Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] We are coming to Ephesians chapter 2, verses 11 through 22 in our study of Ephesians. And we're going to look at this topic of Jesus makes us one. So I'm going to ask you to use your imaginations for a moment. I'm going to ask you to do something.
[00:00:13] And all the introverts are frightened.
[00:00:18] This is what we're going to do.
[00:00:20] Let's imagine that we're in the first century church in Ephesus and you all over here are Jewish Christians, and you over here are Gentile Christians.
[00:00:34] So you Jewish Christians say to someone here, shalom.
[00:00:42] Can you do better than that?
[00:00:46] You Jewish Christians say, shalom better.
[00:00:52] And you say, hello.
[00:00:55] Hello.
[00:00:56] Thank you.
[00:00:59] Now there's these two groups and this is what the two groups were in that church.
[00:01:03] We're going to look at this idea of how does Jesus make us one? And so to understand Ephesians 2 better, let's give you some historical background. The city of Ephesus was a major city in the Mediterranean world. And it was known especially for the being the center of worship for the goddess Artemis. In fact, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world was the temple of Artemis in Ephesus. And many of the Gentiles came from the worship of the goddess Artemis. Now some historical background. According to Acts chapter 19, the apostle Paul came to Ephesus and as it was his custom is he went to the Jews first to the temp, to the synagogue and began to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the to the Jews in Ephesus.
[00:01:56] He began to open the Old Testament and show that Jesus was the promised Messiah. And if you read Acts 19, what happened is that some of the people in the Jewish community became obstinate and they maligned Paul.
[00:02:14] So after about three months he left the Jewish synagogue to preach and he went more to the Gentile world, to a lecture hall and he began preaching to the Gentiles as well the Gospel of Jesus Christ that he's that promised Messiah.
[00:02:29] And so what happened is some of the Jewish people became followers of Jesus and some of the Gentile people became followers of Jesus. And these two distinct groups are now joined into one new community, the body of Jesus Christ, the church.
[00:02:49] And this was a challenge, taking two distinct people groups who have historically been at odds with each other to make them one.
[00:03:03] But the reality is when they heard the Gospel and believed in Jesus, they became one.
[00:03:09] So in this section of Scripture, I think one of the main things that Paul is trying to communicate to the church in Ephesus is, since Jesus has made us one, how do we live as one?
[00:03:23] And that's complicated.
[00:03:25] I mean, there are all sorts of dietary law traditions. You knew the Scriptures well.
[00:03:31] You didn't know the Scriptures very well at all. And to form them into one body was particularly hard. It would be a bit like trying to start a church in rural Montana with Montana raptures and vegans.
[00:03:50] Potlucks would be a nightmare, wouldn't they?
[00:03:55] What's on the table?
[00:03:57] Beef brisket and tofu.
[00:04:01] But there'd be all these cultural differences. And making these people with such deep differences one was the challenge of living out the unity they actually had.
[00:04:11] So what he does is he walks through and says, this is how we live out our unity.
[00:04:16] This is how we become one and live as one. So the first thing he did was this. He said, remember who you were.
[00:04:26] Remember who you were. Now, to understand this text, you need to recognize that Paul is speaking to these two distinct groups, the Jews and the Gentiles.
[00:04:38] And remember, Paul's a Jew, so he's one of you all.
[00:04:42] And as she talks through this, you look at the personal pronouns to see who he's talking to.
[00:04:48] So look at the text carefully, and I'll emphasize some of the pro map pronouns. Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and are called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision.
[00:05:06] So one of the things that was different between the two of you is you had circumcised your male children at birth as a sign of a commitment to the covenant of following the God of Yahweh, the God of Israel, and you had not done that.
[00:05:22] And one of the things that typically happens when there's two groups at odds with each other, you call each other names.
[00:05:30] And you know what you began to do?
[00:05:32] Calling them this put down, you're uncircumcised.
[00:05:36] I think I could come up with better insults than that one.
[00:05:43] But there was a theological reality behind that.
[00:05:46] They were saying, we are part of God's covenant people, and you're not.
[00:05:53] You're not one of us.
[00:05:58] From birth, we were set apart to the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph and Jesus.
[00:06:06] But you weren't.
[00:06:09] Well, you didn't let that slide.
[00:06:12] And anti Semitism occurred then, as it does now, and you issued slurs against them.
[00:06:20] Historically, let's just say between you two groups, there was some bad blood.
[00:06:27] Historically, you didn't get along with each other. So what he says is, he says, therefore remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called uncircumcised by them. He goes on to remember, at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from the citizenship in Israel and foreigners, to the covenants of the promise.
[00:06:50] And then he adds this, without hope and without God in this world, Paul the Jew said some things theologically true. You weren't part of God's covenant people. He'd made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and trust the Jewish people.
[00:07:09] You weren't raised in that.
[00:07:12] You didn't know the promises, you didn't know the Scriptures. And as a result of this, he just summarizes with this two word description, without our two phrase description, you were without hope and without God in this world. Now here's a cool thing. I don't know if you know this. In the book of Ephesians, there's a grammatical element to the book that to me is just kind of fascinating.
[00:07:38] In Ephesians chapters 1, 2 and 3, Paul's verbs are normally in the indicative mood. What that means is indicative is a statement of fact.
[00:07:51] He just tells us what's true about believers.
[00:07:56] Now, when you get to chapters four, five and six, you see some indicatives and imperatives where he tells us what to do.
[00:08:04] But the point is, in chapters 1, 2, 3 of Ephesians, he doesn't tell us to do anything except for you Gentiles to do one thing.
[00:08:15] Instead, he says, this is what God has done for you. What God has done for you. God's doing.
[00:08:19] And in chapter four, therefore walk in a manner worthy. This is doctrine.
[00:08:25] This is duty. This is what you need to know. This is what you need to do, because you know what you know.
[00:08:34] The only exception to that is this verse right here. He asks you to do one thing, remember what it was like before you met Jesus.
[00:08:48] That's a good exercise, isn't it?
[00:08:52] Do you remember what it was like before you met Jesus? Well, you were without hope and without God.
[00:09:05] We need to cultivate a memory of life apart from Jesus.
[00:09:13] It's good to be reminded what life was like before we come to know him.
[00:09:19] You were without hope and without God.
[00:09:24] So he asked them to think back what it was like to be apart from Jesus rather than being with him, being separated from him. And he asked the Gentiles to remember life before Christ.
[00:09:38] Now, I was raised in a Christian home.
[00:09:42] Not only a Christian home, a pastor's home.
[00:09:47] For the first 20 years of my life, I went to church three times a week, every week.
[00:09:56] If people can get in heaven by Church attendance, I'm pretty comfortable.
[00:10:04] We were saturated with the gospel. We lived with the gospel.
[00:10:09] And in many ways, I look back, it was a great place to grow up.
[00:10:15] But as I began to grow, I turned 16.
[00:10:21] And 16 meant I could drive.
[00:10:27] And so I got a job so I could get a car, so I could get a girlfriend.
[00:10:34] And I got two out of three of those.
[00:10:42] What the job in the car gave me was freedom.
[00:10:47] I could go where I wanted to go and do what I wanted to do.
[00:10:53] And I began to try different things that I wouldn't have tried when I was at home, because I had freedom in that time. I had my junior and senior of high school, and then my freshman year of college, especially more in my freshman year, freshman year of college, I began to question Christianity, its validity, its belief, its historicity.
[00:11:17] I just began to question things. And I remember I began to play around with just maybe this idea of deism, that there's a God out there somewhere, but he doesn't have anything to do with us, to some form of agnosticism. Maybe there's a God, maybe there's not. And I began to deal with some of those questions at that time.
[00:11:33] And as I began to deal with those questions at that time, the other thing that began to help happen to me is I began to sense being lost.
[00:11:46] I was living without direction in my life.
[00:11:49] There was a sense of hopelessness, and I was trying to figure out these big questions on my own.
[00:11:59] I felt a bit like I was without hope, without God, because the relationship wasn't that deep.
[00:12:10] Now, I kept going to church three times a week at that time.
[00:12:14] And somewhere along the line, I heard this ancient quote from Augustine, one of the church followers. And he said this in prayer to God, you have made us for yourselves, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.
[00:12:31] You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. And I remember hearing that going, that's me.
[00:12:43] My heart is restless, and the only place I can find rest for my heart is to be in relationship of the God who created me and loved me.
[00:13:00] The light began to flicker a bit.
[00:13:03] The light began to flicker as who God was.
[00:13:07] And so a question I have for you.
[00:13:10] Are you thirsty?
[00:13:13] Is there a thirst within you that you're thirsty for something?
[00:13:20] Something is missing in your life because you are apart from God.
[00:13:26] One of the songs that we would sing frequently is probably my favorite hymn was the hymn Amazing Grace, because it really encapsulated some of the feelings I was going through where it Says amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me I once was lost but now I'm found Was blind but now I see.
[00:13:53] That simple phrase captured the essence of what I was going through in those times. I was questioning, I felt like I was lost and blind.
[00:14:04] And when I became, at 19, an all in follower of Jesus, the light came on.
[00:14:10] And I have direction in my life.
[00:14:13] And it hasn't changed since I was 19.
[00:14:16] Now I've had moments questioning and doubting and hardships.
[00:14:20] But the overall direction of my life since 19 was to be a follower of Jesus Christ. So now he's answering this question. Since Jesus has made us one, how do we live as one? And one of the first things is, remember who you are.
[00:14:36] Remember who you were.
[00:14:39] Which brings us to the next thing. Rejoice in what Christ has done. We see this in Ephesians 2, 13, 18. Now, to understand these next few verses, it's helpful to have an understanding of the Jewish temple in the time of Paul, when they were in Ephesus. So I just. Again, now that we're using our imaginations, you know, what do you all say?
[00:15:03] Yeah, what do y' all say? Hello. All right, Jews and Gentiles, one church. Paul says, hey, church, let's go to Jerusalem for a tour of Jerusalem.
[00:15:19] This is not true. It didn't happen, okay? We're using our imagination.
[00:15:23] So we all load up on buses, we all drive down to Jerusalem and we just can't wait. We're gonna go to the temple. We're gonna see the Temple. This is gonna be so great. So you go to the temple where God dwells. And you Gentiles, you knew the Temple of Artemis really well. This is really great. So you get so excited, you're gonna go. And then you get to the temple and there's this wall.
[00:15:49] And on the wall there's this stone.
[00:15:53] And engraved on the stone, it says this.
[00:15:57] Let no foreigner enter within the partition and enclosure surrounding the temple.
[00:16:05] Whoever is arrest will himself be responsible for his death, which will follow.
[00:16:14] How you feeling? Gentiles.
[00:16:18] You know, some churches put up signs, welcome visitors.
[00:16:24] This one says, if you come in, we'll kill you.
[00:16:32] This is what you could call this.
[00:16:34] You could call it a wall of hostility was built between the Jews and the Gentiles. And there was a court of Gentiles that you could come this far. Gentiles. But you couldn't cross over this wall because they would kill you if you did.
[00:16:54] Historically, there was between the two of you, a dividing wall. Of hostility.
[00:17:02] And there was a hatred and an enmity between the two groups.
[00:17:08] And so now what he's saying here is that but now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
[00:17:22] And in this verse, the who is you Gentiles.
[00:17:28] And then he gives the radical news of the Gospel.
[00:17:31] And take careful note of the personal pronouns again.
[00:17:36] For he himself is.
[00:17:39] What's Paul? Jewish. Our peace.
[00:17:44] So Paul's talking to his people.
[00:17:46] He said, for he himself is our peace. Who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.
[00:17:58] How did he do it?
[00:18:00] By abolishing in his flesh the law with his commandments and regulations.
[00:18:08] This is what Jesus did. He kept the whole Old Testament law perfectly for us, so that when a believing sinner placed faith in Jesus Christ, we receive his perfect, imputed righteousness.
[00:18:29] Do you know why I'm going to get to go into heaven?
[00:18:35] It isn't my stellar church attendance.
[00:18:40] It's that when I place faith in Jesus Christ, I receive the perfect righteousness of Jesus. And he declared me clean.
[00:18:51] And that's why we don't have to obey all of those laws in the Old Testament. And that's why we all can eat bacon.
[00:19:06] And the people said, amen.
[00:19:13] I just would like to see some of you Jews the first time you had a blt.
[00:19:20] What have I been missing?
[00:19:26] Because Jesus fulfilled the law to the T.
[00:19:31] And so there was a dividing wall of hostility. Which brings me to a question. It's a little more personal.
[00:19:39] Do you have a dividing wall of hostility towards someone?
[00:19:48] Is there a people group you just hate?
[00:19:57] If you hate them, I just want you to see what you're doing.
[00:20:04] You're hating someone God created and God loves.
[00:20:11] And if you hate anyone over here, you're hating someone who God loves.
[00:20:18] Oh, I love the Bible so much.
[00:20:22] And in John, chapter three, there's a story of Jesus going to a Jew. His name is Nicodemus.
[00:20:31] And he said to this righteous male, powerful spiritual leader, he says, you must be born again.
[00:20:45] You need to receive the righteousness of Christ, is what he's going to say, ultimately.
[00:20:52] And then he. The next thing is, you go to John chapter four.
[00:21:00] And the story opens with Jesus talking to a Samaritan woman at the well.
[00:21:09] And Jesus goes to the Samaritan woman and says, would you get me a drink of water, please?
[00:21:18] She was shocked because she says, what is it that you, a Jew, would speak to me as a Samaritan woman?
[00:21:32] And he goes, later on, I have Living water that you can drink from.
[00:21:38] What did Jesus do there?
[00:21:44] He stepped over the wall of hostility because he was saying, you need to be born again and you're welcome.
[00:21:57] I'm just telling you, when we get to heaven, I want to see the woman dwell more quickly than Nicodemus.
[00:22:10] You hated her, you despised her, you looked down upon her.
[00:22:17] And Jesus loves her and chose her.
[00:22:24] Do you have a wall of hostility?
[00:22:28] Do you see the utter foolishness of saying, I love you, God, but I hate people?
[00:22:36] This is what first John says. If you say, I love God, but I hate the church, he says, you're the liar and the truth isn't in you.
[00:22:45] Don't get mad at me, get mad at John.
[00:22:49] The evidence of a changed life is you see people as made in the image of God, created with dignity and worth. And. And we see in this text that he's dividing wall, dividing down the wall of hostility. So here we see that what Jesus did, his purpose was to create himself one new humanity out of the two, making peace in one body, to reconcile both of them to God through the Christ cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
[00:23:16] So what we see here is both groups need reconciliation to God. The Jews needed reconciliation. And as much as the Gentiles needed reconciliation, both need the same Savior. Both need the death on the cross for Jesus sin to pay for our sins. It is the death on cross that reconciles all of us, Jew and Gentile. Did you see the pronouns there? He has created himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace in one body, both of them to God through the cross, and and put to death their hostility.
[00:23:53] Also look at verse 17. Again, notice the pronouns. He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and to you who were near.
[00:24:04] For through him we both have access to God by one spirit.
[00:24:11] Through faith in Jesus finished work, we have access to God. And that's the reason for us to rejoice, because we are both accepted.
[00:24:21] And the wall of hostility has been torn down between us and now we are one new people.
[00:24:28] Which brings us to the next question. Well, how do we live as one, as believers in Christ? Functionally, we are one. How do we live it out? So here we see a few things that we can do.
[00:24:42] Recognize our mutual identity.
[00:24:44] Verse 19.
[00:24:46] Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household.
[00:24:59] So he's using the metaphor of a family.
[00:25:03] We are in the same family.
[00:25:06] We are in the same family. Then he uses an architectural one. Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ himself as the chief cornerstone. So we're one family. We're one building being built together. And what Paul wanted Gentile and Jewish believers to shift how they view one another.
[00:25:27] And he wanted them to see what unites us far outweighs what divides us, and that our similarities in Christ are greater than our dissimilarities.
[00:25:39] So the first thing is we recognize our mutual identity. Next thing is this by understanding the new reality.
[00:25:46] You ask a Gentile in Ephesus, hey, where's Artemis? They had to point to this. One of the seven wonders of the world, the temple of Artemis. She's right in there.
[00:25:57] If you want to go to Artemis and worship her, she's right in there.
[00:26:02] If you went to a Jew, you say, well, where's God? And they knew that God was, you know, omniscient, he was omnipresent. He was everything but. But his dwelling place among the people was in Jerusalem, in the temple. If you want to go to a place to find God, you go to the temple in Jerusalem.
[00:26:20] So what he's doing here then? He's. He's changing some of the analogy. And Ephesians 2, 21 and 22 says in him, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord and in him.
[00:26:36] You two are being built together to become a dwelling where God lives by the Spirit.
[00:26:46] Where is God now?
[00:26:51] You are the temple.
[00:26:56] He lives in you.
[00:27:01] Not in Jerusalem, Definitely not in Ephesus.
[00:27:06] He lives in you.
[00:27:10] Paul one time was so upset with the Corinthians about their immorality, he goes, what?
[00:27:16] Don't you know that you were the temple of the Holy Spirit, Christ in you the hope of glory.
[00:27:27] We are the dwelling place of God, and we are to manifest God in this culture and society.
[00:27:36] The temple of God is no longer a place, but a people, is no longer over there, but it is here. It is no longer a what. It's a who. And the who is you. We are the temple of God. He dwells in. In us.
[00:27:56] So that God dwells in you, dwells in them and them.
[00:28:03] And if Jesus, a Jew, could move into their house, maybe you could move into their lives now. Next thing we do by pursuing community, Kim and I just celebrated our 45th anniversary on August 21st.
[00:28:20] There she is, 45 years. The miraculous mathematics of marriage occurred where one plus one became one.
[00:28:34] We're one flesh, the two of us are.
[00:28:40] And in a similar way, we're one body.
[00:28:45] I remember a few Years in our marriage, I had kind of a disturbing thing, and I lost my feelings of love for her.
[00:29:01] You know, like the Righteous Brother song, we've lost that loving feeling.
[00:29:06] Whoa, whoa, whoa.
[00:29:09] That loving feeling.
[00:29:11] And it was gone, gone, gone. Oh, oh, oh.
[00:29:19] I just wasn't feeling it.
[00:29:21] This is what came to mind.
[00:29:25] You vowed a vow.
[00:29:28] I said to her and the people were there and to God, I will love her.
[00:29:35] So what I began to do, even though I didn't have feelings, I began to do loving actions toward her, and the loving feelings came back.
[00:29:47] It is frequently easier to act your way into a new way of feeling rather than to feel your way into new way of acting.
[00:29:58] And this is what I recognize. The more I act in love toward Kim, the more I feel in love with her.
[00:30:06] And the way that applies to us is that sometimes you may not have those great feelings, but you begin to act out what God is calling you to do.
[00:30:16] And so one of the things is to pursue community with other people.
[00:30:21] And I've kind of developed this saying, like, when I'm supposed to go to church stuff, different meetings and so on that, and I'm tired.
[00:30:33] I just say to myself, I don't want to go, but I'll be glad I went.
[00:30:39] You ever had that happen?
[00:30:41] You didn't want to go and you're glad you went.
[00:30:46] So I just tell myself, I'll be happy when I've gone.
[00:30:53] And so I don't follow my feelings. I follow my actions.
[00:30:56] My actions is not to wait till I feel like going. I go, and then I feel better because I went.
[00:31:06] That's like some of you. I love you, those of you watching online, but I miss you.
[00:31:13] If you're able to be here, I wish you were here.
[00:31:16] This is what I think. You may not want to go, but if you go, I bet you'll be glad you came.
[00:31:23] Actions produce feelings, and so you begin to act loving. And this is how he says, this is what we do. He gives us instructions later on, in four verses two through three, he says, always be humble and gentle.
[00:31:39] Two things that destroy community is pride and harshness.
[00:31:47] Be humble and gentle.
[00:31:50] Be patient with each other, making allowances for each other's faults.
[00:31:56] Because of your love, you put up with some of their faults because your love.
[00:32:06] Look at this. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.
[00:32:16] Then he goes on to say, there is one body and one Lord, one spirit.
[00:32:26] So what step can you take to strengthen community?
[00:32:35] One really simple step is to take a step to the group that welcomes you.
[00:32:44] Another easy step to take is to see Michelle Quigley out here on how to join the journey community.
[00:32:52] But what step is the Holy Spirit talking to you that you can do to promote the unity so that the two of you are one?
[00:33:00] What step can you take?
[00:33:03] Now? Let me wrap things up.
[00:33:06] I want you now to practice your line. What's your line over here?
[00:33:11] All right. And what's your line over here? Hello. All right, so this is what I want you to do. I want. I want you.
[00:33:19] I'm going to add a word.
[00:33:21] You got it? Right. You, over here.
[00:33:25] Look at them over there. Okay, this is what I want you to say to them.
[00:33:29] Shalom, y'. All.
[00:33:32] Shalom, y'. All.
[00:33:33] I think you need to work on that one.
[00:33:37] You gave me twice as many lines, Jim.
[00:33:41] Say, shalom, y'. All. Shalom, y'. All.
[00:33:44] And you over here, this is what you say to them.
[00:33:49] Howdy, partners.
[00:33:50] Howdy, partners.
[00:33:53] That was pretty good. But I think you could do better.
[00:33:56] Howdy, partners.
[00:33:58] Because we're part of one body. So this is what I want you to do today. Just say something to someone you don't know.
[00:34:07] It's scary now, but I think you'll be glad you did it after you did it. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the Gospel. How it binds us together.
[00:34:19] You bring Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female, and make us one in you.
[00:34:28] And so, Father, because of what you've done in and through your son Jesus, may we live in unity.
[00:34:38] Would you tear down any walls of hostility that we've built toward any other people?
[00:34:45] And we view them as you view them. We treat them as you treat them. We love them as you love them.
[00:34:52] Father, I pray that this church will be so characterized by a loving unity that everyone will know that we are your disciples.
[00:35:04] That this love for one another is the clearest demonstration of the validity of the gospel and Christ in us.
[00:35:13] And may we be characterized by a unity and a love that brings glory to you, because you brought us into this family and you loved us and redeemed us. And we pray this in Jesus name, amen.
