Alive to live. Ephesians 2:4-7
Sermon by Pastor Dennis Gleason, October 4, 2003
While walking through the forest one day, a man found a young eagle who had fallen out of his nest. He took it home and put it in his barnyard where it soon learned to eat and behave like the chickens. One day a naturalist passed by the farm and asked why it was that the king of all birds should be confined to live in the barnyard with the chickens. The farmer replied that since he had given it chicken feed and trained it to be a chicken, it had never learned to fly. Since it now behaved as the chickens, it was no longer an eagle.
"Still it has the heart of an eagle," replied the naturalist, "and can surely be taught to fly." He lifted the eagle toward the sky and said, "You belong to the sky and not to the earth. Stretch forth your wings and fly." The eagle, however, was confused. He did not know who he was, and seeing the chickens eating their food, he jumped down to be with them again.
The naturalist took the bird to the roof of the house and urged him again, saying, "You are an eagle. Stretch forth your wings and fly." But the eagle was afraid of his unknown self and world and jumped down once more for the chicken food. Finally the naturalist took the eagle out of the barnyard to a high mountain. There he held the king of the birds high above him and encouraged him again, saying, " You are an eagle. You belong to the sky. Stretch forth your wings and fly." The eagle looked around, back towards the barnyard and up to the sky. Then the naturalist lifted him straight towards the sun and it happened that the eagle began to tremble. Slowly he stretched his wings, and with a triumphant cry, soared away into the heavens.
It may be that the eagle still remembers the chickens with nostalgia. It may even be that he occasionally revisits the barnyard. But as far as anyone knows, he has never returned to lead the life of a chicken.
Our Text for today is found in Ephesians 2: 4-7:
4But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so very much, 5that even while we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s special favor that you have been saved!) 6For he raised us from the dead along with Christ, and we are seated with him in the heavenly realms—all because we are one with Christ Jesus. 7And so God can always point to us as examples of the incredible wealth of his favor and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us through Christ Jesus.
The Apostle Paul tells us in this passage of Scripture that we are identified with Jesus Christ.He tells us that we died with Him in Romans 6. He tells us here that we have been raised with Him And made to sit with Him in the Heavenly places.
These phrases are designed to teach us something about ourselves and who we are as Christians.
As Christians, we are no longer spiritually dead. Because of this fact, we are no longer afraid of death.
Why is this so?
It is because we are no longer afraid to confront God.
It is because God is no longer our enemy.
It is because God is now seen as our friend, our Father
Jesus’ life has become our life. (1 Corinthians 6:17)
He is our life – We have been united with Him ( Ephesians 2:6B) "…we are one with
Christ Jesus.
He has welded Himself to us so that an unbreakable union has been established.
He is ours and We are His…and nothing can break that relationship.
What happens now is that in our own experience this new life that we have received from Christ begins working itself out.
How is this so?
What happened to Jesus happens to us.
Jesus died on the cross. On the third day God infused His lifeless body with life – new life and Jesus was made alive again.
Jesus did not remain in the tomb and hold counseling sessions with people in need.
Jesus was raised up and was put back into business. He was thrust back into the experiences of men, but on a new basis with a new power.
Paul is telling us that what happens to Jesus happens to us when we are made alive in Christ.
We are called to go back , as Jesus did, into the same situations we have been in, but to reckon on a new power, to demonstrate the power of the resurrection life in our situation.
Resurrection power means that the believer is able to do what he could never do by himself. He is able to act in a way which is impossible to those who are without Christ:
He is able to love the unlovable.
He is able to endure the unendurable.
He is able to achieve the unachievable.
He is able to forgive the unforgivable.
"Raised up with Him" means to come to life again with a new approach and a new power.
Resurrection power is designed to dissolve the problems of life.
We have also been made to sit down with Him in the heavenly places.
What does this mean for us?
Hebrews 1:13 tells us: "And God never said to an angel, as he did to his Son, "Sit in honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies, making them a footstool under your feet."
In Hebrews 10:12-13 we read:
"
But our High Priest offered himself to God as one sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down at the place of highest honor at God’s right hand. 13There he waits until his enemies are humbled as a footstool under his feet".He sat down…the writer of Hebrews tells us. That is a picture or a symbol of something.
It is a picture of the cessation of effort. Sitting means an end of work and strain. It is a beautiful picture of what Scripture calls "rest". Rest means dependence upon the work of another.
Imagine for a moment that you are digging a hole. I come along and tell you to take a break and let me help you. What would you expect of me? Would you expect me to encourage you to dig harder and to put your back into the work or would you expect me to tell you to get out of the hole and the jump in and start digging? You would expect me to start digging. I would do the work for you.
We have here a picture of what the Christian is to do. He is to live seated with Christ in the heavenlies (in the inner life where we feel the full pressure, tension, anxiety and hostility of life.
We are to rest there.Having done what Jesus asks us to do, we are to sit down and rest and let him bear the pressure of the problems.
Remember, God has told us that he can do exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or think.
You might want to look at Isaiah 55:8-9: "My thoughts are completely different from yours," says the LORD. "And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. 9For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts."
Do you see how "resting in Jesus" can turn you life into an adventure? You never know how a situation will turn out.
So what are we to do? Do what is expected of us. We are to sit down, expecting Him to work; resting without anxiety free from strain, struggling or striving.
When Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Father…he was waiting "till his enemies were made his footstool."
He was waiting until God the Father working through the principles involved in the Cross and Resurrection produces harmony and peace once again in Creation. Then every force opposed to the authority of Jesus Christ will be subdued and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
In other words, Jesus is waiting in absolute certainty for an absolutely certain result.
It is certain.
But it won’t come quickly.
And it is in this fact that our problem lies: The figure of sitting in heavenly places with Him involves the expectation of a certain result. We must wait for it with patience.And here is our struggle and it is perhaps the most difficult struggle of the Christian life: it is the slowness of God.
God can be incredibly slow at times. We get impatient. We know the steps that God could take to fix things and sometimes we feel like saying, "God, get off your throne and do something!"
But God is waiting and then suddenly before we know it what we have hoped for – and more than we have hoped for has happened. And there are times when we don’t know how it happened.
An illustration might help here: A farmer sows his seed. He scatters his seed and then he goes home and goes to bed. He relaxes, he rests and lets the seed grow because that is the nature of seed. It is a process that requires time. It must "die"; it decays, deteriorates and falls apart. And out of that death and decay in the seed comes new life. It will slowly and steadily grow until suddenly the whole plant is before you.
Paul wants us to know that the result is certain and on that we can rest patiently knowing God is working out His purposes. As believers in Jesus Christ, we are part of a relationship.
What we are talking about here is true Christianity. Any effort to try to be religious or Christian that does not stem from this three-fold relationship:
- being made alive with Christ
- being raised with Him (with a new power for life)
- being seated with Him in heavenly places. being put back into life to rest in His activity and the certainty of his accomplishing His work
– is a counterfeit. It is godliness without God; Christianity without Christ; spirituality without the Holy Spirit.
These three facts are already true of every real Christian whether they know it or not. If we have moved away from this reality we are always just one step back…we can always return to Christ because the relationship with Christ is the real, true, permanent fixture in our lives.
This relationship becomes observable and actual by faith. That is, by actually living and acting and trusting these facts as if they are true and acting accordingly. That is faith!
We are called to obey these facts when the flesh screams for revenge, or when our heart faints with discouragement or despair, or when we just want to give up, or when temptation almost sweeps us away into sin.
We can only claim this relationship for moments at a time and we must renew it again and again. It is a battle. But it is one we can win.
Remind yourself…I am alive with Christ. I am not the same person I was. I may not yet be the person I should be, but Praise God I am not the one I was! I have a new power at my disposal – the power of His life within me. Therefore, I can rest in Him.
I can learn to do this. To learn to do this is to learn to let God be God.
This is the way God works. This is how God’s life is released in our human situation.
This is who we are.
The result is certain.
You and I have the power of His resurrected life at our disposal. Use it! Take advantage of It!
You can have victory over the forces of evil seeking to destroy you and your family.
Do the things the Scriptures tell you to do and then leave your situation with the Lord to work out. Wait for Him to do His thing and while you are waiting relax, rest in Christ.
You are alive in Christ and God’s intention is that you will live out what and who you are.
Do what you know the Bible tells you to do and then relax. Let God be God in your situation.
--Dennis Gleason
