The resurrection of Jesus Christ is absolutely necessary if we are ever to receive the life of God. When the Holy Spirit unites us to the risen Christ, we receive the very life of God and are born from above. Without the reception of this life we have no true Christianity!

The Resurrection Life of Christ

Ephesians 1:18 – 2:10

What is Easter all about? When I was growing up we looked forward to Easter because we knew that we would receive an Easter basket, filled with chocolate Easter eggs and candy. Then, in the afternoon, there would always be an Easter egg hunt. Easter was also an excuse to get all the family together and have a special dinner together. However, what is Easter really all about? Easter is the day of the year in which we consciously and purposefully commemorate the fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

But is there any practical relevance of Christ’s resurrection for us? Does Jesus’ resurrection actually make any real difference in the life of a Christian? Absolutely! The resurrection of Jesus Christ, as we will find out this morning, makes all the difference in the world for a follower of Christ. In fact, the resurrection of Christ links the power of almighty God to a lost sinner, and transforms him into a child of God with a new nature bent toward Christ and holiness.

Last week we saw that only those people who enter through the narrow gate of Christ, and then walk the narrow path of holiness are those who will end up at the destination of Life. Last Sunday I called for a decision. I called upon you to surrender your life to King Jesus, and wave the white flat of unconditional surrender to Him. I told you that if you would repent of your sin and trust completely in Jesus Christ, you would be forgiven, saved from sin and inherit eternal life. Well, today’s message is a follow-up to last week’s message. You might be wondering how you will ever have the power to enter the narrow gate and walk the narrow path of holiness. You have tried over and over to give up certain evil ways, but you always find yourself going back into it. For those of you who are feeling hopeless to change, I’ve got good news for you. Yes, you are hopeless to rescue yourself from sin. You don’t have the power in yourself to do it. But there is a power that is able to transform your life, pull you out of a life of sin, and mold you into the image of Jesus Christ. It is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead! Today, I want to show you how a sinner receives the very life of God Himself, resulting in a change of heart and nature, and making him into a new person.

Please turn in your Bibles to Ephesians 1. Beginning in verse 18 Paul is telling the Ephesians how he has been praying for them. Paul has been praying that God would help them to understand the wonderful future He has for those He has called, and what a glorious inheritance they will enjoy in eternity. But then Paul says he’s also praying they will understand the surpassing greatness of God’s power toward those who believe. This power is actually the same mighty power that raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him at the place of honor at God’s right hand in heaven. Now, pause to think about that. The very same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the power that is working toward those who believe! When a person becomes a Christian, something supernatural is going on. When a person becomes a Christian, he’s not just turning over a new leaf, or deciding becoming a Christian makes the most sense of all his options. What I really want you to understand this morning, is that becoming a Christian, and living the Christian life takes place by the supernatural power of God.

I want to show you how this works.  I want to compare what happened to Jesus with what happens to a believer.

1:19 “He raised Him from the dead”

2:4-5 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ”

1:20 “and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places”

2:6 “and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

Do you see that the exact same thing that happened to Jesus has happened to us? He was raised from the dead, and we are made alive together with Christ. He was seated at God’s right hand in the heavenly places and we also were raised up and seated with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Now, notice something very important – the phrases “with Christ” and “in Christ.” We have participated in Jesus’ resurrection, ascension, and enthronement, by virtue of our union with Him. A believer is “with Christ” and “in Christ.” By virtue of being with and in Him, His history becomes our own. By virtue of our living union with Christ, we discover that what happened to Him also happens in our own life. He experienced a literal physical resurrection. We experience the effects of His resurrection in our souls. He ascended to heaven and sat down at God’s right hand. According to Paul, we too have ascended and sat down at God’s right hand in Him. You see, those who are united to Christ share the history of Christ.

It’s kind of like the guy who is in a freak accident and has his thumb chopped off. He’s rushed to the hospital, and lucky for him, the hospital is able to locate another thumb that they could sew on his hand. Now, he has already had the chicken pox so he can’t get it again. However, the thumb that is being sewn onto his hand belonged to a fellow that never had the chicken pox. Does his new thumb have to worry about getting the chicken pox? Could his thumb get the chicken pox, even though the rest of him couldn’t get it? No! He has already had the chicken pox, and that new member which is united to his body shares in his history. Likewise, you and I share in Christ’s history when we are united to Him. Because He died, we died. Because He rose, we rose. Because He sat down, we sat down.

Well, how does this union take place? Turn the page of your Bible to Ephesians 3, and notice verse 20, “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.” There we find it again – this supernatural power that is working within us. But how do we get this power? Go up a few verses to verse 16, “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.”  That’s how we get this power. It comes to us through the Holy Spirit. But, how does a person receive the Holy Spirit? Galatians 4:6 says, “Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying ‘Abba! Father!’” Now, let’s back up and review what we have learned. A Christian is a person who has supernatural power working in his life. This supernatural power comes through the Holy Spirit working in his inner man. And the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts when God sends Him there. So, if this supernatural power is working in your life, it’s not a result of your initiative. Rather it has happened because God took the initiative to send the Holy Spirit into your heart.

Sometimes the Bible calls the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, or the Spirit of Jesus. You see, the same Holy Spirit that is in Jesus in heaven is in you on the earth. Jesus is the Head, and the church is His body. The head is in heaven, but His body is on the earth. That which links the Head with the body, is the Holy Spirit. When the same Spirit that indwells Jesus, enters your heart and indwells you, the resurrection power of Christ now dwells in you, and is working on your behalf. So, the Holy Spirit unites a person to Christ, so that Christ’s resurrection life now flows into every member of His body on earth.

This morning we are going to ask 3 questions of our text:

1. What Were We Like Before?
2. What Did God Do?
3. What Are We Like Now?

1.  What Were We Like Before?

We Were Spiritually Dead

Ephesians 2:1 says, “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins.” Now this verse is not teaching that before we met Jesus we were dead to sin. No, we were very much alive to sin. Verse 2 says that we formerly walked in sin. It also can’t mean that we were dead to the world, because verse 2 says that we walked according to the course of this world. Nor can it mean that we were dead to the devil, because verse 2 also tells us that we formerly walked according to the prince of the power of the air. Finally, it can’t mean that we were dead to our flesh, because verse 3 tells us that we formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh. When Paul says we were dead in trespasses and sins, he doesn’t mean that we were dead on those levels. The sad truth is that we were vibrantly alive to our sins, the world, the flesh, and the devil. We were biologically, socially, intellectually, morally, and perhaps religiously alive. But we were spiritually dead. We were alive in every way except for one; we were dead to God. We were completely cut off from the life of God.

So, what does it mean to be spiritually dead? It means that we had absolutely now power. We were powerless to respond to God. We had no saving relationship with God and were helpless to bring one about. If you are a mortician, you might go down into the morgue to prepare a body for burial. You could yell at that corpse, but he would never hear you. You could command him to open his eyes, or speak to you, or stand up, but you would never get that corpse to respond. The corpse can’t respond to you because it lacks the one thing needful – life.

We Were Controlled By The World

Verse 2 says, “in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world.” When Paul speaks about “this world” he’s talking about the world of men alienated from God. We used to live according to the course or path that the ungodly people in the world walk in. We adopted their opinions, values, and attitudes. The world squeezed us into its mold. We were walking on the broad way that leads to destruction along with everybody else. If everybody else thought that living together outside of marriage was OK, we did too. If the majority thought that it was OK to divorce when things got hard, we did too. If the people around us were OK with lying or stealing, we went right along with it. If the people around us valued living for self and pleasure, so did we. We just walked in the rut that the rest of the people in the world had dug for us. Psalm 1:1 says, “How blessed is the man that does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers!” Before we became Christians, that’s exactly what we did! We walked according to the value system of the world.

We Were Controlled By The Devil

Paul goes on to say that “we walked according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” The prince of the power of the air is a title of the devil. The Bible teaches us that the devil is a real spiritual being. Actually the devil is a fallen angel. He is the “prince” of all the other unclean spirits or demons. Satan is the ruling 5-star general commanding all the demons to do his evil bidding. Before we became Christians, we were subject to demonic influence. We responded naturally to Satan’s leading. Imperceptibly to us, the devil was ruling over us, influencing us, tempting us, and holding us captive to do his will. John the apostle wrote, “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19).

We Were Controlled By Our Flesh

Ephesians 2:3 says, “Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind.” The “flesh” refers to our fallen human nature. What does it look like when a person lives in the lusts of his flesh? He gives in to the corrupt sinful cravings of his body. He abuses drugs and alcohol. He becomes addicted to cigarettes or caffeine. He participates in gluttony. He has sex with people he’s not married to. In short, he indulges in the sinful cravings of his body. In short, he becomes enslaved to his fleshly lusts. He finds himself doing things that he can’t stop.

We Were Under The Wrath Of God

Paul concludes verse 3 by saying, “and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” That phrase, “by nature” means by physical birth. Everyone alive on this planet today, was born into this world under the wrath of God. God’s wrath is His holy response to sin. All sin is offensive and loathsome to His awesome purity and holiness. As long as we remain the sons of disobedience we must remain children of wrath. The only way, then, to escape the wrath of God is to cease being a son of disobedience. A son of disobedience is a person whose life is characterized by disobedience; a sinner by nature. The only way a person can stop living as a son of disobedience is for God to change his nature so that he becomes a child of God through the new birth. John 3:36 says, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”  This verse teaches us that the wrath of God does not come upon someone when he or she dies. The wrath of God already abides on all unsaved people.

Folks, this is the Biblical description of every person who is not a genuine Christian. He is spiritually dead, controlled by the world, the devil, and the flesh, and is under the wrath of God. That was our description before God saved us. If you have not been born again, this is your description today.

2.  What Did God Do?

He Made Us Alive Together With Christ

Ephesians 2:4-5 says that when we were dead in our transgressions, God made us alive together with Christ. In other words, God brought about a spiritual resurrection in our souls. God sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts. Since the same Spirit is in Jesus, and in us, the resurrection life of Jesus Christ is now flowing into our souls. Whereas, we used to be spiritually dead, and cut off from God, now we have spiritual life. We have come alive to God. We enjoy a living relationship with our Creator.

There have been many times in the past when I’ve gone out to start my car, and when I turned the key all I heard was a click. Great! A dead battery. So, what do you do when you’ve got a dead battery? Well, what I did was get out my jumper cables, and call someone who has a car with a live battery in it. Folks, we were like that dead battery. There was nothing we could do to get ourselves to come alive to God. We were powerless. The risen Christ is like that live battery. If somehow we could be connected to Jesus, the power that is in Him, could flow into us, and we would come alive again. That’s exactly what happened. The Holy Spirit is like the jumper cables. The Holy Spirit is already connected to Jesus. God sends Him into our hearts to connect with us, and when He does, the battery of our soul comes alive!

Peter says in 1 Peter 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”  It is through the resurrection of Christ that we are enabled to receive His life through the Holy Spirit and are reborn!

He Saved Us

Notice verse 8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” There we find that great Bible word “saved”. It’s our own sin that brings God’s wrath upon us. However, God has done something to save or rescue us from His wrath. How does He do this? God opens our eyes to understand the Gospel. He shows us that Jesus Christ has already died in our place, taking God’s wrath upon Himself for the sins we have committed. Then God enables us to put our faith in Christ alone for our salvation. When we believe, we are totally forgiven of all sin, and made right with God. We are saved!

He Created Us In Christ Jesus

Notice Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.” If you are a Christian, it’s because God created you in Christ Jesus. It’s really not something that you did. It’s something that God did. God created a brand new person. 2 Cor. 5:17 says, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” If you have become a Christian, it is because God has created you into something brand new. He has give you a new nature, a new heart, and a new purpose in life.

Notice the word “workmanship.” This verse is really saying that every Christian is God’s work of art. We are His masterpieces. We may not look like much right now, but He’s not finished working on us yet. When He gets done with us, all creation will acknowledge that He is the Master Craftsmen, and all of His people are His masterpieces.

3.  What Are We Like Now?

We Have Saving Faith in Jesus Christ

Ephesians 1:19 says that the surpassing greatness of God’s power is toward those who believe. Ephesians 2:8 says “for by grace you have been saved through faith.” There came a time when we really began to believe in Christ from our hearts. The Bible speaks about living faith and dead faith. Many people believe in their heads, but it doesn’t affect their hearts or their lives. That is a dead faith. If you are a Christian, there came a time in your life, when your faith moved 18 inches down from your head to your heart, and it gripped you, and began to transform you. Unless this has happened, you can’t really call yourself a believer.

We Are No Longer Controlled by the World, the Devil or our Flesh

Notice a very important word that is repeated twice in Eph. 2:2-3. It’s the word “formerly.” Paul is emphasizing that we used to walk according to the world, the flesh, and the devil. That strongly implies that the people Paul was writing to no longer lived that way. That was what their old life was characterized by, but now they have been made alive together with Christ, saved, and created in  Christ Jesus.

Notice also the past tense throughout verses 1-3, “you were dead in trespasses and sins… in which you formerly walked… among them we too all formerly lived… and were by nature children of wrath.” In these verses Paul is describing our old life. However that life has past away when the Spirit came in and united us to Jesus Christ, bringing His resurrection life into our souls.

So, what does this mean? As Christians we are far from perfect, and we all have ongoing struggles with sin in our lives. However, the dominating power of sin has been broken in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin; rather we are slaves to God. God is in the process of making us more and more free from sin, and one day we will be completely free from all sin for all eternity! Rather than being controlled by the world, the flesh, and the devil, we find that we are being freed more and more from their grip on us. Praise God!

We Walk In Good Works

Notice Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Verse 9 tells us we are not saved by our good works, but verse 10 says we are saved for good works. In other words, your good works had nothing to do with your salvation, but now that you are saved, good works have everything to do with the way you live your Christian life. In Titus 2:14 we learn that Jesus Christ “gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.”

When God sends the Holy Spirit into our hearts, He gives us a desire to glorify God by doing good deeds. That’s why, when someone is saved, he wants to begin to tell others about what Christ has done for him. He begins to want to help others who are sick, or poor, or hurting. I trust that’s why some of you come out on Saturday mornings to pass out gifts to neighbors and to pray for their needs. I trust that’s why some of you come out on Saturday evenings to set up the church building for Sunday morning, or prepare the bulletin, or text each other with Scriptures, or bring food when someone is sick, or invite others over for dinner, or mentor a new believer or go out to the lightrail to share the gospel with others.

Life Application

So, what does all this have to do with you on this Easter morning in 2013? If you are not yet a real Christian, it means that this is what must take place in your heart and soul if you will ever be saved. Never rest content with a Christianity that comes short of what I have described to you today. What I have sought to do this morning is to simply give you the Biblical description of the Christian life. You may call yourself a Christian, but are you controlled by the world, the flesh, and the devil? You may say that you believe in Jesus Christ, but how much has your faith really affected your daily life? Friends, this is the kind of Christianity that you need. A superficial, nominal Christianity will not save you in the day of Judgment. You need a life-transforming encounter with the living God. You need the same power that raised Jesus from the dead to operate in your life through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Folks, you need life! And the only place to get life is from Jesus. 1 John 5:12 says, “He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.” Friends, you need Jesus. You need to meet Jesus. You need to come to Jesus. Only Jesus can give you life. Until you come to Jesus, you are a walking dead man. I plead with you to come to Jesus today. Surrender to the Risen King!

If you have never experienced the Christian life the way I have described it to you this morning, never rest until you have experienced it. Keep seeking God, calling on the name of the Lord to open your eyes, and change the affections of your heart, and make you alive together with Christ. And if this has recently become your experience, then please let us know, because you need to publicly identify with Jesus Christ through water baptism. May God minister to each one, wherever you are in your spiritual journey, and bring you into a vital living union with Jesus Christ!

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