Sermon Central
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Being Alive In Christ Series
Contributed by Anthony Zibolski on Apr 19, 2011 (message contributor)
Summary: What does it mean to be alive in Christ? If not, what are we ?
Being alive in Christ
Ephesians chapter 2:1-10
Introduction-
You will be glad to know after seven weeks, we will not be in Matt. 5 this morning.
Please turn with me to Ephesians chapter 2 and we will look at the first 10 verses.
New series beginning this week entitles “looking for answers.”
We are up against a situation and we desperately looking for answers.
Today:
What does it mean to be alive in Christ? If we are not alive in Christ, what are we?
What has to take place in our lives to be alive in Christ?
Apostle Paul is the writer, and the theme of Ephesians is believers being in Christ.
Paul presents God’s master plan.
He prays that believers would understand what it means to be in Christ.
Here is chapter 2 he shifts his attention and describes salvation. Salvation is the miracle that brought us into God’s master plan.
He says in (v1) that we are dead in our trespasses and sins. That we followed the ways of the world, self-destructed ourselves, and we are disobedient to the things of God.
(v4) “But because of His great love for us- God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ.
Christian terms that are often thrown around. “He saved us.”
We were dead in sins. He saved us from that.
Not by anything we did, but by what Christ did.
(v8) “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, this is not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.”
The lesson today that needs to be learned in this is 3 fold- past, present, and future.
(1) Who we are without Christ.
(2) Who we are with Christ.
(3) What is our future in Christ.
Let’s begin with our past- who we are without Christ.
(v1) You……who were dead
We were dead.
If you are a Christian, that is your past.
If you are not a Christian, this is your present condition.
Your dead. Ephesians 4:18 tells us dead is to be alienated from the life of God.
It is not physical death but spiritual death. An unbeliever is dead to the things of God.
Physical death is the inability to respond. Likewise, spiritual death is the inability to respond, or the choice not to respond to the things of God.
God’s love does not draw you because you are alienated from God.
Man is not dead because he commits sins, but because he was born sinful.
Hamartia- Greek word for sin. Translated it means “to miss the target”. “to miss the mark.”
What God is telling us is – We all are sinners. Born into sin.
We all missed the mark. We have all missed the target. We have all slipped , have gone in the wrong direction.
Sin is the failure to hit God’s target.
We cannot do that ourselves because God’s standards cannot be reached by man’s abilities.
“All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. Sin is the failure to glorify God.
The Bible says were all sinners, but that does not mean everyone is at the same level of sinfulness.
Before you get all excited and start thinking of all the people that are worse that you are. Every person falls short of God’s glory, holiness, and perfection. There may be different levels of morality, but every person falls short.
Illustration-
We could all stand at the beach in Cape May and try to jump across the ocean. We would all be at different levels of jumping, but none of us would jump across the ocean. We would all fall short.
If you never accepted Jesus Christ in your life, this is the way you would physically die. You would never respond to the love of God and what Christ did for you. You would never have been alive in Christ because you never allowed Christ to be a part of your life. You spent your lifetime keeping Him out.
II. Present- what does that look like?
“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.”
If we got what we deserved, we all would be in trouble.
Salvation is based on love… God’s love.
God doesn’t save people because of their worthiness.
It is based on his love, what He did for each of us, and our response to His love.
“Even when we were dead in sins, he hath made us alive together with Christ.”
The one thing that dead people need is life. That is what God provides in Jesus Christ.
When you became a Christian, you ceased being alienated from God and you became alive ! Amen!
