Here is a link to a song I reference in the sermon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuJWQzjfU3o
Many years ago in Mt. Zion, Texas there was a wealthy man named Joshua Benson. Mr. Benson was a self-made millionaire and famous for not only his wealth but also his generosity. He practically owned Mt. Zion but he was generous and giving and everybody that knew him just loved him and pretty much everybody had heard of him.
One day when Mr. Benson was on a trip, an inmate, Adam Mali, escaped from Eden Correctional Facility and made a run for it. He wound up at Mr. Benson’s mansion and broke in to the home where Benson’s young son was staying by himself. He beat and killed the boy, helped himself to all of Benson’s clothes and food and everything in the house. He spent the night there and then in the morning set fire to the house to cover up his crime.
The problem came when Mali started to run out of the house, he somehow slipped and fell and hit his head, knocking him out. Mr. Benson just happened to be coming home about that time, saw his house on fire, ran in and saw his dead son and the prison escapee. He saw that Mali was still alive and so he pulled him from the burning house just in time before the whole house went up in flames. In the days to come, the generous Mr. Benson built another mansion there in Mt. Zion and also paid the fines and fees for Mali and then allowed Mali to live in the new mansion with him, free of charge and to have full access to everything he owned.
How do you feel about that story? I love that story in one way but I hate that story at the same time. I hate it because it’s not fair. There’s no justice in that story. It doesn’t make any sense. Why would Benson do such a wonderful thing to someone who had done him so wrong?
On the other hand, I love that story. I love it, not just because I made it up, but because I’m Mali. Yes, it’s true that it’s not true and yet it is true. There is no real Benson or Mali or Mt. Zion, Texas or Eden Prison. But I am Mali. And that, in a small-scale illustration, is what God has done for me and for you.
Romans 8:16-17says, “The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” That’s almost too much for me to take in, especially when Satan keeps trying to remind me of where I have been. Satan keeps reminding me of what I did in the past, the people I hurt, the mistakes I made and the places I chose to be.
And what part of me wants to do is remind Satan of who I am. But when I tell Satan my name is Todd and I’m a preacher…he just hammers me even harder. “Who do you think you are? You bring nothing to the spiritual table. You have no training, knowledge or experience. Quit playing around and go back to where you used to be. That’s the real you.”
But when I tell Satan he is right, I don’t bring anything to the table and that old man used to do all that stuff but now my name is “Child of the One True King” as the popular song says, that’s when God reminds me, not just of who I am, a child of God, but also where I am, right next to Jesus Christ as a joint heir with Him to all the wonders of Heaven. And I got there, contrary to what Pope Francis said, by giving my life to Jesus, asking Him for forgiveness of all that stuff and believing and confessing that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life and that no man comes to the Father except through Him.
And that’s enough! That was enough for me and that is enough for you and if you have never done that then let’s take a break right this second and do that. We can come back to the rest of the message later. We are not guaranteed another breath. Don’t let Satan keep lying to you and reminding you of who you used to be and where you used to be. When we see ourselves with godly perspective, we see ourselves truthfully.
You may have noticed that I have used the present tense to talk about where I am and where we are in God’s eyes. That’s how Paul talks in our passage this morning in Ephesians. He uses the present tense to talk about us being in the heavenly realms with Jesus and we will see that and more in Ephesians 2:1-10 with particular emphasis on verse 6 where we will see where you are.
That’s the title of the message, “Where You Are”. We looked last week at who we are in God’s eyes and saw that we are salt and light. We continue getting our focus concentrated correctly and see that when God sees His children, He sees us as we really are, not who we used to be, thank goodness. Because of what he has done we are to be salt and light, not sugar and shade.
But also because of what He has done, we don’t have to live in the land of guilt, shame and regret. That’s not where we are as children of the One True God. Let’s look at where we are in Ephesians 2:1-10.
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 flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving 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 is 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 handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
That passage should make you excited. It was written with excitement. Paul wrote it with such a passion that the first 7 verses are just one long run-on sentence in the original Greek. He couldn’t say it fast enough. He couldn’t get it out fast enough. He was so excited to have this word from God he didn’t care about grammar or anything else.
The first chapter of Ephesians and the first 3 verses of chapter 2 are horribly damning to all of us. Reading all that will bum you out quick. He basically tells us who and where we used to be. He tells us all the things Satan likes to keep reminding us of and trying to tell us we are still there. Paul says all these horribly true things about us but then in verse 4 you can almost see him start jumping up and down with excitement as he uses that little 3 letter word, “but”. Because that little word changes everything.
That little word means that all of that before used to be true but it’s not anymore, no matter what Satan tries to say. It is true that we were dead in our sins, without hope and deserving of wrath. But as followers of Jesus, as children of the One True King, as joint heirs with Jesus to the glories of Heaven, everything has changed for us and I want to look specifically at 3 things in this passage. I want to see:
Where we are
Why He did it and
What now
Paul says in verse 6 that we are seated with Him in the heavenly realms. Do you believe that? Do you believe that we are now with Jesus in the heavenly realms? I don’t know about you but for me it is sometimes hard to feel like it. It’s hard not to feel like I am stuck down here in the mud and muck of planet Earth even though I want more than anything not to be.
When I see the heartbreak and pain and consequences of bad choices that we all make, I have to admit that I don’t always feel like I am seated in the heavenlies. When I see the news or look out the window or even look in the mirror, the phrase “seated with Him in the heavenly realms” is not the term I first think of. It’s easy to see the harshness and the pain and the struggles not just in our own lives but in those around us and it’s easy to feel anything but peace.
But Jesus said in John 16:33, "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." He said you will have trouble…but you may have peace. You may have peace if you have the right perspective and see things how God sees them and how you should see them if and when you realize that you are in this world but not of this world.
And when you have that perspective, the perspective of sitting next to Jesus, then our lives are not just a little bit different, they are brand new and completely different. Either Paul misspoke and didn’t mean to use the present tense or the translators got it wrong and used the wrong tense OR our lives as believers are new and different and we have a new and different perspective. I propose it is the latter because the Bible supports that over and over again.
When someone gets baptized we often use phrases such as “buried with Jesus through baptism into death in order that we too may live a new life.” That comes straight out of Romans 6 and that is exactly right. We are not baptized and raised so we can live a different life. We don’t live a better life. We don’t live a good life. We are raised with Jesus to live a new life with a new perspective. That’s where we are now, not just later.
And when we realize that Jesus didn’t die to make bad people good, He came to make dead people alive, that changes (or should change) how we see things. It changes how we do things and how we live our lives. We no longer pray like the dead man who can only pray, “God help me.” We pray with power and authority. Hebrews says to come boldly. Ephesians says our prayer is powerful.
When we realize that we are sitting with the Prince of Peace our perspective should change from being focused on ourselves to focused on others because we want others to have what we have and we know that God is going to give us everything we need when we are obedient to Him. So, why should we be self-centered? Why should we worry about what is going to happen to us? Our perspective is new because we are new.
And when our perspective is new our worshipis new. We don’t worship as the dead man does who can only hope that he does something that will make God give him something good. Our new perspective allows us to worship in spirit and truth no matter what our circumstances because worship is not about us. Our worship is a reflection of where we are and so it is new and alive and not dependent on what others are doing or not doing or wearing or how they sing or if they have their hands up or down.
Our speech is new when we have a right and godly perspective. When we understand that we are “raised up” as verse 6 says, our speech will not be in the gutter. And I don’t just mean saying cuss words although that is obvious here. I mean how can any unwholesome word come from our mouth if we are seated next to Jesus? We don’t speak like dead men anymore because we are no longer dead in our sins. We are joint-heirs with Jesus and our speech should reflect it.
We are still going to have trouble because we live in the same old, dead world. But our lives are new and should reflect our new perspective from where we are. Now, let’s look at why God placed us next to Jesus in the heavenly realms. I always want to know why anything happens. I have always been that way. To me, it makes a difference in how I do something if I know whyI am supposed to do something.
So, if we are seated with Jesus and that means we are to have a new perspective, then it helps me to know why it was done. And thankfully Paul tells us in the very next verse because it wouldn't make any sense to me otherwise. In verse 7, Paul answers my question, "Why?" Read. ...in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace.
Notice that it does not say that He might show how super-cool we are or how super-spiritual we are or how super-anything we are. It is to show the incomparable riches of God's grace. I have said before that I believe that if God could show us just one thing about ourselves that it would be that we are a prideful people. And if He could show us just one thing about Himself it would be how much grace He has.
A very poor woman was generously asked to go with a family on vacation. She agreed and they all loaded up and drove down to the beach. When they got to the ocean the family noticed that the woman was crying and so one of them, moved by her tears, asked her gently what could possibly be wrong. She simply said that when she saw the ocean it was the first time in her life that she had ever seen anything that there was enough of.
That's why God has allowed us to be where we are. That's why God has raised us up next to Jesus - to show His oceans of grace that billow over us and shower us with His goodness. The next verse says that it is by grace that we are saved but you have to admit that it is by grace that we do anything. It is only by God's incomparable grace that you take your next breath. It is in Him and by His grace that we move and breathe and have everything that we have.
So, that is why God has seated us next to Jesus in the heavenlies as joint heirs with Him and that leads me to the last point. What next? If all of that is true; if God has placed us where we are just to show His amazing grace then what happens next? Well, Paul tells us at the end of this passage in verse 10. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
To do good works. That’s what is next. And we talked about that last week some about how we, as the light of the world, and having a godly perspective, will do good things to those that hate us and we will do good things to those that can never repay us. And that’s interesting that we would see again that when we have a godly perspective and see ourselves as who God sees us andwhere God sees us that we should do good works. And that is good and right and we should but I want to look at it just a little bit differently in light of where we are.
As we read earlier, Jesus told us that we would have trouble in this world. Just expect it. And one of the reasons that we have trouble in this world is to make us more like Jesus, right? James says that it is through trials that we become mature and complete. And if we are to be like Jesus and we are sitting next to Jesus and our perspective is godly and right, then what better way to live our lives than to reflect that amazing grace that has been shown to us. What’s next? In our troubles, show grace.
How should we live? In our troubles, show grace. What about when people mistreat us? In our troubles, show grace. What about when the world is falling down around us? In our troubles, show grace. This church should be known for its grace. We as individuals should be known for our grace. We should be known to give people what they don’t deserve even when we are going through trials and problems.
“But, Todd! You don’t know what I’m going through!” You’re right. I don’t. I can’t comprehend going through what some of you have been through and are continuing to go through. But I promise you it is not my idea that in our troubles, we should show grace. And so I will simply close with 2 verses that make this point better than I can. You will recognize them and their context.
Luke 23:34 - "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."
Oh sure, Todd, play the “Jesus Card”. Thank you, I will and I will end with Philippians 4:13 that says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
When our perspective is godly, coming from our place next to Jesus, we see God’s grace and reflect that grace even in our struggles, not in our own strength but through Christ and in Christ as children of the One, True King.
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