Ephesians 2:19-22 - ”Who Are We?” - Journey Through Ephesians

Thank

you. Our Old Testament reading comes

from Second Chronicles 7:es

1:3. As soon as Solomon finished his

prayer, fire came down from heaven and

consumed the burnt offering and the

sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord

filled the temple.

And the priests could not enter the

house of the Lord because the glory of

the Lord filled the Lord's

house. When all the people of Israel saw

the fire come down and the glory of the

Lord on the temple, they bowed down

their faces to the ground on the

pavement and worshiped and gave thanks

to the Lord, saying, "For he is good,

for his steadfast love endures forever.

Our New Testament reading comes from

Ephesians

2:es 19-22.

So then, you are no longer strangers and

aliens, but you are fellow citizens with

the saints and members of the house 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.

In him you also are being built together

into a dwelling place for God by the

Spirit. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to

God. So I get to speak on the church

today and I'm really excited. I don't

think there's an area that Christians in

Am I really loud? Am I? No. Okay. I'm

getting feedback over here so I don't

know. Um where I honestly like Luther

once said that there were three

conversions a Christian had to have. One

was to Jesus

Christ. He said the second which is the

harder which is to his purse, his change

purse and number three is to the church.

See, it's quite easy for us to believe

in God and we like Jesus, but living

with Christians can

be

challenging. You're not the only one

that's had issues, and I know you have

because you've been in church, a lot of

you, for a long time. There's just a

reality that the church is like it is.

So when I was a newish kind of believer,

I spent a lot of my time being very

excited about Christianity. I went to a

church I loved and at work I couldn't

help it. And when people would sit with

me, they'd say, "Why are you so happy?"

And I'd say, "Well, my faith makes me

happy." And then they'd be like, "Well,

I'd like a taste of that." And so we

would talk and I became known as Pastor

Emery even though I was working with sex

offenders.

So that's the truth. And after a while,

I had this one gentleman come up to me

and he says, and I said, 'Well, why

don't you come to church and check it

out? And he goes, well, why would I

bother going to church? It's a good

question. Why would I bother going to

church? Doesn't God live everywhere? So,

I didn't have a good answer for him to

be honest at that time. So, I went out

and got a book. I don't know if you've

ever seen this one. It's called Church

Why bother? It was a Philip Yansy book

that came out in the boy 30 years ago.

and it didn't really help. It was his

personal priv pilgrimage, but it didn't

really give me a sense of why bother

with

church. So, here's the question. Why

church? Well, it wasn't until I got to

Regent, and you're going to hear Regent

a lot because I had no theology before

then, lots of

experiences. But as I was sitting

studying in Regent, it began to hit me

that church is actually really important

in the Bible. The community, God's

actually really important in the Bible.

But I still didn't have an answer of why

church. Well, Paul

today is going to tell us why church.

And by the time you're done with him, my

struggle with what he's about to say

today is I have trouble believing this

about the church because he's going to

make claims about the

church that is mind-boggling from my

experience if I'm honest. But he is

saying these are the truths of what the

church is and why it's so

important. Let's listen

carefully. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your

amazing grace to us. We thank you for

your love. We ask you to open our eyes

and our ears so we can see this.

Amen. So, here we have this church of

Jews and Gentiles and they're not

getting

along. They're not getting along. And

Paul comes in and he's dealing with

that. And what he has said up till now

is you guys were all dead. And he's

talking to the Gentiles. all dead in

your sin. You were objects of wrath. You

just went after your flesh. That's all

you knew how to do. And then but God

came in Jesus Christ and dealt with

that. And now

forgiveness. And then he talks about

these two groups. And he says God came

basically so that he could create one

humanity. He says out of the two by

making it just about grace, not the

law. And then he's ending this section.

And then people rightfully say to me is

always seems so dark. Everybody seems so

I'm terrible with Paul. He is but he's

also setting you up for how great you

are

now. Never lose sight of that. Today

we're at the yes of

God. And so he says to this little

church, so then based on the fact of

this death because of the blood of

Christ that took the two people and made

them

one. So then you are no longer strangers

and aliens. that echoes out of the Old

Testament as a people in exile. When you

went to exile in the Old Testament, you

were

dead. You're no longer in exile. An

exodus has happened, but you are fellow

citizens. Now, this word had great cache

just like it does today. Anybody um

noticed a little bit about immigration

in the news? It's a joke. Like every

news program, right, is about migrants

or illegal aliens or it depends what

channel you're

watching. And citizenship is a big deal

right now, isn't

it? Well, in the ancient world, it was

even more. These people who these

churches, remember, it's to a bunch of

churches. It's not just to Ephesus.

They're sitting there. They live in a

world where having a Roman citizenship

would cost you five years of daily day

labor if you bought it. 5 years. Nobody

had that kind of money. So, you had to

be really rich or you had to serve the

military for over

10 or you were born into it. It was the

highest form and none of these people

would have had it. And now he says, "You

are fellow citizens, not in Rome." Thank

God. And not in America or Canada or

what other thing that's going on right

now. Your citizenship for Paul is in

heaven. Now you go, okay, so this is

about us going to heaven when we die. It

absolutely has nothing to do with that.

What he's saying is this reality, this

dimension called heaven, which really is

what's in control. You're a citizen of

that place. And this is a place you

cannot get deported out

of. This is a real tangible thing, you

guys. That's why I have to say when you

see citizens in heaven, it means

literally you're on the

list to get

in. Do you see? Cuz at some point at

your death or the death of the world,

there's going to be a big line. I like

to liken it and it's going to be the

passport office and you got the

passport. You

see, it's an incredible image that you

are citizens. But he doesn't stop there.

We are fellow citizens with the and he

uses this word saints and most of us

think saint saint uh

whatever saint augustine saint something

right and we think holy man spiritual

man but this word saint doesn't mean

that it

means set apart one and you know where

saints was used in the old

testament saints were the people who

left Egypt

They were called the holy ones set

apart. So we are going to be like the

holy ones. We're through the exodus. We

have

citizenship and now we're like these

people. So the saints isn't a moral

comment. It's a comment about who he's

made you to be which is his

family, his children. He's going to go

on

that members of the household of God. in

the ancient world to be part of a

household. It's not like today. Today

you're in the household of family and if

you're a teenager, you can't wait to get

out and you kind of the idea is you get

out on your own and you do your own

thing, right? And you leave behind the

family. That's how we

think. And then well, some of this

generation I guess likes to play Xbox

till they're 30,

but they eventually leave. That's the

goal. In the ancient world, what's

really surprising, and we don't have any

concept of this, is that you were tied

to your family from the day you were

born till the day you

died. You ready for this? In the ancient

world, you still have your parents

living with

you. I thought I'd get more groans.

Um, you were not separated. You were

part of the household. You remember that

saying that he says, "As for me and my

house, we shall serve the Lord." There

wasn't a lot of I in that, was

there? Because they came from this

culture. What Paul is saying is that now

your brothers and sisters, the ones that

are more close than anything else, your

family members are those people sitting

next to you in the

pew. Because you are the children of a

new community, a new identity.

set

apart citizens. It's amazing what we

are. He just can't help throwing

metaphors at us. And then he goes on to

say, "Built on the foundation of the

apostles and prophets." In other words,

this isn't a story you made up. This is

a story that's been there. It's called

scripture. The apostles and the

prophets. This is the story that Paul's

telling as an apostle and Jeremiah told

as a prophet. He did not see them as

different. They're all leading to the

same

narrative. Christ Jesus, he says, I was

kind of enjoying that, getting some

feedback.

Um, Christ Jesus

himself being the main

cornerstone. The cornerstone, you guys

know what that is? That was the biggest

stone in the temple, right? And they

built upon it. And if it didn't stand,

then everything crumbled. it was the

main thing. So Jesus Christ then is the

center of everything they're doing as a

community being the cornerstone in whom

the whole structure and now he's talking

about the church remember he's talking

not about a building that's a metaphor

is the building he's talking about us he

says well the the church in Ephesus but

indirectly to us in whom the whole

structure being joined together grows

into a holy holy temple in the Lord.

This blows my

mind. I can't tell you what a statement

this is about the

church. Because we don't live in temple

cults. The temples are long gone in our

world. But in their world, the temple is

the place where

heaven and earth came

together. Think of heaven and earth like

two dimensions. That's how they more

looked at it. And when the temple would

come together, both pagans and and Jews

believe this. When you go into the

temple, that kind of came together and

you would have an experience with

God. That's what a temple was. I'll

remind you just of the how powerful

temples were in the ancient world. Let's

go back to Chronicles. As soon as

Solomon finished his prayer, fire came

down from heaven and it consumed the

burnt offerings and sacrifice and the

glory of the Lord, the presence of the

Lord filled the temple. Do you see

that? And the priests could not enter

the house of the Lord because the glory

of the Lord filled that house.

And when all the people of Israel saw

the fire coming down from the glory of

the Lord on the temple, they bowed down

on their faces to the ground of the

pavement and worshiped and gave thanks

to the Lord, saying, "For he is good,

for his steadfast love endures

forever." What a moment that must have

been, eh? Sitting outside that temple

and seeing that happen. Well, guess what

he's saying, folks? You're that now.

That's what he's

saying. You all,

y'all, not

you. Y'all are the

temple. You're the place on earth that

God's going to be encountered. That's

what he's

saying. We're so individualized in our

way of thinking. We have a cult of

self. We live in a cult of self. And I'm

going to get into that in a minute. I

shouldn't preach the rest of the sermon

too early,

but we are so absorbed in the self. The

idea that there's a corporate reality

where corporate things happen, where we

come together. And for Paul, this new

humanity is the place where heaven and

earth are going to come together. And

how could he not think that Pentecost

had just

happened? What do we have here? We have

them coming down like fire, like smoke.

Right? His prayer, fire came down from

heaven and consumed him. What happened

at Pentecost? Do you remember tongues

like

flames of fire? You think we didn't know

what they were

doing? We were seeing the temple being

restored. But it wasn't in the building,

was

it? It was in a little place where

they're all running and hiding.

It's hard for me to say this, but when

we get together, if Paul is correct,

we're the place where heaven and earth

is going to come

together. We should

expect his

presence. That's a pretty high view, I

think. And then he ends this section and

he says, "In him you also are being

you." in him. I hate the word you here

because the you we read that immediately

as if it's to

you, but here it's

y'all. I wish we had a Canadian y'all.

Do we have a Canadian

y'all? We don't, do we? A no, that

doesn't

work. In him, y'all are also being built

together. You're being built together.

You're coming together into a listen to

this. This place is being drawn together

so that there might be a dwelling place

for

God by the spirit.

What I thought church was just finding

out how I don't have to go to

hell. I thought church was something

where I could go have my feels and

myoop.

You might get your

feels and you certainly are going to

hear the good news that you have been

saved, but I tell you the church is so

much

more. It is the place where God wants to

park and sit and

be. You know, the problem we have with a

church is we we we just think it's we

think of it as too small.

The incredible point is this is where

God wants to dwell. Unless Paul is

wrong. And if Paul is right, then I

would argue that perhaps we're not

seeing it because we're not expecting

it. Because like me, when that gentleman

came up and said, "Why church?" I didn't

have an

answer. Because at that stage in my

life, I was doing something and so was

the church I was in. We were worshiping

this worship of the eye.

What I mean by that and it's a very very

prominent thing and it's so

prominent that it's kind of like that

story you

hear you know the two fish are talking

and he's go swimming along and he goes

so do you find it hard to swim in

water and he says the other one what's

water we're so enwrapped in this

cultural reality of the eye that we

don't even know it's there but I can

guarantee guarantee go and watch a

television show for 5 minutes and it'll

be about somebody an individual working

out their individual angst with their

individual proclivities and it'll all be

about finding

yourself right do you know what Paul

said about the self die to

yourself so how did we get

here well something happened many years

ago there's a reason we worship the

self. I'm going to tell you about where

water came

from. Water came from a guy named Der

Derrida or sorry

Decart. Decart many years ago the wars

had been going on and and and Christian

was killing Christian. The enlightenment

started and then they had got rid of God

as a means of knowledge and they've

decided they had to figure out truth

themselves.

and the I became important. But the

first question Deart had was, "How do I

know if I even exist?" People didn't ask

these questions when there was a God.

You knew you existed cuz God existed,

right? But now, how do you even

know? And I want you to notice how many

times he says I in this sentence. But

this is his famous sentence. I can doubt

everything except one thing. And that is

simply the fact that I

doubt simply put I think therefore I

am. And what happened from him on and I

can tell you it's just grown and grown

and grown is we're most concerned about

us as

I and it affected the church before

Dereda or sorry Decart and these people

came people came to church as community.

They did not come just as individuals to

have an experience. They came because

they believed they were part of

something better. Their families came.

You sat in the same pew. I met a guy and

he went back to Scotland and he could go

to his pew that his family had bought

and put their names on. Have you heard

of this? Because they realized that

church was more than

I. They had community. They had

life. Now Daredeas won. by the way,

sorry, Decart's one, by the way. And

he's led into Ni and Darren and all

these other guys. And our culture now

ultimately wants to ask you how yo, you

are feeling, how are I, how am I, how to

deal with the self? You don't believe

me? Go down to co uh chapters or

wherever and go look at the self-help

section.

That's just religion boxed for an

individual. It's all that is. The psycho

psychological world, you'll notice it's

all about the eye. Well, that's an

enlightenment

thing. We worship the eye because we've

been told that the ultimate importance

is the

self. And Paul couldn't disagree

more. You see, I want to remind you what

Paul says about the self.

just before you read this with me a

couple weeks

ago. And y'all were dead in trespasses

and

sins in which you once walked following

the course of this world, following the

prince and the power of air, the spirit

that is now at work amongst all sons and

daughters of

disobedience, among whom we all once

lived in the passions of our flesh, in

our self. You see

that? Carrying out the desires of the

body and the mind and were by nature

children of wrath like the rest of

mankind. See, what Paul's saying is when

you get to the eye, well, we're

done. Cuz if it's the eye, you're toast.

Make no differentiation here between

what Paul's saying and what I'm saying

in the sense of the eye is deadly. And

I'm going to tell you, I know how hard

it is to break because I can't help but

see everything through the lens of eye.

When I'm reading my Bible, how about

you? I read it as if it's for

Emory. It's not. It was never written to

individuals.

I don't read it as if I'm part of

something greater. I read it as a what

does it matter to me? Why do people go

to church? The same reason I went to

that church at the time that I loved was

so that I could have my personal

spirituality, that I could have my

experience, that I could become a better

human being and conquer the world.

H I'm telling you right now that's not

Christianity I'm going to get in trouble

but it's

not

Christianity is about a whole new

humanity.

Christianity loves persons but does not

spend a lot of time on

individuals. And when it does talk about

individuals like Paul, it's

self-deprecating. It's about a God who

wants a new

world. And the only way that's going to

happen is if we come together in

community. Jesus Christ didn't just die

so you could get to heaven when you die.

It's hard to hear that for some

people. I don't even think that's the

main reason he came.

He definitely died for your sins. And

yes, you get eternal life. That's kind

of a

given. But why did he

come? He came to make you a new

humanity. To make you a new people, to

make you new citizens, a new

family. Paul says it this way about why

he came. But now in Christ Jesus, you

who were once far off have been brought

near by the blood of Christ. Y'all have

been brought near. For he himself is our

shalom, who has made us both one and has

broken down in his flesh the dividing

wall of hostility. He came to create a

new humanity that comes

together and loves one another.

He came to create us into a community,

not a bunch of individuals who are going

to walk to heaven with

him. That's his purpose. That's Bible

101. In fact, it says very little about

you personally. Now, some people are

going to say, "Well, Ery, I'm worried

because if you say this, then people

aren't going to share the gospel and get

individuals saved." Trust me, my

friends, in this culture, you have

nothing to worry about. The self will be

worshiped and individual salvation will

be

proclaimed. I I promise you.

Yes. But we leave it there and we die. I

know people who go out every Sunday,

every Sunday, every through the week and

they go and they share the gospel, but

they never draw them into the

church. My question is, what are you

saving them into?

not biblical Christianity or

not. Because here's the thing, we're

saved to come in and be this

truth. The most incredible moment you're

having is when you hang out with your

believers. I want you to do yourself a

favor right now. Look to your

left. It's okay. Don't be shy. Look to

your right.

Those people are going to be with you

for

eternity. And he made and came so that

we, you, all of us become a family and

become alive

together. Paul says again in Galatians,

there is neither Jew nor Greek. There is

neither

bond nor free. There is neither male nor

female. For you all are one in Jesus

Christ. That's a King James version.

That's why I was having trouble. For ye

all

are. Ye all are one in Jesus Christ.

What that means is it's not about

you. The only thing you bring to the

table is your

sins. And he gives you

forgiveness. And then he says, "Now I'm

going to give you the spirit so you can

be one together. You are the place where

heaven and earth comes

together. He said it, not

me. So who are we folks? How should I

have answered that

man? Well, the first thing we

are is you and I are citizens of

heaven. Not we might get our citizenship

one day. when you were baptized, when

you believed, when you made that

confession, whatever it was, you are

citizens of heaven and it won't be

taken. What that does mean though is

you're part of a new humanity of

citizens. It's not about you and your

little passport. You're now part of a

whole group of

people. That's incredible. That's who

you are. We are number two. We are

children. But to all who have received

him, who believe in his name, he gave

power to become children of God, who

were born not of blood, nor of the will

of the flesh, nor of the will of man,

but of

God. You are children. Do you know what

child meant in that world? It meant when

they see you as the child, they see the

image of the adult.

That's incredible. You've become little

Christs. That's who you

are. You are children of God. That also

means you're in a

family. It's not all about you going to

heaven. It's about you living in a

family and heaven's coming here.

And just as important, NT Wright says,

"Those whom within whom the spirit comes

to live are God's new temple." You're

his

temple. This is where individual and

corporate places uh sorry, there are

individually and corporately places

where heaven and earth meets. That's who

you

are. We should come in here in awe by

grace that we've been welcomed because

we were aliens. But once we come in, we

should expect as people, as as children

to expect the Lord's presence. We should

expect his presence because we're the

place where heaven and earth come

together. So, I'm going to make an

argument

here. Salvation actually is the new

we, not the worship of the eye.

Salvation

biblically absolutely has to do with a

new community and a new humanity called

the

church. And it's the greatest

thing. You were told I was told that I

needed to conquer myself. I remember

that when I was in that church. That I

need to listen to these sermons so I'd

be given the right ideas so that I could

conquer myself, my sin, my problems.

Duh.

Little did I know that they were

actually not quoting the Bible. They

were quoting Renee

Deart. It's Renee Decart who says,

"Conquer yourself rather than the world

because it's all about

you." Here's the thing,

folks. You've already had the world

conquered and you have already been

conquered yourself.

And your job is to let Jesus take

over and to come into humanity. That's

why you're

here. Now, I'm going to read something

that's going to be controversial. So,

please wait till after to throw the

tomatoes.

Please. This is from Pope Francis. God

rest his soul. Our Christian identity is

belonging to a people. The church

without the the church without sorry we

our Christian identity is belonging to a

people. The church without the church we

are not

Christians. You're saying first of all

you're quoting a Catholic Emmy. What are

you thinking? Thought we were

reformed. A good quote's a good quote.

Number

two, I may not agree with him what he

means by the church, but he's absolutely

right. Our Christian identity is

belonging to a people called the church.

I say that because in our world, our

identities are always about self. Now,

black, white, sexual orientation,

uh,

gender, height, weight, everybody's got

themselves and they've made their

identity into these things. For us

who've died in Christ, our identity is

being the

church. He's right. Now no not the

institutional realm in church which he

would have meant but it means that we

are to see ourselves as the

church that's our

identity the

we and the truth is I've been walking

along a long

time without the church we are not

Christians you might disagree with but

I'm going to argue that I have been

doing this a very long time and there's

There's one universal truth that I have

found. When somebody leaves the church

to go their own way, they never keep

their

faith. It's an absolute

truth. I have had beautiful worship

leaders. I have had great friends. I

have had amazing experiences. And every

time, for whatever reason, they left the

church, pretty soon they didn't want to

talk about God anymore.

The church is way more than you think it

is. And it's such a place of

blessing. I'm going to quote Francis

Schaefer. The church is something

beautiful.

You see, the reason I was so excited at

that work, and this is what I wanted to

tell you guys is I had been part of a

church that was all about

experience. But then I joined a small

group. And in this small group, and I

have to say this because it's absolutely

hilarious, the names of the people were

uh Trevor, Tanya, Terry,

Teresa, Tim, Tracy,

Trent, getting a No, they did not do

their small groups by

alphabet. I stood out because I wanted

to be different. So, Emry

joined. And in this small group, we

would come together and we had little

kids and there was different people of

different ages. And what would happen is

an amazing thing started to happen. We

weren't very smart theologically. I'm

not going to

lie. We didn't have it all figured out,

but we got together and we prayed and we

listened to the word. And then we'd also

just sit there and hang

out. And you know what? I'll tell you

something. We saw God do amazing things

because we were the

church. And that buzz that was happening

in me was something was being met in me

because I was in

community. I was being changed on the

inside. It wasn't always easy. Sometimes

iron sharpens iron, right? Isn't that

the saying? Is that what it is? I don't

know. Okay, somebody's nodded. You guys

got to nod. My brain doesn't always

work.

But what I'm saying to you is that group

to this day, I love every one of them.

We haven't worshiped together in years,

but there is a connection in a community

that my personal biological family I've

never had

with. Incredible, incredible people. And

I'll tell you what, unless you taste it

and you're willing to go in, you'll

never know how what Paul's saying is

true. I got to taste at moments the

presence of God as we sat in that

basement with that awful fireplace. They

heated their h house with a wood

fireplace and you were in the room of

the wood stove. Do you know how hot that

gets? It was a miracle we weren't all

killed. And yet we sat there and we

prayed and we worshiped and we hung out

and we had dinners and we did everything

together. And all of a sudden when

somebody was sick, we'd go pray and we

saw people get

healed and we saw incredible things

happen. And to this day, I can call any

one of them up and say, "Do you guys

want to go for a coffee?" And it's like

nothing's changed because God did

something. I know other you have had

that. We need the church. And it's

beautiful. You're going to hear me push

small groups. I'm in a small group now.

And I love these young people. I'm the

old guy now, which is funny cuz they I

think they tolerate you when you're

old. These wonderful young

people. And we got a nice mix. And I'll

tell you what, there's not one Monday I

want to miss because it's in coming

together that I see myself come

alive. The church is something

beautiful.

The funny part is we all have stories

where the church has been less than

nice, right? We can all

agree. But here's the thing I've thought

about. How do I handle

that? Well, guess what? The church is

also the one place you can go and offer

forgiveness to those who've messed you

up and receive forgiveness when you

have.

A lot of

people see church today as a place of

entertainment, a place to have their

self

fed. I feel sad about

that because it's the greatest place

where God dwells and he wants to make us

fully human.

And I tell you one thing, if you want to

walk as citizens and children of God,

then you better get right with the

church because that's where he's

working. Charles Spurgeon said, "Never

neglect the means of grace. God may

bless us when we are not in his house,

but we have a greater reason to hope

that he will when we are in communion

with his saints. bless

us. Let's come and believe that that we

are the

temple. Let's come and believe that we

are the place where God's decided to put

up his shop, where he's decided to

dwell. And let us get

involved and let's truly live this

Christian thing out together. And I

guarantee you on that day you will hear

the words, "Well done, my good and

faithful

servant." Let's

pray. Heavenly Father, you are so

good. You have given us this church. You

have put us together. You have saved us

into family.

We recognize that you're not calling us

to an certain institution, but to each

other. We recognize,

Father, how easy it is to go with the

culture and the

self, but truly that's

death. Help us to become part of the

Wii. Help us to put down our arrogance

and our our walls that keep people out.

Help us to become and take the risk of

joining together of loving, praying,

singing and walking with

you amongst our brothers and

sisters in Jesus

name. Amen.