To my parents for their unyielding support and encouragement
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How is Biblical Community Different? 3. Grace in an unyielding world Eph 2:1-10
Bible College doesn’t teach you ...
... how to comfort parents who just lost their daughter in a car crash
As a young pastor in Tauranga I was completely out of my depth
Alana Tallon was a beautiful 19 year old with a whole life ahead of her
But the driver of her car had a history of dangerous driving
He decided to overtake on a blind corner
... and collided with an oncoming car
Each day we would go up to intensive care...
... where Alana was kept on life support
... and we’d write in a journal that we were going to hand to her when she woke up from her coma
And we prayed our hearts out for Alana for a whole month
But after a full month in intensive care,... they turned the machines off
And there was nothing
The word ‘unyielding’ would describe the pain...
... of her mum and dad and her two brothers
It was a cosmic injustice
But it can’t be changed
God didn’t answer the prayers the way we wanted
For the sake of her family...... and the many other families who similarly have lost loved ones before their time
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... can we hold on to Alana for a while, in our mind’s eye
Beautiful young 19 year old Alana
Her life cut tragically short
Today’s sermon title is: Grace in an unyielding world
It’s part of a series called How is Biblical Community Different?, based on the book of Ephesians
So far we’ve discovered that the church is called to be a special and different kind of community characterised by:
- Oneness
- Hope
... and as we’ll see a third quality is that it’s called to be a community of grace
What does that title mean to you?
I wonder when life has seemed unyielding to you?
And that word ‘Grace’ - what does it mean to you?
It’s a deceptive little word
Most people walk right past it, as if it’s innocuous, meaningless
It’s as if most people see that word in black and white, but just a few see it in vibrant colours
Or you could say, it’s like the word, ‘Grace’ goes around with a disguise on, so that only a few people really get what it means
One who did is author Phillip Yancey... who reckons it’s the best word in the English language
And another is CS Lewis who reckons if you’re ever asked if anything makes Christianity different to all the other world religions, you can sum it up in that one tiny word: ‘Grace’
With such a spectacular word...
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... in my sermon title, I feel a huge responsibility to bring grace alive today and paint it in the vibrant colours it deserves
And I’m convinced that to really understand grace, you’ve got to feel it
With those things in mind...... please turn with me to Ephesians ch 2 from verse 1
2 Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. 2 You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. 3 All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.
4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) 6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. 7 So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.
8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
As you may have noticed...... the word ‘grace’ appears three times in the passage
... as well as some unpacking of what it means:
- ‘a gift from God’ - v8
- something ‘you can’t take credit for’ - also v8
- ‘not a reward for good things we have done’ - v9
But to get the overall meaning of this passage...... it seemed worth making a diagram out of it
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Paul’s divides the whole human race into two categories
On one hand there’s the New Community - known as the Church
... and on the other hand there is ‘the rest of the world’
A simple two way division
Then he talks about influence
... so on one hand evil has influence over the rest of the world
... operating through the desires and inclinations of our sinful nature
Then on the other hand
... the New Community is under God’s influence
... and is characterised as a ‘Community of Grace’
And with that comes an astounding statement
We’ve had two metaphors for the church in Ephesians so far:
‘We are a family’
‘We are the body of Christ’
... and now, ‘We are God’s masterpiece’!!
Wow! While some people criticise the church, here it’s described as ‘God’s masterpiece’
Surely it’s totally unrealistic to call the church a ‘masterpiece’
Not at all - I’ll come back to that in a minute
The next difference is ...
The new community is alive to spiritual things
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... while the rest of the world are dead to them; or unaware of them
Then a really interesting one:
The Devil involves people in his work by operating through the desires and inclinations of their sinful nature (v2)
God also involves us in His work, in the New Community
- verse 10 speaks of the ‘good things he planned for us long ago’
As a community, we join in with what God is already doing
Because this rest of the world category...... live as if their Creator doesn’t even exist, and with disregard for what He values
... he has every right to be angry with them
verse 3 says: ‘By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger’
As one commentator writes...
... if God decided to destroy everyone on the right, he would be entirely justified
... but instead...
... because of His grace, he pulls people out of this undeserving category
... and brings them into the New Community
No one actually earns their way ...
... into the church
It’s almost as if God sneaks up to a prison and pulls people over the back fence
We all got here undeserving
And this is why the church can be called a masterpiece
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Because it’s entirely made by God
‘Look at the church’, says Paul... ‘God created this, out of that’
‘And the church is there through the centuries, as a testament of what God has done
... constantly pulling people over the back fence
That’s what the passage teaches And it’s appropriate to add today, that Baptism is saying: ‘I joined this side’
‘I’m one of the recipients of God’s grace’.
‘I’m another one of the people that God pulled over the back fence’
‘Now I get to be a part of this new community of grace’
So we’ve got a God here...... who goes around pulling people over the back fence
Doing acts of grace
And you see it not just in the salvation sense
Think of the woman caught in adultery In an act of grace she is forgiven and released from punishment - completely undeserved
Think of Paul - a killer of Christians - met and forgiven and redirected in a vision from Jesus - completely undeserved
Think of the criminal on the cross - a life of crime, yet suddenly forgiven and given entrance to paradise
In fact think of every healing and every page of the gospel
... what Jesus goes around doing ... is Acts of Grace
And here in today’s passage, verse 10...... it talks about us joining in the work God does
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Being Christlike by definition
... means doing acts of grace like he did
We come in to a new community that’s defined and marked out by grace
Grace has to become who we are and what we do, and how we relate to eachother
... otherwise we’re no different to the other circle
This is something churches have to intentionally work at
That’s all of us
The stark reality of it is portrayed in this quote by author Phillip Yancey:
‘I left the church for a time because I found so little grace in it. I later returned because I found grace nowhere else’
What do we really mean by doing acts of grace?
I’d love to have more time on this
But for now, look at this graphic
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But the best way to understand grace is to feel it
That happened to me the day I went to Alana Tallon’s funeral
How incredibly insensitive, it seemed, that the idiot driver of the car
... who had driven Alana to her death
... had the gall to show up at the funeral
I mean, here were people grieving over...
... a life cut short
... and not because of some natural disaster or accident beyond our control
... but because of the stupidity of this young guy already with convictions for dangerous driving
Who just loved to drive too fast, to show off
To cut blind corners
And his previous warnings ...
... obviously had done nothing to change him
And I honestly worried there’d be an outpouring of anger at the funeral
... as people started to talk
That’s the guy who did it, just over there... how insensitive
... someone’s got to deal with this and take him out
... people are hurting
And in the middle of this rife emotion...... that everyone there was feeling
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... Alana’s mother and father walked over to the idiot driver who’d cost them his daughter’s life
... and wrapped their arms around him
And they hugged and cried together, for a long time
In a scene that makes no sense to the world at all
A scene of grace
It’s the most powerful thing I’ve ever seen in a funeral It’s the kind of grace Jesus displayed multiple times in his ministry
It’s the kind of grace that was shown the day Linda was pulled over the back fence into the new community
... and it’s the kind of work that you and I - the church - are called to model
Can we do that? Can we make our church, not just a place of oneness and hope as per this series so far
... but a place where profound acts of grace are a habit, and a lifestyle