“Becoming a Great Church”
Ephesians 2:1-10; Matt 22:36-40; Matt 28:16-20

I. Overview of study passage
   Today’s study passage goes on to give us first a sober, even frightening reminder of our condition before we became a member of Christ’s Body, and then reveals the power by which we were made a member, namely the power of grace.

II. Exposition of passage
  a. Our condition before our adoption as God’s child v 1-3
  In our study passage from Ephesians, in verses 1-3 here is how our condition is described before we were embraced by God’s saving grace.  It says we all were:
 - Dead in our sin
 - A follower of the ways of this world
 - A follower of the ways of the devil, who are verses describes as being the “ruler of the kingdom of the air, and the ruler of the spirit who is at work in those who are disobedient
 - Living to gratify the cravings of our sinful nature
 - Objects of God’s wrath!

This is not a description of just who we consider the “evil people” in the world (e.g. mass murderers, child rapist, etc). This is how God describes every one of us apart from God’s saving grace!      

And brothers and sisters, this is still the condition of every person who has not yet been claimed by the grace and gospel of Jesus Christ!  

You and I have been set free.  We have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son.  But God through the apostle Paul is reminding us of the reality that this transfer, this adoption, was initially by 100% pure grace, and we stay in the place of being adopted children of God also by 100% pure grace.

Our Condition Even After Becoming an Adopted Child of God v 1-3

But our study passage is warning us that if God were to decide to stop extending grace to us, and take away His Holy Spirit, we would immediately return to the condition of being objects of God’s wrath.   We too easily forget just how evil our hearts are apart from the Holy Spirit in us, and just how horrific our destiny would be apart from God’s grace.  

Most Christians get to feeling pretty good about themselves, down right self-righteous even, if they mange to avoid the really bad sins like murder, adultery, stealing, drugs, etc.  We must always remember that sin is not primarily behavior, it is a condition of our sinful nature that refuses to submit to God that drives us to sinful behavior.  And this sinful nature still exists in every one of us, and will remain so until we die.  So there is never any place in a Christian’s heart for thinking that they have matured past being sinful or even that such a state is ever possible.  We were chosen by grace, and we stay chosen by grace!
When even the smallest drop of self-righteousness enters our heart we lose gratitude for grace, we cease being utterly dependent on the Spirit, and we become judgmental of Christians who still struggle, and of non-Christians as well. But our Lord is confronting us in this passage and saying, “There is absolutely no room for any self-righteousness!”  You must always remember that you cannot take a single second of your life and offer it up to God as being free from sin.  

That apart from the Holy Spirit working through you, you are incapable of doing even one single act of obedience to Christ, and even when you do cooperate with the Holy Spirit and do something that pleases God, it too is still polluted with your sin, and so is only made acceptable because of grace.  

And so therefore that only life that pleases God is when you stay in a perpetual posture of gratitude for grace and dependency on the Spirit.  And this is only possible by staying in a close relationship with Christ!  Only then can you worship God in truth, love others with humility and power, and so live as a fruitful member of Christ’s Body.
    
b. Our condition as a member of Christ’s Body v 4-10  
  Our study passage makes an important distinction between God’s mercy and God’s grace.  We must get a hold of this truth because too often this distinction is blurred and we end up with a very weak, impotent view of grace.

c. The mercy that forgives v 4-5
  In verses 4-5, we read “God who is rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ.”   God’s mercy is God’s disposition toward us of compassion that wants to remove misery.  God extends a degree of His mercy to all creation and humanity.  

Mercy is what God doesn't give that we do deserve.  So it is God’s mercy that keeps Him from imposing His wrath on humanity now, and that causes Him to extend a degree of compassion to every human.  Grace on the other hand is what God gives that we don't deserve.  While all receive some degree of God’s mercy, grace is extended only to God’s elect.  

Let me illustrate this difference: Suppose I was speeding on the highway and a policeman pulls me over. If he doesn't give me a ticket, then he gave me mercy. If he gives me a $100 bill instead, then he gave me grace.  God’s mercy is what takes away the misery of our sinful condition, but it is God’s grace that gives us new life in Christ.   

Why is this distinction important?  Because so many Christians see grace as only the forgiveness of sin, and not the empowerment to be free from sin, and made new creatures in Christ with a whole new identity and purpose.  

Our salvation includes so much more than just forgiveness of sin!  The grace we receive in Christ also includes our being adopted as God’s children, filled with God’s Spirit, made a member of Christ’s Body and empowered to participate with God now is bringing in God’s kingdom, and to one day reign and rule with Christ for eternity!  So let us now explore the power of grace!

d. The grace that empowers
   i. Grace is the person of Christ v 5

The first thing we must grasp is that grace is not a substance, an emotion, an action, or an impersonal force, grace is the person of Jesus Christ.  Our study passage today reveals that we are made alive “In Christ,” that we are now seated in the heavenly realms “with and in Christ.”  When God gives grace, God gives Christ.

When we extend grace to another, we don’t offer them some concept of forgiveness or some impersonal source of power, we extend to him or her Jesus Christ.  The second thing we must grasp about grace, is that the same grace that saves, is the same grace that sanctifies (makes us more like Christ).  The same grace that forgives sin is the same grace that empowers us to break free from sin and live into obedience.  You can’t have one form of grace without the other.  

The same grace that brings us into relationship with Christ is the same Grace that empowers us to participate with Christ in fulfilling God’s grand plan for creation v 6-7     

  ii. Grace that empowers us to participate with Christ in fulfilling God’s grand plan for creation v 6-7

You see, many Christians live with this attitude either blatantly or subconsciously.  Since grace means that no mater what I do God will forgive me, and since nothing can separate me from the love of God in Christ, it really doesn’t matter how much I sin because I can sin boldly now and just ask for forgiveness later.
    
But how does the apostle Paul address such a dangerous misunderstanding of grace?  We read in Romans 6, “What shall we say than, since whenever sin abounds, grace abounds even more, let us sin a lot so we can receive lots of grace!

To which Paul says basically, you are greatly mistaken about grace.  The very grace that connects you to the death of Christ for forgiveness of sins, is the same grace that connects you to the resurrection of Christ that empowers you to live a new live of obedience and ever-increasing conformity to the likeness of Christ.”

Grace is a relationship with Jesus Christ through which all the promises of the New Covenant are fulfilled through us so that we can live lives of overcoming faith, purifying hope, and world-changing love.

  iii. Grace and faith are gifts from God v 8-9
Verses 8-9 of our study passage strongly emphasizes that it is by grace and through faith that we are being saved, and that both of these—both grace and faith—are gifts from God.

Grace is disarming.  It dethrones self.   It is counter-cultural to our affluent, American inbreeding as independent, self-sufficient, competent individuals.  It requires utter and total surrender to God.  It requires giving up control. Grace requires that we take absolutely no credit at all for our salvation or for anything we do that is of eternal value for God.  

And so all of us struggle with living out our faith from a posture of complete dependency on grace!  Our self-centered flesh is always in a continually battle to add something to grace, to claim some credit, if not for our salvation, than for how we live out our faith as to the our ability to be obedient or to do good works for God.  

This is how we must understand our salvation and our life of faith.   It was God who chose us before the world was even created to be saved or not saved.  It was God who wrote our name in the Lamb’s Book of Life before He even said, “Let There be light.’  

And at some point in your life it was God who came upon you by the Holy Spirit and gave you the ability, the gift of faith, to believe the gospel and surrender your life to Christ.  It was God’s grace that forgave your sins, filled you with His Spirit, adopted you as His child, and made you a member of Christ’s Body.  And it is God’s ongoing gift of faith and grace through the indwelling Holy Spirit that empowers you to do anything worthwhile to please God.  

Therefore, as our passage declares, there is zero room for you to take any credit at all for anything at all in regards to your salvation, obedience, or transformation.  This truth must completely saturate our soul if we are to love others into life.  Here is our calling: Only when we live out of a place of brokenness, of utter dependence on grace, of absolutely surrender to the Holy Spirit, of an acute awareness of our own worthiness of hell every second, balanced with intense gratitude for grace that despite what we deserve, God every second, in grace, in Christ, calls us His child, holy and dearly loved, can we then reach out in powerful, humble, life-chaining agape love to the lost, lonely, and hurting people in our circle of relationships.  

Let me repeat all that in a different way:  When you interact with the unsaved or with wounded Christians who have been deeply hurt the institutionalized religion we’ve made of the gospel, they can pick up immediately whether you are coming from a place of unconditional love and grace, or of self-righteous superiority and pity.  

And friends, the only cure for self-righteous judgementalism, and grace-denying legalism, is to continually live in the tension of being both sinner and saint. We must continually live in the tension of being painfully aware of the worthy-of-hell sinfulness that pollutes every second and act of our life, while at the same time, to always be amazingly aware of who we are in Christ as adopted children of God, wherein God declares us right now to already be holy and dearly loved!


Brothers and sisters, do you know how many thousands of deeply hurting people there are right here in Dubuque, who do not believe that the church of Christ has any relevance or power to help them.  And it’s not because most have not tried the Church.  Most have, only to encounter coldness, judgment, phoniness.  

They come asking the hard questions of life, and struggling with the harsh realities of life in a fallen world.  They come hoping that perhaps this Sunday, or this church (whatever one they happen to be visiting) will be different.  That perhaps this will be a group of people who are open and honest about how hard life is, that this will be a safe place to ask the hard questions, struggle with deeply rooted sin without any judgment, a place where they will be accepted just as they are.

Yet instead, most find just greetings as shallow as a salesman’s, stiff suits and ironed dresses and Sunday smiles and happy polished worship and irrelevant sermons, and everyone pretending that life is just dandy!  And so they leave with their deepest questions unasked and their deepest hurts untouched.

Now this congregation is far better than most in this regard overall.  Your greetings are sincere, our worship is focused on glorifying God, and hopefully our sermons occasionally have at least a few sentences that are relevant!  And once you get to know you better, you all are sincere, open, people who don’t pretend, who do ask the hard questions, who do extend unconditional love.  

But we can do even better!  We must pursue becoming even more a place of grace, a place where the atmosphere that defines our gatherings is one of no pretending, of absolute honestly about our struggles.  

We must demonstrate to others that we are just a bunch of broken, sinful people who have been captured by God’s grace, who are madly in love with Jesus, who model weakness not competency, growth not feigned perfection, dependency not sufficiency, who display Christ’s power through our struggles, Christ’s faith while we still doubt, Christ’s hope when we feel hopeless, Christ’s holiness shining through our ongoing sinfulness, and Christ’s love despite our permeating selfishness.

Living, demonstrating, and ministering out of such a state of brokenness is only possible when we are brutally honest with God, ourselves, and each other about what a mess we really are, and how utterly dependent we are on God’s grace to be and to do anything worthwhile in regards to growing in Christ and pleasing God.

  iv. The fourth thing we must grasp about grace is that even though grace is not earned by good works, grace empowers us for good works   v 10


III. Living as God’s Masterpieces

Grace is not earned by good works, but grace empowers us for good works   v 10
Our study passage in verse 10 reveals that “we are God’s workmanship,” literally, this word means we are God’s masterpiece, God’s poem, God’s magnum opus!  And as God’s masterpiece we have a life-defining calling, our verse declares, “to do good works,” but not just any good works.  As our verse reveals, we are specifically called and empowered to do the good works that “God has prepared in advance for us to do!”

So, not only is our initial ability to believe the gospel an act of God’s grace alone, not only is the faith to follow Christ throughout life an act of God’s gift of faith alone, not only is any change into Christlikeness an act of God’s Spirit alone. Even the good works that we can do have already been predetermined by God’s grace, and even our ability to do those good works are completely dependent on God’s power and grace working through us!

Are you getting the idea that everything concerning our salvation and life in Christ is completely driven, sustained, and empowered by grace alone?!    

Now you would think that since this is the case, that we are then reduced to just puppets and pawns in God’s hand.  When we become a temple of the Holy Spirit, we do not become puppets or pawns, but participants with Christ in carrying out the work of God on earth. We carry out this work by joining with Christ in doing the good works that God has prepared for us to do.    

The other important question these verses raise is this, “How do we know what these good works are the God has already prepared for us to do?”  The answer is more mystery than clarity. It’s not like there is some divine checklist somewhere!  But all these good works fall under the broad divine decree that defines our mission and motivation as the people of God, the Body of Christ.  

All of God’s ordained good works are those that are done to fulfill what is called the “Great Commission,” and motivated to obey what are called the “Great Commandments.”
    

IV.  Becoming a “Great” Church

  a. Fulfilling the Great Commission  Matt 28:16-20

So, we must ask the question: What good works are we being called to do as the local congregation in north Dubuque, currently called Third Presbyterian Church, right now in this new century?
   We do not yet know the specific good works that our Lord wants us to join him in accomplishing as to what new missional outreaches we are being called to launch.  We are inviting each of you to begin fasting and praying and asking God to reveal to us the answer to that question.  But we do know, because it is crystal clear in Scripture, what is our central mission, and driving motivation.  

The central purpose of the Church, and therefore each local congregation is to fulfill the Great Commission
 - By making devoted, passionate disciples of Jesus Christ
 - Through “baptizing” them, which is to evangelize people to become converted, regenerate children of God
 - And by “teaching” them, which is to disciple them into maturity.   
 

Evangelism and discipleship, this is the business of the Church!

Peter Drucker, an esteemed business consultant, says that every company should always be asking itself two critical questions: What business are we in? and How's business?  This model works for the Church as well.

In these last words to his disciples, Jesus makes it very clear what business we are in: making disciples!   So the question to us is then, “how’s business?”  

This is the question we will begin to ask for everything we do:  How does this particular ministry help us to participate with Christ in fulfilling the Great Commission through evangelism and discipleship, and if a ministry cannot pass that test, it needs to be refined or replaced.  

  b. Obeying the Great Commandments  Matt 22:36-40

As we seek to reclaim this purpose in everything we do, we must also do it for the right motivation.  We cannot be motivated by numerical growth or any worldly measurements of success.  

The only Christ-centered motivation is to obey the Great Commandments by becoming ourselves, and helping others to become, people who love God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength, and who love their neighbor with God’s agape love and grace.

Now we will talk much more about what it means for us to participate in the Great Commission and be people who obey the Great Commandments in future sermons and teachings.

For when we begin to live into this calling, we will begin to become a “Great” church!