Ephesians 2:19-22

This happens really naturally in some cases.

If you're in the Army and you meet someone, you are a private first class or corporal or major or general.

I've not been in the Army.

Some of you know better than I, right?

But I know in the academic world, well, I'm a 1L at the law school.

Some of us don't even know what a 1L is, but that's a designation.

If you're in the law school, it just means, okay, now I know where you fit.

Now I know.

In the medical system, I'm a second-year medical student.

I'm a first-year resident.

I'm a chief resident.

I'm a fellow.

I'm a super fellow.

I'm an extra super fellow.

I don't know what all the titles are.

But there are all these places, right, that sort of say this is who we are.

And there are some of those cultures where it's very stratified and very clear, right?

But when you walk into a social setting, what does it look like?

I think in our culture, it's often that we gravitate towards what we do or what achievements

we've had.

But you know what?

That hasn't always been true.

There are times past, and even other cultures today, where the most important thing to introduce

yourself is, you know, I'm Duncan McLeod from the Clan McLeod, if you've ever seen, you know.

Anyway, that's a cultural reference.

If you missed it, just let it go by.

You're introducing, this is my father.

You know, I'm a part of this family.

And that's how you introduce yourself.

I'm from this family.

At some time in history, you would just say, I'm from this town.

I've noticed that people who've lived in Connecticut all their lives say that.

I'm from Bridgeport.

I'm from New Haven.

I'm from West Haven.

For some of us who are from outside, we're like, West Haven to New Haven, isn't that like

really close?

No.

They are different towns and different.

And it means something to say that's where you're from.

All this to say that who we are, these dynamics of how we introduce ourselves and who we are

expose a question of our own sense of identity and our desire and longing for a place of belonging

in this world.

Of course, we recognize that sometimes we don't feel like we belong.

And we don't really know who we are or how we fit in, do we?

I remember I worked with, this is a fairly trivial instance, but I used to work in campus ministry

over at Yale.

And I worked for an organization called CRU, Campus Crusade for Christ.

It's a great organization.

Loved it.

Mostly, it's big in the South and the Midwest.

It's not so big in the Northeast.

And so I went to my national staff training in 1996.

I went to the national staff training.

And there was a handful of us from the Northeast, right?

And then there were hundreds of people from other parts of the country.

And I was at that point from Rhode Island.

And I kept introducing myself.

Like, hi, I'm Matt.

I'm from Rhode Island.

And people would nod and smile and say, okay.

Like, they didn't even know where it was.

And then I met this girl from Idaho.

And we had this deep moment of commiseration about, oh, you're also from a state that nobody

knows where it is.

Until she looked at me and said, but at least Rhode Island is an island.

I mean, you can point to it on the map.

And I didn't have the heart to say, Long Island is not the same place as Rhode Island.

So I experienced it more profoundly the year after college.

I graduated and I moved from suburban New Jersey and Princeton down to Trenton.

And I moved into a neighborhood that was primarily African American.

And I was a white college boy, post-college boy.

And I had a roommate who was from Spain and a roommate who was Asian American from Southern

California.

And we lived together.

And the first Saturday after we moved into our apartment, we decided to go out our door.

We turned left and walked down the street.

And it was quite an experience for us because we felt very much like, man, did we not belong?

And this was deeply embedded on us because after having walked for quite a while and met

some very interesting people in our neighborhood, a police car pulled up and beckoned to us, hey,

come talk to me.

And the cop rolled down his window and he looked at us, what are you doing here?

And we were like, we moved into the neighborhood.

This is where we live now.

And the cop said, and the cop was Caucasian.

So let's just be on, you know, above.

He looked and said, I wouldn't walk down the street in daylight with a gun by myself.

Do you want to ride home?

And we said, no, no, no, it's okay.

This is our neighborhood.

And, you know, as I came to learn, if I were a cop, I might not walk down that street either.

Given the tension between the cops and the neighborhood, there were some reasons why the cop might have

been afraid of that neighborhood.

But we actually made some friends in the neighborhood.

And we found that there were ways for us to reach out and connect even though, but we stood

out so clearly as feeling like, man, we do not belong here.

And I wonder if you feel like that in your context, in your life.

I wonder if you felt that sense of, where do I belong?

We live in a political moment in our culture and in our nation where it's pretty easy to

wonder, do I belong?

Am I going to be accepted here because of my race, because of the country I come from,

because of my gender?

All of these questions seem to have been put on the national stage for us.

Do I belong?

Will I be accepted here?

Our passage today points us in some directions of what the Bible has to say to us about this.

So go ahead and let's look at Ephesians together.

We're going to read our passage.

I'm actually going to read the whole section, as Nick mentioned last week.

Chapter 2, verse 11 through 22 is one section.

We're taking two weeks to talk about it.

And actually, as we talk about it, just remind those of you who've been here and just to point

out the flow of thought briefly for those of you who haven't.

Paul in chapter 1 writes this beautiful story, this beautiful picture.

It's not a story.

It's a beautiful picture describing all the richness of what God has done for his people

in salvation for Christians, all the things that God has done for us.

And then in the second half, he prays that we would see this and that we would know this

and that Jesus would be exalted in the middle of it.

And then in chapter 2, he goes back and he says, how did we get there?

And he uses this pattern in chapters 1 through 10 of, you once were this, but now in Christ,

God has made you this.

And that's a similar pattern that we see here.

You once were this, look at me and now I'll just, he said, you once were aliens and strangers

outside of the people of God.

But now because of what God has done in Christ, which Nick just beautifully pictured for us

last week, what God has done for us in Christ is broken down the divisions of people so that

now those who are far off and those who are near can all come together in one new thing

that God is making.

And this leads us to the passage that we're going to focus on tonight, verses 19 through 22.

So let's read this together.

Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called

the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands.

Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel

and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh,

the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances

that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two.

So making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.

For through him, we both have access in one spirit to the father.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God

built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone

in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

Lord, in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Lord, we ask you that you would help us as we look into this word.

Lord, to capture our hearts with the glory and the beauty of it,

of the truth that it tells us about who we are because of what you have done.

Lord, I pray you would help us to do this.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

Well, as we look at this passage, we see that God has given us this new identity,

this new place in the world as being God's people.

And in this new identity, we find that there is a greater glory than we ever could imagine.

There's a greater glory because we now belong.

And there's a greater glory because of the sense of privilege that we have to play a particular role in God's world.

And so this is what we're going to look at.

First of all, the sense of God's belonging and then the sense of privilege and how that,

the privilege of the role that God gives us.

So first of all, the glory that God gives us in sense of belonging.

One of the things you have a hard time seeing in your English translation,

but it's really fun when you read, this is one of the times when reading Greek is actually really fun

because six times there are words that are related to what is basically the word for house in Greek.

Right?

Six times.

Verse 19, you see it.

Right?

You are members of the household of God.

That's the most clear and evident one.

Six times.

I only have five on my page.

Maybe it's only five.

I might have missed one.

I only have five in my notes.

You skip down to verse 21.

He talks about this whole structure, this whole structure of something.

And that's another word for it.

The whole household.

Right?

And the whole household is being made into a house or joined together is the word that you see in your English translation.

But it's being sort of merged into this house is the idea.

And then verse 22, it says again, this is, this is, we're being built together.

That is becoming a household together to be a dwelling place.

And that's the last one.

To be a place where the house where someone dwells.

And in all of this language, what Paul is saying is the great place of belonging for this new person is that you are now in the household of God.

Okay.

What does that mean?

Well, if you are a Roman in the first century, you would have an idea of this in their culture.

A household was a much bigger concept.

Not just a nuclear family, but a much broader concept.

Right?

Where there was a head of the household.

And under that head, people lived in his care.

And it obviously meant his spouse, his children.

It likely meant his parents.

It may have very well meant an extended family, uncles, aunts, cousins.

It meant servants.

Even slaves were a part of the household.

One commentator says it like this.

In the Roman world of the day, to be a member of a household meant refuge and protection.

As much as the master provided, it also meant identity and gave security that came from a sense of belonging.

And so, whether you were a spouse, a child, or a servant.

If you met someone on the street and they say, who are you?

You know what their answer would be?

Oh, well, I'm from the household of Paulus.

I'm from the household of Stephanus.

I'm from the household of Joe Schmo.

You know?

Whatever it was.

Your household gave you an identity.

It said, this is where I belong in this society.

This is who I am.

And what Paul is reminding us tonight is that the amazing thing of what God has done for his people in Christ

is that he has made them, he has brought them in to say, you are part of my household.

I am the master who's taking responsibility for your protection, for your provision, for your identity, and for your belonging in the world.

You are now under me.

And this would have been amazing news to the Gentiles.

I don't want to rehash what Nick said last week, but as a Gentile, you were outside of all these things.

And the Jews looked at you and said, ew, ick.

You do all those detestable things.

And the Gentiles looked at the Jews and said, y'all are weird.

And I don't know what you do, but I don't want to be a part of that.

And then the gospel comes, and it begins to bring these people together in an amazing way.

And if you were the Gentile, and you were living in Jerusalem, and you looked at this physical temple that was in the middle,

that said, oh, to be a part of the people of God is centered around this building.

And you were a Gentile, you knew that you could stay at the outer edges, but you could never go in.

You could never go into the inner sanctum.

You could never truly belong to God.

Because there were walls and doors.

And behind those, there were laws and prescriptions and prohibitions.

Said you could never go in there.

And again, go back and listen to Nick's sermon.

But what God has done in Christ is said, those walls are gone.

The prohibitions are gone.

Now, the ick, ew people, and the why would I want to be a part of you people are now brought together into this one thing.

And God says, this is my household.

These are the people whom I love.

So what does this mean for us?

Well, first of all, it means there's a glory in belonging.

Friends, there are no green cards and no visas in the kingdom of God.

In Christ, you are brought into full citizenship.

There are no stepsisters and stepbrothers.

You are fully brought in and integrated into the family of God.

This is now my family under one God.

Okay, and here's the crazy thing.

Look around.

This is it.

These are the people.

It's not some ideal group out there that you can imagine in your head.

It's not some group of people that meet somewhere else that maybe you've seen on TV.

The household of God that he's called you to is us tonight.

This group of people.

This group of people in this city.

And it's an incredible thing that God wants us to treat with great value.

He wants us to love the church,

which means loving one another and saying,

these are the people whom Christ died for.

These are the people that God broke down the dividing wall between sinful men and God

and then between one another so that he might bring us together

into this one beautiful, diverse, crazy family.

It's not easy to do.

Jesus recognizes this and says,

there's a cost to following Jesus.

It may mean leaving all of your other identities behind.

Leaving behind your family.

Leaving behind your worldly success and ambition.

It might cost you that.

But he says,

what you find in the church is a hundredfold.

The riches of being with God's people.

All those other identities,

the little excursus.

It's not like you lose them completely.

You don't stop being a woman.

Or you don't stop being Caucasian.

Or you don't stop being from Poughkeepsie.

Or whatever it is.

Those things are not lost,

but they are relativized.

Or they are brought into.

And in fact,

they find the fullness of their expression and richness

in being in Christ and in the family of God.

When we see that being in Christ becomes the foundational identity,

all of those other things make more sense to us.

And we are able to live in them and out of them

towards one another

in ways that we sometimes struggle to apart from that.

How can we look at one another

and value one another as a family?

Think about how we can honor one another.

You know,

as I said earlier,

our culture often deals with identity

in terms of performance and role.

Like,

what's my job?

That sort of thing.

But recognize that that's not true for everyone.

So how do we think about how we address one another?

Oh,

who are you?

Where's your place on the pecking order?

No,

who are you?

How has God made you to be?

What has God done in your life?

One of the ways that we honor one another

in the family of God

is by simply saying,

hey,

how has God worked in your life?

As the first thing I want to know

about one another.

It's the first thing I want to know about you.

How has God worked in your life?

It's fun to know all those other things.

What football team do you like

and where are you from?

And as we get to know one another,

it would be much deeper.

Wow,

what does it look like

through the lens of your particular makeup

and all the richness of it

to be a follower of Christ?

How have you used that?

How can I learn from you about that?

But as we honor one another,

we're not threatened by one another.

We're not afraid of one another.

And we actually see God use us

in one another's lives

in beautiful ways.

And that's part of what God has called us to

as we recognize that

as we have this sense of belonging

in God's family,

he then invites us

to take hold of this

and to value it

and to love the church well.

Maybe some of you are here tonight

and you think,

I've tried the church thing

and I don't fit.

I don't fit in very well.

Well,

I have two things to say to you.

One,

the church has a long way to go

in living this out.

It's not always perfect.

And I want to acknowledge that.

And I want to say it's not good

and it's not right

when we don't accept one another

within the church

for reasons

that have nothing to do with

being a part of God's family or not.

But let me also say this more profoundly

because I think this is what Paul is saying to us

in Ephesians.

He said,

if you think you don't fit in the church,

you're wrong.

You do fit.

If you are in Christ,

God has called you

to be a part of the church.

Don't forsake it.

Don't give up on it.

Keep pursuing it

because God has called you

to be a part of his household.

and his household is experienced

in this age

in the church.

So love it

and give up

and don't give up on it.

But this passage goes on

and not only does he

address this sense of belonging

by saying,

yes,

you belong

in Christ.

You belong

because you've now been brought

into God's household.

But he makes this amazing thing,

this amazing argument

where he says,

now I have brought

the Jews in

with the Gentiles,

or the Gentiles in

with the Jews

to play a particular role

in the church.

And I want to talk

really briefly

about this history

just to put it together.

Because

when you read

through the Old Testament,

right,

you see God making

a special promise

to a special group of people

to say,

I'm going to bless you

and make you a great nation

and you will be my people

and I will be your God.

Now his purpose

has always been broader

than that

because he says,

I will make you a nation,

I will lift you up

to be a light

to the nations

so that the whole world

might know who I am

and might turn back to me.

That's throughout

the Old Testament.

But it's not that hard

to read the Old Testament

and to think,

man,

being Jewish

is really,

really special.

And if I'm not Jewish,

man,

I feel like I am

the outside

on the outside of this.

And so,

in this argument,

Paul says,

look,

God is bringing together

this new work.

You who once were alien,

foreigners and strangers,

what's the language

he uses in this?

It's translated differently

in different,

you are strangers

and aliens.

You aren't welcome.

You aren't from here.

You who used to be

those people.

You are now brought in.

You are fellow citizens.

You are members

of the household.

But then he goes on.

Verse 20,

you are built

on the foundation

of the apostles

and the prophets.

He's saying,

this people,

you,

we as Gentiles,

I'm assuming almost

all of us are Gentiles here,

we now have been brought

into something

that's a much bigger river

than we've ever imagined.

It's not just,

now I love Jesus

and now I know God

and that's great.

But I'm a part of this

whole sweep of history

where the prophets

beforehand talked about

what does it mean

that there is a God

in the world

who is calling

a people to himself

from every tribe

and tongue and nation.

And God did this

through the whole Old Testament

and in the whole Old Testament

the prophets speak

of this God

and this salvation

and how he's going to do it

in beautiful

and wonderful ways.

And we as Gentiles

ought to have

a great sense of privilege.

I can't believe

that I get to be

a part of this.

It's like marrying

Prince Harry.

I get to be a part

of the royal household

of the British Empire.

Yet so much better

than that.

So he says that,

look, not only are we

standing on the shoulders

of Peter and John

and Paul,

but we're standing

on the shoulders

of Abraham and Moses

and David as well.

And the beautiful thing

of this sense of privilege

of being a part

of God's people

is that it's not something

that we can really think

highly of ourselves about.

Because we just heard,

if you've been here

for a while,

we've just heard

in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9

that our entrance into this

is by grace,

through faith,

not of yourselves,

not of works,

so that no one may boast.

The thing that should

characterize the sense

of privilege we have

as Christians

to be God's people

is humility

that God would save

people like us.

Not self-righteousness,

not triumphalism,

not condemnation,

but humility

that God would save

something like us.

and then

he ratchets it up

one more

in verse 20

and he,

sorry,

in verse 21

and he says,

not only this,

but we've inherited

the purpose

that God had

for his people

throughout all history.

Think back.

When Moses

was leading the people

out of Egypt

and out of slavery

and as God

was ordering

the people

and as they camped,

in the center

of the camp

there was what?

A tabernacle.

It was a big tent

and in the center

of the tent

what was there?

There was a special place

and do you know

what dwelt there?

The very glory of God.

God himself

expressed his presence

among his people

in a tangible way

so that the whole nation

would know

as much as the

so that all the nations

but the nation of people

that his people

would know

I am in your midst

and I will dwell

among you.

And then hundreds

of years later

when they finally

moved into Jerusalem

and established

the capital

and built in the center

of it a temple

and in the center

of the temple

with all the barriers

there was a holy of holies

and in that holy of holies

the glory of God

descended.

First Chronicles 7.

Look it up.

And one of the most

tragic moments

in the whole Old Testament

is in Ezekiel 10

where the prophet Ezekiel

has a vision

of the temple

and the glory of God

departing

from his people

and leaving them.

And it leaves

the Old Testament

with this great cliffhanger.

Where is God

going to show himself

to be among his people?

Look at verse 21

with me again.

In whom

the whole structure

being joined together

grows into

a holy temple

in the Lord.

In him

you also

are being built together

into a dwelling place

for God

by the Spirit.

Friends,

not only are the people

around you

the household of God

that you have been

brought into

but the people

around you

us together

as we gather

corporately

we are the dwelling

place of God

in this age.

People say

where is God

in the world?

Do you know

where God dwells?

He dwells among

his people.

He dwells actually

in his people.

And he does this

by his Spirit.

This is one of the

incredible promises

of the new covenant era

of the time

post-Jesus

is that God himself

will come

and indwell believers.

And he indwells us

individually

and as we gather

together

the glory

that dwelt

in the center

of the tabernacle

the glory

that lived

in the Holy of Holies

is now meant

to be seen

burning in our hearts

and on display

as we gather

together

in worship.

It is an incredible

privilege

that we would be

the place

between now

and what is to come

where God is showing

his glory

in this world.

And we know

one day

because Revelation 21

tells us this

Revelation 21

1-5

one of the most

important passages

in all of scripture

talking about how

one day God will

make everything new

and there will be

no more tears

and no more

because a new heavens

and a new earth

will come down

and God is going

to bring it all

together

and there won't

be the separation

anymore

and in the middle

of it

the angels

announce

now the dwelling

place of God

is with man

and in a way

that I can't even

fathom

God himself

is actually going

to live among us.

The only parallel

I know

is what I could only

imagine it was like

for Adam and Eve

when they walked

with God

in the cool of the day

but we know

that that will be true

and that's the end

but in the meantime

God has called

his church

to be the place

in which

he shows

his presence

in this world.

This is the dwelling

place of God

and it is an incredible

privilege

and an incredible

thing

that God has done.

So how are we

to respond to this

in closing?

First of all

we should be

in awe

of this.

You wake up

in the morning

to think

I'm a part

of the dwelling

place of God

among this world.

Do you ever think

that?

I don't.

Usually

I'm like brushing

my teeth.

You know

but to stop

and to think

this is part

of what God

has called me

into

when he's

called me

into Christ.

The awe

of that

also comes

with a little

bit of

fearsomeness

because the

fearsomeness

of it

is that

God has

called us

as the dwelling

place

to live

in a way

that reflects

this God.

In some ways

the book of

Ephesians

is a beautiful

picture of it.

The first

three chapters

are about

who we are

what God

has done

for us

and how

he has

called us

to be

his people

and then

in chapters

4-6

he says

okay now

that you

know who

you are

let me

tell you

how to

live.

So he's

going to

say

church

live in

unity

with one

another.

Church

grow in

godliness

in grace.

Church

learn how

to control

your tongue

and to

curb your

anger

and how

to be

kind

and gentle

to one

another.

How to

use words

to build

up

and not

tear down.

He's going

to instruct

us on

how to

live in

our very

core

relationships

as husbands

and wives

and parents

and children

for the

glory of

God

that we

would be

his people

in a

distinctive

way

because

God has

called us

to be

his special

people.

That doesn't

make us

great but

it does

put on us

a great

obligation

a great

burden in

some ways

for us

to live

this out.

But friends

this is the

great joy

is that

in Christ

God has

brought us

into his

household

and he's

made us

his dwelling

place.

A membership

in God's

family has

great

privileges

and great

responsibility.

Some of

you who

have read

the passage

carefully

are like

you missed

the most

important part.

I didn't

miss it.

I just

left it

to the

end.

The

foundation

of this

how do

we know

this is

true?

Because

it is

built

ultimately

on the

cornerstone

of Jesus

Christ

himself.

When you

lay a

cornerstone

I'm not

a builder

I've been

told

when you

lay a

cornerstone

the

cornerstone

sets the

lines for

the building

in every

direction.

If the

cornerstone

is level

the building

will be

level.

If the

cornerstone

is set

right

the walls

will be

straight

the angles

will be

proper

and the

building

will be

strong.

Jesus

Christ

his life

his death

his resurrection

his perfect

obedience to

the father

his love

in saying

I will

die for

sinners

in their

place

his resurrection

from the

dead

his victory

over sin

and death

is all

a work

whereby

he has

won

to himself

a people

and is

grounded

in that

and in

that we

find our

place of

belonging

and we

find our

greatest

identity

and in

that

in

Jesus

Christ

we now

have the

most

important

thing

where we

can live

from

and live

out of

so

friends

I hope

you're

encouraged

tonight

if you

have put

your faith

in Christ

these

things are

true of

you

you are

members

of the

household

of God

you are

the dwelling

place

where God

in his

by his

spirit

lives

in this

world

to be

his

agents

to be

the place

where he

displays

his glory

and at

the center

of it

all is

Jesus

and so

let us

continue

to make

him

the center

of all

that we

are

for his

glory

let's

pray

Lord thank you

for this

word and for

the encouragement

that it is

thank you for

the great work

that you've

done for us

in Christ

Lord we pray

that as we

go from here

that we would

remember

Lord that we

remember Christ

that he is

the great

foundation upon

which

the lives

of all

Christians

are built

Lord I

pray that

as we see

this great

gift that you

have given

us I pray

if there's

anyone here

tonight

Lord who

has not

put their

faith in

Christ

Lord I

pray that

they would

consider and

see what a

great thing

God has

done

Lord that

they would

come to

him in

faith and

humility

Lord I

pray for

those tonight

who maybe

have lost

their awe

and wonder

at being a

part of

God's

people

Lord who

feel

alienated

and strangers

within

God's

people

Lord will

you encourage

them tonight

with this

word

we pray

this in

Jesus name

Amen