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 toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.—Ephesians 2:1–10

Introduction

God is real and powerful, though he is invisible! This is simple and basic, but do you believe this?

Yes, God is invisible Spirit, but he has left physical proof that he is real, loving, good, and powerful. The two primary proofs that God has left us of his reality and power have to do with two things that he has created. 

#1: The Cosmos/World

For what can be known about God is plain to [all], because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So [all men] are without excuse! --Romans 1:19-20

#2: The Christian

God has left us proof of his powerful reality, not just in creating the cosmos for all to see, but in creating the Christian (Ephesians 2:10) for all to see his/her life–changing salvation in Christ!

God’s miraculous power is most amazingly seen, not in the old creation, but in the new creation: the “saints” who have been created new in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17). If any man be in Christ he/she is a new creation!

2 Corinthians 4:6 amazingly refers back to the creation of the cosmos to describe the creation of the Christian, “Let light shine in dark void/ Old Covenant but dark heart/New Covenant.”

Think about it, it’s one thing for God to speak light into an empty darkness and create a world out of nothing. That’s power. But it’s completely another thing for God to speak life into an evil, dead spirit and create a Christian out of wickedness. Wow. That is power on another level.

So let me say it again, think about this: the greatest proof of God’s off–the–charts almighty power in our day is seen in the ordinary faces of weak, struggling, yet authentically transformed Christians!
 
You miraculous "new creations” are here in this room today, and God loves you eternally.

Marveling at the New Creation in Ephesians 2

So, let’s marvel at how God made this new creation called a Christian in Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2 is like the Genesis 1 description of the New Creation account.
 
Here we have the gospel testimony of every Christian in here today and every Christian who has ever lived or whoever will live—from God's perspective. This is God’s great power on display and Lord willing, we will gaze upon these glories today and next week as well.

Born–again Christian, here in these ten verses is your gospel story. Or non-Christian, this can be your story today!

These verses highlight the power of God in the lives of spiritually-alive-from-the-dead Christians in the room by giving us a supernatural before and after snapshot of what God did to make dead sinners alive.

Ephesians 1 unveils God’s glorious plan for the Christian in eternity, and Ephesians 2 reveals God's great power toward the Christian in time.

God’s Glorious Plan in Ephesians 1

1. Paul prays in Ephesians 1:16–19 that the saints would “know” (encounter or experience) this awesome power and then ...

2. He gives us a picture of this power, illustrated in the resurrection of Christ in Ephesians 1:19–20. But not only that, he illustrates this amazing power in the resurrection of Christians in Ephesians 2:1–10!

That’s why Ephesians 2:1 begins with the word “And.” Because (with the same aim) Paul is giving us a second look at the unmatched greatness of God’s power as we get a behind-the-scenes view of what God did to make Christians alive.

Listen, the physical resurrection of Christ from the dead is the most glorious display of God's power in the universe. And this is the very power that God used to spiritually resurrect you from the dead, Christian. Wow!

O believer, how God wants to overwhelm you with grace as you understand and experience the surpassing power that he unloaded on you when he saved your soul. So that you would know who you are in Christ and whose you are in Christ, and in joyful response bless his name and broadcast his fame! Child of the living God, long for and labor to know the “immeasurable greatness” of God’s power towards you in Christ.

So, please Father of glory give your people (now) a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of you and enlighten our eyes that we would know the immeasurable greatness of your power toward us according to Ephesians 2.

God’s Glorious Plan in Ephesians 2

Listen, before we can see God’s great power clearly, we must see our great problem, and so that’s why 2:1 begins this way.

1) We were in trespasses and sins.

This word translated “trespasses” means to arrogantly step across the line of God’s holy and righteous standards. “Trespass” means that you (and I) have morally violated the biblical commands of our Almighty Creator, and we have offended his infinite holiness! A "No trespassing sign" in Texas means "or I will shoot you."

There are ten commandments, and we have all trespassed across God’s ten lines of holy perfection when he commanded us not to. Do you feel the weight and horror of what you have done, and more importantly who you have done it against?

But not only have we trespassed God’s holy laws, we have sinned against him! This word translated “sins” (v. 1) means to fall short of a target, and not just to fall short, but to utterly and completely fail.

Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” This is at the heart of what it means to sin! No matter how moral or immoral, no matter if you grew up in a Christian family or a pagan family – ALL have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. We are all F students in God’s class. We are all godless failures in his holy eyes!

We’ve got to understand that sinning is not mainly about what you’ve done that’s wrong in God’s eyes (i.e. lying, stealing, lusting, coveting, etc.) Sin is mainly about what you have NOT done, what you fail to do.

Everyone in this room was created for the glory of God (Isaiah 43:7, Colossians 1:16), but we have failed to live and breathe and love God’s glory every moment of our fleeting lives.

We have loved created things more than the Creator (Romans 1:25). in our idolatry we have loved ourselves and our family and our things and our comfort (i.e. grilled food, weekends at the cabin, iPhones, and the next big thing) more than the glory of God. We have all failed to enjoy the infinite bigness and brightness and beauty of our Creator God more than anything else in the universe.

And so (as one commentator observed) you and I are ‘doubly sinful’ because we are not just rebels who trespass but we are failures who sin.

2) We were spiritually dead.

And it gets worse, because the reason why we “trespass” and “sin” is because we were all born spiritually “dead” (v. 1) (lifeless/ Ephesians 4.18)

Let’s destroy the salvation image of a drowning person being thrown “Jesus, the Life–jacket.” We were dead (not drowning) at the bottom of the ocean and turning green. This is the most hopeless condition on earth!

An example is my Grandpa Harry (i.e., hard, cold, non–responsive)

No matter the outside stimulus, no matter my touch or their tears, no matter how bad my family members wished he was still alive, he was dead. And it’s the same way with spiritually dead people. No matter how much people cry and call for them to turn from their sin and trust in Jesus, they remain hard, cold and non–responsive. 

Dead people can’t see (blind to the beauty of Christ), hear (deaf to the sweet voice of Jesus), or feel (numb to the tender love of the Savior)!

This was us believers (and some of you in this room). We were completely unaware of anything as it relates to God, Christ, Spirit, the gospel.

It was really as though God did not exist, though he has always been the realest, most powerful, beautiful, greatest, loveliest Person in existence! Listen, this is the most horrifying condition in the world to be in! NOT: cancer, AIDS, diabetes, physically/mentally/socially disabled, burned victim, heart disease – NO! NO! NO! Hard, cold and numb to the Triune God!

3) We were walking dead.

But we were not just dead, we were ‘dead and walking’...”once walked.” We were walking dead; spiritual zombies...thinking that all was well because we looked okay on the outside. Maybe we went to church, read the Bible, prayed, tried to be a good people, but really we were modern–day Pharisees. What Jesus said to them in Matthew 23:27 was true of us. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.”

This is a scary, horrible nightmare that is a reality for most of the world.

4) We followed the course of this world.

Not only were we spiritual zombies though, we were ”following the course of this world.”

Believer, you were pursuing and participating in everything that the rest of the world was into. Dead fish flow with the current of the culture. We were in the flushed,waste–filled, toilet–current of the world (with whipped cream on top) being pulled away from Christ, down into hell!

It tastes sweet at first, and it seems fun living life for self and sin and stuff with the rest of the spiritually dead, but oh, destruction is just ahead!

Following “the world”? According to I John 2:16 means you were living for and loving:

• The lusts of your flesh: whatever felt good you did it! 

• Lusts of your eyes: whatever looked good you watched it!

• Pride in possessions: you sought after significance and satisfaction in your ability to do something better than someone else, or the fact that you owned something bigger/brighter than someone else, or the fact that you knew the right “cool, popular, important” people to make you seem better than other people. 

You loved and followed the world, Kempton.

Believers, we were taken as helpless hostages by lustful relationships, porn, masturbation, materialism, money, self–achievements, entertainment, stuff, good deeds, and religious morality. We were swept away by anything and everything that felt good, looked good, or made us appear good before the eyes of men. We were sick and utterly sinful.

Before God showed up, we were all trapped in the idolatrous, godless practices of this cursed world. At the heart of it all, you and I were seeking satisfaction and happiness outside of a saving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. 

5) We were following the prince of the power of the air.

But not only were we following the course of this world like a rotten, dead corpse; it gets worse: “following the prince of the power of the air”

Note: “Following...following” (2:2). Underneath this “following” (i.e., the toilet current with whipped cream on top) there was a supernatural, invisible, dark spirit behind all of your rebellious, sinful, worldly living.

Satan is alive and evil. (1 John 5:19) And oh, his hand is everywhere. 

We typically think, “Yeah, look at our culture: wars, terrorists, abortion, attack on traditional marriage, theatre shooting massacre, gay pride parade coming up next weekend, etc.” Yes, the devil is alive and at work behind the scenes.

And yes, it’s good to see the invisible enemy behind all of these things, but this truth in verse 2 is not exposing the invisible power of Satan behind the societal evils in the world. It’s exposing the invisible power of Satan behind the sinful evils in you and in me—apart from Christ.

“At work in the sons of disobedience” means Satan supplies you with endless, boatloads of ‘energeo’, energy to willfully, absolutely disobey God and refuse to believe anything about Him or His Son or His gospel!

The devil gave you dark energy so that you would be a stiff–necked rebel whose pattern of life was to disobey God and his Word and instead obey self with the rest of the satanically energized world that walks outside of Christ Jesus!

2 Thessalonians 1:8 says that God will eternally destroy those who are disobedient to the gospel. This means that before God showed up, the gospel came to us and said, “Turn from your sin and believe in Jesus for the forgiveness and joy," but like my 2–year–old, we all said “No!”

This is the disobedience that Satan is ultimately after for the entire human race. The devil’s global goal is to get every single heart and mouth in the world to say “No” to the gospel call of Jesus Christ. 

Satan is not so much interested in getting you to foam, but to forget about God and remain blind to the beauty of Christ seen in the gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4). Listen, Satan gives steady flows of “energy” and “power” to do any and every thing (good or bad) that will keep you disobedient to the gospel and blind to the beauty of Christ.

Whether it’s cocaine or cookies, porn or Pinterest, alc or Apple gadgets, suicide or social media, “the prince of the power of the air” will do anything to capture your will, desires and thoughts so that, according to verse 3, you “lustfully carry out the desires of your body and your mind...in the passions of your flesh” until you reach death and judgment without Christ.

This is who we Christians were. Some were more obvious than others, but all of us were enslaved by our corrupt impulses and darkened intellect outside of Christ. Our attitude was, “I do what feels good and an invisible God that sent his Son to die on the cross makes no reasonable, intellectual sense to me.”

We were incapable of coming to right conclusions about God as self–intoxicated, satanically driven, slaves of our own warped worldview and wicked passions.

6) We were by nature children of wrath.

But that’s not it, here’s the scariest part of all: because we were all born spiritually dead, severed from the life of God, sinful, world–loving, satanically–energized, disobedient and enslaved to our own lusts, the shotgun of God’s holy rage has been aimed at our wicked souls, actually aimed at all of “mankind” since birth (Psalm 51:5).

God warns us again in Ephesians 5:6 that his wrath “comes upon the sons of disobedience.” All of us were or we are, right now, “children of his wrath” and deserve to ultimately be blasted into the Lake of Fire forever (Revelation 20:11–15). 

This is a scary, horrible, terrible reality. Feel the weight of this! Christian, apart from Christ, we really were one breath away from conscious, fiery torment forever, where there will be no more cool breezes, no more food, no more water, and no more exits, no more merciful expressions of common grace. Because God is infinitely holy and just, he must eternally punish sinners to uphold the fame of his great Name.

And so, all of us believers in the room were dead, sinful, world–loving, satanically–energized, disobedient, enslaved, children of wrath.

7) But God!

And then verse 4 happened to us: these are two of the most glorious words that have ever been spoken. 

What a “just–in–the–nick–of–time conjunction.” It’s like the shot gun went off--But God, a train was coming--But God, we were in the electric chair--But God, a machete was at our neck --But God.

What an eternally magnificent contrast. Two little words that are powerful enough to catapult eternal souls out of hell and into heaven.  “But God!” Christian, that changed your eternal destiny and everything in between, for good, forever. Everything shifts and changes and is altered for good when God chooses to mercifully intervene and ”show up” on the scene in power and grace.

In the beginning of creation there was this formless, dark emptiness. But God shows up and creates light, universe, earth, living things, man. But then, Satan and sin entered in, and the whole world was under the power of the devil, corrupt and headed to hell. But God showed up in the Person of Jesus Christ (full of grace and truth) on a rescue mission to seek and save the lost.

And when Jesus (the God–man) showed up in the gospels, the blind left seeing, the lame left walking, the demon–possessed left in peace of mind, the deaf left hearing, the mute left speaking, the dead were raised to life.

Believer this is your testimony: because of sin, you were headed for eternal destruction. But God showed up in power and did at least 3 things here in Ephesians 2.

1. Made Us Alive

And all of you who are truly in Christ, this is your gospel story. Listen, one person’s gospel story/testimony, though different, is no less powerful than another’s. Don't say, “I have a boring testimony, I didn’t do that sin . . ." Listen, being raised from the dead is not boring!

Some of you were the older, rule–keeping brother, and others of you were the younger, rebellious brother. But no matter which one you were, whether you were saved from parties and drugs, or performance and good deeds. The details are not as important.

Ephesians 2:1–10 is every Christian's testimony/story no matter the specifics. You were raised from the spiritual dead.

An example is four–days–dead Lazarus. John 11 shows us a perfect illustration of what God does to dead sinners in making them alive through Jesus Christ, who is himself “the Resurrection and the Life.” Every regenerate believer in this room is a formerly dead Lazarus.

Listen, if Jesus (out of his own sovereign pleasure) did not choose to come and stand in front of my spiritually dead soul and speak by his Spirit, through the gospel, “Kempton, come forth!” I would have remained dead in sin and would have consciously suffered in the lake of fire, forever and ever!

But God! One day He spoke to my dead soul, shortly after the winter break of my second year of college. On March 16th, Jesus made this ex–dead man alive to God, alive to Truth, alive to the Cross. Alive to him, and now Jesus is my Life.

This is now your true story Christian; you now have a loving, living, breathing, walking relationship with the Living God of the universe. Glory!

Living ones, we are now “dead to sin and alive to God” (Romans 6:11). isn't that a sweet and powerful reality!

You are now alive to the power of God, alive to the strength, goodness, truth, beauty, love, mercy, grace, kindness, Spirit, Son, and glory of God forever and ever and ever.

Bless the Lord, all you Living Ones. If you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and Satisfier, it’s because God made you alive. If you desire to seek God in prayer, feast on the bible, glory in the gospel, love the saints and your enemies, or tell the world of Jesus.  If sin is now sour and holiness is now sweet, if the world is a strange place and you now long for heaven and the for return of the Savior who reigns there, it's because God has raised you from the dead and has made you spiritually alive! Bless his name!

2. Saved Us

“Saved” (vv. 5, 8) Example: Christian man on deathbed, “The greatest thing in the world is to be SAVED!”

This is all that will matter on your death bed. To be saved will be the greatest thing. Not homes, cabins, achievements, awards, family, friends, Facebook likes, iPhones, Twitter, the next big whatever --will you be saved?

Saved in this context means rescued. Because remember (vv. 1–3), all humans were born spiritually dead, sinfully enslaved, satanically energized objects of God’s wrath. Our only hope (while we still have breath) is that God would graciously rescue, free, deliver, or save us from death, self, sin, Satan. But mainly, we must be saved from God!

Remember we are all “children of [God’s] wrath,” and we have all rebelled against and failed to live up to God’s holy standards. And just in the nick of time, the Son of man came to seek and save us through the Cross. Here is another “But God” verse: 

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. --Romans 5:8–9 

Jesus suffered and died on the cross and was buried, but God showed up in power and raised him from the dead on the third day, confirming that Jesus really is the Son of the Living God, the Savior of the world!

Jesus is alive, and because he lives, we live in him! Justice has been served (for us), holiness has been vindicated (for us) and wrath has been satisfied (for us) to the praise of God’s glorious grace!

3. Seated Us with Christ

“Seated us with him.” Saved one, this at least means that you have already (in a very real, yet mysterious, spiritual sense) inherited the conquering position of King Jesus over sin, death, hell and the devil as a ‘seated one’ with him. You have been given unimaginable intimacy with the risen Lord (press into him, feast on his words, seek his face in warm–hearted love) and you have already been guaranteed a spot on King Jesus’s throne to co–reign with him forever over the New World (Revelation 3:21) because you are already seated there. This is just crazy–glorious. We go from enslaved by sin to enthroned with the Savior. Breath–taking!

Conclusion

Read Ephesians 2:1–4 But God! Can you see the immeasurably great power on display in your life, Christian? It was only the supreme power of God that brought you from death to life, from following the world to following Jesus, from sinner to saint, from being energized by Satan to being energized by the Holy Spirit, from being enslaved to sin to enthroned with Christ, from being a child of his wrath to a child of his mercy, grace, and love.

Resurrected One means the greatness of God’s power toward you in salvation is immeasurable, unlimited, undefeatable, unshakable, matchless, and infinite. Sin cannot touch it, death cannot conquer it, the devil cannot stand it, the world cannot overcome it, and believer YOU have it. The very power that raised Christ from the dead has been unloaded on you through the gospel.

O child of God, how your Father wants to overwhelm you with grace as you experience the surpassing power that he has lavished on you in your salvation so that you would know who you are in Christ and whose you are in Christ! So that you would bless his name and broadcast his fame to the praise of his glorious grace!

Some of you are spiritually dead and trapped in verses 1–3, about to die in sin and meet the angry, holy Judge of the universe.

Repent and believe the gospel!