Sermon: "A World Off Target"

First in the "Why the Church?" series.
Delivered September 11, 2005 by Rev. John Schmidt.
Other sermons in this series - 1 / 2 / 3

Theme: We are starting a four-week series on the purpose of the church. Why does the church exist? This week we are looking specifically at the fact that the church exists because God is doing something to fix a world that is off target and the church is part of how God is doing that. The world is in opposition to God who is resolutely and constantly hostile to the evil in our lives. But God is not content with leaving things there. By Grace we are saved.

The audio file of this sermon is available for download and listening in MP3 format.

Click to Download & Listen (4.3MB)

Sermon Notes are at the end.

Well today is 9/11 and one of the things that we all know, we all sense and have been thinking about is that four years ago, one of the biggest tragedies that has ever happened to our country happened right before our eyes. On 9/11 millions of people all over the world watched as terrorists flew planes in to the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In just a few short moments, three thousand people or more died and when we watched this unfold in front of us, people all over the world together were wondering: this isn't right. This is wrong. The world isn't supposed to be this way. The world isn't supposed to be a place where a few ruthless people can take the lives of so many. And even as people were thinking that all over the world, we have to recognize that it wasn't the first time that people have thought that and have felt that.

Not even a year ago the tsunami hit Southeast Asia and again in front of the eyes of the watching world we watched an incredible number of people perish in just moments. In just a few moments, plans, hopes and dreams, families, relationships, economy just disappeared. And even as we watch this again there is a certain sense of outrage inside of us. The world shouldn't a place where lives, families and whole towns disappear in a second for no reason.

Two weeks ago Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast and since that time we have been watching and we have seen that again and again the most powerful government in the country falls short in its capacity to rescue and provide for its people in a problem, in a disaster like this. We also are angry that the weather can affect us in this way; that things happen on this scale, with this sort of power that it can absolutely envelope whole parts of our country. And then as we watch it, there is another layer of our concern and outrage as we watch people shoot at the people who are coming to rescue them; as we watched parts of our society unravel in front of us. And so again, we sit, we watch and we think to ourselves: this is unacceptable. What kind of world is it that has weather that kills people like this? What kind of world is this that has government that can't deal with disaster and what kind of world is this where people shoot at the people trying to rescue them? Things aren't right.

Now if we don't believe in God, then we shouldn't have a problem with something like this because the weather is just the summation of random events, chaotic events, things that we don't understand, but will happen on their own and they just happen. It's just the way things are and when we look at the human behavior that has come out: whether we are looking at the government or whether we are looking at the people who are looting or whether we are looking at the people who are doing the heroic measures, it doesn't matter, because none of it is good or evil. It is simply the summation of all these ingrained things that have helped us survive for millions of years. And so let's not talk about it being good or evil, because maybe there is some kind of survival benefit to being ruthless and being selfish and being violent at a time like this.

So we don't even have to ask questions about that if we don't believe in God, but if we do believe in God, Christians expect more out of the world than that. Christians expect more out of our lives and out of the lives of other people than what we have seen happening.

Now I don't mean that we don't expect disasters to happen. I don't mean that we don't expect people to do evil and ugly things against other people; far from it, we do expect it. But when we see it happen, inside of us we recognize that things are not the way they were created to be. Another way of saying this is that as Christians when we see these things in the world, we believe at heart that these things are happening because the world is off target. It's not dead center of what it was created to be. It has moved off center and it misses the mark of what God created it to be. It doesn't matter what the issues are. The issue of pollution; what we are doing to our own environment around us. Poverty: all over the world, every society, at every time in history, there have been people who haven't had the basics to survive. There are things that just happen like the tsunami. Things that people do to one another in families like abuse. I know you can't see them in the back, but I will try to say all the words as I put them up. We live in a world where there is genocide: people are trying to eradicate whole nations, whole races of people. We live in a world that is constantly at war. We live in a world with the AIDS crisis. Untold numbers of people are affected by this: a disease that at this point certainly leads to an early death; orphans all over the world. We have hurricanes like Katrina that seem to indiscriminately take lives. We've got famines in the world. We've got racism. There is room here for more. What's the thing that you would put on this list? Another example that the world is not on target, it's off to the side, it's out of the center of what it was created to be?

We are starting a four-week series on the purpose of the church. Why does the church exist? And this week we are looking specifically at the fact that the church exists because God is doing something to fix a world that if off target and the church is part of what God is doing. And to do that, to look at that, we are going to look at a book: the letter to the Ephesians. In this book, Paul talks about a new society that God is putting together, where he is uniting Jew and non-Jew into one family together with God. And that in Christ, God is lavishly offering every kind of spiritual blessing. In Christ, God is drawing together every kind of power and division under his leadership. In Christ, God is drawing us, believers, in to his purposes. And what we will learn when we look in to this is that we haven't always been part of God's solution, part of God's plan; in fact we were part of the problem. So let's take a look at what Paul says in Ephesians, Chapter 2, we are going to read Verses 1 to 10.

"As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 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. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects 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 not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Let's pray. God, take this word, open our eyes, open our hearts to your work, to your voice, for we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.

This passage begins with a very strong statement. As for you, this means us, you were dead in your transgressions and sin. We were dead. This is how Paul paints the picture of where the world is normally, where we were normally in our lives. We were dead. But the world doesn't look dead. Whether we are looking at scholars or athletes or actors or mothers or people who are involved in business, it seems like the world is full of life. So what Paul is talking about is something that is behind all of that, something that's invisible. What Paul is talking about is that inside of the human life there is an incapacity to respond to God. We are unresponsive to God totally, in the ways that we need to be in order to have a relationship with him. We are blind to the glory of God. We are deaf to his spirit. When we are unable to relate to God as we were created to. And so Paul says that this problem is so deep, it is so overwhelming, that the right word to use about it is death and the only response to it, the only solution is to give us life. And so, it's not just a problem of where we learn something more, if we would only educate people better, if we only explained to them what life is all about, what we are all about, what God is all about, that people would get it, because dead people aren't good learners. That's what Paul says: you're dead. We could educate you till the cows come home, it won't matter. And its not just a matter of motivating people's will, having good moral teaching and motivational teaching and that if we do that right and present it right that people will be able to drum up the willpower to be the kind of people that we are supposed to be. Dead people are not a good audience for a motivational talk. And so Paul says we are dead.

And so if God is going to provide a solution, that solution has to be that his gives us life; like Jesus going to the tomb of Lazarus, something dead has to come to life. And so Paul says that God in his goodness, in his kindness, in his mercy, in his grace has done just that very thing. It talks about us being dead in transgressions and sins. The first word transgression is a word that we could also translate trespasses. Its this idea that you have deliberately left the right path and gone your own way. And so there is a sign up that says no trespassing; private property, do not enter and we look at it, we read it, we understand it and we go in anyway, that's transgression. We were dead because our lives were characterized by transgression. The other thing it says here, it says transgressions and sins. Sin has to do with falling short of the mark, missing the target. So the world is off target because of sin. We might want to hit the target. We might aim at the target, but we still miss the target. Transgression and sin. So what Paul is saying here is that we were dead because our whole lifestyle was characterized by rebellion and failure. That's who we are. And so he goes on to say here that we were dead in transgressions and sins and then he describes a certain lifestyle and talks about three powers that defined the kind of lifestyle that we used to live: what characterized being dead.

The first thing he points out is that you were dead in transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world. That's the first thing. We followed the ways of the world. There is a whole system around us. It doesn't matter what culture we are a part of. Every world society, every world culture has a value system, which acts as if God was unimportant, or didn't exist at all, or if they do acknowledge God they define God on their own terms. And so we are part of a world system and we are affected by a world system that does not acknowledge God to be Lord. And so this affects us. There is a certain cultural bondage that is part of us and so Paul says that this is characteristic of our lives. We were in this kind of cultural bondage alienated to God.

The second thing he says, you followed the ways of the world and the ruler of the kingdom of air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. Here is something else that is not visible, but it's nevertheless real. There is not only a world system at work that we follow: we follow the world, but we also follow the devil. There is a spirit at work in the world system. There are powers in the unseen spiritual world. There is an evil energy at work. It says here "the spirit who is now at work", the word there work is the word we get energy from. There is an energy working in the world, an evil energy. So it's more than just missing or aiming at the target and missing what's good. There is an evil rebellious mood in the world, a spiritual inclination of independence from God that's inspired inside of us because there is an evil spiritual reality at work.

So we follow the world, we follow the devil, and the third thing it says in Verse 3: "all of us also lived among them at one time gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts." We follow the world, we follow the devil and we follow the flesh. Now here in this translation its translated 'sinful nature' and that's accurate. The actual word is flesh that Paul uses. But it doesn't mean the bodily struggles we have, the problems with lust or with eating too much or drinking too much. It includes that, but its body and mind, sin in both. And so it not only includes things like lust, but it also includes pride, ambition that's willing to hurt people, the willingness to reject the truth, holding on to vengeful thoughts. So there is a power, a world system outside, there is a spiritual power that's at work inside of that system and there is an inner willingness in us to cooperate and participate in that. The world, the flesh and the devil.

These three things come up again and again in Scripture as a description of the comprehensive power of evil at work in and around us. And so Paul says we were a part of that. We were totally overwhelmed by that. We are active participants in that. And so he sums it all up at the end of Verse 3: "like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath." By nature, by who we were we were in opposition to God and its important that we understand what this word wrath means, because it doesn't have to do with God having a bad temper or God being malicious or spiteful. This word wrath has to do with God's personal, righteous, constant hostility to evil, his refusal to compromise with evil and his resolve to condemn evil. That God is resolutely always constantly against evil, and so that meant against us. So at the end of Verse 3 it is bad news. It's not good news. This is what the world situation is. We are in opposition to God who is resolutely and constantly hostile to the evil in our lives.

But then in Verse 4, in the Greek, it begins with the words 'But God.' Now here they have rearranged the words to make it sound better in English, but after all of this reality, the solution comes because God does something. But God is not content with leaving things there. But God does something. And it says that God has done something in love and mercy and grace and kindness. God is doing something that we could never do. By Grace we are saved. And just like our death was invisible there are certain things that are happening that are true, that are absolutely real about us that are nevertheless invisible. Now right before this passage Paul talks about what God does in Jesus Christ: in Verses 20 to 23 of the first chapter. It talks about the fact that Jesus is raised from the dead and seated at the right hand of God; seated on a throne. And so now in Chapter 2, Paul says the same things about us. The things that God did for Christ he is doing for us as well in Christ.

And so there are three things that Paul talks about here. "But because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ." We are alive. That's the first thing that God has done. So in Christ, through faith in him, through what God does spiritually in Christ and in our lives as he pulls us in to Christ, the first thing that happens is that we are made alive. We are able to respond to God now as children. We are able to really love God back on God's terms. We are alive to a purposeful life. We are alive to God and in relationship to God and we have an eternal future. So what we were incapable of doing, in Christ God does. We are incapable of being in the center of God's will. We are dead to it. But instead in grace and mercy, God makes us alive in Jesus Christ. That's the first thing he does.

The second thing he says is that we are raised in him. It means that our citizenship is no longer here. We are raised in to a new kingdom, a new age, to a new master. We are no longer primarily people who are a part of a democracy. We are part of a kingdom. And so we now have a citizenship: our basic identity is with Christ. We are alive here, but we don't totally belong here. We don't totally belong to this age and we are getting new orders, orders that are totally unlike the orders we got from the world, the flesh and the devil. We are alive. We are raised.

And then it says, and God raised us up with Christ, Verse 6 and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. So we are alive, we are raised and we are seated with Christ. And so where are we seated if we are seated with Christ? We are seated on a throne. And so what that means is that we are no longer victims, we are victors. God has done something to break the bondage that was part of who we were. And the problems and powers that used to control us, and that can still assail us are no longer in control over us, because Christ is controller of everything. It means we have access to God who controls everything. It means that we can participate as co-laborers with God and do acts in this world that really matter and then we can ask God to act in this world, because we have authority. We are alive. We are raised. We are seated. And it's all because of God. His love, his grace, his mercy, his kindness and it says in Verse 7 that God does it "in order that in the coming age he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Jesus Christ." Verse 10: "For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." We are God's workmanship. God is doing this in us to show the incredible riches of his grace, to show his glory, not only in this age, but in the age to come. We are God's masterpiece.

A number of years ago a portrait of a guy named Reverend Paul Gibson was unveiled at Ridley Hall in Cambridge. He was the principal of the college. And when this man was there at the unveiling of this portrait that was going to be hung in the hall for years and years following, one of the things he said was that when people would see this painting in the future years, they wouldn't wonder who was this man; what they will wonder is who was it that painted this? And that's a reality about all fine art. It reveals more to us of the creativity and power and ability and grace of the creator, than of the subject that's being painted. And so when people look at us, it's not that they wonder "Who is that person?" Because we are God's workmanship, they are looking at us and they are saying, "Who is that God that has created that in them?" We are God's workmanship.

Now there is an invisible reality about the death that was part of us and there is an invisible reality about the life that's at work now in the church. How does it become visible if we are God's workmanship? If we are to display to this age and the coming ages the greatness of what God is doing, how does it become visible? In Verse 1 of this passage, actually it's Verse 2: "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sin in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world." That phrase, 'in which you used to live,' is a translation of a Hebrew phrase that stands behind the Greek that says, 'the ways in which you used to walk.' It talks about life being a journey and in Hebrew thought when they talked about lifestyle, they talked about your walk of life. And so, that deadness in us was made visible by the way we used to walk in life, the lifestyle we used to live. There is a daily and visible overflow and fruit of the kind of lives that we used to live. And so now at the end of the passage again this word walk comes back, for we are God's workmanship created in Christ to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to walk in them. So just as there was a lifestyle and a walk of life that showed the death, there is also a lifestyle created to do good works, which reveals daily and in tangible ways, the reality of the life in us. So how is it made real? It's made real by the good works, it's made visible by the good works in our lives. So it means that the life in us is there for a purpose. We are not just here to do whatever we want. God has done this so that we can show the life of a new kingdom, of a new age. So that we can experience and display what it means to live a life that's on target. So that we can partner with God in his rescue mission to this world.

We are going to be learning more about the purposes of the church in the next few weeks as we go through the mission conference, but it all begins here. It begins with the work of unmerited favor, of grace that God does in our lives:; where he takes a world that's off target and he takes our lives that are off target and in Christ puts us dead center in to his wealth and breaks a bondage and gives us freedom even if we use that freedom to stray. God has done this, but how have we responded? For some of us we have never made the first response to God. The response that says yes God, I believe that you did this in Jesus Christ and I will now in faith accept what you have done for me in love and not hold on to anything in my own life, but instead cast myself on your mercy and love in Jesus Christ, that I now have a new master. It's no longer the world, the flesh, the devil, but it's Jesus Christ. But most of us, many of us, have already made that sort of decision, but again this word that Paul talks about lifestyle, is a walk. There is step, after step, after step in this life and so maybe today you realize that there is something that God wants to do. There is another step. There is something that God wants to change. There is something that God wants to transform. In a few minutes, John Pusateri is going to tell us how we can respond to whatever God is dealing with in our lives, but if there is something there, try to listen to what God is saying, and try to move with the flow of what the Holy Spirit is doing in your life. So as we prepare for the response, let's just take a moment of silence now, pray silently about whatever God is saying to you and I will just close us with a brief prayer when that's done.

Let's pray. So God wherever we are, through the power of your Holy Spirit, through the grace you give us in Jesus Christ, help us to respond, to take the next step, to walk towards the center of your will for us in Jesus Christ and to not stray. So we commit ourselves to you, we open our lives afresh to you, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermon Outline Notes:

• We were dead
  • in transgressions and sins.
  • Following the world
  • Following the devil
  • Following the flesh
• But God
  • In love and mercy made us alive
  • We are alive
  • We are raised
  • We are seated
  • Created for good works

© 2005, Rev. John Schmidt
Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD 21204 410/823-6145
www.centralpc.org