Ephesians: Becoming Who You Are | Part 2 | Becoming Alive | Jon Sprouse

Ephesians: Becoming Who You Are
October 23, 2022

Tony Merida, in his commentary on the book of Ephesians. recounts the story of eclectic English philosopher Jeremy Bentham, who lived from 1748-1832. Merida writes, “He was an interesting figure in more ways than one. In Bentham’s will he apparently left a fortune to a London hospital. But there was one condition: Bentham was to be present at every board meeting. Reportedly, for more than 100 years, the remains of Jeremy Bentham were wheeled into the boardroom every month and placed at the head of the table. His skeleton was dressed with seventeenth-century garb, along with a hat, which sat on his wax head. In the minutes of every board meeting, a line read, “Mr. Jeremy Bentham, present but not voting.” Of course, he never voted because he had been dead since 1832!”
 
I’m Chris Voigt, Lead Pastor at Dayspring Fellowship in Keizer, Oregon. We are in the second week of our new series Ephesians: Becoming Who You Are. This week, we’re unpacking the truth of what it means to be “alive in Christ.” Paul, writing to the Ephesians, says, “when we were spiritually dead, God made us alive with Christ.” To our human way of thinking, death follows life, not the other way around. But Paul wants us to see that from God’s perspective, we were “present but not voting,” physically alive, but spiritually dead, until God gave us new - everlasting - life in Jesus Christ.