Well, good morning, everyone. Would you pray with me as we get started? Lord, we are so thankful for the gift of your word and to hear your word read out loud in our presence and to recognize those words as words coming from you meant for our blessing, our transformation, our growth. We pray now as we engage with your word that you would open our hearts to hear from you this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, about nine years ago, on January 19th, 2015, 14-year-old John Smith was out playing on the icy surface of Lake St. Louis down in St. Charles, Missouri. He was out there with a couple of his friends. And it was warmer day than they were expecting. And as they got further out on the ice, the ice shattered underneath them. All three boys fell in the frozen water. Two of his friends were able to scramble to safety, but John was not. And he was overwhelmed by the water and drowned and sank to the bottom of the lake. It took about 15 minutes for the first responders to show up and they're frantically trying to find John. They finally located him, pulled him to the surface, started CPR, rushed him to the hospital. About an hour later at the hospital, still no pulse, no signs of life, no indication, no hope, just a cold body on the bed in front of them. Now, if you've seen the movie that they made afterwards about this miracle, then you know what happened next. His mom, who was called to come to the hospital to pay her final respects to her son, came and she prayed over him. And in what can only be called a miracle of God, he started breathing again. His pulse started going again. Although doctors said, well, this is fine, but there's still very unlikely that he would survive the night after going an hour. without any sign of life. There'll be very little hope of making a recovery. And yet, two weeks later, he walked out of the hospital alive with no lingering impacts. It's an incredible true story, and one that can only be explained as being a miracle, because dead people simply do not come back to life. Death is a one-way journey that nobody ever returns from, and when they do, we call it a miracle, because that's the only explanation we have. God intervening supernaturally to reverse the normal, natural course of events. And that's exactly what Paul describes for us in our passage today in Ephesians. God intervening supernaturally in this world to reverse the normal course of events. Let me read to you from Ephesians chapter two. I'm gonna start in verse one again just to set the context here, but we'll be focusing on verses four through seven. Paul says, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins 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, 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. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus." You know, I think the tendency sometimes in our culture is to see the miracle of John Smith being brought physically from death back to life after his drowning as more significant, more incredible, more astounding, more awe-inspiring than the spiritual transformation from death to life that Paul records for us here. And I totally get that because we are physical creatures living in a material, physical world. And what we feel and taste and see and touch just feels more real. But the Bible is clear that our greatest and most significant challenge in life is not physical death. It's not. It's spiritual death and separation from God. And therefore, the most significant gift that we can ever receive is new life, new spiritual life in Christ. As Paul says, you were dead in your trespasses and sins, but God made you alive with Christ. That's the heart of Paul's message here to the Ephesians, and it's the heart of God's message to us today through his word. You and I are made alive together with Christ. Now I've divided this passage into two main sections which will frame our discussion today. And first we're gonna look at what God did, and then we're gonna look at why God did it. Fairly simple, what God did, and then secondly, why God did it. So what did God do, first and foremost? He made us alive together with Christ. But in order to grasp the enormity of that good news, we have to first set the context with the bad news. So although we looked at one aspect of verses one through three a few weeks ago, I want to look at them again because it's so important. Before Jesus, you were under the authority of the power, prince of the power of the air. You followed the course of this world. You lived in the passion of your flesh, Paul says. Your life before Christ was controlled by these forces, sin within and sin without. You were powerless against them. You were spiritually dead. If you don't have Christ, that is your true state now. By nature, children of wrath, Paul says. That was your true identity at that time, regardless of what your lives looked like at the time. Think of all your many neighbors, coworkers, pleasant, friendly, kind, warm, nice people, perhaps even socially conservative, hardworking, and praise the Lord for all those wonderful qualities that God in His grace has blessed us with in our community, in our country. Don't criticize any of that, but being nice and kind is not enough. Refraining from obvious sin is not enough. You know, what makes this so hard is that the real problem non-Christians face is actually, it's invisible most of the time. It's a spiritual problem. It's separation from God, and there is nothing that we can do in and through our own strength to address that problem. In fact, before Christ, most of us were completely blind to it. Right? We were under the power and authority of the world, the flesh, and the devil and had absolutely no clue anything was wrong. Right? That's where most illustrations concerning the dramatic rescue God initiated on our behalf begin to break down. Last year I shared this incredible story of the Chilean miners trapped thousands of feet underground and the engineering marvel that they went through to rescue them and bring them up out of the ground and to bring them to new life. It's a powerful story illustrating the extent of God's salvation in our lives. But here's the problem with that image. The miners all knew exactly what was going on. Right? They knew it. They knew how hopeless and precarious their situation really was. They knew they were running out of air. Knew they were running out of food. Knew they were running out of time. They knew there was absolutely nothing they could do except wait and pray and hope that someone would come and rescue them. But that's not true for those who are dead spiritually. They have no conception of how bad things really are. They get up, they go to work, they go to school, they come home, they watch TV, they play with their friends, they laugh, joke, eat, drink, whatever, and all the while have no awareness of the fact that they are children of wrath facing the judgment of God. Look, even the people on the Titanic had some sense that something was wrong. Even if they didn't fully grasp the enormity of that moment, they knew something was off. But without Christ, it's like sitting in your living room wearing one of these VR goggles while your house is burning to the ground all around you, blissfully unaware of the true state of affairs. So immersed in an artificial reality that looks and even feels amazing that you fail to perceive the imminent disaster. That's a description of life without Christ. Except it's actually not life at all. It's not. It's an act, a play, a make-believe, a mirage, an illusion. It's a movie version of reality. It's like latte art that looks beautiful, and the moment you touch it, it all just begins to dissolve into the coffee underneath. Life without Christ, it promises. It promises fulfillment, and freedom, and excitement, and satisfaction. And there are fleeting moments of it. Except, then they pass. like an addict we're left craving more and more and more forever searching never finding forever wandering and never resting it's like those peloton bikes with the enormous screens on them right and you can ride on those and imagine you're you're touring through the beautiful sunny countryside of france except it turns out you're really going nowhere. You're just in your basement under the fluorescent lights, peddling like mad. Life without Christ may offer brief moments of pleasure and delight, but ultimately can only deliver spiritual death. And if that describes you today, please, I urge you to turn away from that life and turn in repentance to God. Because look at what He offers. Look at verse four. These first two words are perhaps two of the most exciting and incredible words in all of Scripture, but God. You were dead in your trespasses and sins, but God. You were lost and without hope, but God. You had no idea, literally no clue, the true state of affairs in your life, but God. He intervened. He broke through. He broke in. He roused you out of that dream. He ripped that shiny VR headset off your head. He helped you to see the darkness around you and within you. He helped you to see the trajectory on which you were headed. He snatched you out of the hands of our great enemy and brought you into an entirely new kingdom. And if you've repented and put your trust in Jesus, then that is your true status now as a child of God. You may look the same physically speaking. Your voice sounds the same. Same hair, same eyes, same everything else. but spiritually you are a new creation." And listen, that is not a metaphor. Like, oh, it's a beautiful poetic language. You are literally, spiritually, a new creation. There's something new that God has done in your lives, right? Something you can't necessarily always see or grasp a hold of or see in a mirror, but something that is true nonetheless. But what does it mean then to be made alive together with Christ? I want you to focus your attention on this one little word that appears multiple times in the text. The word, with. Look at the text here. He says, we were made alive with him. We were raised up with him. We were seated with him. One simple, tiny little word. One we might be tempted to skip over entirely, but one word which makes a world of difference to our understanding of what it means to be saved. As God did for Jesus, raising Christ from the dead and seating Him in the heavenly places, so now He does for us also. Right? We were made alive, raised, and seated with Christ. There is this powerful union, joining together with Christ that facilitates this incredible change in our lives. We don't do it alone. Indeed, we cannot do this alone, right? Our salvation is worked in and through our participation, our fellowship, our communion, our connection with Jesus Christ. So you're not saved by looking at Jesus at a long distance, right? That's some example for us to follow. Rather, we are saved by being engrafted, connected, tied together with Jesus personally through the power of the Holy Spirit. We are saved because He has made us one with Him. And in this way, we are made alive together with Christ, reshaped, remade, a spiritual hard reset, right? Like, we may look the same, sound the same, but once we've been united with Christ, we can never be the same. You can never be the same. If you are united with Christ, it is impossible to remain the same. Why? Because Christ, He now lives within you, with you. You live in Christ. You're forever bound together. Right? Not poetic language, spiritual reality. You have been made alive together with Christ, inextricably linked together with Him through the power of the Holy Spirit. And Christ is therefore at work constantly inside you at all times, making you new. You know, we think of life sometimes as being like a coffee cup that you drop on the ground and you break, right? And it smashes, the handle falls off. Once broken, almost impossible to fix. The path can't be undone. We walk around with that sinking feeling of having dropped the ball, missed the train, missed the opportunity, or whatever it is, and now it's gone forever. Irretrievable. And although that may be true in the physical world, where our timelines are linear and sequential, a moment follows moment, and the past cannot be undone, in the spiritual world, God is constantly, constantly at work to undo our mistakes, forever reconstituting our lives spiritually, forming and shaping us into the likeness of his son. Now, you may not always feel that way, but Paul's words here reassure us it is happening nonetheless. C.S. Lewis says, the presence of God is not the same as the sense of the presence of God. It is the actual presence, not the sensation of the presence of the Holy Ghost, which begets Christ in us. And the actual presence of the Holy Spirit is within you because of your indissoluble union with Christ. The union that Paul describes for us here, even if you don't always feel it. But more than that, Paul says, You've also been raised together with Christ and seated together with Christ in the heavenly places. I don't know if you've ever seen one of those Coast Guard rescues on TV or whatever, you know, some ship is sinking out at sea and these huge waves and the Coast Guard send a helicopter out and there's a guy, rescue diver, and he jumps into the water. and he fishes out the drowning person and then they lower a harness and he attaches his harness around both of them and then the helicopter pulls them up to safety and in some small imperfect way that's the image that we have here raised together with Christ not saved at some respectable distance, right? Ooh, I don't want to get this messy, awful sin in their lives. You know, it's like, there we go. Let's clean them up. He jumped into the water with us, right? And we are raised to new life together with Him now as a result. but raised and seated above what? Well, in one sense, it's a little bit like that Coast Guard rescue, right? We've been lifted above the crashing waves of sin and death that sought to drown us and seated in a place of safety and security above them all. Okay, which is beautiful, poetic language, but in reality, what does that look like? Because Jesus really and truly ascended into heaven and is actually seated at the right hand of the Father. But when we were saved, we didn't go anywhere at all. At least I didn't, right? In fact, we're all still literally sitting on these plastic chairs right here in Monroe. And no offense to the school, but this does not look like a heavenly place to me. But this phrase, heavenly places, it's confusing, right? For that reason, because we most often think of it as describing a place where God lives, like our Father who art in heaven. But when Paul uses the phrase here, in Ephesians, he means something a little bit different. So New Testament professor Constantine Campbell, he says that heavenly places are best described in this way, as being a spiritual dimension in which spiritual beings exist and operate. In other words, it's not a place somewhere out there or even a place somewhere up there. Right? But something right here among us. Dr. Campbell says we should almost think of it as like a parallel dimension. This is the best language perhaps that we have of it. Something that overlaps with our own. And I can't stress this enough. Even though it's invisible, you can't see it. It is absolutely very real. which could be concerning given the emphasis that Paul puts on the very real spiritual forces of darkness that are assailing us. But we have nothing to fear from these forces because in Christ, we have been seated above them all. Above, in this sense, it's not necessarily really talking about vertical height, but about a position of authority over them. just as God seated Christ in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. That's Ephesians chapter one, right? So too now have we already been seated together with Christ in that same position of power and authority over all these dominions. Not metaphorically, but really, truly, Not in our own strength, but because of our union with Christ. So yes, we are physically right here in Monroe, not floating off on a cloud somewhere. But because we're united together with Christ, we are also really and truly united with Him in His real and true authority over this unseen realm. Now we don't possess power or authority over it ourselves, but we can live without fear of this spiritual dimension because we're united together with Christ, who is total authority over all of it. And if you can grasp this concept that we are united with Christ, then you begin to realize there is real hope for change. even if you're still imperfect, still sinning, still falling down all the time, change is possible because it's no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me. Right? Galatians 2. He's the driving force that changes everything in our lives because He's with us right now. And so we are victorious because He is victorious. We have power because He has power. We have authority because He has authority. We have new life because He has new life. We have hope because He is our hope. And if we can recalibrate our hearts and our minds to accept this truth, then it can truly change everything. But as tremendous as all these blessings may be, and they are incredible, in the end, this is really not even about you and me at all. God's actually up to something so much bigger. Union with Christ is less about you having your best life now, and more about you becoming more like Christ for eternity. In the end, our salvation is less about us and more about God. And so this gets to our second question today. Why did God save us? Now, there are three aspects of God's character that jump out from this text. His mercy, His love, and His grace. At first, Paul describes God as being rich in mercy. Rich in mercy. Mercy is similar to that word compassion. It's a feeling of concern or pity or kindness that we have for someone who's in a less fortunate situation, someone who needs our help. That's why we talk about mercy ministries or why deacons are called ministers of mercy, sometimes because they're helping to provide for the practical needs of those who need help in our congregation. And in this way, they're simply reflecting the character of God, who is himself rich in mercy, overflowing with abundant mercy. Mercy isn't just something God does, like a handout. It's who he is, it's his character. God is a merciful God, compassionate, patient, concerned for his creation, kind towards his children. That's not just Paul saying that, God himself says this about himself. When he appears to Moses at Mount Sinai, he says, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger. abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation." In many ways, the Bible is a story of God's long-suffering patience towards an intransigent people, Over and over again, God shows mercy, repeatedly withholding judgment on sinful, disobedient people. Why? Because it's in His nature. Because He is abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, slow to anger, He forgives over and over and over again. It's like the song we sing here sometimes on Sundays. Stronger than darkness, new every morn. Our sins they are many, but His mercy is more. Now how do we know? How do we know that God is rich in mercy? Look at the cross, right? At our very weakest, most helpless moments, in the very depth of our sin, when we were helpless and hopeless, when we deserve to be punished for our transgressions, our sins, God reached out, He reached down in mercy, and He saved us. And instead of death, we received life. But Paul says God isn't just merciful, He is also loving. Right? But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us. Love is such a squishy word, right? It can be twisted and warped to mean just about anything we want it to mean. To cover everything from the way we feel about our spouse, to the way we feel about our favorite flavor of ice cream, and everything in between. But Paul grounds our salvation not only in God's mercy, but also in his love, his great love for us. Now what is this love of God like? Now we tend to zero in on that passionate feeling of concern and tenderness and warmth. that we have for other people, and that is definitely part of it. But I really appreciate what one of my professors in seminary, D.A. Carson, said that God's love is indeed demonstrated in His care and concern for us, but His love is also demonstrated in His righteous wrath directed towards sin. Now kids, think about when you're being disciplined by your parents. How many times have you heard your mom or dad saying to you, I'm only doing this because I love you? Have you heard that? I heard that all the time. And I remember when I was a kid, I was like, if you really loved me, you wouldn't be yelling at me right now. But that was just because I was too blind to see the true state of my sin and have any conception of the bigger picture of what was going on in my life. Right? And so as annoying as it may sound at times, disciplining a child is indeed the loving thing to do. There's a righteous anger directed towards a sin in my child's life that is leading them astray and ultimately, if not corrected, may lead them away from God. And God's love can also be demonstrated by His wrath. In fact, we see that in our passage today. It is because of the great love with which God loved us that Jesus took our sin upon himself and bore the penalty of that on the cross. Right? God's love is shown to us not with heart emojis, but by way of God's wrath being poured out on Christ. His great love is shown in His deep care and concern for us. Care and concern that runs deep enough that He would take on human flesh and come and dwell among us and then go to the cross and die on our behalf, willingly. Not because we've earned that. Not because we deserve that. Not because he sees great potential in us, but simply because it is in his character to do so. So God is rich in mercy and filled with love, but more than that, he is also overflowing with grace. By grace, you have been saved, Paul says. Now, Pastor Michael is going to explore what it means to be saved by grace through faith when he looks at verses 8 and 9 next week. But for right now, we can say that grace describes God's abundant, overflowing generosity, given freely as a gift without any thought of being earned or deserved. Our Heavenly Father is a gracious God. Not simply displaying mercy by withholding punishment, but displaying grace by giving us what we could never earn or deserve by ourselves. New life together with Christ. So in making us alive together with Christ, God displays his mercy, his love, and his grace. But big picture, why does he do all of this? Look at verse 7. He says, so that in the coming ages, He, God, might show the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus." In other words, your salvation, as amazing as it may be for you personally, and it is, it truly is, in an ultimate sense, it's meant to serve as a signpost pointing towards God as a display of the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness. He's shown mercy to you and acted in love towards you and worked grace in you in order that your life would be a living testimony to God's grace, love, and mercy for all to see, for all of time. Your life then is like a glorious painting. It's meant to showcase the talents of the painter, Right? You and I experience all the immediate blessings and privileges of being made alive together with Christ. But that new life is designed to bring glory and honor and praise to God. Not just here and now, but for all the ages to come. Which on the one hand, I know it seems very distant and sort of ephemeral and removed from my day-to-day life. But think about it for a moment. If God's macro, if his big picture plan It's to display His glory through us. Then how does that happen? Well, it's in all the little micro details of our individual, specific, unique, personal lives. Which means what you do here really matters. All of it, it has to matter. Because if God intends to display the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus, then that guarantees His ongoing mercy, love, grace, guidance, care, provision, protection, support, encouragement in our lives. It's why He's designed, it's why He's deigned to unite Himself with us through the Holy Spirit. Right, it's why he promises never to leave us nor forsake us. Let me put this another way. The way in which God can most clearly reveal his character for all the ages to come is in the way he interacts with his people. Not just his people generically, but with you and with me specifically. We are the canvas upon which he paints his masterpiece of mercy, love, and grace every single day, over and over and over again, blessing us, but to display to the universe the riches of his grace and kindness and mercy and love for all the ages to come. Let me close here with a word of encouragement. I don't know about you, but most of the time my life doesn't feel like much of a masterpiece. It feels more like a painting you might find on the wall of a kindergarten classroom somewhere, like scrawled in crayon. And union with Christ feels more like a nice idea, wonderful concept, than an actual living reality. But look back with me at the first two words of verse four once again. Paul says, but God. The hinge on which everything in our lives turns. Right? I don't feel like much of a masterpiece right now. But God is at work in me creating something incredible. I don't sense much power from my union with Christ. But God is with me nonetheless, empowering me through His Spirit to break deep-rooted sins and become more like Christ. I continue to battle guilt and shame in my life, but God has cleansed me fully at the cross, and He calls me His precious and beloved child. I feel isolated, lonely, abandoned. But God is with me always, even in the darkest night, to the very end of the age. My marriage is on the brink of collapse, but God has the power to bring the dead back to life. I'm at my wits' end when it comes to dealing with my kids, but God offers wisdom to those who ask and strength to persevere through even the most exhausting of days. Your perfect, loving, merciful, gracious Heavenly Father has made you alive together with Christ. And now, in Christ, with Christ, He continues to work in and through you. making you more and more and more and more like Jesus every day, helping you in your battle against sin, giving you hope in times of suffering and struggle, and preparing you to dwell in His presence with Christ for all of eternity. Would you pray with me? Lord, we cannot begin to wrap our minds around this incredible reality that you are with us, that we are united with Christ, raised with Christ, seated with Christ, made alive with Christ. And Lord, in the middle of our struggles and our suffering and our pain and our heartaches and our sorrows and our difficulties, this week, even this afternoon, I pray, Lord, that you would give us some tangible glimpse of that power at work in our lives. As we pray, we would be reminded you are with us. As we enter into those difficult conversations, you are with us. As we go to work, frustrated, bored, confused, Lord, you are with us. Lord, in every moment of every day, you are with us. And I pray that that reality will come and become ever more present and true and real and present and powerful in our lives this week. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.