The Walking Dead, Part 1, Eph, 2:1-3 & Col, 1:21
Colossians 1:21; Ephesians 2:1-3 · Vern Peterman · Jun 6, 2004
Ephesians & Colossians, No. 22
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826238107687

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We are going to work our way this morning into Ephesians chapter 1. This is the first three verses. We're also going to include with that Colossians 1.21.

Now, it may seem a little strange to you when I tell you this, but I have been anticipating for years teaching these verses. Can you imagine that? For years I've been thinking, man, I just can't wait to teach these verses. And so for that reason, we're going to take two weeks to cover this set of verses here in front of us. Now, there's some reasons why these verses are particularly valuable, and we'll like to cover at least what the reasons are. We won't be addressing all those reasons here this morning. But first of them is just to recognize this.

An unbeliever is not going to see why they have a need for Jesus Christ until they come to a place of recognizing where they are. Do you see that? Does it make sense? An unbeliever needs to know where they stand without the Lord in order to see their need for the Lord.

And these verses make that clear. They need to recognize that they're spiritually dead, where they stand now, And they're not going to get there through all the different things that the world offers, including the world's brands of spirituality. Nothing that this world offers is going to make up for that.

Secondly, and the reason I'm sure that Paul is writing particularly to these Ephesian saints, is so that they recognize and appreciate what a marvelous and miraculous thing the Lord has done to bring believers from the place that they were to the place that they are and to the place that they will be eternally. And we get a sense of what a wonderful thing, a phenomenal thing the Lord has accomplished by looking at these verses. And I'm sure that's why Paul brings the point home here. The next thing is we get a spiritual introduction, a scriptural introduction to what the word dead means when we see it in the New Testament letters.

It is an important distinction. Secondly, we get this terminal trio, the world, the flesh, and the devil. We get some very good insights into how this terminal trio operates. It is amazing the way he paints it. In few words, very efficient in the words, he paints a picture of this terminal trio, the world, the flesh, and the devil, that is very realistic. And actually, I would say stark. It is amazing. He just tells it like it is. And we'll take a look at that particular aspect of things next week, okay?

Now, there's something else that's interesting, too, in that these verses correct a problem that had begun to get itself in place among the Jews of the time. And of course, those Jews who had become believers needed to have this understanding corrected.

And it's a problem that we have now, and that is to give too much credit to angels and demons. We have in Christendom now a segment who wants to give too much credit to Satan, too much credit to the demons for doing things. People who want to go on, you know, binding Satan and hunting down Satan and mapping demons and all sorts of things because they give too much credit. This passage here makes note of Satan, makes note of Satan's hierarchy, but does not give undue credit, does not give out-of-balance credit to Satan and his realm.

Now, we're calling this the Walking Dead Part 1, as we introduce this here. Alright, here's the way it goes. We get into this passage here and we've got Ephesians 2, 1-3, and I've included alongside that Colossians 1.21. Why? What Paul did here, as we've noted long ago, that Ephesians and Colossians have a lot of things in common. As a matter of fact, we'll see more of those this morning.

But the truth is that what Paul did is he gave us detail in Ephesians 2, 1-3 that he summarizes briefly in only the first half or the first part of Colossians 1.21. Nonetheless, they are harmonic truths. They are truths that work together, and so we'll want to include those as well. The portions in black are what we'll be looking at this morning, in great part, and the portions in blue are the part that we'll look at next week, because it'll look more at the world, the flesh, and the devil, and what aspects those have in common.

Okay. We want to ask some questions, the who, how, why, what, and when kind of questions, okay? The when question we want to ask that comes out of these verses, and it comes out pretty strongly there in the New American Standard, comes out formerly. You'll have other translations that put it a little differently. Nonetheless, you get this idea very clearly. This formerly was your condition is what Paul describes. There is a consistency, as we'll see, in the Greek texts and the way he writes and uses this word. And so we need to ask, have you been formerly introduced? That is, have you been introduced to this word formerly?

Let's take a look at it. Formerly, it was in the King James here, times past or time past, is from this Greek word pate. And pate is the word that Paul uses here in Ephesians 2 and 3. He's going to use it again in 2.11.13 and then in 5.8. So the idea of what was former is a significant thing. It shows up, as you notice, a couple of times in Colossians as well. We're looking at one of those this morning.

Now, you need to know that this pate has nothing to do with this liver pasty stuff that they put on things. It's not that kind of pate, this is formerly. So, the thing to fix in our minds is that he uses this word here, in the Greek it's pate, is he uses it here, and you'll find it in some other New Testament letters, it refers to the time before the believer came to Christ, came to faith in Christ.

That's the way the word is used. It's used fairly consistently that way in Ephesians and Colossians, and you'll see it in other letters as well. Now, just so we get the time frame, Formerly, it's one condition, but now is the distinction that he makes. And so, Ephesians 2, 1 through 3, that's the formerly. That's the prior condition he's describing. And then he says, but now.

This is Ephesians 2, 4 through 10. So, formerly, prior to coming to saving faith in Christ, you were this way. This was your position. Now that you're a believer, this is your position. He's making that time distinction. And that time distinction is for each one at that point of belief. If you've not crossed that path of putting your faith in Christ, the formerly does not apply.

We'll see that in a minute. We want to ask the next question, who? First of all, we need to make real clear who has nothing to do with this guy. Not talking about that guy. What we're talking about is, as we look through these verses, one of the things we notice, he keeps pointing out some who's here. And the who's we want to look at here are, he says, and you were dead, okay?

And you formerly walked according to the course of this world. And then he says, among them, we too all, okay? So he includes you, he includes we. And then he says at the end of verse three, even as the rest. So he says, you who are believers were formerly this way, and you, And he talks about that, and then he says, and we too all were formerly, before we were believers, in this position. And then he says, even as the rest, the rest, those who are still in that position, as unbelievers.

He spells out the same thing there in Colossians 1.21, although you were formerly alienated, he speaks still of you, you speaking to those who are in Colossae who are now believers, their prior condition was as described here. So this who is saying you, it's saying we, you and we formerly, prior to that place of belief in Christ, and then make sure nobody feels left out.

I don't want anybody to feel left out here. He says all the rest, but those who remain unsaved to this point, they're not formerly in this position, they are there. That's the rest, all the rest. Now, what you see is nobody's left out of this. You're either saved or you're not saved. That's your category. You're either formerly in this condition or you're there now. So he spells it all out. Everybody on planet Earth gets included in this. It's important to recognize that it's only those who are believers who can say this was formerly your condition. If you're an unbeliever here this morning, this still is true of you, right?

He is spelling out in kind of scattered terms by including everybody, either formerly or now, these truths, the one that we see summarized in Romans 3.23, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And one of the things that's important to see is that this all have sinned issue is pervasive.

And the things that people think will solve the problem is something they very clearly need to understand will not. Going to church, just coming in here, will not fix the problem. The analogy we like to use here is just in the same way walking into your garage won't turn you into a car, walking into this room won't turn you into a believer. Now, giving money to the church won't fix it either.

That's one of the reasons we make it real hard to give money around here, if you've found that out. We don't want people to get any false ideas and they drop some money in the slot that that buys them a piece of heaven. This isn't a down payment on heavenly real estate.

Being baptized is not a quick fix and taking the Lord's Table or Eucharist or Communion or Mass or whatever you want to call it over time is not a slow fix. Neither one is going to fix it. Not quick, not slow. Baptism and the Lord's Table are symbols of what has taken place, it's demonstrating the reality, it is not accomplishing something spiritually, other than demonstration and declaration and remembrance.

Now, feeling bad about your sins or yourself won't solve it. Feeling bad about yourself isn't going to solve anything. We've had all kinds of people with their problems solved, right? But that won't fix it. Feeling really, really bad about your sins won't fix it. Ever hear blues songs? You know, the whole song is just, everything is, I feel really bad, and it doesn't, still doesn't fix anything. Okay? You may even like it, but it doesn't fix anything. Okay. Neither will feeling good about yourself. Okay? The whole self-esteem movement, you know.

What's interesting is that, Nancy and I used to live across the field from a, well, as a matter of fact, Carson City has got about five prisons, and we could look out our master bedroom over to see one of the state prisons. We'd go over and visit some of the guys over there from time to time, and what we found is a good many of them feel real good about themselves, but it doesn't do much good for them. But feeling good about yourself won't solve this problem that all have sinned. Being good or sincere won't fix the problem.

Some folks have the idea that you know, if I'm better than average, that God grades on the curve, and somehow that'll be a fix. Work out the statistics here. I remember at the college that Nancy and I went to, there was a journalist there who took a survey around the college and found out that 80% of the people thought they were better than average. Figure that one out. Okay.

Believing there is a God won't fix it either. Okay? James writes that the demons believe there's a God, right? Is that going to make the demon saved? No. Believing there is a God won't fix it. You see, all these different things that people tend to think is going to fix it, none of those are going to fix it. We've got this problem, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

And that's where we need to come up with an analogy to make the point abundantly clear. Yes, you probably recognize this little picture. Those are lifeboats and that's the Titanic. If you were on the Titanic, The answer then was you had better get in a lifeboat.

It doesn't matter how good the buffet is. It doesn't matter how nice the orchestra is playing or how much you're enjoying the dance that the orchestra is accompanying. It doesn't matter how good the sleep is. When that thing's doing this, you better get in a lifeboat.

Period. Spiritually speaking, the Bible says that we're all on the Titanic and that the belief in Jesus Christ is the only lifeboat, okay? See the picture? There's only one way. And what he's spelling out is the spiritual equivalent of the Titanic, okay? You may be delighted with a buffet, you may be very happy with your sleeping arrangements, but you better learn soon that that lifeboat is the only way you're going to get out of this thing.

Okay, now we ask the question of who, and it goes on with the sons of disobedience. Some translations will have children of disobedience there, but one of the things to look at is that this son of is a Jewish expression, and it doesn't just mean I've got a father and here's a son.

It was an expression that was intended to communicate that you had an intimate connection with, a relationship with, and you had the character of. That was the Jewish expression. So the sons of disobedience meant that you had an intimate connection with disobedience and it was your very character. You see that? It's an expression that is not simply talking about just the genealogical connection alone, but it's saying there's an intimate connection there with disobedience and it is your nature. says, you, he was writing to the Ephesians, had a nature that was disobedient. You had an intimate connection with disobedience. Your genealogical relationship connected you in those two ways.

See that? Now, that character is fundamental to all of Adam's descendants. They are disobedient not because they went, oops, they're disobedient by nature. They are sons of disobedience, okay? and that's not what this is talking about, okay? These kids are really ticked, but that's not the point that he's making, okay?

Now, let's look at this. This is a picture of a child. This is a picture of a child. This is a picture of a child. This is a picture of a child. This is a picture of a child. This is a picture of a child. This is a picture of a child. This is a picture of a child.

You know, I'd be ticked if I had a bowl of spaghetti on my head, too. Anyway, all right, children of wrath, using another genealogical term here, he's saying those who have this genealogical connection to Adam are subject to God's wrath. As a matter of fact, it's so abundantly clear, what we find out is Ephesians 5, 6 and Colossians 3, 6 both make connection of those two terms. If you are a son of disobedience, you're also subject to God's wrath, period. Those are connected up directly, no question about it. So he just follows through. It's also one of the things we find in common between Ephesians and Colossians. Lo and behold, he makes that connection in those two books and no other. Alright, so the question I want to look at is, who is included in this mess? He says, and you, and we two all, and the rest. The whole shoot and match, the whole kit and caboodle.

There's only one way that human beings can be made formerly dead. You see what he's pointing out there? He's speaking to these believers in Ephesus and in Colossae because they are formerly dead. He says, you were formerly this way. That formerly dead only comes one way. There's only one way and the Philippian jailer laid it before Paul and Silas He's sitting there with a sword, you know, right in front of him and saying, okay, how can I be saved? You guys, you better come up with something good or this is over.

Okay? And so, Paul's not going to come up with, hey, just wait until I write this twelve chapter book or something, or give him this long explanation. He comes down to the bottom line answer, he says, believe in the Lord Jesus and you'll be saved. Okay? Gives him the bottom line answer.

Paul's going to spell us out the same truth in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for by grace have you been saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. All the things we said not before, it's not coming into the church building, it's not putting things into the offering box, it's not being good, feeling bad, any of those things, none of that's going to do it. Now we've got to ask what, the what question. And you were what?

You were formerly dead. He just comes right to the bottom line. Now a lot of the English translations, starting from Tyndale and continuing into the American Standard Version, have he made alive or he hath quickened. The truth is that the Greek doesn't directly have that in the first verse. It is true, and it comes up in the fifth verse, but it's been brought forward. The Greek doesn't directly have you he made alive or he hath quickened, as true as it might be.

What it does describe here is it comes right out of the chute and it says you are dead. The first position of the unbeliever is that they are spiritually dead. But centuries of error have been perpetuated because people wrongly understood what it means to be spiritually dead. People have misunderstood because what have they thought? People have thought, well, spiritually dead means to be terminated, annihilated, okay, and ceased. Laid out on the slab, cold dead. That's been the description. That's not the biblical description. Let's take a look at what the Bible describes. Being dead means separation.

In Ephesians 1.12, you were at that time separate from Christ, being aliens without God in the world.

Ephesians 4.18, excluded from the life of God.

In Colossians 1.21, you were formerly alienated.

In Ephesians 2.12, being aliens, and 4.8, excluded. and in Colossians 121, alienated, those are all the same word.

The word separate in Ephesians 2.12 is chorus, that's separate from or apart from, and then apolotriao is the one that is used, here again we find a pattern, it's used in Ephesians and Colossians and no other book. So these two books again show themselves as being parallel. But the bottom line you get from all these things is the unbelievers are spiritually dead that is characterized by being separated from the life of God, being alienated from God. They are apart from Him.

The death of separation is also taught in a number of scriptures in the New Testament. Let's go through some of them here. Romans 6, 1-11 says you are dead to sin, alive to Christ. Notice that the death is not a description of having termination, annihilation, and cessation, but it is a death of separation, dead in relationship to, alive to. Spiritually dead is a relationship statement, not a statement of whether you've been annihilated or terminated, or spiritually out on a slab cold. We look again, here's Romans 7, 1-6, it says the same message.

Died to the law, joined to Christ. Here is a died unto, Okay? And alive to or joined to Christ. 2 Corinthians 5, 14 and 15, dead to ourselves, alive to Christ. You see that? Each case where it comes up, it's a statement of relationship, not a statement of termination and cessation. Galatians 2, 19-20, it's almost like almost every book. You sit there and it clocks its way through it. Here is the truth. Galatians 2, 19-20, you died to the law, alive to God. Dead to ourselves, alive to Christ. It's a statement of relationship.

Colossians 2.20, died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world. Died to. Colossians 3, 5 and 20, dead to sin, died with Christ to the world. It's a death of relationship.

1 Peter 2.24 follows it up. He says, and he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

Here's 1 Peter 3.18, he follows on the next chapter, he says, For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that he might bring us to God. Well, if he has to bring us to God, what was our condition before?

Separated from. And notice, he died once for all, that's that word hapax, it means once done, perpetually valid. He did it, folks, and we said it's finished? It's finished. He meant it. But what did that do? We died unto, completely in relationship to sin, the world, the law. We died in relationship to those things. We are alive to God. Here's a timeline just to make it clear. We brought this up probably a month and a half ago with Galatians, but we'll go through it here as well.

The unbeliever is characterized by the sin nature, the flesh, is entirely enslaved. to that flesh, he is separated from Christ. Notice the distance there. Separated from Christ. Now, once having placed faith in Christ, the sin nature is crucified, and notice what happens. He is no longer separated from Christ, he is separated from the sin nature, the flesh. When the old man was crucified, I died, I'm including Vern in this, I died to the flesh, the law, and the world. Died unto.

Did the law end? No, it's still around. Did the flesh end? It's still around, folks, I need to tell you. And did the world end? Oh, by no means. So these truths come out here. It's not a cessation, it's not a termination, it's not an annihilation, it's a separation. Key, very important point. The believer is then indwelt by the resurrected Christ. Why? There's no longer separation there. Now, he uses a word, and we might just kind of go past it and just say, you know, no big deal. But it was a very special word.

He says, according to the course of this world. Let's look at this. We've got this guy walking again here. Paul uses this word, walked, and he uses it to describe those who were dead. Hey, wait a minute, the dead are walking. How about that? This word, walk, it's interesting, turns out it was rarely used in Greek culture. In all the evidences we have, very few times over centuries, was it used, and certainly they walked on two legs, that's not what I'm talking about, but I'm talking metaphorically in the sense of ordering one's life according to some principle. That was unusual, but it was used in the Jewish culture. So, one of the things we see is that the Old Testament uses walk metaphorically, that is, you order your life, your lifestyle, Very commonly, and we see several passages here in Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, it is a long-standing use of the word walk among the Jews.

Exodus 16.4 is an example here. It says, he talks to them about giving them manna and the rules about how they use it so that I may test them whether or not they will walk in my instruction. Will they in their daily lives order their lives according to what I've laid out.

So here's the use of the word walk there. Paul is going to continue to use this word walk metaphorically. And it's interesting, it's not used that way in the Gospels, but Paul certainly grabs onto it. We're seeing it here for the first time. You notice he's going to use it several more times in the book of Ephesians. Ah, lo and behold, look, also in Colossians. Several more times we're going to see it used metaphorically. The Greek word is peripateo. It has nothing to do with patios. Peripateo means to walk about. As you walk about is the word that he has there. Notice something.

Both believers and unbelievers are said to walk. Believers walk, and he'll talk about that more, and unbelievers walk too. Wait a minute, I thought there was supposed to be a difference between believers and unbelievers. There is. Let's take a look here. The difference is in the source of the spiritual walk. Ah, that's what he's identifying. You see, in this passage, what is the source of the walk of the unbeliever? And he lays that out. You've got the world, the flesh, and the devil. He walks according to the flesh, but in the context of the devil and the world. For the unbeliever, there is one source, the flesh. The unbeliever cannot walk except according to the flesh. There's no exception made for that here in scripture. Okay?

Ephesians 2.3, among them we all too formerly lived.

Now he introduces another word here. That's interesting. He used the word walk which kind of addressed the Jewish folks. the folks who had a Jewish background, and there was a significant minority of Jews in both Ephesus and Colossae. Now he uses a word that's more Greek, and this word here, anastrepho. It is almost the same as the idea of walk, but there is a difference.

Anastrepho is personal interaction. Anastrepho is the way I live, but according to personal interaction, my interaction with other people, is according to this way, whereas peripateo is my personal action even if walking is a group. See the difference? So walking, that he refers to here, is how I live personally. Anastrepo is our interactions, the character of those interactions.

So he uses both of those, and he includes terms that both the Jews would understand as well as the Greeks. What are we walking in? Now he gives some detail there. In your trespasses and sins and in the lusts of our flesh. That's what he spells out. So that answers the where. The where is about that, not about where my hair is.

Now, the unbeliever walks in trespasses and sins, in the lusts of the flesh. So the unbeliever is walking, isn't he? The unbeliever is walking. The believer walks in Christ. So both the believer and the unbeliever walk, the difference is in where they're walking in, okay? What are they walking in? And so that's where he spells it out here. So we've got to ask this important question, though. What are trespasses and sins? You know, a lot of folks ask that question, and it's a good thing they do. Let's do that too. Now, trespasses, you've seen those no trespassing signs around, right? Is that what he's talking about? Well, you might say, boy, I never passed one of those no trespassing signs. That can't possibly be what he's talking about.

Well, you may be right. Let's take a look at it. Or how about sins? That's like stealing stuff from the store, right? Is that what he's talking about? Let's take a closer look. Here are some key words that jump out at us here. Paraptoma is trespasses. It means to alongside fall. It is like falling alongside a path. Then we have the use of this word peraptima. We've in fact seen it in Ephesians 1-7. We're going to see it again in Ephesians 2-5. Paul characterizes this as falling alongside the path.

That's this word. Now the next word comes up. Sins is hamartia, missing the mark. Missing the mark. What's interesting too, in the Greek he writes with plurals and definite articles. THE trespasses, THE sins. Specific. Specific and plural. Now, so is this what he means? The trespassing sign and the kids stealing stuff from the store? Well, maybe not. So let's ask, what are trespasses and sins? Let's get down to the bottom line. What is that really?

It looks like this. Trespasses are a falling off of the path designated by God. It doesn't mean just crossing a line where there's a sign there that says, this is forbidden. But it's by nature and actions, off the course, consistent with God's character. Now, you see that picture there? You see the picture? Look at this thing. Here's this definite falling off. In fact, let me make the picture bigger. See that?

This is not a path you want to get off to the side of. You don't just say, hey, let's pull off to the side of the path and rest. You're going to have a long wait until you get to rest. The way this is shown is on purpose, and that is you get off the path and the consequences are serious. It's not just a minor problem, is it? That's what it's talking about. Trespasses are not just a, hey, I think I'll pull off and rest a second. Trespasses are a, I'm off the path and that path has serious consequences.

It is way out of whack with God's character. See the difference? This isn't just crossing a line where there's a sign there in red and white threatening me. It is completely out of the nature of God and out of what God has laid out as characteristic of His nature.

How about sins? Let's look at the second part of that. Sins are missing the mark as if they had a target. In those days they would have like javelin contests and you would have to shoot towards a target and if you miss the target they would say that's a hamartia. If you made multiple misses, that's the plural.

Now, sins in this case are mortally serious, that is, they're not just minor infractions, they're mortally serious spiritual and moral failure. Failure to be and live consistent with the righteous, holy, and glorious character of God Himself. Remember how Paul characterizes it in Romans? all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The standard is God's character, not other people, and that is key. Our tendency as human beings is to say, I'm not as bad as that guy, but that's not the standards. That's not the standard. We missed the point.

Let me give you an example here. See this? This is a well-organized array of apples. I mean, it looks kind of odd. Those didn't fall from the tree that way. Have you noticed there are nice lines and nice angles and everything? I mean, you can see the order in it real easily. But what else do you notice?

It's a bunch of rotten apples there, right? You can take a bunch of rotten apples and you can put them in a nice array You can even pick some up and try to polish them. It doesn't matter how neatly you arrange them or how well you think you've got them polished, they're rotten. And as time goes on, you know what? It's only going to become more apparent that they're rotten.

That's the character that Paul's describing. He says, you can give an order to it, you can polish it up any way you want, you can put it in any fancy array, the bottom line, These apples are rotten. That's the description that Paul's giving to these people in a spiritual sense.

He says, we had all sorts of things. We walked. We had things that were ordered. As a matter of fact, we looked alive. But the bottom line is, we were rotten. Every last one. There was no way to just touch it up a little bit, reorganize it, or polish it up and improve it. As we look this next week, we'll look more at the terminal trio, the world, the flesh, and the devil, and see more of how that terminal trio fits together and what Paul describes.

He provides some very succinct and efficient descriptions, but valuable insights that we'll want to take a look at. This morning, we're going to be looking forward to the Lord's Table here shortly. And one of the things that we can do as we look at this passage is to reflect upon What an amazing and marvelous contrast between where we were and who the Lord has made us now. Who we were in our trespasses and sins and in the lusts of the flesh and who we are in Christ. What a marvelous thing He's accomplished. What a huge contrast. Though we were indeed those sons of disobedience, in Him we are sons of righteousness.

We can also marvel how the Lord would love us so much Even though we were off the path, and that off the path was a serious problem, and off the mark, we really missed it, that He would make us eternally His own, that is a wonderful and marvelous thing. this morning take the time to share in that remembrance together. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your marvelous word that shows us in such great contrast who we were, what stance we had, how hopeless and oppressed we were, how we were totally and absolutely obedient to that sinful nature. And yet, Lord, you, when we were so hopeless and oppressed, You indeed loved us and took measures to not only save us from that, but to bless us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. What a wonderful thing. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.