image of God – Tawa Baptist

August 5, 2019August 5, 2019 Tawa Baptist

Mirrors & Reflections

Scriptures: Genesis 1:26-27; John 1:14-18; John 15:8 & 2 Corinthians 4:6-15

Title: Mirrors and reflections

Key Idea: Our mission is to glorify God and be a blessing to His world

Later this morning, during the AGM, we plan to quiz you on the content of the Annual Report – I’ve got a warm-up question for you now

What did I see as I walked the streets of Tawa early in June this year?
[Wait] That’s right. A kowhai tree

Kowhai 1

And what was significant about this tree?

It was in full flower at the beginning winter; 3 months earlier than usual

The tree, which was on Lincoln Ave, was full of Tui (I counted at least seven) all feeding off the nectar of the flowers

I stood and watched the Tui in the kowhai tree for nearly 10 minutes
It was a beautiful sight, a glorious sight, and I found myself quietly praising God under my breath
The kowhai tree was a blessing to the Tui and a blessing to me

This morning, because it’s AGM Sunday, we are taking a break from our sermon series in Ephesians to focus on our church’s mission

For many years now we have expressed the church’s mission with the words:

To glorify God and be a blessing to His world

I don’t talk about this very much and probably should put it before you more often than I have – but there it is

To glorify God, means to show others what God is like

To reflect His good character

To praise His name and give God the credit or the honour

To be a blessing, means to communicate through word and deed something of God’s love and truth and presence to others

To do something that enhances someone’s else’s well-being

‘Glorifying God’ and ‘being a blessing’ are two sides of the same coin

When we glorify God by showing others God’s grace and truth, His justice and mercy, the world is blessed

This statement also reminds us that our mission is to God’s world

The church does not exist only for itself
We are here both for those within the church and those outside of it
So it’s not all about us
Our purpose, our ‘why’, our reason for being is God and the world

Some of you may be wondering, where did this mission statement come from?

Well, it comes from the Bible and from Christian tradition
The shorter Westminster catechism sounds similar a note where it says: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”
The people who penned that were drawing from the meta narrative (the big story) of the Bible when they wrote

Right throughout the Bible we read about God’s glory and the role of God’s people in mediating His blessing

Ask for a volunteer

All you need to do is stand at the front here with your back to the audience. You don’t need to say anything and you can’t turn around

Position myself with a mirror facing the volunteer so the congregation can see the face of the volunteer reflected in the mirror.

Put up your hand if you can see [volunteer’s] face reflected in the mirror

What if I do this with the mirror – can you see now?
Try the mirror in a variety of positions and get the congregation’s feedback
What if the mirror was all dirty? You wouldn’t be able to see as clearly

Okay, thanks, you can sit down now

At the beginning of the Bible, in Genesis chapter 1, we read…

Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness… So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them.

Our purpose as human beings is to glorify God

To glorify God means to show others what God is like
God created us to be like mirrors – to reflect His image to all of creation,
Sort of like the mirror reflected [volunteer’s] image so you could see her face
In practical terms this means that God wants us to shows others what His kindness and love and forgiveness and truth and care is like

Unfortunately, the mirror of our lives gets a bit dirty sometimes or it’s pointing in the wrong direction so we don’t reflect God’s image very well

When that happens we need to clean the mirror and reposition it

There are many stories in the Bible of how God has elected certain people to glorify Himself and be a blessing to His world

For example, the Lord said to Abraham, “…all peoples on earth will be blessed through you,”
God’s plan was for Abraham’s descendants, the nation of Israel, to show the other nations of the world what God is like and, in so doing, enhance their well-being
God gave Israel His law (the 10 commandments and so forth) to reveal His goodness and justice
Sometimes Israel managed to glorify God and be a blessing, and other times they failed miserably
Eventually, when the time was right, God sent His Son, Jesus, to show us how it is done. From the gospel of John chapter 1 we read about Jesus…

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth… From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

In other words, Jesus glorifies God

Jesus shows us, better than anyone or anything else, what God is like
Jesus fulfils the purpose of humanity in being the perfect image of God
And therefore we need to look to Jesus to see what God is like and to see how to be human

As well as a mission statement our church also has a vision statement

A vision is a picture of what we are aiming for
If our mission statement is about purpose, then our vision statement is about hope
Why are we here? To glorify God and be a blessing to His world
What does that look like? It looks like Jesus; or as we phrase it, Christ in community.
We don’t have time this morning to explore what we mean by Christ in community, suffice to say that Jesus shows us how to glorify God and be a blessing to the world

Now it is important to understand that there is nothing we can do to add to God’s glory – His glory is perfect or complete already

God doesn’t need us to fill up the tank of His ego

Or to make Him look good – he already looks good

We can’t improve on His perfection

We are the mirror – the mirror doesn’t add anything to the image, it simply reflects what is already there

So when we talk about glorifying God we really mean reflecting or revealing the goodness of God that has always been there since before creation

In the same vein of thought, there is nothing we can do to create or manufacture blessing

In blessing others, we are simply passing on the blessings we ourselves have received from God – we are paying it forward

Lift up a plate covered with a tea-towel

I have here a plate with a number of items on it
You can’t see what is on this plate because it is covered with a tea towel
Would anyone like to guess what is on this plate? [Wait]
Okay, they were interesting guesses.
Let’s see what actually is on the plate [remove the tea towel]
It’s a fruit platter: we’ve got an apple, a banana, a mandarin, a lemon and a kiwifruit

Glorifying God is like removing the tea towel to reveal what God is like underneath; removing the tea towel doesn’t add anything to the plate it just shows people what’s there

God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and quick to forgive and a whole lot of other really wholesome things besides

Now, imagine you’ve never tasted any of these kinds of fruit before

I could try to explain to you what the fruit tastes like, by saying its yummy, or its sweet or its juicy, but you wouldn’t really understand, not until you tasted the fruit for yourself
People taste what God is like when they experience Jesus through us
Our lives are like the plate that holds or displays the fruit of God’s goodness

In John 15, Jesus says to his disciples…

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit…

Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing…

My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

The kind of fruit I believe Jesus had in mind here includes things like: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control

When people see and taste that kind of fruit in our lives they are blessed and God is glorified; much like the Tui feeding off the nectar of the kowhai tree

When we are able to tell others about the good things God has done in our lives, naturally and without embarrassment, we glorify God

There is so much hope and meaning in the Christian faith; when we are able to find wise and creative ways to communicate that hope and meaning, we glorify God
When we have the humility to admit we were wrong and the courage to put things right, we glorify God
When we have the grace to forgive those who have hurt us, we glorify God
When we have the faithfulness to keep our commitments, even though it is not convenient to us, we glorify God
When we have the patience to handle someone else’s anger with gentleness, we glorify God
When we have the faith to be generous and not worry too much about tomorrow, we glorify God
To be able to bear this sort of fruit we need to stay close to Jesus

One of the things you may notice about our mission is that it’s quite broad and inclusive – a lot of different things could fit under the framework of glorifying God and being a blessing. That’s intentional.

The glory of God is broad and the richness of His blessing is wide
God is glorified in many different ways

A child glorifies God by their innocence, their uncomplicated trust, their delight and their wonder

Young people bless us with their energy, their fresh ideas and their belief that, together, we can make a positive difference in this world
Those of us in mid-life tend to bless others by providing support and scaffolding for young and old alike
And those who are older glorify God by keeping the faith – they bless us with the wisdom and perspective that comes with experience
Older people often don’t realise how valuable their presence, their prayers, their support and their encouragement are to the rest of us

I’m speaking in generalisations of course and don’t mean to draw too sharp a distinction between the generations

Older people can still glorify God through their delight and wonder
And those in mid-life can still bring fresh ideas
Just as our young people can bless us with their service
The point is, everyone has a something to offer – God is able to use us all to glorify Himself and be a blessing to His world

Sometimes we may think we that we can only glorify God and be a blessing from a position of strength, but this is not true

- God often uses our weakness and suffering to glorify Himself

As we heard Jesus say in John 15, God prunes every branch that bears fruit to make it bear more fruit…

Pruning hurts – it is not usually pleasant
Suffering and glory go hand in hand

In John 11, Mary and Martha sent a message to Jesus to say that their brother Lazarus was ill, and Jesus responded by saying…

‘This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory’

- By the time Jesus arrived in the town of Bethany, Lazarus had been dead four days, and the sisters were in pain, grieving
- Nevertheless, Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone’
- When Martha protested that there would be a stench Jesus said to her,

‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God’

So they took the stone away and Jesus called Lazarus back from the dead

The miracle Jesus performed in raising Lazarus was a sign pointing to Jesus’ own glorification – his death and resurrection

It seems in this life we can’t glorify God without suffering

In 2^nd Corinthians chapter 4 Paul connects our weakness & troubles with God’s glory, when he writes…

For God…made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

In other words, Jesus shows us what God is like and God helps us to understand this in our inner being. Paul continues…

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

‘Jars of clay’ is a reference to our earthly bodies
A jar of clay is something humble and fragile; as opposed to a gold cup
God is glorified, His power it seen more clearly, in our weakness

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

Which is another way of saying, Jesus is glorified through our suffering and troubles

…we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

In other words, Jesus is our vision (our hope)
Jesus’ experience provides the picture or the pattern for us to follow
And the pattern is suffering, death and then resurrection to eternal life

Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

The glory of God is a weighty thing, a meaningful thing, an enduring thing, a thing of substance
When we share in the sufferings of Christ, God shares His glory with us
Suffering in this life is the price we pay for glory, but really it’s a small price to pay in the light of eternity

I know that many of you face difficulties and challenges – perhaps with your health or with your family or in some other way

You may not always feel like you are glorifying God or being a blessing but it does not depend on you – not entirely
It is something God does when we remain in Christ
God is the great artist painting a masterpiece with our lives – he uses all the colours of our character and circumstances to display His glory
One of the joys of heaven will be seeing what God has done with our lives to reveal Himself and to bless others

There is a lot more we could say about all of this but that’s enough for now.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon?

Why do you think this stood out to you?

2. What does it mean to glorify God?

3. What does it mean to be a blessing to God’s world?

4. How do we know what God is like?

5. In John 15 Jesus talks about himself as the vine and us as the branches. He then says God is glorified by the fruit we bear and by us becoming his disciples.

What is the fruit Jesus is talking about? (Give practical examples)
Abiding in Christ is the key to being fruitful. How do we abide in Christ?

6. Can you think of someone who glorifies God through their weakness or suffering?

7. What is your purpose (mission) in life?

How does this fit with God’s purpose/mission?

June 12, 2019June 12, 2019 Tawa Baptist

Once were Zombies

Scripture: Ephesians 2:1-10

Title: Once were Zombies

Structure:

Introduction
Once were Zombies
God’s salvation

o God’s salvation changes our relationship with Him

o God’s salvation changes our spiritual environment

o God’s salvation changes our condition

Conclusion – God’s character

Introduction:

On the wall here we have a list of movie titles

– 28 Days Later

– Black Sheep

– World War Z

– I am Legend

– Pathogen (and)

– Warm Bodies

– Can anyone tell me what these movies share in common?

That’s right – they all have Zombies in them

– A Zombie is a fictional creature – they don’t exist except in the movies

– Zombies used to be human but have lost their humanity (usually through a virus) and essentially become the walking dead

The script for most Zombie films that I’ve seen (and to be fair I haven’t seen that many) usually involves a remnant of people who are struggling to survive the Zombie apocalypse

– And survival normally involves lots of guns and shooting – with the human survivors destroying the Zombies to save themselves

But the better Zombie films usually try to create some redemption and hope by having the hero and heroine find a cure to reverse the Zombie virus or at least give people immunity from it

This morning we continue our series in Ephesians by focusing on chapter 2, verses 1-10

– In this section Paul talks about God’s salvation of us

– Paul contrasts the way the Ephesians believers used to be, before God acted to save them, with the way they are now

– Before believing in Christ’s death & resurrection we were essentially like Zombies – the walking dead

– But with Christ we are raised to new life and our humanity is restored

– From Ephesians 2, verse 1, we read…

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to walk 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 flesh and following the desires of body and mind. 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 is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this Scripture for us

This reading is essentially about God’s salvation of us

Once were Zombies:

Paul begins by describing our situation before God saved us – we were once Zombies – the walking dead

– In verse 1 Paul says we were dead in our transgressions and sins

– We tend to think of death in physical terms – when someone’s heart stops beating and their brain function ceases

– But that’s not what Paul means here by death

– Often when the Bible talks about death it refers to spiritual death

– If eternal life is union with God, or intimacy with God, then death is separation, or alienation, from God

– Someone might still be breathing and walking around, (even able to run marathons) apparently going about their life like normal, but if they are estranged from God then they are dead, spiritually speaking

We see this in Genesis – God told Adam & Eve they would die if they disobeyed Him by eating the forbidden fruit

– Then, after they ate the fruit, God sent them away from the Garden of Eden and they lost their close connection with the Lord

– Adam & Eve didn’t die physically for a long time – but they lost the intimacy they previously had with God

– Sin was the virus that entered the human race and made us Zombies so that we lost an important part of our humanity, our connection with God

– That’s not to say we have completely lost our humanity but we have missed the mark God intended for us – we have gone astray

The word ‘sin’ actually means to miss the mark and the word ‘transgression’ means to cross a boundary that shouldn’t be crossed, to leave the path and lose our way

One of the things about Zombies is that they don’t know they are Zombies

– Their self-awareness isn’t working all that well – they are obtuse

– Zombies are driven by an insatiable desire which they can’t control

– Zombies are consumers in the extreme, following their own cravings without regard for anyone else. We live in a consumerist society.

In vs. 2 Paul continues to describe the situation we were in before God saved us

– We followed the ways of this world

– We followed the ways of the ruler of the air (i.e. Satan)

– And, in verse 3, we followed the desires of our mind and body

– The old fashioned expression for that unholy trinity is ‘the world, the flesh and the devil’

– Like Bob Dylan said, ‘You gotta serve somebody’

– If we don’t follow God (if we don’t serve Him) then we will end up serving something far less – the world, the flesh and the devil

– And when that happens we essentially become slaves to evil

In verse 3 Paul continues his summary of our situation before God saved us by saying, ‘Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.’

– ‘Like the rest’ says we are not better than anyone else, the ground at the foot of the cross is level, we all have the same zombie pedigree

– ‘By nature’ describes what we become when left to our own devices

– ‘By nature’ stands in contrast to ‘by grace’ which we’ll come to shortly

To be an ‘object of wrath’ means to be destined for the garbage heap or headed for destruction

– If I make a mistake on a piece of paper I might screw it up and throw it in the bin – the paper is an object of wrath

– Or if my car keeps breaking down and costs too much to keep on the road then I might sell it to the wreckers – the car becomes an object of wrath

– I’m not necessarily angry with the paper or the car, it’s just that they are headed for destruction

Now the word ‘wrath’, in the English language at least, has associations with powerful and destructive anger

– Wrath makes us think of someone flying off the handle or losing their rag, going into a rage

– We need to distinguish human wrath from God’s wrath

– Although Paul doesn’t attach God’s name to the wrath in this context, God’s wrath seems to be implied – certainly Paul isn’t shy about talking of God’s wrath in other letters he wrote

– It is important to understand that God’s wrath is not an arbitrary reaction, nor an impersonal process, like human wrath can be

– God doesn’t fly off the handle in a rage or lose his rag

– John Stott describes God’s wrath as his ‘constant hostility to evil, his settled refusal to compromise with it and his resolve to condemn it’

– The idea of God’s wrath shouldn’t scare us – it should comfort us

– God’s wrath is an appropriate and measured response to injustice

– God’s wrath means that God won’t abide evil, at least not forever

– God’s wrath means evil will ultimately be destroyed but first God wants to redeem his good, albeit damaged and fallen, creation

In a nutshell then, we were once like zombies – dead in our sins, slaves to the world, the devil and the desires of our own mind & body and, because of our union with evil, we were objects of wrath on a path to destruction

Now, as someone who didn’t grow up in a Christian household, and who still feels an affinity with non-Christians, I’m a bit uncomfortable with the strength of Paul’s language in these verses

– To say your non-Christian friends and family are akin to zombies is kind of offensive – it makes me cringe

– And although Paul doesn’t exactly use the word ‘zombie’, that’s pretty much what he is describing when he talks about the walking dead

Three things I would like to say in Paul’s defence…

– Firstly, Paul himself is very quick to point out that Christian believers are in no position to look down on unbelievers

– In no way can we claim to be superior or ‘holier than thou’ because we have all been like zombies at some point in our life, to some degree

– What’s more Paul emphasises the fact we are saved by God’s grace, not by any virtue or merit on our part – therefore we cannot boast

– We may be luckier than some but we’re not better

– The second thing is that Paul, more than most, had a genuine desire to see people of all creeds and races come to faith in Christ

– Paul suffered greatly so that zombies like me could become human again

– And the third thing to say in Paul’s defence is that his language is accurate – Paul doesn’t mean to be offensive – he’s simply being honest

– To really appreciate what God has done to save us, in Christ, we must first realise how bad the problem was

– Sin created a zombie apocalypse and God provided the remedy in Christ

God’s salvation:

Okay, so we were once zombies, before God saved us

– What then does it mean to be saved by God?

– Well, it means a number of things – God’s salvation is not one dimensional, there are many facets to God’s salvation

– Three dimensions in particular to be aware of from today’s reading…

o Salvation brings about a change in our relationship with God

o A change in our spiritual environment

o And a change in our condition

– First let’s consider salvation as a change in our relationship with God

God’s salvation changes our relationship with God:

In verses 4 & 5 we read that God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions

– Remember to be dead, in a spiritual sense, means to be separated from God – therefore to be made alive means to have our union with God restored

– Eternal life isn’t just about living forever – eternal life describes a certain quality of relationship with God

One of the things about zombies is they don’t talk – they don’t have any means of communication and so they aren’t capable of real intimacy

Intimacy is about being close with someone – it’s about sharing yourself with them and letting them share themselves with you

– Intimacy requires us to trust the other person – to lower our defences and make ourselves vulnerable

– It also requires honesty and a deep respect for the other person who is putting their trust in us

– With intimacy we let the other person in and a common understanding forms, an understanding too deep to express with words

– Intimacy is the antidote to loneliness and alienation

– One of the biggest diseases (killers) in our society today is loneliness and the feeling of alienation that comes with it

Now the important thing to note here is that we are made alive with Christ

– When God raised Christ from the dead all those who believe in Christ were raised from spiritual death too

– So it’s through Christ and His Spirit that God restores the communication and intimacy with us

Imagine you’ve been walking around, lost in the desert for days – your water bottle has run out and you’re extremely dehydrated

– As a consequence you are having hallucinations and seeing mirages

– You’re just not sure what is real anymore

– Eventually you fall down, unable to go any further, and as you lie on the ground panting for breathe, a man rides up to you on a camel

– He gets off his animal, bends down and offers you a drink

– At this point you have a choice – you can either trust that he is real and not another hallucination, accept his kindness, drink the water and live

– Or you can refuse to believe he is real, not trust his water and die

– We are raised with Christ – we are saved by believing that Jesus’ resurrection is real and accepting his Spirit for our parched soul

– You see, the real thirst of our soul is to be close to God – to share in His life, to drink His Spirit

God’s salvation changes our spiritual environment:

Another dimension to God’s salvation is that it changes our spiritual environment. In verse 6 of Ephesians 2 we read…

– And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus…

Last week we celebrated Jesus’ Ascension. Forty days after his death & resurrection Jesus ascended to the heavenly realms

– The ‘heavenly realms’ refer to the spiritual realm – which we can’t see or hear or measure but which is still very real

– Paul is saying that what is true for Christ is true also for those who believe in Christ

– Just as Christ ascended, so too we who are in Christ have ascended to another spiritual realm

– Physically we are still here on earth, but spiritually we have changed sphere’s or environments

For those who watch the Netflix show, ‘Stranger Things’, it’s like we used to live in the ‘upside down’ (spiritually speaking) but God saved us by transferring us to the world above

Or if Charles Dickens is more your thing, it’s like we used to live in a slum with a gang of pick pockets who answered to a criminal called Fagin but now we have been delivered to a better, healthier environment – one in which we are not forced to steal to survive

Or if fiction is not your thing, then it’s like we used to live in a refugee camp but now we have been granted citizenship to live in a land which is free of poverty and injustice

Or it’s like we were soldiers, fighting in a war overseas we wanted nothing to do with, but now we have been released from our tour of duty and are free to return home to live in peace

Or it’s like we were born in prison, where might is right and it is survival of the fittest, but now we have been released into a society where weakness is met with compassion and the measure of success is how well we treat the least

As I said a couple of weeks’ ago – Christian conversion is ‘in Christ’

– When we become a Christian we are entering a new spiritual realm

– We leave the realm of Satan and enter the realm of Christ – and Jesus is a far kinder and more just ruler than the devil

In Paul’s mind salvation means a restored relationship with God and entry into a new spiritual environment, one in which we can thrive

– God’s salvation also changes our condition, our self

God’s salvation changes our condition:

If we were once zombies then God’s salvation is the process of restoring our humanity to its fullness

– God originally made us in His image and he declared us to be ‘very good’

– We became infected by sin and the image of God was damaged – we lost something of our humanity and became like the walking dead

– God’s salvation includes re-creating us in His image

In verse 10 Paul writes…

– For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Again we note that the environment in which God creates us is ‘in Christ’

– Just as God creates a baby inside a woman’s womb, so too we are created inside Christ

And our creation is meaningful (not accidental) – we are created for a purpose

– Previously we walked in sin, but now we are to walk in good works

– To walk in ‘good works’ means we live our life in a way that points to God and reflects His image

– Paul is quite clear (in verse 9 and other places) that ‘good works’ are not the means of our salvation but rather the outcome

– Twice in our reading today Paul says we are ‘saved by grace’

– In other words God’s salvation is a gift – we don’t do anything to earn it

– God’s grace is the root of our salvation, good works are the fruit

Conclusion:

So God’s salvation changes our relationship with him, it changes our spiritual environment and it changes our condition

We may well ask, why did God save us? After all, as zombies, we had nothing to offer – we were not at all attractive and we were powerless to save ourselves

– God saved us because that’s who he is – saving us was simply Him being true to His character – to not save us would be a denial of Himself

Verses 4-10 of Ephesians 2 are peppered with words which describe God’s character and motivation

– Verse 4 tells us, God made us alive with Christ because of his great love for us, and because, He is rich in mercy

– Verse 7 tells us, God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms…to show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

– And verse 10, For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus…

– God is a craftsman, an artist, who enjoys making things

– So God saves us because He is loving, merciful, gracious, kind & creative

As creatures made in God’s image – we are to emulate God’s character

– Like God, our good work (the way we live our lives) is to be loving, merciful, gracious, kind and creative.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

1.) What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon?

– Why do you think this stood out to you?

2.) Do you have a favourite Zombie movie? What is it and why do you like it?

3.) What was our situation / condition before God saved us?

– What does Paul mean by death in Ephesians 2:1?

4.) What is God’s wrath?

– Why is God’s wrath a comfort to us?

5.) What does it mean to be ‘made alive with Christ’?

6.) What does it mean to be ‘raised with Christ and seated with him in the heavenly realms’?

7.) What does it mean that we are ‘God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works’?

8.) Take some time this week to reflect on the words Paul uses to describe God’s character

– How might we emulate God’s character in our daily lives?