LIFE LESSONS
PAUL – PART II
DR. JIM DIXON
EPHESIANS 2:1-10
JULY 17, 2005
Today the city of Damascus is the capital of the nation of Syria. The city of Jerusalem is the capital of the nation of Israel. In biblical times there was a road from Jerusalem to Damascus and it was called the Damascus Road. It was on that road that the Apostle Paul had his conversion experience, the most radical, the most amazing conversion experience in the history of the world. To understand Paul’s conversion, we need to understand who he was.
We saw two weeks ago that Paul was a Roman citizen. He was born in Tarsus in the Province of Cilicia in the region of Asia Minor. He was a Roman citizen by birth, the Bible tells us, and that means that his parents were also Roman citizens. We saw two weeks ago that in all likelihood, General Pompei or General Anthony, the generals who controlled Asia Minor in the 1st century BC. In all likelihood, one of them gave Roman citizenship to Paul’s family because these Roman generals had the power of the Imperium. They had the power to grant Roman citizenship.
We saw two weeks ago that in all likelihood, Paul’s family was granted Roman citizenship because they were part of the Skinopoioi. The Skinopoioi were people who took goat’s hair and they made it into a special fabric and cloth called cilicium. This cloth was used in the making of Roman tents and Roman sails. Of course, tents were important to the Roman Army and sails important to the Roman Fleet, the Roman Navy. Perhaps for this reason Paul’s family was granted Roman citizenship.
As a Roman citizen, Paul had the rights of the “Lex Valeria.” The Lex Valeria were the rights of a Roman citizen. The summation of those rights we saw in Acts 16, in Acts 22 and Acts 25. Paul appealed to the Lex Valeria. He claimed his Roman rights, his rights as a Roman citizen. He probably showed the “diptych” or the “diptych” which was a parchment that proved his citizenship. He probably said, “Civis Romanus sum,” “I am a Roman citizen.” He claimed his rights as a Roman citizen.
The name Paul comes from Paulos which was his cognomen. His additional name we do not know. We do not know his “nomen gentilicium.” We do not know his “praenomen,” his first name that was given to him. The “cognomen” is Paulos. If we knew those other names, we’d know more about Paul but we do know this. Paul was a Roman citizen and he had significance in the Roman world, but his greater significance was what he had in the Jewish world. Paul was great amongst the Jews. Paul was a Hebrew born to Hebrews. He was a Pharisee, a member of the Pharisees. He was a Pharisee born to Pharisees. At the proper age, his parents had sent him from Tarsus to Jerusalem that he might be educated at the feet of Gamaliel himself, the great head of the Hillel School, so Paul had special training. There are some who believe that Paul became a member of the Sanhedrin. We don’t know that for sure, but we do know that Paul had significant power in the Jewish world.
Paul loved the law. Paul loved his Jewish traditions but there was one thing Paul hated and that one thing was Christians. Paul hated Christianity. Paul hated the followers of Christ and he lived to bring them down. He lived to destroy them. Indeed, that was why he was on the Damascus Road that day. You see, Damascus was a free city. Many Christians had fled to Damascus. They had fled from Jerusalem and had made their journey to Damascus where they might be free to practice their faith and Paul went after them. With all of his Jewish and Roman authority, Paul went after them that he might bound them, that he might put them in chains, that he might bring them back to Jerusalem, that they might be tried and incarcerated, scourged and whipped and perhaps even executed. Paul didn’t care. He was proud to be Jewish and he hated Christians.
There on the Damascus Road an amazing thing happened. Paul met Jesus. Like a blinding light, the resurrected Christ appeared to Paul. Paul’s life would never be the same. It was transformed, a conversion so radical, almost incomprehensible. Paul was transformed and converted to faith in Jesus Christ. From his life this morning, we have two life lessons concerning salvation. The first life lesson is this. We are saved by grace, by grace alone. This is what Paul says in Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 8. By grace we have been saved. It was grace that Paul experienced on that Damascus Road, amazing grace, unbelievable grace.
I know many of you have traveled down to South America. Some of you have been to the region of Peru. Perhaps while you were down there you heard about an ancient people named the “Nazca” people. The Nazca people flourished for over a thousand years. From 500 BC to 600 AD, they flourished as a people. And yet, mysteriously, the Nazca people just disappeared. That’s what geologists tell us. That’s what archeologists tell us. That’s what historians tell us. They just disappeared.
Of course, you’ve heard of the famous “Nazca Lines.” You’ve probably seen pictures of them or you’ve read articles about them. These were lines called geoglyphs which the Nazca people created on the plains of Peru. Some of these lines are long, as long as twelve miles. Some of these lines actually form the image of animals that can only be seen high up into the air, high up into the sky. If you’re in an airplane, you can look down and see that these lines actually form the shape of animals. These mysterious lines created by the Nazca people were often debated. So-called experts wondered what were they? What did they represent? People had crazy ideas. Some people even suggested UFOs and extraterrestrial visitation but of course now scientists and historians understand these Nazca Lines, these geoglyphs were all about religion. Some of the lines, the ones that were just straight lines, they went straight to the Temple, the Nazca Temple. They were lines that led the way to the Temple. The images of animals were used in worship. They were images of their deities and they thought that the gods were looking down from the heavens above and would see images of themselves and be grateful to the Nazca people.
Historians tell us that around the year 350 AD there was a massive earthquake. It destroyed Nazca homes and many Nazca people died. In subsequent decades, great drought, many more died. Then historians tell us an amazing thing happened. The Nazca people began to torch their temples, those temples that were at the end of those lines, they torched. They turned their backs on their religion. They walked away from their religious faith because their religion wasn’t working, the gods were not protecting them and they actually torched their temples and walked away. Some historians believe that that’s why they disappeared. They lost their core. Perhaps they were assimilated by other peoples, but they torched the temples.
When you look back on the history of the world you can see many people groups and many individual people who have torched their temples. You can look back on history and you can see people who walked away from their religion. Some people turn away from their religion because they’re in pain. They’re suffering. They’ve had a time of trouble. Their religion just doesn’t seem to be working or their religion doesn’t give them a theological context to value or even endure the suffering that they’re experiencing. Some people torch their temples and walk away from their religion because in their education they learn things that just don’t fit, don’t line up with the tenants of their religion. Maybe they no longer believe that the religion squares with science and so they just walk away. Some people walk away from their religion because it’s just hard work.
Throughout history, theologians have observed countless people who have just walked away from their religion because it’s just too burdensome, too much work. So they become nominal in their religion, or they actually turn their back when they just can’t live up to the moral and ethical codes of their religion. They are so tired of trying to earn their salvation that they just walk away. Jesus said, “Come unto Me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” Jesus said, “Take My yoke upon you. Learn of Me. I am gentle and lowly of heart. You will find rest for your souls.” I tell you, what Jesus offers is unlike any other religions of the world. What Jesus offers is unique. In all this world, no one offers what Jesus offers. The truth is, all the religions of the world teach salvation by works. That’s what they all teach, salvation by works.
Some of you know something of Hinduism although none of us know everything about Hinduism because there are so many sects within Hinduism, so many branches, so many different theologies and different expressions. But generally speaking, within Hinduism there are seven heavens. Above the seven heavens, Moksha which is the equivalent of the Buddhist Nirvana, the goal of every Hindu, Moksha.
Of course, there are also some hells. In fact in many Hindu traditions, it is believed that there are 8,400,000 hells. Somehow it just doesn’t seem fair. Seven heavens, 8,400,000 hells. There’s a lot of suffering in those hells of Hinduism. In some of those hells, people are eaten alive by birds. Dad after day birds just devour their flesh, seemingly without end. In other Hindu hells, people are forced to eat feces and urine, excrement. Unimaginable, and yet in Hinduism no one is in hell indefinitely and no one is in heaven indefinitely because in Hinduism there are many gods and there are many lives and so people are reincarnated. So after you’ve been in heaven or hell for a time, you come back to earth and you live another life. If you’ve been to one of the Hindu heavens, then you come back to earth as a human being. If you’ve been in one of the Hindu hells, then the only human being you can come back as is an untouchable or a lower form of life.
It’s an endless process. Reincarnation after reincarnation after reincarnation after reincarnation with the ultimate hope of Moksha over a period of millennia and thousands and thousands of lives longing for Moksha. If you ever get there… If you ever get to heaven above the heavens, you will have gotten there the old fashioned way. You will have earned it because in Hinduism it’s really all about works. It’s all about karma. And Yama, The Lord of the Dead, sends you to heaven or hell based on your karma, based on your works. Until your karma improves, you’ll never attain to Moksha.
The truth is this is true of all religions. In all religions, it’s about works. It’s true of Islam. That’s what the Five Pillars are about. That’s what the Koran is about. That’s what the Hadith is about. That’s what Sharia law is about. It’s all about works. Even in Judaism, many of the Jewish people sought salvation by works and they viewed the Old Covenant in this way. “Walk in My statutes, keep My commandments and I will bless you.” So they sought to earn God’s blessing by works.
But Jesus is unique. His Gospel is desperately needed all over the world. Jesus offers salvation by grace. The Greek word is “charis.” It means, “unmerited favor.” It means, “a free gift.” Jesus offers salvation as a free gift even though we have not merited it. Grace. By grace you are saved through faith.
Of course, I think all of you can understand the concept of grace. Many times in perhaps small ways you have experienced grace. I remember on one occasion for me, an occasion I shared once before with some of you. It was about 30 and a half years ago… in fact, 32 years ago that Barb and I came here to Colorado. We came from Southern California. We came to live here and, of course Colorado is our home now. We’ve lived here for 32 years, but 30 and a half years ago when we’d been here for 1-1/2 years I was driving my car down in the region of the Cherry Creek Shopping Center. I was driving in my car down there and suddenly I saw blinking lights behind me, a cop pulling me over.
So the police officer came up to the car and he said, “Do you realize why I pulled you over?” I said, “No, sir. Did I run the stop sign back there?” He said, “No. You may have. I don’t know.” I’m from California and we had that thing called a “California stop” where you don’t quite stop at a stop sign. He said, “Actually I pulled you over because you were speeding and you were going about 15 miles an hour over the speed limit.” He said, “I’m really going to have to write you up. I’m going to have to give you a ticket.” He said, “Can I see your license?” I showed him my license and he said, “This is a California license. Do you live in California?” I said, “Not anymore. We’ve moved here to Colorado.” He said, “Well, how long have you lived here?” I said, “A year and a half.” He said, “You should have gotten your Colorado license a long time ago.” He said, “I’m sorry, but I’m also going to have to write you up for driving without a valid license.”
As he was filling out the ticket, he said, “What do you do?” I said, “I’m a Presbyterian minister.” At that time, I was ordained in the PCUSA and I worked at Faith Presbyterian Church in Aurora. I said, “I’m a Presbyterian minister and suddenly I just saw his hand stop. The pen just kind of froze in his hand and he looked up and a big smile came across his face. He said, “Look. If you’re a Presbyterian minister, you’ve got enough trouble.” He took the ticket and just tore it in two. That’s grace. That’s a free gift. It’s unmerited favor. It’s grace.
Here’s the Gospel. You come to Jesus Christ and all your tickets are ripped up. That’s the Gospel. You come to Jesus Christ and all your tickets are ripped up. All of them. All the tickets from your past. All the tickets in your future. They’re all ripped up. Grace, amazing grace, incomprehensible grace. Only Jesus can do that and He can do that because He paid for the tickets in substitutionary atonement. For this He was born that He might die in your place and in my place, that He might take upon Himself the sin of the world. He paid off all of our tickets and you can come to Him in faith because grace is appropriated through faith. So you come to Him in faith and that means you put your trust in Him.
That also means, because of the meaning of the Greek word for faith, the word “pisteuo,” that you make a commitment to Him, a consecration of your life to Him. The moment you do that, you enter His grace and all of your tickets are ripped up. The moment you come to Christ and you receive Him as your Savior and your Lord, you hear Him say, “Follow Me,” and you’ll say, “Yes, Lord.” The moment you make that decision to follow Him, you enter into the world of His grace. By grace we’re saved through faith. So this is the first life lesson from Paul. Jesus offers salvation by grace and only Jesus Christ.
There’s a second life lesson from Paul and that is this. We’re saved by grace, but we’re saved for works. Our salvation has a purpose. We’re saved by grace, but we’re saved for works. I know all of you have heard of Karl Marx. When I was growing up, there were more people who watched Groucho Marx than read Karl Marx but Karl Marx is kind of popular, particularly in sociology and political science classes today and also economic classes. Karl Marx was the founder of Democratic Socialism and so-called Revolutionary Communism. In 1848 Karl Marx, along with Fredrick Engels, wrote “The Communist Manifesto.” He became famous. In 1867 he wrote “Das Kapital.” It made him more famous.
Karl Marx was a brilliant man, educated at the University of Bonn, educated also at the University of Berlin. He was brilliant. Of course, he was an atheist. He did not believe in the existence of God. He viewed religion as the opiate of the masses and Karl Marx viewed the most powerful force in world history as economics and economic struggles between the classes. The strange thing about Karl Marx though is that he was reared in the Jewish faith. Born in Prussia, he was reared in Judaism and his family was devout so they went to the synagogue every Sabbath and they honored all the Jewish feasts and festivals from Hanukkah to Passover. They were devout, or at least seemingly.
One day Karl Marx’s family moved to another town far away. In that town there were very few Jews. In fact most of the people in that town were Lutherans. They were Protestants and they were Lutherans. Karl Marx remembered that day that he was at home and they were waiting for his dad to come home for dinner. His dad came home and sat down at the dinner table and made an announcement. He said, “From this day forth, we’re Lutherans.” Karl Marx and the rest of his family said, “What do you mean? We’re Jewish! We can’t be Lutherans!” His dad said, “We’re Lutherans because in this town all the successful people are Lutherans and if I want to be successful in my practice of law, if I want to be a successful attorney, we’re going to have to be Lutherans. From this day forth, we’re Lutherans!”
Is it any wonder that Karl Marx grew up to be an atheist? Is it any wonder that he grew up to call religion the opiate of the masses? Is it any wonder that he grew up to view economic and economic forces as the most powerful forces in the world? No wonder at all. But I tell you this, Karl Marx never saw genuine faith. He never saw a sincere faith. He never experienced it and never saw it.
The Apostle Paul writes to Timothy and Paul reminds Timothy of the genuine faith, the sincere faith that was in his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice, genuine faith, sincere faith. The word sincere comes from the Latin “sincerus” which means, literally “without wax.” Of course, in the ancient world when a statue or a vase was broken, they would fill in the cracks or put it back together and fill it in with wax. Sincerus meant, “without wax.” Of course, we live in a world where a lot of people contain a lot of wax. A lot of people have kind of broken faith and they’ve got a lot of wax in their faith. Paul reminded Timothy that his mother and his grandmother had had a genuine faith, a sincere faith, a faith without wax. What was a faith like that for Paul? How did Paul view a genuine faith? For Paul what was a sincere faith?
There is no doubt that for Paul a sincere faith was a faith that produced works. There isn’t any doubt about that. It was a faith that overflowed in good works. Of course, that’s why Paul wrote Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 10. Everybody quotes Ephesians, chapter 2, verses 8 and 9, “For by grace you are saved through faith. It is not your own doing. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Everybody quotes that but then comes the next verse, Ephesians 2:10. “We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared before him that we should walk in them.” So we’re saved by grace but we’re saved FOR works. You are His workmanship. The Greek word there is transliterated into English in the form of the word “poem.” It’s a Greek word that literally means, “poem.” “You are His poem.” Do you realize what God wants to do with you? He wants to make you into a beautiful poem. He wants to script your life. He wants to write a beautiful poem out of your days.
So Paul says, “We are His poem, we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, “ergois agathois.” Ergois comes from “ergas” which means, “work.” Agathois comes from agathos and it means “good” but it’s a special kind of good. There’s also the Greek word “kalos” which means, “good” but kalos refers to good that is intrinsically good but agathos refers to good that is beneficial and perfects. So what Paul is saying is that if you’ve become a Christian by faith, you’ve entered into His grace. You’re going to begin to be beneficial in your affects. That’s what Paul is saying. Thereby you will be a beautiful masterpiece, a poem. You’ll be beneficial in your affects.
Some of the work of Christ in us is internal. It has to do with sanctification, transformation into righteousness. Some of the works of Christ in us is external. It has to do with teaching us to love and teaching us compassion. Of course, some of it has to do with service of the Church and the Kingdom of Christ. These are all the works of genuine faith, sincere faith, you understand.
I know you’ve all heard the story of the Good Samaritan. It’s been told many times, I think. Sometimes it’s misunderstood. Of course, Jesus told the story in one of His parables found in Luke, chapter 10. A lot of people think the Good Samaritan is all about racism and of course it is about racism because the Samaritans were viewed by the Jews as half-breeds and the Jews called them dogs. Jesus makes the hero of the story a Samaritan. Jesus hates racism in any of its forms but the story of the Good Samaritan is really about love and compassion and what compassion means and what love means. Of course, in the context as you look in Luke, chapter 10, you see that it has to do with the first and second table of Judaism. The first table is the Shammah, Deuteronomy 6, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind.” The second table is Leviticus 19:18, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” In the context of what it means to love your neighbor, Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan.
Of course, you know the story. You know that there was this wounded man on the side of the Jericho Road and you know that a priest and a Levite just walked right on by. And why? Why did the priest and Levite just walk on by? Jesus doesn’t tell us. Of course, there has been a lot of speculation but maybe, just maybe, they were simply too lazy to stop. Maybe they were just too lazy. Maybe they were too lazy to love, too lazy to show compassion. We live in a world like that. Some of us are too lazy to grow. We’re too lazy to even experience sanctification. We’re too lazy to serve the church of Jesus Christ. Too lazy to serve the Kingdom of Heaven. Too lazy to reach out to somebody who is hurting. Just too lazy. But we’re not saved by works but we’re saved for works. Paul gives us this life lesson.
Is your faith genuine? Is your faith sincere? Have you really entered the world of His grace and are you allowing that grace to transform you?
We’re beginning a series in the fall called “Forty Days of Purpose.” We’re excited about it. It’s going to begin on 9/11 of this year, September 11, 2005. That Sunday morning this year we begin “Forty Days of Purpose.” Paul is telling us we’re saved for a purpose and it has eternal significance. We’re saved for a purpose. We’re going to spend 40 days on a journey together, on a pilgrimage together, understanding God’s purpose for our lives, why He invited us into the world of His grace and what is His purpose for us.
We’re going to take a look at that for 40 days. During that 40 days we’re going to have book groups and we need book group leaders. In fact if you look in your bulletin for today, it needs to be bound it’s so thick but, if you look on page 11 you’ll see that whole page has to do with the Forty Days of Purpose that’s forthcoming as we look at the Purpose Driven Life. You see that we want to have a thousand people host book groups. We want to invite you to host a book group, a group of 9 to 11 people who would meet in your home and you would show them hospitality once a week for 6 weeks. It’s a 6-week commitment. All you need is a house and a DVD player. You don’t even have to know how to teach. We’ll train you but it’s not going to be a hard thing but it’s a very important thing. It’s kind of the beginning first step in launching this Forty Days of Purpose. It’s for us to find a thousand book group leaders. We want 500 at a minimum but we’d really like to have a thousand.
We have a tent outside which is our Forty Days of Purpose Tent. You probably saw that. You can go in there after the service and fill out this form at the bottom if you’re interested in being a host for a book group. We need you. We need you. Let your faith have a purpose.
During these 6 weeks we’re going to be, just for a temporary period of time, not meeting in our small groups. Just for that 6-week period, we’re not going to meet in our small groups so small group leaders can become book group leaders. We want to encourage our small group leaders to become book group leaders. Even if you teach Sunday School or you mentor in the inner city or you work in the parking lot, you can still be a book group leader because we need a thousand of them for 6 weeks, once a week. I know our time is up. I just want to encourage you to prayerfully consider this.
So we have these life lessons from Paul and they’re pretty important. They’re more important than anything because they concern salvation. We are saved by grace. Only Jesus offers grace. We are saved by grace through faith, and we’re saved for good works. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.