Who Are We? // Strangers No More [Ephesians 2:11-22] (Geoff Smith)

Heavenly Father, we thank you for our Sunday school.

We thank you for the children of our church, and we just pray

today as they go to Sunday School.

Lord that the hearts will be open to hear the word that you

want them to hear. We thank you for our Sunday

School teachers. We thank you for their

dedication to teach our our young people your word and just

Lord give them clarity of thought and mind.

Today we pray and Lord, as Jeff comes up, we just thank you for

his willingness too to bring us the word of God and Lord, may

our hearts be open, may our ears be open, and Lord, may you

change us through your word. We pray as we ask in Jesus name.

Amen. For what a delight to be with

you, I have to say. This building has grown since I

was last in it, and I'd like to thank you for the invitation to

join with you and to open the scriptures with you.

If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to make a suggestion help you

improve on things. You might want to start a

building program. You're already full.

No. Do you want me to sit down?

He was being kind. I'm not a Christian till I've

had my third cup of coffee, so that's why I responded to my

good friend Paul. Well, lovely to be with you.

I mean that most sincerely. And how encouraging to see so

many different ethnic groups represented here and different

age groups represented here. It's a beautiful thing.

We're going to be talking about the importance of that today.

If you have your Bibles with you, we are turning to the book

of Ephesians, where I understand you've been.

Spending some time together and the passage that I have been

assigned today is Ephesians chapter 2, verses 11 through 22.

Ephesians 2:11–22

Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by

birth. And called uncircumcised by

those who call themselves the circumcision that done in the

body by the hands of men. Remember that at that time you

were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in

Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise without

hope and without God. In the world, but now in Christ

Jesus, you who were once 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 who were

near, for through him we both have access to the Father by 1

Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer

foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens, with God's

people and members of God's household built on the

foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus

himself as the chief cornerstone.

In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to

become a holy temple in the Lord.

And in Him you two are being built together to become a

dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.

These verses that we have read this morning are probably old

hat to you. If you've been a Christian for

any time, you would have wandered through the book of

Ephesians at some stage and you would have read these verses.

And yes, yes, I remember these. I've read these over and over

again. I understand what they're

saying, but we would have lost in the years between when Paul

wrote this and our reading this. We would have lost the scandal

and the shock value of these verses.

Back then, when Paul wrote this letter, the place was alive with

hostility. If you have a look at the text,

you will find that there is in verse 14 the dividing wall of

hostility. And then as you go down, you

find in verse 16 through the cross by which he put to death

there hostility. It's important to understand

that this was a period of alienation.

And you get that in verses 11:00 and 12:00.

And then you move on and find out that there's a solution to

this hostility and alienation. And it's called reconciliation.

And you find that in verses 13 through 18.

And then the chapter finishes out with what I've called

unification. And that's the taking of Jews

and Gentiles, the dividing wall of hostility being broken down.

And now together we are one family, we are one building, we

are one temple in the Lord. And so I've called that

unification. But we want to begin with

alienation. You will realize, of course,

that after the nations of the earth were formed in Genesis

Genesis 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10 and 11, God went on to create a special nation, a

unique nation, the nation of Israel.

And he did that when he called Abraham out of earth, called

these, and and said to him, Come with me, go to a land that I

will show you, and I will bless you, and I will make of you a

great nation. And your descendants will be as

many as the stars of the sky, or the sand of the seashore, or the

dust of the earth. Now if God had told me that I

would have fainted, especially being Abraham's age, I would

have said no go and no show. It's all over Red Rover and I'm

well beyond that kind of stuff. And especially with his wife,

who had been barren ever since they were married.

And God said, now I'm going to give you the biggest family you

ever imagined and the most important family on the face of

the earth. And God created out of a miracle

the nation of Israel. I don't know if you realize, but

the three patriarchs have wives who are all barren.

And when God said I will make of you a great nation, He meant He

would do it, not them, And he would overcome the barrier of

barrenness and create a great nation out of Abraham.

Isaac and Jacob. And that nation was to have 3

purposes in the world. They were, of course to bring

the revelation of God, and in their history you could see the

God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, who

happened to be the creator of the universe.

You happen to see him break into history and reveal himself.

Sometimes and acts of deliverance sometimes and acts

of power. Sometimes miraculously,

sometimes sovereignly. But all the time he's revealing

himself in the nation of Israel. That was purpose #1, to reveal

God. Purpose number two was to record

the Scriptures, and the Bible tells us that to the Jews belong

the oracles of God. Romans chapter 3, verse 2.

Romans 3:2

And so their second purpose was to bring to the world the Sacred

Scriptures, the ones that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob

had given them. Their third great responsibility

in the world was to bring into the world the Messiah.

They were to be the channel through whom this special

individual would come into the world.

Back in Genesis 315, after Adam and Eve had sinned, God promised

that someone would come one day who would put his heel on the

head of the serpent and get rid of sin and all of its problems

and repercussions, forever and ever and ever.

He would destroy the devil, he singular, not they.

A committee could never pull this one off.

And so God said, no, it's not going to be a committee.

It's going to be an individual. And that individual would be a

male, and that male would be of the seed of the woman.

It's not going to be a Martian. It's not going to be an Angel.

It's not going to be some extraterrestrial being.

It's going to be a human being. And through suffering, he's

going to put his heel on the head of the serpent and crush

him and be victorious over him. That, of course, has been the

hope of the ages. And it's not until you get to

Genesis Chapter 9 that you find out that individual is going to

Genesis 9 · chapter mention

come through the line of sham. It's going to be Semitic

individual. And then by the time you get to

Genesis chapter 12, you find out that individual is going to be

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

from the line of Abraham. He's not only going to be

Semitic, he's going to be actually Jewish.

And and so we see how special that is.

By the way, every Christmas we think about God becoming a man,

but he never became a generic man.

God became a Jew. In the person of Jesus of

Nazareth and we we often overlook that he's not American,

he's not German, he's not Japanese.

God incarnated himself into the human race through the Jewish

nation. And when Jesus was born, you

could trace his Jewish genealogy right back to the very

beginning. He's the son of David, the son

of Abraham. Well, that's the three purposes

of the Jewish nation tucked away in Romans Chapter 9.

Romans 9 · chapter mention

These amazing words Paul is writing.

And he says, For I could wish that I myself were cursed and

cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers.

Those of my own race, the people of Israel.

There's is the adoption of sons, there's the divine glory, the

covenants, the receiving of the Lord, the temple worship and the

promises. There's of the patriarchs.

And from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is

God over all, forever praised now.

What I want to do is put that in bullet form for you and here it

goes. If you're wondering what's

special about Israel, it's this. They are have the adoption as

sons. That means God has placed them

in a special relationship with himself and Exodus 422.

Israel is called my first born son.

And so God has elevated this nation above all of the others.

And while he's God of the whole world, this nation stands in

relation to him in the special relationship.

So there's is the adoption of sons, there's is the divine

glory. Can you imagine that?

Right through the history of Israel, the Shakinah glory of

God was manifest And he showed up at the burning Bush and he

showed up. On the the release of the

children of Israel from Egypt, and through the pillar of fire

and the cloud, he guided them all the way.

And then when they established the Tabernacle and later the

temple, the Shekinah glory came and dwelt in both of those

structures. And so God was resident with the

nation of Israel. And to them belong to divine

glory. No other nation had God in

residence, to them belong to covenants.

Can you imagine? God had entered into legal

contract with the nation of Israel and the great covenants

of the Bible, the Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic covenant,

the land covenant, the Dividic covenant, the New covenant, all

of these great. History determining covenants

belong to the nation of Israel. God had not entered into that

kind of contract with any other nation.

And then to them was given the lore, the the commandments of

God, and to them the temple worship, and to them the

promises emanating from Genesis 315.

To them belong the great patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and

Jacob. And then from them would come

Messiah, who is God over all, forever blessed.

That's pretty special, don't you think?

I think that is. I mean, if you're going for 10

out of 10, it's right there. But what happens when you put us

Gentiles up? Well, it's not looking so good.

You see here, here. Here's a blue funk right here in

the Ephesians chapter 2. Remember that formally you, who

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

are Gentiles by birth and called the uncircumcised by the

circumcision, you were separate from Christ.

You were excluded from the citizenship in Israel.

You were foreigners to the covenants of the promise.

You were without hope. Can you imagine this?

You imagine how dreadful this is without hope?

Now the Jewish nation was full of hope.

They were standing on tip toes waiting for Messiah.

Now they were confused about the role Messiah would play.

But they were expecting Messiah to come and deliver Israel from

all of their oppressors. And to establish the Kingdom of

David again on earth that would not only rule over Israel, but

rule over the entire planet. They were standing on tip toes.

They were waiting for Messiah. They were a nation filled with

hope. You only have to read the

prophets to realize that Israel was a nation that was jammed

with hope, brimming with hope. But not the Gentiles.

Life was confusing for them. Life was tragic for them.

You get into some of the philosophers of the day and you

will find out that they are pretty despondent.

They are filled with despair. Life is meaningless.

In fact, the best thing you can do is be born, and the second

best thing you can do is to die quickly.

Because that's how bad life is. It it it is bad.

But for the Jews, they were filled with hope, not us.

We were without hope and without God.

Now the Gentiles had created their gods, but if you read the

Psalms, their gods were not that good.

They had eyes that could not see.

They had lips that could not speak.

They had arms that could not move, and they had legs that

could not walk. And you'd say to yourself, why,

in the name of seven bald cats with anyone want to worship a

God that had eyes that couldn't see, ears that couldn't hear,

lips that couldn't speak, arms that couldn't move, and feet

that couldn't walk, why in the world would you?

Well, because it's convenient. No one's keeping an eye on you.

No one can hear the lies you tell.

No one can see the immorality you commit.

No one can say anything about it.

Because their lips don't work. They can't intervene because

they have arms that will not move.

And when you leave town, you leave them behind and you can go

do what you want, when you want, how you want.

That's the absurdity of idolatry.

So here are us Gentiles, separate from Christ, excluded

from citizenship in Israel, Foreigners, strangers to the

covenants and to the promise. Well, the chapter then turns to

reconciliation. Don't you love that little word

but tucked away in verse 13? But now in Christ Jesus, you who

were once far away have been brought near through the blood

of Christ, while suddenly the whole picture moves.

It was a blue funk until you get to verse 13, and now it's jammed

with excitement. But now in Christ Jesus, you who

were once far away have been brought near to God through the

blood of Christ. Well, how has he done that?

Well, he's our peace. Who has made the two one?

You see now he's taken the Jews who was separated off there by

the regulations and and the commandments of the law.

And he has made out of the two one new man, and he has

destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.

What was that dividing wall of hostility between the Jews and

the Gentiles? Well, it was the law.

Have a look. How did he destroy the dividing

wall of hostility? He abolished in his flesh the

law with its commandments and regulations.

In other words, when Christ died, He abolished the law.

He took the full penalty of the violations of the law.

He paid the debt in full. It can never be brought to

account again. It's all been done with and done

away. And why?

Well, his purpose was to create in himself one new man out of

the two, and thus making peace, and in this body to reconcile

both of them to God through the cross by which he put to death

their hostility. And so now out of these two

factions, Jews and Gentiles, God has created one new man.

If you go over the 1st Corinthians 10 talks about the

Jews, the Gentiles and the Church of God, well now he's

broken down that wall of hostility, that separation

between the Jews and the Gentiles, and now he has brought

both to be one new person, and he's done that through the blood

of his cross. His purpose was to create in

himself one new man out of the two that's 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.

So he came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace

to those who were near. And through him we both have

access by to the Father, by 1 Spirit.

So we start off with alienation. The Jews over here, the Gentiles

over here. But now these two opposing

groups have been brought together, and the wall of

hostility between the two has been demolished through the

death of Jesus Christ. And through his death he's

brought Jews and Gentiles together to the Father, and we

both now have access to the Father by 1 Spirit.

This is a wonderful thing. And then the chapter finishes

with unification. Well, what's he done with these

two? Well, consequently, you

Gentiles, verse 19, are no longer foreigners.

You're no longer aliens, but your fellow citizens with God's

people and members of God's household built on the

foundation of apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus

himself as the cornerstone. And in him the whole building is

joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the

Lord. And in Him you too are being

built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by

His Spirit. Isn't that a wonderful thing?

No longer on the outside, no longer a stranger, no longer

excluded. You and I, since the death of

Jesus Christ, have been brought into one family.

We've been brought into one body, we've been brought into

one building, and we have become the temple of the living God.

And he dwells here and lives among us.

Now. Apparently a sermon is meant to

do 4 things. First thing it's meant to do is

stretch your mind, give you something to think about.

Second thing it's meant to do is tan your hide.

You know what I mean? It's profitable for correction.

Third thing a sermon is meant to do is warm your heart.

And the fourth thing is sermon is meant to do is provoke your

will. So let me do some provoking

because I'm lacking on coffee. How important is the church to

you? How important is the Church to

you? Now you've seen how important it

is to God. His son has broken down the

hostility and out of the Jews and the Gentiles.

He's made one new man, and this is now his dwelling place in the

Spirit, not in the Temple. Now mark it well.

We Gentiles have not become Jews.

We have not entered into the citizenship of Israel.

Those geopolitical promises that God made to Israel are going to

be fulfilled in the future. In the meantime, he has done

this one new man thing. He's put us both together in one

body and he's done that deliberately.

And now our business is to function together in that one

body. And what excites me so about

this morning is I look around, I see different ethnicities and I

know there's some of our Maori people here.

There are some folks from India here, some folks from Fiji.

I know there's some from Ireland, some from England, and

there must be many more from what?

And here we are gathered together.

Now I know we're here for a service, but we're actually

placed in one body, and we are meant to live together and

function together in this one body and to love one another.

You know, the Lord Jesus said, by this shall all men know that

you're my disciples. If you love one another and you

and I've got that down, we say, well, we don't get too excited

about that. Well, that's true.

We have heard it so many times. Let me take you to John 17 and

Jesus says this in verse 23. May they be brought to complete

unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them

even as you have loved me. Did you get it?

May they be be brought to complete unity, to let the world

know that you sent me. See, our world is shot through

with hostility, isn't it? If ever we lived in a broken

world, it's now. There are problems not over only

in the Ukraine and Russia. You go down Africa, there are

problems there. You go to America, there are

problems there. We've got our own problems here.

There are problems all over the world.

That's the problem of China and Taiwan.

There's a problem with China and the Pacific.

Doesn't matter what part of the globe you go to.

We are all terrified of the developments that are recurring,

and people are shot through with hostility and with division and

with hatred. But here in this little

organization called the Church, that hostility disappears, and

these people of all different ages and all different

ethnicities have come together in love and in unity through the

shed blood of the Lord Jesus and the activity of the one's

spirit. And the reason is so that God

can get the attention of the world and tell them that unity

does not come from politics, it comes from faith.

And so this group here and all of God's people in the invisible

church are functioning together that the world might know you

have sent me. So when people see us, they say,

how in the world does this happen?

I I mean, these Indian guys eat so much hot Curry, it would kill

the rest of this. How can they sit down, have

lunch together and enjoy one another's company?

Well, the answer is the blood of Jesus.

See, they're bowing at the feet of Jesus.

We're bowing at the feet of Jesus.

His blood has cleansed them and his blood has cleansed us.

Doesn't matter where you go in the world, you find this amazing

fellowship in the people of God. And it's meant to say to the

world, look, there's only one person who can bring unity out

of division, and it's him. And that's why it's so important

that we love one another, so that the world might know that

God has sinned, the Lord Jesus into the world.

Who's responsible for this? This group?

Who's responsible for this homogeneous group of diverse

people? Only one explanation, Only God

could do this. You see how these people of

different ages love one another? You see how young people love

the older people? Well, on Tuesdays anyway.

But have you seen how older people love the young people?

See? It's so important that we

function because people out there have no hope.

What they see and hear is something quite unique or should

be. And that's why Jesus said love

one another. Now, the trouble with that word

love is that it's so greasy, isn't it?

I mean, it slips through your fingers like you wouldn't

believe. I mean, we say, well, I love the

All Blacks and then we take that word and we say I love steak,

sirloin, medium rare. Love it.

Now there are some people on the planet, believe it or not, who

say I love golf and I don't understand that.

Seems to me a lovely walk ruined by a small white ball.

And then we say I love ice cream.

Well, you know I do. I didn't get this shape by

looking at it. And then you say I love you.

Well, really. Well, what do you mean by that?

It was CS Lewis who wrote a book called The Four Loves and

alerted us to the fact that there are different words for

love. This word aeros, as you know the

word aeros is an interesting word.

It means I love you because you flicked my switch.

Read into that what you want. I love you because you turned me

on. Here's a little poem about that

kind of love. John's girl is rich and haughty.

My girl is poor as clay. John's girl is young and pretty.

Mine looks like a Bale of hay. John's girl is smart and clever.

My girl is dumb but good. Would I swap my girl for John's

girl? You bet your life I would.

That's Eros was Richard Wembrandt, who years ago warned

us that the man who says I want you for the rest of your life

and the man who says just tonight will do both.

Say I love you. Yeah, it's a greasy word.

Then there is the love that says I love you because you're

related to me and I have a moral obligation.

It's a genealogical necessity. I love you because I can't do

anything about it. Someone did a blood test and

found out that we together store gay.

I love you because I'm related to you.

And then of course you know that famous one, Filetto, from which

we get the word Philadelphia City of Brotherly Love.

Filetto means I love you because you're a good friend.

But when the Bible describes the love that the Lord Jesus has for

us and the love we're meant to have for one another, it leaves

those words and it takes up another word and fills it with

new meaning. And that is the word agape.

And agape is essentially not a feeling, You know?

Some people are always feeling their feelings to feel how their

feelings are feeling. And they find out that their

feelings are not feeling the way their feelings first felt when

they felt their feelings to see how their feelings were feeling.

So it gets a bit complicated and a bit exhausting.

Our love is not a feeling. We make the mistake of thinking

that love is a noun. Actually, it's a verb.

Love one another. You can't command a feeling.

You can't command an emotion, but you can command an action.

And love is essentially an action word for God To love the

world, He gave his one and only son.

The Son of God loved me and gave himself for me.

Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave

himself up for it. Yeah, love can be commanded

because love is not a feeling. You don't have to sit here next

to each other and try and whip up an emotion or a feeling.

We simply have to realize that through the shed blood of Jesus

Christ, each of us from different backgrounds and

ethnicities and cultures have been brought together into one

family. And now we are brothers by

blood, not ours but His. And it is our job now to put

this as a top priority and say, Lord Jesus, I've read about what

you intended. Now what do you want me to do

this week and for the rest of my life?

To foster the unity and the love and the oneness here at

Hookanooey Bible Church. That's what the sermons meant to

do. It's meant to stretch your mind.

It's meant to warm your heart, It's meant to tan your hide.

And it's meant to provoke your will.

So as we go out that door, don't leave the Unity behind because

the world is watching and while it doesn't want to admit it, no

one else can do with people what the Lord Jesus has done through

His shed blood. So there it is.

Church love one another so well that the people out there will

be knocking on our door saying, how did the world, how, how in

the wide world did this get to happen?

And then you'll have a chance to tell them about the answer, who

is your answer, and their answer as well.

Now, our Father, we thank you for these words of Scripture.

We believe with all our heart that you have given us these

words, specifically not to make us smarter sinners, but to make

us more like the Lord Jesus, and be pleased to help us to see the

relevance of this world, of this word, in the world that is shot

through with division and hatred and tension and agony.

And we long, Lord Jesus, for that wonderful day when you will

come again, and you will establish your reign of peace

and righteousness on this earth. And then the Father's will will

be done on earth as it is in heaven.

And your name will be honored and hallowed and glorified.

Until then, until that day let us give the world a little taste

in our relationships. Here and now.

We bring you our morning worship in Jesus name.

Amen.