Welcome to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We’re so glad you’ve tuned in today. At Connect with Skip, we’re passionate about helping you grow in your relationship with Jesus. That’s why we make solid verse by verse Bible teaching that’s both clear and practical, available to you and others. Every message you hear is designed to strengthen your faith and help you live out God’s truth wherever He’s placed you. And you can stay connected beyond the broadcast when you sign up for Pastor Skip’s free weekly devotional. You’ll receive biblical encouragement, exclusive content, and free resources to help you go deeper in God’s word. It’s all delivered straight to your inbox. Signing up is quick, easy, and completely free. And it’s a great way to stay rooted in truth every week. Sign up today at connectwithskip.com. That’s connectwithskip.com. Now, here’s today’s message from Pastor Skip Heitzig.
SPEAKER 02 :
Because of his great love with which he loved us, I just got to tell you, when I first went through this book and I kept reading how much God loves us and the incomprehensible love of God, as I mentioned in chapter 3, it was foreign to me. Because you see, though I grew up in a religious home, I was a pretty naughty kid, and Gino would be able to tell you, as I said, I wasn’t even sure that God liked me, let alone loved me. I just couldn’t get my head around the fact that God’s love was unconditional and based on his mercy and it was incomprehensible and always available. It just didn’t register. His great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. That’s regeneration. That’s the moment of salvation. By grace, you have been saved. Now here’s a question. When did God love you? Did God love you when you decided to come to church? Did God love you when you decided, okay, I’m going to straighten out my life? Did God love you when he saw that you started reading your Bible faithfully every day, or I’m going to go to church twice a week? No, God loved you, like Paul said in Romans, when we were still sinners. So his love doesn’t originate because of you, but in spite of you. It’s based on his nature, not your nature. That’s good news. This is all gospel stuff, man. This is just all the good stuff of the gospel. The everlasting love of God. By grace you have been saved, verse 6, and raised us up together and made us sit together. There he is, back in the heavenlies again, like chapter 1. Raised us up together and made us sit together. And again, the word places is not found in the original. It’s in the heavenlies, in Christ Jesus. He raised us up together, made us sit together in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus. that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Now let me unravel a couple of things in these two verses, verse 6 and 7. He raised us up together, made us sit in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. That’s a positional statement, not a literal statement. You’re not physically seated in heavenly places, because I’m seeing you right now, seated at 4001 Osuna Road, in an air-conditioned place. That’s where you’re seated. But positionally, you are seated with Christ. You know what I’m talking about. There’s an identification that happens when you give your life to Christ so that when Jesus died, you died. When he rose, you rose. When he ascended, you ascended. When he sits at the right hand of the Father in heavenly places, you sit at the right hand with the Father in heavenly places. You are there positionally. Now, you will be there eventually literally. Until then, you are there positionally. And Paul is so sure that you’re going to be there eventually, literally, that in verse 6 he writes about you being in heavenly places in the past tense. That’s how sure he is. He raised, past tense, us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Now look at verse 7. That in the ages to come… he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. What is true, verse 6, of you positionally will one day be true of you literally, verse 7, ages to come. He goes from a past positional experience to a future literal experience. He’s so sure that it’s going to happen that he writes about it in the past tense. but still points you forward. Because the Bible always does this. Always, no matter what you’re going through or have been through as a believer, the Bible always points you forward and tells you to watch and wait and eagerly anticipate the coming of the Lord. Titus chapter 2, looking for the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, the blessed hope, Jesus Christ. So, positional and one day eventual and literal. But I love this part in verse 7. In the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. What that means is, it’s going to take God all of eternity to demonstrate to you how much he loves you. Heaven is going to be the constant and ever-going and never-ending, unfolding revelation of how much God loves you. What a thought. What a thought. And here I was back whenever thinking God didn’t even like me, let alone love me. This is how much he loves me. He’s going to be proving and showing and revealing his love throughout eternity. that in the ages to come he might show or demonstrate or reveal the exceeding riches of his grace. Again, there it is, in Christ Jesus, a phrase that Paul uses 85 times. He wants you to know you’re in him, you’re positionally united with Christ. For by grace you have been saved through faith. Now we’re right at the very heart of the gospel. It’s by grace, G-R-A-C-E, unmerited favor, undeserved favor. Also an acronym, God’s riches at Christ’s expense. Grace. For by grace you are saved through faith. Your faith got you in touch. Your belief got you in touch with the grace of God. By grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. It’s the gift of God. not of works, lest anyone should boast. I can’t wait till I get to heaven. Because in heaven, there won’t be any bragging. Nobody will be on Instagram talking about who they were hobnobbing with today and look at me here. And it’s just going to be all glory to God. It’ll be a testimony today No bragging, no boasting. Let him that boasts or glory, the Bible says, let him glory in the Lord. Sometimes I hear testimonies, and as I listen to them, they sound more like bragamonies. Then testimonies. They kind of want you to know, and they kind of really like telling you how gnarly and bad and horrible they were. And they spend an inordinate amount of time building up their sin life, and then there’s like a P.S., oh yes, and then God saved me. The end. The testimony is what he has done since then. Yeah, we know you were a sinner. We get that. But how did he change you and what changes have happened since then? Not of works lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Now notice there’s two parts to all this. The first part is what God has done for you. The second part is what God wants to do through you. What God has done for you is he saved you. He was merciful to you. He snatched you out of darkness, brought you into light. That’s what he’s done for you. But then notice what he wants to do through you. You, it says in verse 10, are his workmanship. Some of you know already this Greek word is poiema. Workmanship, poiema. Poiema is the Greek word from which we get our word poem. We are God’s poem. Or let me retranslate it. We’re God’s work of art. We’re God’s masterpiece. Created, it says, in Christ Jesus for good works. God has a plan and a purpose for your life. He’s prepared in advance that ministry and is preparing you for that. So your whole life from before you were born, we were chosen in Christ Jesus from before the foundation of the world, right? Chapter 1, the first few verses. Not only that, but God has a plan that he has prepared you for. a plan of reaching his world, of expressing himself through you. An artist wants to express themselves through their work of art, always. You are God’s expression. And you are a unique expression of God that only you can perform and do. And I tell you what, the joy of life is to discover how God wants to express himself through your life. You’re a work of art. You go, I don’t feel like a work of art. I feel kind of like modern art. You know, you have to sort of interpret what it is. I don’t know what that is. It could be anything. It could be a cat. It could be a mountain. That’s what I feel like. Well, that’s only because you’re under construction. The artist is still applying the strokes. You’re in process. And so, yes, you’re a work of art, but also God may have a sign hung over your life under construction. And with all of us, that’s true, right? We’re under construction, but we’re still His work of art.
SPEAKER 01 :
This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. Your support helps reach people every day with biblical truth that speaks into real life, bringing clarity, purpose, and hope. And this month, we’d love to thank you with two resources designed to help you grow in your faith and understand God’s plan for your life and relationships. When you give today, you’ll receive the Expound Ephesians 9 CD series with digital download, along with Pastor Skip’s book, Beyond the Summer of Love. These resources will help you discover your identity in Christ and experience the lasting hope found in God’s design for life and relationships. Your gift helps extend the reach of Connect with Skip Heitzig, connecting more people to God’s Word. Request your resources when you give $50 or more at connectwithskip.com slash offer or by calling 800-922-1888. Now, here’s more from Pastor Skip.
SPEAKER 02 :
I love the story of Michelangelo when he was chiseling out of this big, white, amorphous piece of marble. He was chiseling something. It had no form yet. Somebody asked him, what are you making? And he said to them, I’m liberating an angel who’s trapped inside this stone. He could see what he wanted to make. He’s going to set that angel free by carving it out of that rock. What’s God making out of your life? He’s liberating an angel, a work of art, a And like Michelangelo, or maybe unlike Michelangelo, God never wastes a single stone. If he’s working on you now, it’s because he’s going to finish the work. He who has begun a good work in you, Paul said to the Philippians, he will carry it to completion until the day of Jesus Christ. When are you going to be finished? In the day of Jesus Christ. You’re not there yet. So that sign under construction, look at it, get used to it. He’s liberating an angel. We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, watch this, for good works. You’re not saved by good works, you’re saved for good works. You see the difference? You don’t do anything to earn it. Once you believe and are saved, then God enables you to do those things. Massive difference. Massive difference. You’re not saved by works. You’re saved for good works. He saved you from sin that he might save you for service. He’s prepared in advance for you to walk in. Discover what that is, and you’ll have joy. Verse 11. Therefore, remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by what is called circumcision, made… But now, in Christ Jesus, you who were once afar off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Paul’s audience says, were largely Gentiles in Ephesus. The library that you’re seeing, the Library of Celsus, very secular person in history. Ephesus was superstitious with the Temple of Diana, also very secular in learning. There were a few Jews that lived in the city. There was a small colony of Jews, but for the most part, they were Gentiles. Garden variety pagans, just Gentiles. If they wanted to know God before Christ came, a Gentile would need to go through Judaism, have to convert through Judaism, have to become a proselyte, which included circumcision and a few things like that, a few rituals. So he is painting a picture of the Ephesian audience that he is writing to. You were once Gentiles in the flesh. You were called uncircumcision by Jewish people. What is called circumcision made in the flesh by hands. So you know, I’ve told you before that a couple thousand years ago, the Jewish people looked down a lot on non-Jewish people. We speak of the scourge of anti-Semitism today, and it is a scourge, but 2,000 years ago, there was kind of a reverse of that. The Jews really discriminated against anybody who was not Jewish. They even had statements like, God created Gentiles to provide fuel for the fires of hell. So why are you here, Gentile? God made you so he could throw you into hell and make hell hotter. So they didn’t look favorably upon the Gentiles. So he’s painting a picture of who they were. And he says, you are on the outs with the Jewish people. The circumcision saw you as uncircumcised. He continues in verse 12. At that time, you were without Christ. You as Gentiles had no messianic hope whatsoever. At least the Jewish people with the Old Testament had a messianic hope. The Messiah was prophesied over and over again. They waited for the Deliverer to come, the ultimate Messiah who would show up to fulfill the law and the prophets. You had none of that. You had no messianic hope. You were without Christ, without Messiah. Being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel… So you didn’t share in the promises that God gave to the Jewish people. As a nation, they were given promise. And strangers from the covenants of promise, the Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic covenant of the law, the Davidic covenant, all the agreements that God made with humanity through the Old Testament, you didn’t have that. Having, look how dark, having no hope and without God. You know, we who love God and worship God and give praise to God, sometimes we forget the hopelessness people have who don’t know God. What made the difference in your life? God. But think of people who live their lives day in and day out, no hope. Messiah, no promises, no covenants, no hope, no God. Godless. But now. Verse 13 takes a turn of phrase, sort of like what we just read in verse 4. But God, now it’s but now. In Christ Jesus, you who were once far off, Gentiles were far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Historians tell us that 2,000 years ago there was a cloud, a gray, a dark cloud, I’ve read it, a dark cloud of hopelessness over the Gentile world. That the Greek and Roman mythologies of the gods and goddesses, the pantheon, the gods, the worship systems they had, left them wanting more, left them thirstier. People were skeptical over those old mythological tales. And they were primed and ready and ripe for something that provided hope because their religious system did not. And historians will often mention this cloud of hopelessness that hung around the world, these polytheistic belief systems that did people no good and people were sick and tired of it. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who are once afar off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Many rabbi, Jewish rabbi, was approached by a Gentile who said, I want to convert to Judaism. And there were a couple of different ways to do that. You could become a proselyte of the gate, or you could become a proselyte of righteousness. A proselyte of righteousness was complete conversion to Judaism. A proselyte of the gate was sort of like a half. So you didn’t get circumcised. You just had to go to the synagogue service, believe in a god, renounce the old gods. But if you want to become fully converted, you had to go through the rituals of Judaism. So if a Gentile approached a rabbi and said, I want to convert, the terminology is, we’re going to bring you near. You who are far off will now be brought near. We’re going to bring you near to our God through this system, through these rituals. So he’s using familiar language when he says, you who are once far off have been brought near, but not by converting to Judaism, but by the blood of Jesus Christ. For he himself is our peace. Before I get into that, let me just, I had a thought. The picture that Paul paints of the Ephesians, hopeless, without God, without a Messiah figure, without Christ, right? They had no messianic hope. When a person lives without any Messiah, without any hope, what do they do? Well, in our culture, they make a superhero. I wonder if, in part, some of the fascination and trend in Hollywood that is followed by so many in recreating the Marvel superheroes, be it Batman. I don’t even know if that’s Marvel. I’m sorry if I’m not specific. You comic fans will rebuke me afterwards. But all of the different messianic figures that we have, Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Spider-Man, Superwoman, whatever. All these figures are in part to fill the hole that people in our society feel. They are longing for a Messiah. And if they don’t have a Messiah, they’ll at least have popcorn and watch a movie for an hour and a half and vicariously enjoy a messianic experience. It’s a thought. I’m not getting down on it. If you are, you end up, man, Spider-Man is like my new best friend. So sorry if that’s the case. You need better friends, but… Now, verse 14, for he himself is our peace. And by the way, in Greek, it’s very emphatic. He alone, he emphatically, he himself is our peace, who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation. Both what? Both Jew and Gentile. Two people who are separated, he’s made them one. He’s made them one. Now this is something that Paul is going to call a mystery. It was kept secret in the Old Testament. It’s revealed in the New. How God wanted to abandon the separation, the titles, the identity of Jew and Gentile, and just make the church. So it’s not like, well, I’m a Jewish believer. Well, I’m a Gentile believer. I’m just a believer. Well, I’m a Hispanic Christian. I’m a black Christian. I’m a white Christian. No, you’re just a Christian. We’re brothers and sisters. And he has made those who were once far off brought near. Those who were separated now one. He has made both, Jew and Gentile, one.
SPEAKER 01 :
We’re so glad you joined us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before you go, here’s a reminder. When you give $50 or more this month, we’ll send you the Expound Ephesians series along with Pastor Skip’s book Beyond the Summer of Love as our thanks. These resources offer biblical insight and encouragement to help you grow in your faith and experience God’s design for your life and relationships. Your support helps keep this Bible teaching ministry on the air, connecting more people to God’s Word. Give today at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. See you next time. Make a connection at the foot of the crossing.
SPEAKER 03 :
Catch all burdens on His wood. Make a connection.
SPEAKER 01 :
Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God’s never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
