because he believed that they were held together in God’s character. We need, I think, to be more grateful to God for his wrath, and to worship him that because his righteousness is perfect he always reacts to evil in the same unchanging, predictable, uncompromising way. Without his moral constancy we could enjoy no peace.” Stott
Part II: Could it get any better?
by nature versus by grace
You were made Alive:
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
TOTAL REVERSE
But God!
Main subject and main verb
Stott:
“co-resurrected”
“made us alive together”
“Raise us up with him”
“made us sit with him…”
his kindness v. 7).
Raise “WITH”
Seated “WITH”
Past Tense changes to aorist tense: Snap shot
Current Reality:
Already raised with Christ
Already seated with Christ
“Three successive historical events in the saving career of Jesus.” Stott
We can because HE is the head and we are the body.
We are no longer by nature objects of wrath in the flesh.
We are by grace raised in Christ!
Resurrection has already taken place!
“Since they have been transferred from the old dominion to the new reign of Christ, they do not have to succumb to the evil one’s design.” O’Brien
Seated with Christ: The powers of what was, no longer have power over you!
But pastor, why do I still struggle with so much sin?
Future Reality: Age to come
Authority over these forces.
v. 7: “so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
‘Throughout time and in eternity the church, this society of pardoned rebels, is designed by God to be the masterpiece of his goodness’. FF Bruce
Total Reversal:
Condition Change
Authority Change
Lordship Change
God’s Disposition towards us change:
Wrath to Kindness
One more major change, it’s a change in the hike you’re taking through life.
POINT #3: Take a Hike!
Saved by grace for good works.
Given grace and faith for action:
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.’
That we should walk through them…
See what Paul’s doing here?
Hike in British Columbia:
Bears
West Coast Trail
Most beautiful and most difficult hike ever!
10 Years:
The good the Lord has brought us through.
Nothing we did got us here without God’s intervention!
No strategic plan.
No cool logo.
No decision to move from here and there.
None of these happened without God’s help is some way , shape, or form.
Not saying we’re robots in God’s plan, but we were walking through things God predermined beforehand.
Resurrection Life is living as a NEW CREATION WITH A PATH GIVEN TO US BY GOD HIMSELF!
We are God’s Workmanship.
Poem: Creativity
But POEM didn’t mean POEM in the First Century:
Poem refers to Divine Creation.
We are God’s WORKMANSHIP, CREATED in Christ Jesus for good works…
Literally, We are God’s NEW, DIVINELY BUILT, CREATION, created for Good works.
Take a HIKE with me!
Men, going on a hike on the 12th.
When I say, Take a Hike, it means talking a walk with Resurrection Life:
O’Brien: “Believers are God’s work, and the good deeds which he has purposed for us to walk in, which are achieved only through his enabling power, can be thought of as already prepared in his mind and counsel from before eternity.”
Calvin: “You see then that this word “create” is enough to stop the mouths and put away the cackling of such as boast of having any merit. For when they say so, they presuppose that they were their own creators.”
We ARE God’s workmanship: PRESENT ACTIVE
For you are God’s CREATION:
NIV: “Handiwork” “Masterpiece”
NRS: “For we are what he has made us”
The Bible in Basic English: “For by his act we were given existence in Christ Jesus”
CEB: “We are God’s accomplishment.”
The Message: “God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.”
We are saved by grace through faith…
All this is from God.
Because he recreated us. Without resurrection comes new direction, new identity, new Lord, new everything.
He did it all! You didn’t do it. You are God’s creation, God’s accomplishment. God handiwork. He fashioned you.
And so, let’s take a hike!
Saved for Action:
“IT”=Faith
OR “Grace saved through faith”
Grace saved through faith “is not by works.”
“‘Works’ refers to any human condition or accomplishment by which one thinks to gain status or privilege before God. In reality, however, nothing we do grants standing before God. Humans in and of themselves have no claim on God.” Snodgrass
No one can boast!
They don’t go to church…
They do this and that and the other thing….
John Stott: “Good works are indispensable to salvation—not as its ground or means … but as its consequence and evidence.”
“God’s salvation has already been described in terms of a resurrection from the dead, a liberation from slavery, and a rescue from condemnation. Now it is spoken of as a new creation, and a further reason (for; cf. v.8) is given why this salvation is not of human origin and therefore cannot be the basis for human boasting. It is God’s workmanship from first to last; believers have been created in Christ Jesus for good works. These good works cannot be the ground of our salvation or the subject of our boasting since they are the goal of the new creation. They are the fruit of salvation, not its basis or cause.” O Brien
“workmanship”: Roman 1:20
“things that have been made”
Refers to God’s creation.
Snodgrass: “Love is not the opposite of wrath.”
When someone hurts my family, I get mad!
Stott: “Towards the end of my time as a theological student at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, the Rev. Paul Gibson retired as Principal, and a portrait of him was unveiled. In expressing his thanks, he paid a well-deserved compliment to the artist. He said that in future he believed people looking at the picture would ask not ‘Who is that man?’ but rather ‘Who painted that portrait?’ Now in our case God has displayed more than skill. A patient after a major operation is a living testimony to his surgeon’s skill, and a condemned man after a reprieve to his sovereign’s mercy. We are both—exhibits of God’s skill and trophies of his grace.”
Ktisthentes and Poiema=Creation language
Stott: “For resurrection is out of death, and creation is out of nothing.”
“Get a LIFE!”
