A Life Without Hope
Ephesians 2:11-22
· Ephesians is filled with mighty truths, fantastic statements which remind us of what if means to be a Christian. IF we ever grasp these truths we will never be envious of a lost world, never wish to be like them in any way, and never be drawn back to those patterns of life.
1) 2:1 – Dead in trespasses and sins
2) 2:2 – Walked in the ways of the world
3) 2:2 – Under the power of satan’s direction
4) 2:3 – Indulged the desires of the flesh
5) 2:4 - Under condemnation as ‘children of wrath’
(2:5-7) BUT GOD – rich in mercy…because of His love…made us alive….raised us up….seated us in the heavenlies….to show His grace in us through Jesus Christ.
· 2:8-10 Explains how our salvation was God’s work in our lives and that it continues in us as ‘His Workmanship’. We can be confident that God is working in and through our lives for His great purposes.
· Starting in 2:11 Paul becomes more specific with regard to the Ephesian Church which is primarily non-Jewish or Gentile. He begins to contrast their condition in three ways:
1) WITHOUT CHRIST
2) IN CHRIST
3) THROUGH CHRIST
· Paul uses the term ‘REMEMBER’ in both 2:11 & 2:12. Do you remember what it was like to be outside of Christ? Lost? Blind to the truth? Keeping pace in the world but ignorant of God’s purposes and especially His design for your life? REMEMBER: When we remind ourselves of the hopeless condition of those days it inspires us the gratefulness and service in our commitment to Christ.
WITHOUT CHRIST: (11) Therefore, remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called ‘uncircumcised’ by the so-called ‘circumcision’ which is performed in the flesh by human hands – (12) remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
1. The word that best describes a Gentile is the word WITHOUT
(without Christ, without citizenship, without covenants, without
hope, without God)
a. We like to describe someone as ‘with it’. They have what it
takes or what everybody else would want.
A Panel of Women debated on what they thought was a perfect man, a guy who was ‘with it’. You would have thought they would have decided upon some actor or athlete even a wealthy tycoon. They decided that the perfect man was MR POTATO HEAD. 4 Reasons: ‘He’s tan, he’s cute, he knows the importance of accessorizing, and if he looks at another girl you can rearrange his face.
Problem is that in our blindness we often misdiagnose
people with that term: money, popularity, certain job,
1) Paul says people like that are really ‘without it’.
Trying to fill the emptiness with the things this world
offers.
RAY STEDMAN says that the GENTILES of Paul’s day were primarily characterized by two things:
1. IMMORALITY: often highly educated…civilized..but if you visit the
temples of Rome & Greece and other places you find a tremendous
emphasis on the sensual.(SOUND FAMILIAR)
2. RELIGIOUS IGNORANCE: They didn’t know God.
They were surrounded by gods on every side. Romans, Greeks,
Persians, all had their lists of gods but their gods were as irritable and
undependable as men were.
They certainly didn’t show love and there was never any thought of a
‘loving God’. No suggestion in any writing. They never felt loved by
their gods and had no sense of belonging in their relationships to them.
South American Indian told a missionary who had led him to Christ, ‘When I was living in the jungle, we never knew a day without fear. When we woke up in the morning we were afraid, When we went out of our houses we were afraid, when we walked along the river, we were afraid, we saw an evil spirit in every stone and tree and waterfall. And when night fell, fear came into our huts and slept with us all night long.
Our minds are often occupied with what we fear the most: When you consider what people are most preoccupied with you see what scares them:(TV & Movies, books) Fear of death: movies that toy with it abound Fear of not belonging: movies on relationships
Fear of not being significant: Rambo, Arnold, Jackie Chan
3. THIRD MIGHT BE VIOLENCE: Live in a day of RAGE. New term in
the news is ‘rink rage’ because of a hockey day killing a coach. That
goes along with ‘road rage’ and ‘air rage’ and ‘supermarket rage’(one
woman attacked another at the checkout stand).
Watch hockey for the fights, racing for the wrecks, and football for the
big hit.
VIOLENCE is very characteristic of what it means to be a part of a
pagan society.
2. Paul sends out two messages in these two verses: one to the
Gentiles but also to the Jews.
a. JEWS: ‘so called circumcision’. ‘performed by human
hands’. These are religious pagans who are always looking
down their noses at other people.
1) There is a lot of show but it is all ‘done in the flesh, performed by human hands’.
The definition of a pagan is someone ‘without Christ’. You may have been raised in a religious home, have the best of manners, be highly intelligent or artistic, be very educated, be an enjoyable person but if you are ‘without Christ’ then even though as humans go you might be quite high on the scale you are still without the life that only God can give,
b. GENTILES: Paul reminds them how distant they once were
from all that God was doing. FOUR THINGS
1) They were ‘excluded from the commonwealth of Israel’.
a) God chose Israel for the primary purpose of being evangelists to the world. They were the chosen people. God’s distinct people who were to be separate from the world. The Jews had a sense of belonging to God, a destiny in His plan, and could depend on His protection.
Although Jews failed at their mission yet the Gentiles found themselves outside of this unique community.
2) They were ‘strangers to the covenants of promise’.
a) God spoke to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Moses regarding His promises of redemption.
The Gentiles knew nothing of this plan.
Funny since God had called Israel to be ‘a light to the Gentiles’.
So many lost people you work with, know in life are total strangers to the gospel, what God has done through Jesus and the only hope of redemption.
Jesus tells us that we are ‘the light of the world’ but too many of us are like the Jews who hid their light under a bushel instead of letting their light shine before all men.
3) They were ‘without hope’
What is 750,000 miles long? It could wrap itself around the earth 30 times and it grows an additional 20 miles longer with each passing day?
It is the line of people on earth who do not know Jesus. WITHOUT HOPE.
4) They were ‘without God in the world’..
a) The world is a hard place. I would hate to try to live life in this world ‘without God’. Any year could be your last, any day your life could come unraveled, any second your heart could stop.
b) Life without any real direction, no definite eternal purpose, no real answers for all of life’s questions.
The wise men of Paul’s days: scientist, philosophers, great thinkers all looked out into the universe and saw nothing but an enormous cosmic loneliness. Man was alone in a cruel and heartless universe, trying to do his best.
Most people didn’t believe in the gods anymore even though they still went through the motions of worship yet none knew the real presence of God. A meaningless existence, no sense of purpose.
Archaeologist have examined many 1st century cemeteries in Greece and Rome and found many tombs with the inscription upon them, ‘NO HOPE’.
Beginning in 2:13 Paul changes direction by saying, ‘BUT NOW’… after he reminds them what it was like to be ‘without Christ’ he turns back to the good news of the Gospel and boy does it now pack a punch.
But now in Christ Jesus. Tonight we will look at what it means to be IN CHRIST and how different our lives are now because of what God has done THROUGH CHRIST.
Story told of tribes which used to roam through the land now called Russia. One particular tribe had a leader who was known to be very powerful. He was physically very strong but also he was famous for his great wisdom. His word was absolute law in the tribe.
A problem arose in the tribe in that someone was stealing things. He demanded that the stealing stop or punishment would be decreed. The stealing continued so he established a punishment of so many lashes with a whip. The stealing continued. The punishment increased and increased and increased until finally if the thief was caught there was no way they could live through the beating decreed.
THE THIEF WAS CAUGHT. It turned out to be the mother of the great leader. She would certainly die under such a beating but he had given his word. A date was set and the tribe began to debate whether he would break his own law because of his great love for his mother?
The day came: He ordered his mother to be brought forward. She was tied to the whipping pole and the whipmaster was called. The great leader demanded that the punishment begin.
Before he gave the final command he stepped from his royal place, took off his garment, and stepped over to where his mother was. He extended himself across her to cover her back with his and then said, ‘Let the beating begin’. He took on his back that which would have caused her death.
BUT NOW IN CHRIST JESUS …. Our condition was hopeless but He extended Himself upon the cross and took our punishment.
