Ephesians 2:1-10
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11.4.2012_Discussion_Questions_I_Am_God_And_I_Approve_This_Message
(If you knew tomorrow was the last day of your life what would you do?)
- Do you ever feel afraid of death?
- Do your fears ever keep you from truly living?
Hebrews 2:15 says, “It’s through the fear of death that Satan holds us in lifelong bondage.” But what if we were already dead, and now we just need to be delivered from this body of death?
Ephesians 2:1-10 says,
And you WERE DEAD in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we WERE DEAD in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
It sounds like Paul is saying we were already dead. If this is true and you have already died and you just need to be “delivered from this body of death,” as Paul puts it in Romans 7, wouldn’t that change the way you see this “life” and wouldn’t that cripple the enemy’s ability to trap you in fear of death?
- How would you live your life differently if you had no fear of death?
Modern philosophers and scientists like Darwin, Jung, and Berger have tried to tell us what life is and as a result, modern man has come to believe that life is the result of violent competition: one organism protecting itself from the others and exalting itself over the others. —Peter Hiett
- Do you think that it’s possible that what the world calls “life” in reality only leads to death and what looks like sacrifice and death in this world might actually lead to life? Explain.
In John 12:46, Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat [a seed] falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
- Can you think of examples in nature of sacrifice and death that produces life?
- Can you think of examples where violent competition, protecting of oneself from others, and exalting of self over others produce life?
Jesus shows us an archetype that is different than one of modernists. It is an archetype in which Life itself doesn’t strive to be the greatest of all but rather is the servant of all. Life doesn’t strive to survive but gives Himself sacrificially.
- What might living our lives from a paradigm of sacrifice and service as opposed to competition & self-preservation look like:
In your daily activities?
In the way you live and the things you own?
In the relationships you have with each other?
In other areas? - Read Ephesians 2:8-10 How do we live as Christ lived?
*These questions were created by Kimberly Weynen, Peter Hiett’s assistant.