Ephesians 2: You Are the Masterpiece God Restores

Introduction

This Sunday, Kerith Community Church in Bracknell celebrates twenty years of partnership with Christians Against Poverty (CAP), a Christian charity that helps people in serious debt find a way out, working alongside local churches. For the occasion, the church welcomes Stewart, CAP's chief executive, who is visiting Kerith for the first time.

Balloons have been hung in the hall: there are 309 of them. "Each one represents a household you have transformed as a church," he explains. He immediately adds: "We are not here to celebrate CAP. We are here to celebrate God's love pouring out through the Church and into the community."

His message comes down to one image. When the CAP team walks into a home, it does not see only problems or a broken life. It sees "a masterpiece covered in ashes, waiting to be restored." This view comes from Scripture: from Ephesians 2, Genesis 3 and 2 Corinthians 5.

Message Outline

1. Twenty Years of Quiet Faithfulness

Before the message, Simon, Kerith's senior pastor, tells how the partnership began. About 25 years ago, the debts of the people who came asking for help rose from a few hundred pounds to tens of thousands. The church could no longer simply help with budgeting.
Ben Davis, then senior pastor, came out of his office one day with a small leaflet from Bradford about a charity called Christians Against Poverty. Six people drove over to meet its founder, John Kirkby, and came back determined: "We don't know what this is going to look like, but we're going for it."
The first couple they helped lived in fear: when someone rang the doorbell, the parents got down on their knees, with their son beside them, to hide behind the sofa. The adviser came to collect all the paperwork and, they say, "there was hope." They came out of debt and found faith.
Stewart reminds us that God's love moves at a different pace from everything else: "It's like the Grand Canyon, formed by the slow passing of water over the landscape, over years and years."
He adds a rule he applies to every ministry: "If you're doing something on your own in the church, you're probably doing it wrong." The work has always been that of a team, advisers and volunteers.
This service also transforms those who give it. A woman CAP recently recruited as an administrator explained her motivation in one sentence: "You helped my mum." You never know which seeds you are sowing.

2. Faithful with Little, Entrusted with More

For Stewart, God speaks to the church the words of the parable of the talents: "Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord" (Matthew 25:21).
He draws attention to the middle sentence: "Everybody forgets that one." Having been faithful with little means you will be entrusted with much, because the ministry continues and expands, and the needs grow.

3. A Masterpiece Under the Ashes

On 15 April 2019, a fire ravaged Notre-Dame de Paris. Eight hundred years of history and craftsmanship were blackened, the timber beams destroyed, and a cloud of toxic lead covered everything. "Honestly, the restoration looked hopeless."
Originally from Coventry, whose cathedral was bombed during the war, Stewart points out that a new cathedral was built right next to it: a symbol of hope, but not a restoration.
Notre-Dame, by contrast, was restored. It took about two thousand craftspeople and several years of work. Not everything was replaced: the ashes were swept away, and underneath was the masterpiece.
This image takes him to Ephesians 2:8-10: it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. It is not a reward for the good you have done, so that no one can boast.
He reads the next verse in an English translation that says: "We are God's masterpiece." Another version speaks of God's "workmanship," which makes him think of flat-pack furniture. He was told that the original Greek word gave us our word "poem": we are God's work of art.
Hence CAP's way of seeing: "When we see a client, we don't just see someone's problems or what is broken. We see a masterpiece covered in ashes, waiting to be restored."

4. The Fall Broke Four Relationships

What happened to the masterpiece? Stewart reads Genesis 3: the serpent, the fruit, the eyes that are opened, the shame, the fig leaves, Adam and Eve hiding among the trees, and God's question: "Where are you?"
The passage seems almost gentle: a piece of fruit, a little knowledge, what is the problem? But this is the moment when sin enters the world, and four relationships are broken.
The relationship with God, which creates spiritual distance and despair. The relationship with others, which makes room for division and selfishness. The relationship with ourselves, which damages self-esteem. The relationship with creation, which separates us from its beauty.
"I'm going to argue that this is a matter of life and death." These broken relationships are at the heart of everything he says about poverty.

5. Poverty Amplifies the Brokenness of the Fall

"We think poverty is about economics. It isn't. Money is a very small thing in what we're talking about here."
The people CAP helps are rarely in a church and do not have the hope of the Gospel. They are alone and isolated. They feel worthless to a degree that is hard to imagine, they are very anxious, often suicidal, and see no future.
Unmanageable debt acts like the lead dust of Notre-Dame: it covers everything and pushes families to hide at home, behind closed doors, in shame and anxiety. Like Adam and Eve behind the trees.
"What poverty does is amplify the brokenness of the fall."
These are lost sheep: people with chronic illness, people with disabilities, single and isolated parents, victims of abuse, people hit by an economic accident. Two thirds are women, and the fastest-growing group is the 18-30s, young adults whose lives have never really started.
A church volunteer sums it up in a testimony shown during the service: "Nobody wakes up in the morning thinking: I want to be in debt today."

6. The Ministry of Reconciliation

"Jesus is restoration in action." Stewart reads 2 Corinthians 5:17-19: if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed away, all things have become new. God reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
God does not count people's trespasses against them, and he has put in us the word of reconciliation. This is why CAP does not first see "what needs to change" in someone, but a masterpiece that needs reconciliation and restoration.
A video shows a young woman overwhelmed by debts taken out in her name by a former partner. A church partnering with CAP came to her home, sat down to talk about her family, then came back at Christmas with gifts and food. "If these people of God can have so much love for someone they don't really know..." She and her mother were baptised together. "God has really restored my family."
Nationally, CAP has visited 100,000 homes in thirty years and helped write off half a billion pounds of debt. But more is needed: energy costs have risen by 17% this year, interest rates and rents are climbing, and inflation weighs more heavily on those who spend only on essentials.
Today, 363 debt help centres and more than 500 budget coaching centres operate in around a thousand churches. "I'd love to say all of this is CAP, but it isn't. It is the Church rising up to meet the challenges of this nation, on a large scale, with heart and passion."

7. When the Church Shows Up, Poverty Retreats

Stewart thanks the church: every prayer, every gift and every action counts for this work. He invites people to become a prayer partner or a volunteer.
He adds a warning, with humour: "Be warned, it will change your life and grow your faith."
His conclusion: "When the Church shows up, poverty retreats, and God's masterpieces shine again."
He ends with a prayer: "God of love, thank you for looking at each of us and seeing a masterpiece where life has brought brokenness and struggle. Restore us through Jesus. Help us to see our neighbours with your eyes of love, offering safety, kindness and real hope to all who are in need."

Key Takeaways

You are God's masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for the good works he prepared beforehand. Salvation is a gift, not a reward.
The fall broke four relationships: with God, with others, with ourselves and with creation. Poverty amplifies this brokenness.
Under the ashes of shame and anxiety, God still sees his work and wants to restore it.
God has entrusted us with the ministry of reconciliation: he works through the Church present in the homes of those who are suffering.
Whoever is faithful with little receives more: serving others also transforms the one who serves.

Personal Application

Do you see yourself as God's masterpiece, or do you define yourself first by your failures and struggles?
Which of the four relationships broken by the fall most needs restoration in your life today?
When you meet someone in difficulty, do you first see their problems, or the masterpiece God wants to restore?
Are you hiding behind a closed door because of shame, financial or otherwise? Who could you ask for help this week?
What small thing has God already entrusted to you, and how can you be faithful with it: a prayer, a gift, some time given?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What does it mean to be God's masterpiece according to Ephesians 2:10?

The preacher points out that the Greek word translated "workmanship" gave us our word "poem". We are God's work of art, created in Christ Jesus for the good works he prepared beforehand. Salvation is a gift of grace, not a reward, and no one can boast of it.

Why is poverty not only a question of money?

For the chief executive of Christians Against Poverty, money is the smallest part of the problem. Poverty amplifies the four breaks of the fall in Genesis 3: with God, with others, with ourselves and with creation. It shuts families into shame, isolation and anxiety.

What does the parable of the talents say to those who serve?

God says: "Well done, good and faithful servant." But the preacher highlights the middle sentence that people forget: you have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things. The ministry expands, the needs grow, and God entrusts more to those who have been faithful.