Kingdom Outpost: What is Our Message? Getting the

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Kingdom Outpost: What is Our Message? Getting the right message is important. Maybe some of you have heard of the Japanese man Hiroo Onoda. He was a Japanese soldier who was stationed on the Philippines during World War 2. He was an intelligence officer and when he was dropped off on the island his orders were to do all he could to hamper enemy attacks on the island and to not surrender or take his own life. Soon allied forces captured the island he was on and Onoda went into hiding in the jungle, determined to carry out his mission. He did not receive word in May 1945 that the Japanese had surrendered and lost the war and so he continued to carry out raids on local people. He believed leaflets that were dropped from the air into the jungle were US propaganda intending to get him to surrender. He continued to follow orders and believe the message that Japan was at war for 29 years until 1974 when his commanding officer during the war flew to his island and personally delivered orders for Onoda to come out of hiding. A message is more than just a bit of information. Believing the right message makes all the difference in the world in how you live your life. As the church, we have been commissioned with a message that we are supposed to proclaim in the world as we exist as a kingdom outpost. This message is powerful and decisive according to Romans 1:16. We have to make sure we get this message right and we share it clearly. It’s this message that we want to talk about today in our last sermon in this series; What is our message? Now, in order to make this message as clear as possible there are many places in the Bible we could go, but I want you to open to Ephesians 2 this morning. In Ephesians 2:1-10 Paul is speaking to believers and he describes the whole scope of the gospel message with clarity and conviction. As we look at this passage this morning we will see 4 descriptions of every believer that show the change brought by the work of Jesus Christ. The message of the gospel is the reality that God works to change people. 1. Dead in Sin (vs. 1-3) You can see in verse 1 that Paul is describing believers as they used to be. This is a past life, but this is true of every single person sitting in this room. If verses 1-3

are giving us this description of our previous life, this idea of being dead is at the very center of how we used to be. Spiritually dead. Think for a moment about the first few chapters of Genesis. Over and over God gives life, creates, and calls everything good. When Adam and Eve are placed in the garden they are spiritually alive and in a close relationship with God. The possibility of death only comes into the picture if they will disobey God’s Words. Listen to Genesis 2:16-17. Of course, in Genesis 3 Adam and Eve did exactly what God told them not to do and they didn’t physically die right away. But they did die spiritually. There was instant separation from God relationally and instant corruption and their very nature changed. Rather than free to serve and love God they became enslaved to sin. Romans 5:12 describes the tragic results and how we all are impacted by this one choice. This is what Paul is getting at in Ephesians 2. Every person is born spiritually dead and that deadness is because of our transgressions and sins. It’s not like we can just blame Adam for our sinful nature. We participate along with him. We are dead because of our transgressions and sins. We have missed the mark. We have willfully chosen to shun God’s Word and go our own way. But Paul doesn’t just let it stand by saying we are spiritually dead. He fleshes this picture out in quite a bit of detail. And if you think being spiritually dead sounds bad, it’s about to get a lot worse. Listen to verses 1-3. Paul describes our state of spiritual deadness as being consumed by three areas. Our attachment to the worldly environment around us, the influence of Satan in the world, and the corruption of our own disordered passions and desires. There’s a system that promotes sinfulness, an opponent that hates us and wants us to continue in spiritual deadness, and our own desires are anti-God and bent on our own destruction. The best way to think of the picture of spiritual deadness working itself out in daily life is to picture a mob of people who are rushing down a street toward the city square. They know that in the city square are soldiers with machine guns who won't tolerate the mob getting close. But, the mob acts like mobs do. They are driven by anger and passion, they are under the influence of a powerful leader, and the fact that so many other people are headed the same direction makes each individual member of the mob more confident and more arrogant in their

endeavor. This is the picture of sinful humanity we get here. And we are all born into this mob. Driven by base desires, under the authority of Satan and made to think this is healthy and good because so many others are rushing headlong toward the city square. And God will not let this go unpunished. Look at the end of verse 3. Continuing in this lifestyle is a sure ticket to the full fury of God’s righteous anger. This is what spiritual deadness means and this is why we are so desperately in need of what happens next. 2. Alive with Christ (vs. 4-6) You were born dead and if you are a believer in Jesus Christ this morning you came to this new situation because of what verses 4-6 describe to us. Now, if we are thinking in terms of this whole passage there are really only two sentences, verses 1-7 are one sentence and verses 8-10 are one sentence. The main subject and verb of that sentence are God in verse 4 and made alive in verse 5. This is the heart of the gospel and the heart of what God does for us. It’s a complete reversal of fortunes and God is the act-er. One commentator described this reversal as a new situation and here’s the best way I could think of to help you grasp this change. I don't know if you have ever seen those videos online of the people who receive cochlear implants? They have the surgery to put the implant in and then they go back to the office to test the implant. There's one video of an 8 month old little boy who hears his moms voice for the first time and it literally happens by a flip of the switch. The little boy drops his pacified and just stares up at his mom as she is saying his name and gets this huge smile on his face. That is an entirely new situation. His ear drum was literally dead, non-responsive and now he gets the joy and beauty of sounds and he's able to hear his mother. That is an entirely new situation. What led God to make dead people alive? Look at verses 4-5. Throughout this section we see descriptions of God's disposition toward us that led Him to act; to make us alive. What are these words? Mercy. Love. Grace. But let’s make sure we get something right here. The work of Christ does not cause God to love us. It’s not as if Jesus convinced God that we were somehow worthy of affection.

God loves us because that is who He is and because He created us. God’s love is the very reason He sent Jesus to the cross. The entire salvation plan rises out of God’s great love. And it’s God’ great love that led to the core aspect of this great change that often gets overlooked. Notice in verse 5 that we are made alive with Christ. Now look at verse 6. There’s a movement from being made alive to being raised up to being seated with Him in the heavenly places. It’s the same movement that happened to Jesus as He was raised from the dead and exalted to the right hand of God to rule and reign. Paul keeps using the words, with and in, to highlight our union with Jesus Christ. None of this happens to you unless you are joined to Jesus. All the realities and benefits of salvation come to us because we are united to Him. Martin Luther put it this way: “Through faith in Christ, Christ’s righteousness becomes our righteousness and all that he has becomes ours; rather, He himself becomes ours.” – Martin Luther Salvation is not a box of goodies that you receive. It’s not a get out of hell free card. Salvation is being grafted into the vine. It’s becoming a part of His body. It’s coming to share in all that Jesus is and does. Being raised with him and seated with him is true of us now, but we don’t experience that fully in our lives now. It’s a little like how we describe the kingdom of God. It has arrived in some sense but we have to wait for it to come in its fullness. This means though that because I have the righteousness of Christ, because I am seated with him in authority that I no longer have to bow to sin as verses 1-3 describe. I am free to live a new lifestyle. And all of this love, mercy, and grace has a purpose and an end goal. And this brings us to our 3rd description. 3. Exhibits of Grace (vs. 7-9) God has loved us, made us alive, and united us to Christ for this purpose. Look at verse 7. One author described it this way: "Throughout time and eternity the church, this society of pardoned rebels, is designed by God to be the masterpiece of his goodness." - F.F. Bruce

You and I will be exhibits of grace for all eternity because we were born of grace. The whole thing started by grace and so it will always be a showcase of grace. It's like the kid who was adopted as an orphan and grows up to be an incredibly successful surgeon. He will always be an example of the power of adoption to change a life because in some ways his life began with adoption. Spiritual life begins by grace and so it will always be a testimony of grace according to verse 7. Verse 8 is the explanation of verse 7. Why will an eternity spent with God and enjoying His presence and freedom from sin show the immeasurable riches of his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus? Because the whole thing began by grace and kindness in Christ Jesus. Now, at this point we have seen this amazing reversal of fortune initiated by God’s mercy, love, and grace, and done with the goal of holding us up as exhibits of grace for all eternity. But the question is, what connects us to this grace? How does one move from being dominated by sin to being united with Christ? Look at verse 8. It’s faith alone. Faith is the instrument by which we are recipients of grace. Faith is the connection point. Because faith rightly positions us before God as those in need and as those reliant on His good character. I want to read you a paragraph from one theologian that I thought was particularly helpful in understanding how faith fits into this. "As one has aptly and truly stated the case, it is not faith that saves but faith in Jesus Christ; strictly speaking, it is not even faith in Christ that saves but Christ that saves through faith. Faith unites us to Christ in the bonds of abiding attachment and entrustment and it is this union which insures that the saving power, grace, and virtue of the Saviour become operative in the believer. The specific character of faith is that is looks away from itself and finds its whole interest and object in Christ. He is the absorbing preoccupation of faith." - John Murray So faith looks away from self to Christ and this is where we should always look. But every human heart has the tendency to want to take credit for my salvation. Notice what Paul says in verse 8. In some ways, it’s hard to believe Paul has to say this. As if a sane person should need this reminder, "And this is not your own doing." Come on Paul. Give me a break. But this is the travesty of sin. We aren't sane people. Even after salvation we sometimes imagine that we can be good

enough or righteous enough, or special enough, or cool enough. This is Paul's way of reinforcing the gospel of grace. This is not your doing. It's like a football fan bragging about his team winning as if he had something to do with it. I can wear the shirt, watch the game, enjoy the ride, but I didn't have any more to do with the team winning than I did with the weather patterns over the weekend. Look at verse 9. So, we were all born dead, God, because of His great love made us alive in order to shower grace on us. He did this by uniting us to Christ through faith and giving us all that Jesus has and is. But this isn’t the end. We don’t secure our salvation by human effort, but when you experience a dramatic change like this, your life will fundamentally be different. And that’s the 4th description. 4. Created to Work (vs. 10) Look at the first part of verse 10. The word workmanship has the idea of creation and the word created is obviously used here. What Paul is doing by using these two words is drawing our attention to the fact that we have already become a part of the new creation the moment we are saved. So, picture these two realms, the old creation and then the new creation. The Bible described Jesus as the "first fruits" of the new creation. His resurrection from the dead inaugurates the new creation and brings it about. He has a new resurrection body. You and I are spiritually brought into the new creation at the moment of salvation. That is what Paul is describing here when he says we were created by our union with Jesus Christ. And the goal of this new realm or this new creation is that we would do good works. Those who have entered the new creation are fundamentally different from those of the old creation. Notice here in verse 2 that the former way of life was called "walking" and now notice in verse 10 that becoming a part of the new creation means we will walk differently. This is how God intended it to be. I’ll put as simply as I can. A person who is alive does not act like a dead person. No person who is alive lies in a casket all day long. Life is active and the type of life we have received by grace extends that same grace and love to others. Don’t claim to have been created in Christ Jesus and then go back to the mob we talked about in verses 1-3.

This is the message that makes up the core of our kingdom outpost. This message has massive implications for life and it must remain central. God rescues sinners by His grace through faith and for good works.