Introduction-
Isn’t God good?
We as believers in America have opportunity to gather in a place of worship and lift up the name of Jesus without someone busting down the door- At least today.
We have a God who not only wants to save us, but a God who wants to deliver us, protect us, dwell with us.
He is a God that will never leave us or forsake us, even when things get tough. Even when we are going through dry times and don’t feel His presence. He says on the promise of His Word that He will be there!
That is the God that I want to hear from today! Amen.
Prayer-
Today Father, I want to have an open heart to hear from you. I want to hear through your word, I want to sense your presence by your Holy Spirit dwelling, I want to see Jesus in each one of us as we leave this place so this community can experience Jesus! May your word speak to us..
Read Ephesians 2:11-22
A few weeks ago, we were in this chapter looking at spiritual awareness.
We have a choice to be either spiritually alive or spiritually dead and the difference is very simple… do we have Jesus in our lives or not.
This morning, Paul goes farther and talks about not only being spiritually alive but also being spiritually one with Christ.
There are so many barriers that can keep us separated from each other.
The color of our skin (Nationality)
Where we live (demographics) (Were you born on the wrong side of the tracks? (By who’s standard?)
Poverty level- classified by income
Religion
This is not new! It has been a problem since God put people together-But Christ came to bring that barrier down.
Apostle Paul is speaking to the church at Ephesus. A church filled with Jews and “other people”. The unconverted Jews hated those other people.
In fact, verse 11 The Apostle to the Gentiles says that you have to remember;
That you were called the un-circumcision by the circumcision.
He tells them of the condition of Gentiles before Christ came.
You had no hope!
You had no Messiah or Savior
You were Aliens in Israel
Strangers to the covenant of God
You were in this world without God
The Gentile’s (anyone who was not a Jew) were called “the un-circumcision” by the Jews who thought they were special because they were the chosen people of God. They thought that circumcision merely by human hands had made them better than someone else?
So thinking that you are better than someone else would definitely qualify as a barrier.
They believed that the Gentiles were created by God to be the fuel for the fires of hell.
That God only loved the Jews and no one else.
If a Jew married a Gentile, which was absolutely forbidden- they actually had a funeral for the Jew. They were disowned. Death was there sentence. As if they had died. (Samaritans) that is why they hated Samaritans.
Samaritans were half -breeds- Jews mixed with those people- Jews wanted no part of them.
If a Jew went into the home of a Gentile, they were considered unclean.
You could not help a Gentile women in childbirth because it would be to help bring another gentile into the world.
Before Christ, the barriers were up; after Christ, the barriers are to come down!
Illustration- (SermonCentral)
There was once a subway car, almost empty, except for a Chinese man and a Jewish man, who sat in their seats, silently, holding their newspapers high as they read. Suddenly the Jewish man stood up, rolled up his newspaper, walked over and whacked the Chinese man over the head.
"Hey! Cut it out! What did you do that for?" said the Chinese man, putting his arm up to defend himself against any further blows. The Jewish man sat down, and said, "That was for Pearl Harbor."
The Chinese man said, "It was the Japanese who bombed Pearl Harbor. I'm Chinese. We didn't have anything to do with it."
But the Jewish man said, "Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, . . . . It's all the same."
They glared at each other for a moment, then they went back to reading their newspapers and all was quiet.
But then, suddenly the Chinese man stood up, rolled up his newspaper, whacked the Jewish man over the head, and said, "And that's for the Titanic."
The Jewish man said, "The Titanic? It was an iceberg that sank the Titanic. I didn't have anything to do with that!" But the Chinese man answered, "Iceberg, Rosenberg, Goldberg, . . . It's all the same."
Crazy how people think? Right.
When the nation of Israel was right with God, they enjoyed the blessings of walking with God. When they didn’t follow God they struggled and had become hard core and felt they were privileged. But God called a man, the Apostle Paul, a Jew, to make it very clear that God's invitation was to all nations, that Jews and Gentiles were called to be citizens side by side in the kingdom of God. Paul refused to accept this idea of Jewish privilege. All the blessings of God were for the Gentiles, too. Jesus had died to end the separation. Paul dedicated his life to breaking down the barriers and bringing the Gentiles into the church. And we, who are Gentiles, owe Paul a great debt for his faithfulness to God's call.
So what barriers need to come down in your life and what lessons should we be learning?
Remember who you are in Christ
(12) Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ.
You were hopeless and without God. You were without God and had no savior.
Paul tells them to remember, it is not something most people do.
They do not remember that they were without hope and they do not remember that Jesus was the one that gave them that hope. Because if they did remember, there life would have to be different.
He is saying that we should remember, it is part of the Christian walk. It is healthy for our walk with God to remember.
We cannot go to the victory verses of what Christ did until we realize what He did to save our lives and makes us who we are today.
2 Corinthians 5:17
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
Ephesians 2:10
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
1 Peter 2:9
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
Romans 8:1
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
What should we remember?
"Remember that (before Christ brought you near through his death on the cross) you were separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world." The first thing to notice here is that salvation is of the Jews (John 4:22). For a non-Jew, a Gentile like me, to have any hope at all, I must cease to be alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. I must become a fellow citizen of Israel (2:19) and a fellow-heir of their promises (3:6). There is no salvation outside the true Israel.
That is why he says we are grafted into the family of God through Jesus Christ- remember that!
Christ came to break the barrier and set a foundation and capstone
(13) “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one, and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those that were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.”
Christ came to demolish the walls of prejudice which divide us.(Repeat)
Jesus died on the cross for our sins! Who can brag after that! We all stand before God as sinners.
Our only standing before God is that Jesus is our savior and He paid the debt of sin for us.
The barrier that kept us from forgiveness is sin and the only breaking down of that barrier is Jesus Christ!
He is saying in this verse that the farthest people from knowing Christ are invited to the table of God.
Isaiah 59:1
“Behold, the LORD'S hand is not so short that it cannot save; nor is His ear so dull That it cannot hear.”
No matter how far you go, you cannot go farther than the arm of the Lord wants to go to reach you.
There is peace in Him and the farther you go away from him, you will lose the peace of God.
He says no matter Jew or gentile, there is room at the cross for you because of Jesus (18) “For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.”
We are no longer aliens and strangers to the things of God.
We are no longer outsiders or second class citizens in the kingdom of God.
Anyone who will receive the gospel by faith may come near to God.
The Holy Spirit of God brings us close to the God who loves us.
The one Spirit Paul talks about is the Holy Spirit. It is He who breathes life into us as the powerful presence of God desires to dwell within us.
You are fellow citizens… you re God’s people. You are part of God’s household of faith!
Citizen is someone who belongs there, who has certain rights which are to be respected.
You stand on the foundation laid by the apostles and the chief cornerstone is Jesus Christ Himself!
The capstone
Final stone
Most important stone
The cornerstone which is the most important part of the building
Psalm 118:22
“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”
The world should expect to encounter God when they come into church.
God’s people gathering to hear from the Lord.
God’s people coming to worship with a heart of expectation that God will manifest himself with His presence.
Closing-
“And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”
Once hopeless sinners, slaves to our own fleshly desires, far from God, hating one another… are now called to be united, empowered, and led by the Spirit of God to be the end times holy people of God.
Once we realize what Christ has done- it will affect how we live our lives!
That should motivate us to want to be like Christ
Come Lord Jesus! May we be found faithful and about kingdom business!
Prayer-
