Ephesians: One in Christ (2:11-22)

Hello, friends.

This is Pastor Creighton.

Thank you for tuning in to Newsong Church's Sermon Podcast.

At Newsong Church, we want to see Jesus lifted high in Port Perry, Ontario, as we worship, grow, and serve.

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Our New Testament reading this morning is found in the second chapter of Ephesians, beginning at the 11th verse.

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, soul 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.

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.

Christ has made us one and reconciled us to God in one body through the cross.

So let's pray.

You have done great things.

Who is like you, O God?

Lord, we know that's a rhetorical question.

The answer is no.

There is no one like you, O Lord.

There is no one gracious and steadfast and merciful like you are, Lord.

So, Father, we believe your word possesses authority.

Lord, would we encounter your word today in such a way that we behold Christ who fulfills your word.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.

Please be seated.

So, friends, we've been journeying together these last couple of weeks through uh the Apostle Paul's letter to the church in Ephesus.

We've been traveling through this letter with a question on our minds, and that question is: why bother with the church?

Largely speaking, this is Paul's letter to the church about the church.

It's a church that he helped to plant and pastor.

It's a church that has since grown in his absence, and now Paul is in prison in Rome writing this letter to the church, calling them to reckon with the reality of God's work in and through them.

So in chapter one, we figured we bother with the church because God has bothered with us, his people, the church.

He has chosen us and redeemed us and sealed us in Christ.

He has given us a glorious hope and a heavenly inheritance.

And so in chapter two, just this last Sunday, we reckoned with the gospel ringing as clearly as a bell in our midst, forming us and shaping us and gripping us in his grace.

Paul writes that you were dead in your trespasses and sins.

Apart from God's grace in Christ, we are helpless and hopeless.

But God made us alive together in Christ.

This is God's doing, not our own.

It is a pure gift.

Therefore, Paul concludes, By grace you have been saved through faith.

But notice this word in verse 5, chapter 2, verse 5, together.

God has made us alive together.

Not just as individuals, not just as those doing our own thing.

He's made us alive together, as his people, as the church.

And because this passage in front of us this morning hinges on a therefore, we see that Paul is not moving on to a separate thought.

He's continuing his thought.

He's continuing with the implications of God's saving work on our behalf in and through the church.

Paul wants this church in Ephesus to reckon with the fact that they are God's people.

They are the church.

And therefore they are made one in Christ.

Paul is calling the church to reckon with its unity, with its essential oneness, with its togetherness.

And this is not a small deal for these Ephesian Christians, because this is a church that experiences division.

Like so many of the churches that Paul writes to, social divisions and economic divisions.

And thank goodness, all of these divisions were solved in the first century, and we don't experience any division in the church today.

That was a cheap chuckle, wasn't it?

That's important, isn't it?

Because we still experience division.

I think it's important for us saints to receive this word afresh, to reckon with this essential oneness that we are called to as well, as new song, yes, as members of Christ's one holy Catholic Church.

God's people are made one in Christ.

And how is that the case?

I think Paul underlines three things.

Three things that God is up to in and through the church to make us one.

Christ brings near those who are otherwise far off to make us one.

Christ breaks down walls of hostility that separate us so that we can be one.

And Christ builds us up into something we could not be otherwise, just on our own, so that we may be his one holy habitation.

Christ brings near, breaks down, and builds up so that we can be one.

So again, all this should highlight the fact that the church is not our doing.

The church is not our work, it is fully and fundamentally God's work on our behalf.

He is the one at work bringing us and breaking down hostility and building us up.

When we reckon with the church, we reckon with what God is up to.

So let's reckon with that oneness that God is doing in our midst.

First off, Christ brings us near so that we can be one.

Let's read verses 11 to 12.

If you have your Bibles, if you have your order of service, I'd encourage you to pull out Ephesians chapter 2, and I'm going to read verses 11 and 12.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

Paul writes, 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 covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

What's Paul talking about?

Well, the bottom line here is Paul is talking about the difference between those who, apart from grace, are left without or far off or outside, and those who are within, those who are near.

Truthfully, the first thing that comes to my mind to conceptualize this is my own experience of belonging to something exclusive.

I do belong to something exclusive, and I don't often share it because I'm worried that folks will perceive me to be elitist, but I do belong to a pretty exclusive, prestigious international organization called Costco.

And uh and I know, yeah.

But um but you know, Costco, if if if if you're familiar with Costco, uh it's uh it it it is an elite organization to to uh be a member of.

It's uh and it comes with a lot of benefits, of course.

Um I'm not gonna be selling you Costco memberships after the service, by the way.

But it does come with with benefits.

And uh and I love Costco, and and not the least of its benefits are the free samples you get, and may they come back soon.

But uh but I always look forward to my trip to Costco.

And the thing about Costco that separates it from shopping at Walmart or shopping at Canadian Tire, whatever else it is, is that you have to be a Costco member to claim these benefits for yourselves, right?

And only once, um, tragically, did I forget my Costco membership card, the sign of my membership at home, which is a very humiliating experience because there's just nothing you can do at that point with a cartload, you know, full of too many groceries.

The point is this there's a sense in which you, if you belong, if you can show your sign of covenant membership, that that, pardon me, your your membership in this organization, Costco, you can claim the benefits for yourselves.

You are you are inside the membership.

You are you are brought near, so to speak, to the uh the to the benefits that you can claim.

But if you're outside of that, if you're not a member, well, good luck to you.

You're without hope to claim those benefits for yourself.

Now, this is just such an imperfect picture of what Paul is reckoning with in such a more fundamental way in our experience of faith.

See, Paul knows the division in this Ephesian church, like the division in so many churches at this time, is a division between Jews and Gentiles, between the people of Israel, God's chosen covenant people, and those outside of Israel.

Because to Israel, Paul writes in Romans chapter 9, to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.

Romans 9 · chapter mention

See, God has freely chosen to give all of the benefits of membership of his covenant to his people Israel.

Israel has a claim to the benefits of God's promises as members of God's covenant people, and the sign of their membership is circumcision.

We see that Paul mentioning circumcision here in verse 1.

Circumcision was a physical sign, a sign of God's covenant promises engrafted in the flesh, so to speak, so that as one generation procreates another, it is so clear that they are doing so in the context of God's promises.

They're doing so as God's covenant people, and they continue to be God's covenant people from generation to generation.

And what we have to reckon with is the fact that this, even this membership of God's covenant community, is nothing Israel earned for themselves, but is purely an act of God's grace.

He didn't have to choose Israel for himself, but he chose to choose Israel, not because they were something special, but because God in his grace chose this people not to be a reservoir of his blessing, but to be a people who bless the world as a conduit of his blessing.

Well, what if you weren't an Israelite?

You were a Gentile.

You were what Paul describes as the uncircumcision, which was a pejorative term that uh Jewish Christians had towards non-Jewish Christians, or to Gentiles generally, they were uncircumcised.

They had no sign of covenant membership, they had no claim to God's benefits of salvation.

They were separated.

And this is literally true in the temple.

There were Gentiles who worshiped God, but they were confined to an outer court in the temple with a dividing wall between this outer court and the inner court that Jews were allowed to go and worship God in.

There was a clear sense of division, a clear sense of you guys can hang out, but you don't belong.

And this fostered a sense of pride on one half of this church who felt like we belong in a way that you don't.

And so often the Gentiles responded with a sense of pride in, well, we can do a better job of being Christians than you can.

They were separated, they were alienated, outsiders.

Apart from God's grace, they were strangers with no hope and without God in the world.

And maybe ringing in our ears should be Ephesians 2.1, which we saw last week, that you are dead in your trespasses and sins apart from grace.

Apart from God's gracious work to bring you in and draw you near, we are without hope.

We are without God.

And this is a bleak outlook so far.

But here's another great but that Paul includes, a great negation.

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

See, it's through Christ's substitutionary work on the cross, for him dying for Jews and for Gentiles alike, all those who are on the outside of God's covenant blessing, so to speak, now have full claim to his benefits through Christ.

That's why Jesus says to his disciples in John chapter 12, that I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself, not just a particular people, nor just those who have earned it by their good works, I will draw all people to myself.

John 12 · chapter mention

There will be no social divisions that get in the way of my redemptive work.

And just in case we're unclear about whether or not he's talking about the cross, the narrator interjects, uh John interjects to say that Jesus said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

Jesus' purpose in the cross was to bring near those who are far off, that they might know the blessings and benefits of knowing God in a saving way.

And it's through the cross that a multi-ethnic family of faith is made possible, without borders, without boundaries.

Christ brings near to make us, his holy people, one.

So why is Paul writing this?

He wants Gentiles, Gentiles in particular, that's who he's addressing, to remember.

Do you see that?

In verse 1 and verse 2, Paul repeats this verb, remember.

And this isn't just, you know, call this to mind.

This isn't just, you know, write this down on your checklist, don't forget this.

This is bring this to the forefront of your imagination in such a way that you remain thankful and assured that God has accomplished your salvation on your behalf.

Be thankful, Gentiles, that your salvation is a gift of God in Christ.

Rest assured that you have been saved by grace through faith.

Friends, we ought always to remember that God's generous grace to us is a gift.

And when we assemble as his people, we assemble as those who need to remember God's generous grace towards us at all times in Christ.

Apart from Christ, we are far off.

We are without God and without hope.

But through Christ and His cross, we are being drawn near to His saving promises.

But when desperate people, or that is scattered people, are being drawn near and they're being brought together, often we see conflict getting generated.

And maybe if you've been to a family reunion, you've seen something like that happen.

When people who are otherwise far off have a way of getting together, it has a way of bringing up old resentments sometimes.

But bringing up those old conflicts, those old wounds, maybe.

They can be uncomfortable experiences, and those walls of hostility can go up just as fresh as they were maybe 10, 20, 30 years ago.

We're not just called to sort of come together and be near to God.

We're called to be those for whom Christ is breaking down walls of hostility such that we live in peace, just as Christ Himself is our peace.

Christ brings us near, and he breaks down the walls of hostility.

Let's look at verse 14 here.

For Christ Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.

When Paul says makes us both one, he's talking about Jew and Gentile, and he's saying, for both of these social interest groups, Christ is our peace.

It's also how the Greek text translates this Hebrew word shalom.

It's not just this sort of this absence of conflict, not just sort of like, yeah, we we we we don't really get along, but we're kind of just gonna tolerate each other, we're just gonna grit our teeth, and we're kind of just gonna get through Sunday to Sunday together.

No, this is harmony.

This is reconciliation.

This is the new life of forgiveness and unity.

This is bringing two warring parties together in a way that they otherwise could not be.

This is two peoples being made one.

And that's why Paul talks about Christ, who is our peace, is breaking down the walls of hostility.

How is he doing this?

Well, in the Ephesian context, Paul says, verse 15, he's breaking down the walls of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, which is to say this.

This word uh abolishing, you could also translate setting aside or nullifying.

And I think that's important because Jesus didn't come to just throw the Old Testament in the bin.

Okay, never mind that.

We're starting fresh here.

No, we know from Christ's teaching in Matthew chapter 5 on the Sermon of the Mount that he came not to abolish the law and the prophets in that sense, but came rather to fulfill them.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

He came to be the one to whom the law points, ultimately fulfilling God's promises to his people, so that God's people are no longer members by virtue of their relationship to the law.

They're members of his covenant by relationship to Christ.

We live as those not under the law, but those who are in Christ.

And that's true, Paul understands, for both Jew and Gentile.

He is making us one.

He is breaking down walls of hostility.

And for what purpose?

Well, verses 15 and 16, that Christ might create in himself one new man or one new humanity in place of the two, the two otherwise warring parties, so making peace, and he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

So Jew and Gentile alike in Christ share a common Savior.

And that means they share in a common body together, a common church.

There's not two churches gathering in the same place at the same time, one for Jews and one for Gentiles.

No, they are the one body of Christ, expressing that essential unity that Christ has won for us on the cross because he is our peace who appears.

Accomplished for us peace with God.

So just as we are reconciled to God in Christ, just as Christ has satisfied God's wrath against sin on our behalf, so too are we reconciled with one another.

We are forgiven by God in Christ, and we ought to forgive and fellowship with one another in Christ.

Paul's bottom line is this God's people, the church, are one body, not many, not separate bodies.

We are one body.

And we are one body reconciled to God, experiencing perfect fellowship and relationship with Him in Christ, saved by grace alone.

We are one body reconciled to God with no hostility towards one another.

Because how can you be reconciled to God?

How can you experience Christ as your peace without giving that expression in the life of the body itself?

See, Paul is speaking specifically about the hostility, the cultural hostility between Jew and Gentile in the life of the church.

I'd be very surprised if we had that in the 21st century or here at New Song.

But we know that we're not graduated from hostility in the church, are we?

Just bring up worship preferences.

Some folks love the old hymns and think that's all we should sing.

Other folks think, what are we doing singing the old hymns?

We need to sing the new stuff.

And the tragedy, friends, is that church is split over this.

People say I would rather have the music I like than have fellowship with you.

And walls of hostility go up.

Not just preferences, how about politics?

I'd be very surprised if we all voted for the same candidate in the last federal election, right?

Let alone the whole church.

When we say my political platform matters more to me than you, walls of hostility go up.

Forgive me if I just take one step further and I suggest our views on the pandemic.

I have not seen a single issue bring such an enormous wall of hostility right down the middle of the church as this pandemic.

Views on protocols, views on vaccines, views on mandates.

Don't get me wrong, I'm vaccinated and I think Christians have good reason to get vaccinated, but my brothers and sisters in Christ, not all of them agree with me.

So what am I gonna do?

Curse them under my breath?

Call them stupid?

Say my point matters more than you?

Friends, we can disagree.

We're family.

Families don't always agree on everything, do they?

But we're called to disagree as Christians, called to disagree as those who are in Christ who is our peace.

And therefore we're called to extend that peace to one another.

That's what makes the passing of the peace so significant.

We're recognizing what Christ has accomplished on our behalf, and we're expressing the desire to see that made manifest amongst one another.

And we're to do so without hostility.

If we are in Christ, if he is our peace, then we have to hand over the right to hold ill will or resentment against brothers and sisters in Christ and let him crucify it.

We can disagree, but we do so as Christians, without desiring the worst for our brothers and sisters, or thinking uncharitably towards them.

Friends, Christ breaks down our hostility to make us one.

And it's that essential oneness to which he calls us.

He brings us near, he breaks down hostility, that's his work.

And finally, what Paul wants us to see is that Christ builds up his church as a holy household, a habitation for himself.

Let's look at verses 19 to 21.

This is where we're going to land.

Paul wants us to catch the significance of Christ's work in the church.

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 the prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

So Paul wants to sketch out, it's like three impressionistic sketches of what it means to be built up in this unity.

If we've been brought near, if hostility is being broken down, then Christ is building us up into something we otherwise couldn't be ourselves.

And Paul sees three examples, three illustrations of what this being built up looks like.

Number one, it looks like being citizens and not aliens.

We are citizens together of a heavenly country, and we gather together here at our embassy.

And if you've ever immigrated from one country to another, you know how significant a statement that is.

You're not just hanging around, you have privileges and rights, and you belong.

So Christ said, or pardon me, so Paul says, in Christ, you all, Jew and Gentile, across all kinds of social spectrums, you all together are citizens of one kingdom and are subjects of one king in a saintly country.

We are citizens together.

Not just that, we are family members together.

Did you catch that?

Verse 19.

You are fellow citizens of the saints, yes.

You are members of the household of God, not strangers, family members.

Not even just guests who are nice to have over for some wine and cheese or something once in a while.

You're family, you belong, you have a house key.

Show up any time.

You are welcomed into this household.

This is God's purpose in adopting us in Christ.

When we the church gather on a Sunday morning, this is for us a family reunion, not to be characterized by hostility or old resentments because we see Christ breaking down those hostilities.

It's to be marked by love and by peace.

We are citizens, we are family members, and then Christ, and then Paul says we are a holy temple.

We're no longer those who are far off and without hope and without God.

We're actually being made part of this holy dwelling place of God on earth as it is in heaven.

In 1 Kings chapter 6, the temple is built and it's described as God's dwelling place amongst his people.

1 Kings 6 · chapter mention

It's where his presence is going to be made known.

It's where heaven and earth overlap together.

Paul understands that God has now made his presence known, not in a building, but he's made it known most fully in Christ.

And if we are in Christ through his Holy Spirit, we are united to him, we belong to that one body.

So when we gather together, saints, believe it or not, we gather not as those who come to a holy temple where God lives, we come to be the holy temple where God lives, where God makes his presence known.

Admittedly, this is hard during COVID, because here we are gathered, many of us in person, many of us online, we see that division of geography, or maybe not division, maybe just that distance.

It's hard to make fully known and fully manifest that sense of being a holy temple, being that place where God resides.

And while online can approximate that worship and that common life together, it can't replicate it, it can't fulfill it.

So we know that online is a blessing for the time being.

It gives us a very safe way to worship and gather in a way in person.

But we know that the fullest sense of our life together as his holy temple is to be gathered in person.

And so we ought to be praying accordingly, that we would gather safely and fully and sing without masks and make his presence known.

But Paul doesn't want us to miss what's at the center of it all.

Verse 20 Christ Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

See, cornerstones ensure stability.

They bear the weight of the building, and so too does Christ in the midst of his body.

It's in our common life together that we grow in him and find our stability and find our rootedness.

Christ builds us up as one holy people to be what we otherwise cannot be on our own, a holy dwelling place for God by his spirit.

Verse 22 in him, you also being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

So think about that new song.

Let that land on you.

God is calling us to be his holy temple, to be where he makes his presence and saving benefits known.

What a privilege.

So, dear church, God is calling us to be one in Christ.

God is at work in Christ, bringing us near.

Do you think we would be brought near apart from God's work?

I mean, we might live in Port Perry, we might bump into one another on the street, but we would not share in this common life if it weren't God, by his grace, gathering us.

And he's breaking down walls of hostility when we recognize that Christ is our peace and we strive towards him together.

Suddenly those walls that we can build up get broken down.

And he's building us up together to be a holy dwelling place, something we could not be otherwise.

So here's where I'd like to end.

I'd like to pray a simple line that Paul prays, as it were, over the Colossian church, Colossians 3.15.

May this be true for us at New Song.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.

Amen.

Thank you for listening today.

We worship a generous God who calls us to follow Him in giving willfully, cheerfully, and sacrificially.

Newsong Church's mission and ministry is one hundred percent funded by the generous gifts of those worshiping and journeying with us.

If you'd like to offer a gift towards Newsong's ministry, please visit Newsongportperry.ca slash giving for more information on how to do that.

May God bless you and keep you today and every day.