My husband’s favorite genre of movies are zombie movies. Now, I cannot watch these things. I think they are gross and I just cannot handle it. They scare me! I am very susceptible to nightmares. It doesn’t take much for something to be impressed upon my brain. He always asks me to watch them with him, but I just can’t! He loves them! Don’t misunderstand me. He does not want to ever come across a zombie in a dark alley, but he loves the movies. I know it sounds weird, but whenever I read the scripture passage for today, I always think of zombies.
Now, before you stone me for blasphemy, let’s read the scripture together and I’ll explain what I am talking about…It’s Ephesians 2, verses 1-10. The people in Ephesus were a group of pagans, who worshiped pagan gods. In fact, they had a huge temple there that was dedicated to the Roman god Diana. Paul had set up a Christian church there and the book of Ephesians is a letter to those Christians to remind them where they came from. The people of Ephesus needed to be reminded that it was Christ who saved them from their sins…
(Read scripture together)
“ 1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do”
Wow! You know what people? If we have not accepted Christ as our Savior, we are still dead in our transgressions. We are literally like, “The Walking Dead”…What I want for us all, is that we will be able to recognize Christ’s sacrifice for us and be made alive in Him again…
When we are so deep in sin, sometimes it is hard to see a way out. The scripture says that when we are following our own sinful desires, and are following the ways of the world we are dead. Does this mean that they are dead physically? No, of course not. In this scripture, death signifies the inability to communicate with God. To be dead means to be separated from God. Matthew Henry’s Commentary suggests that “Sin is the death of a soul”…when we sin, our soul can no longer survive. And if we follow the ways of the world instead of the ways of Christ, we are dead in our sins. The word dead in Greek is “nekros”, which literally means to be like a corpse.
Can you imagine walking down the street and seeing a bunch of corpses walking around? It would be like “Night of the Living Dead”, but that is just what this scripture is saying…If you are following the ways of the world and not God, you are basically dead in your sin. How horrible! We can get so caught up in our own lives and so used to doing whatever we want, that it can be hard to see any hope of a life without sin. This is what we are dealing with when we try to witness to someone, especially in this day and age…When people are so deep in their own sin and we try to tell them about the hope that is found in Jesus, it can be like trying to raise someone from the dead…
In the book, “The Republic of Plato”, we get a description of what is commonly referred to as “Plato’s Cave”. The description is about a group of prisoners who from infancy are chained together deep inside of a cave facing a wall. They have never been allowed to move or to look around…all they know is this wall. The prisoners have been forced to view a puppet show on that wall since they were children. The images are shadows of different shapes that are projected by fire light onto the cave wall. Voices and sounds are given to the shapes and because the sounds bounce off of the wall as an echo, the prisoners think the sounds come from the shadows…the cave wall was their reality.
Then one of the prisoners escapes. That prisoner is able to leave the cave and to see that the shadows he had known since birth did not really exist, but that they were a false reality. He desperately wants to free the other prisoners so that they can experience this true life, but the still chained prisoners cannot see anything but the shadows on the cave wall. They would think the freed prisoner was crazy, and they would not want to be free. Of course, we, being able to see all of the aspects of this story, know that the prisoners who do not want to be free are missing out on a true reality that would completely change their lives.
Unfortunately for us, sometimes we are not able to see the false reality that we are living in, due to our sins. We cannot see beyond what the world is showing us. We cannot see a way out. We are dead in our sins. Imagine yourself with blinders on, the kind horses use to avoid distractions…that is how we are in sin, we are not able to see God.
Have you ever known anyone who has just lost all hope? They have completely given up on the world, in people, in themselves? These are the people who don’t know the good news of the gospel. They have no idea that a true reality is out there, and that they no longer have to be a slave to their sins. This is where the good news comes in…The good news that even though we were dead in our sin, Christ can make us alive in Him again…
Christ’s love changes everything. We are no longer dead, but made alive again in Him. It is because of His great love for us that He suffered and died for our sins, so that we could be reconciled to Him. Because of God’s amazing grace, we are made alive in Christ’s death. And no longer are we completely unaware of His great love and completely focused on ourselves, but God has raised us up with Christ. He did all of this for His glory. So that others will be able to see His love in our lives. Through the way that He has made us new in Him, He will be able to show others His kindness and love. Because of our lives, He will be able to raise others from the dead.
There was a couple who were illiterate, who just recently accepted Christ as their personal Savior. The husband went to work every day dressed in a tee-shirt and jeans, but at his job, he noticed that every other guy had nice sayings written on their shirts. He really wanted to fit in, so he asked his wife if she would iron on letters on his tee-shirts, so that he would not feel so left out. His wife wanted to make her husband happy, so she looked around, and after seeing some words written on a sign in the window across the street, decided to iron on the letters that she saw even though she had no idea what the words said.
The next day the husband came home full of joy and thanked his wife for making his shirt such a hit. The husband said the men at work said the words expressed exactly how they felt about her husband and the recent change they had seen in his life. The wife had no idea that the words she saw on the sign in the window of the store across the street would have made such a strong impact on her husband’s co-workers. She had no idea that the words she wrote showed the true change that had taken place in her and her husband’s life. The words she unknowingly wrote were, “UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT”…
We can also show other’s Christ love. Through the examples we show by the lives we live. Others notice a difference in us when we are trying to live holy lives. If we stop doing the sinful things people are used to seeing us do, people will take notice. The souls made alive in Christ will cause the dead to take notice. We who were dead in our transgressions were made alive in Christ, but not by anything that we ourselves have done…
One of my favorite Disney movies growing up was “Pinocchio”. This was a heartwarming story of a boy made out of wood who wishes with all his heart that he would one day become a real boy. Pinocchio sings songs, and dances, becomes like any other young kid and disobeys his father, which leads him into the belly of a whale, and in the end learns a great lesson about right and wrong, and the blue fairy turns him into a real boy.
Disney tells the story very well, and even involves talking insects who wish upon stars, but the way it relates to our scripture today is the way in which Pinocchio receives his wish. Pinocchio did not create himself. He did not give himself the ability to talk or to sing or dance. And in no way shape or form did he have the ability to turn himself into a flesh and blood real live boy…
Like wise we do not have the ability to save ourselves from sin. We do not have the ability to raise ourselves up from the dead and to make ourselves alive again. Christ is our Savior. He is the one who makes us new. We have no right to boast in ourselves, but in Christ. Our job is to give all of the glory to Him, and to tell others about the redeeming power of Christ.
Everything that God is talking about in this scripture is His free gift to us. We do not deserve it in anyway, but none the less, He gives it freely. The scripture says, “because of His great love for us”…His love is so great, that even though we don’t deserve it or have anything to give Him in return, He still loves us…that is a GREAT love. God is the one who made us…we were created by Him and for Him. We are Gods good works, and no good works that we do will ever cover up that fact. We cannot and have no right to try to compete with Him for His glory.
God just blows my mind in verse 10, because after He says we cannot boast in Him, once again He lifts us up by His great love and calls us His “workmanship”. The word in Greek is “poiema, which refers to a masterpiece. We are God’s masterpiece. Looking at myself, it is very hard for me to see a masterpiece, but that is what God calls us. We are His beloved. We are His creation. He has created us to do His good works, and because of His great love for us, even though we were dead in our sins, He has made us alive again in Christ. Hallelujah! Before Christ we were dead in our sins. Christ made us alive again in Him. We did nothing to save ourselves...He is our savior…
I know that sometimes it can be difficult for us to see the light at the end of the tunnel…I know that it can be hard to witness to others who do not want to hear about the love of Christ. I know that sometimes we do not feel worthy enough of the love that God has shown us by giving His son to die for our sins. But no matter what we have done in the past, no matter how many sins we have committed, no matter how far away from God we feel…God still wants to make us new. He can take all the dirt that is in your life and make it as white as snow. We have been given a new life in Christ. And we have no right to waste it!
Are you making the most of the new life God has given you? Are you sharing the love of Christ with others? He has given us this new life to show others His glory! We are mandated to share His love with the walking dead among us…
The challenge that God is giving us is to share His love with those who don’t know Him. To show the prisoners that there is another reality. One with hope and a future…Today, if you don’t know this reality…If you don’t know the love of Christ…if you are lost and dead in your sin, come and meet with Him here (come down to the altar) Make sure you don’t leave this place without experiencing the love of Christ. He is waiting for you, with open arms…He doesn’t care where you have been, or what you have done…all He wants from you is to meet with Him…to lay all of your burdens on Him, and to make you alive again in Him…Stop being dead in your sins, and be made alive in Christ!
We sang a song this morning…I want to live right, that God may use me…and we are going to sing it again right now…but this time…during this time of reflection and prayer, lets slow it down…and sign it with a prayerful heart…lets focus on spending the time we have right now in prayer to our Lord…and if you feel led to come and pray this morning, the alter is always open…we had a wonderful time of prayer last week…and we prayed for our relatives and friends…this week, focus on your own heart…your own relationship with the Lord…and make it clean and perfect…focus on your Lord this morning…Come as we sing…
