He Made Us Alive

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3-10-24

Hoonah-Hadley

Ephesians 2:1-10

Call to Worship Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22

Daily Verses: All of them

“And you He made alive…”  If there ever was a Hallelujah song it might find its foundation in these early verses of Ephesians chapter 2. I have to confess Ephesians is very dear to me.  A long, long time ago when my mentor was literally taken up in a whirl wind, life flighted to a Pittsburgh hospital on a Christmas Eve and pronounced dead Christmas morning, my heart was broken.  The grief I experienced at his funeral was nothing I had ever experienced before.  I was not prepared for it, never saw it coming, my Elijah was gone and I was at the banks of the Jordan river alone.  God of course knows our hearts.  Jeremiah 17:10 “I, the Lord search the heart.”  God hears our cry, sees our grief, He comforts us. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 “The Father of compassion and the God of all comfort…with the comfort we ourselves have received.”  God did not delay in coming to me in my time of need, in short order He appointed my next mentor in Malcolm Vandevort.  Malcolm soon led our Wednesday evening bible study with none other than the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians.  Only 6 chapters, but it was divinely appointed, and took us a little over a year to examine it.  It was what we might consider an anchor for the soul.  A rare and precious time in our lives that we hold forever dear in our hearts.  I actually found my notes from that study and if my reflection can help you remember a time in your life when you knew that you knew, that you knew, God’s hand was upon you, His mercy was real, His grace was alive, and His favor rest upon your mending heart.  5-26-10 “Building a sense of intimacy.” 

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“And you He made alive, when you were dead through the trespasses and sins 2 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. 3 Among these we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of body and mind, and so we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”  We cannot help but notice straight away here the close proximity of “you” and “He”.  “And you He made alive…”  If you ever doubt God’s love for you, return to these verses in Ephesians.  We might pause here to give thanks to our Father which art in heaven for leaving the 99 to snatch us out of the grave.  He wants not one to be lost.  He chose us before the foundation of the earth.  He loves us with an everlasting love.  The apostle Paul begins this chapter with a “you” and “I”, a “we” if you will, and if you were to take a highlighter in your bible and mark every reference in this chapter to “you”, “us”, “we”, “God”, “He”, you would clearly see what Malcolm calls “a sense of intimacy” from God and with God.  Years ago, an elder in the church quoted his father who himself was an elder in the church, “make sure they know that God loves them.”  “And you He made alive” is salvation in its simplest form, salvation is the most profound institution ever to enter time and space.  It is corporate, yet it is personal.  He knows each of His elect by name.  “Who were dead in…sin, in which you once walked…and were by nature children of wrath…”  Past tense “were”, “once”.  We did not belong but now we do.  “He made us alive.” 

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“Dead”! The walking dead are all about us. Every where we go, dead men walking. We are surrounded by the spiritually dead wandering around in the wilderness without direction, purpose or cause.  That was us, walking according to the course of the world.  Worse yet, “according to the prince of the power of the air”.  His name is Satan, the devil, “who now works in the sons of disobedience.” Just in case you haven’t noticed, he’s CEO of a global ministry, offering full-time employment without any benefits, none whatsoever.  In fact, his retirement plan is without water, light, or rest for eternity.  “Sons of disobedience”, those that reject the saving grace of Jesus Christ, which, by the way, includes daughters of disobedience.  Just to make sure, the apostle repeats himself, reminding us “whom also we once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.”  We too, “once”, past tense, were dead, spiritually worthless, children of wrath. Wrath: Divine retribution for sin.  Colossians 3:2 “Set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth.”  Whoa Nellie! We’re stirring the water at the beach now. I don’t suppose Mother Theresa had a swimming suit, but that is mere speculation.  “Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and mind and were by nature children of wrath.” By nature. John 17:15-16 “I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” Once, disobedient children of wrath, spiritually worthless, dead. 

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Vs. 4 “But God…”  We took extra time to make a point of who we were in the first 3 verses, no need to do that here.  The apostle flips the switch and the light comes on straight away, “But God…”  God responds to the bleak,  desperate and dark human condition as only He can.  “Who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us.”  In Jeremiah’s book of Lamentations we have the verses that found their way into the classic hymn, “Great is Thy Faithfulness”.  Lam. 3:22-24 “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed…They are new every morning…‘The Lord is my portion’, says my soul, ‘therefore I hope in Him!’”  Malcolm asked us, “Why are the Lord’s mercies new everyday? Because they need to be.” His mercy saves us from His wrath, God literally saves us from Himself. “Because of His great love with which He loved us.” This not simply love, but a “great” love. Once the light of this great love comes on in your life, and you are “made alive”, things will never be the same. Vs. 5 “…made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up together… made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”  God saves us from the grave not to walk the earth in our white robes for all the world to see, but that we might sit in the light of heavenly places with His Son. Vs. 8 “For by grace we have been saved through faith…it is the gift of God.” I beg you, receive the gift.  Vs. 10 “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before hand that we should walk in them.” We end with the intimacy Malcolm spoke of, “We…His…in Christ”. He Made us Alive. 

Amen.