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Love

Teaching Text: Ephesians 2:1-10

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to livewhen 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. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 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—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 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. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Themes

Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:

Made alive by Christ’s love

Presence

Watch or listen to the sermon. Then take a moment of silence and think about these questions:

Ask God to open your heart and mind to understand Ephesians anew as we start this season.
Thank Him for the blessings He has given you already, even those you might be unaware of.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Spend some time considering the gift of God
What can you be grateful for at this moment?

Formation

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

Ephesians 2:1-10
- Notice here - Paul is keeping to his overall objective for Ephesians, which is to bring different groups together in a unified family
  - Jewish People
  - Gentile People
  - Rich, Poor, Weak, Powerful, Men, Women, Slave, Free
You were the walking dead
- Your situation was - you were dead --> in your transgressions and sins --> these describe and were a way of life for you. This is what it looked like:
  1. You followed the ways of this world
  2. These ways of the world were somehow also the ways of the ruler of the kingdom of the air ---> who is that?
    - The spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient
- Your situation was all of our situation - all of us lived caught up in this mix at one time
Flesh | World | Devil - Paul’s grasp of the powers
- Personal - flesh - an operating system for human life that doesn’t take God into account or submit to God’s authority
  - Corporate/Communal/Governmental/Systemic
  - Spiritual - Entities, Forces, Accusations, Demons, Authorities
The superior power of nature epitomized by life and death, the ups and downs of historic processes, the nature and impact of favored prototypes or the catastrophic burdens of the past, the hope or threat offered to the present by the future;
“... the might of capitalists, rulers, judges, the benefit and onus of laws of tradition and custom, the distinction and similarity of political and religious practices, the weight of ideologies and prejudices, the conditions under which all authority, labor, parenthood, et., thrive or are crushed - these structures and institutions are in Paul's mind” – Markus Barth - philosopher
Walter Wink - seminal works of the powers - naming, identifying, engaging
- “All of us deal with the powers that be, they staff our hospitals, run city hall, sit around tables in corporate boardrooms. They collect our taxes and head our families, but the powers that be are more than just a couple of people who run things, they are the systems themselves, they are the institutions and structures that weave society into an intricate fabric of power and relationships. These powers surround us on every side. They are necessary, they are useful, we could do nothing without them, who would want to do without timely mail delivery or well maintained roads? But the power is also the source of unmitigated evil. A corporation routinely dumps known carcinogens into a river that’s a source of drinking water for towns downstream, an industry tries to hook children into addiction to cigarettes despite the evidence that a third of them will die prematurely from smoking related illnesses. A dictator wages war against his own citizens in order to maintain his own grasp on power. A contractor pays off a building inspector so he can put up a shoddy building that violates codes that is a possible unsafe structure. A power-plant exposes his employees to radioactive poisoning. The employee who attempts to document these infractions is forced off the road by another car and dies. All her documents are missing.”
- “But the powers are not all that brutal… Some people enjoy their jobs, some companies make a contribution to society, some products are life enhancing, even life saving, powers don’t simply do evil they also do good. Often they do evil and good at the same time. They form a complex web we can neither ignore nor escape.”
We all lived in the grip of these powers …
- We gratified the cravings of our flesh - What is a craving? - an appetite that has become a demand
  - Thoughts on cravings - something that has come to have an outsized place in our life. Are there good cravings? What do bad ones have in common?
  - What cravings can you identify in your life? (The flesh at work in your life)
  - What powers have authority over you that you need deliverance from
Paul’s vision of the human condition before Christ is that we have no sustained power to live contrary to the powers.
Education and attentive parents and privilege and all kinds of turns of circumstances may lessen the speed and extent of the damage but we are all living cut off from God in a place of spiritual deadness
But God has changed this situation -
- Motivated by great love
- Rich in mercy
- Acting by grace
By making us alive
- Sin doesn’t make you “bad”… it makes you dead
- God doesn’t make you “good,” He makes you alive
The result of us being made alive (or how we were made alive) :

We were raised up with Christ -
Seated us with Christ in the heavenly realms

“If the problem is that the settled and habitual behavior of the whole human race leads them on the fast road towards death—the ultimate destruction of their humanness—the answer provided by God is a way through death and out into a new sort of life entirely. This, of course, is achieved through the death and resurrection of Jesus, the king.” - NT WRIGHT
And this is one of the dreams of God
- In the Coming Ages - we will have more chances to show how rich His grace is - which is expressed in His kindness
Personal – Communal – Systemic expression of God’s Salvation
A summary of salvation
- It is by grace you have been saved through faith - consider grace working through faith
- Not accomplished by works - so boasting is not a legitimate option
- We are God's artistry - with shared life in Jesus to do good - God has made preparation for this (and God has good works to do as well)
1. Know you are alive- realize salvation is a fundamental change of identity - forgiveness and union

2. Breathe everyday - connect with the life giver - reinforce your identity in the new humanity - great love, rich in mercy, acting by grace

Connect with these daily
Live by the Spirit
God wants to go on showing kindness to you - the opposite of the powers - to use you up and discard

3. Become a grace artist - look at God’s handiwork - join God in acts of life and renewal - push back against death and the powers

Notice
Listen
Love
Give
Forgive
Create
Make new habits of life

Love

Read these notes and discuss the questions below:

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10)
Can you identify areas where God has used you to show you His Grace?
Where can your efforts join God’s plan for renewal?
How do you think you can serve your neighbors?
Think of one practical thing you can participate in this week that displays His good works.

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