Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] So I don't know if you've ever experienced one of these moments, and if you haven't, it's probably because you're under a certain age.
[00:00:08] It's one of those Mission Impossible moments of your own making where you get up with great intentions from the seat you have, maybe in the living room, maybe in your bedroom, and you make it to the kitchen only to find out you don't know why you were there.
[00:00:22] Anybody ever had one of those moments where it seems like somebody's playing a trick on you and all of a sudden you cross the threshold into the next room? And as you cross, you lost every sense of reality of why you're even there in the first place? I don't know if you've had those moments, but I've had them. And it is super funny and scary at the same time.
[00:00:43] And so we forget, and so we leave ourselves a bunch of reminders. I don't know about you guys. Any sticky note? People in here like sticky notes on top of sticky notes. On top of sticky notes, right? And we write them down, and then we look at them one day and we're like, what was I trying to tell myself? Why did I even put that up there? And I don't know about you, but I've had walls with that, and I'm just looking at them, and I don't have any idea the motivation behind writing them in the first place. Anybody got a Pinterest page?
[00:01:14] Because that's the whole point of Pinterest, right? Is to put these things up there that maybe someday you want to use that idea, that recipe, you want to use that home decoration or DIY project, and then you forget the password to your Pinterest page.
[00:01:29] Every one of us, we live in a flood of noise, right?
[00:01:34] Busyness, text messages, headlines, opinions, political ads, or the loudest voice in the room. And we hear noise inundated by it. Leaders learn to ask one question, though. If you're leading, if you really want to be organized, what is the signal?
[00:01:53] Based on what I know, what should actually change what I do? Based on what I know, what should change what I do. See, that's the difference between signal and noise. Noise just gives you a bunch of distractions. Whereas a signal tells you what you're to do with what you know.
[00:02:08] That's this signal underneath the signal, right? The noise tells you that you don't belong, or who's in or. Or who's out. But that's not our story.
[00:02:21] In fact, I want to just read briefly from last Week, the last few verses that we covered in Ephesians, chapter two. And I want to remind you we have the handouts in the back. If you missed them, if you would just say, hey, Lewis, could you email those to me? And I will do it if you give me your email address.
[00:02:38] If not, I won't do it because I'm that way, because I won't remember. Okay. Let's just be honest. Anyways, but last week, for by grace.
[00:02:51] Look at that.
[00:02:52] For by grace, you have been saved, redeemed, ransomed through faith.
[00:03:03] This work, this theological mechanism that is there for us in Christ.
[00:03:09] And notice this, this is not of your own doing. It is the gift of God. Okay? And so the word for grace and gift, same root word, and it's not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Notice again, so that no one may boast.
[00:03:31] For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Now, real quick so that we see it. Last week, I kind of let you know that we're going to start talking about what some of those good works look like. Like how do we flesh them out. And a lot of times you're thinking, okay, serve the poor. Check. Right. Care for the widow. Yep. Orphan. Yep. And you think, okay, so I need to serve. Yep. Okay. And I'm generous. Yep. All those good works, absolutely.
[00:04:06] But what Paul does in this text today is he gives us an unusual good work.
[00:04:12] And I want us to see this. So if you have your Bibles, I want you to check this out with me.
[00:04:18] He has good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. And then the next two words are vital, therefore remember and what's powerful, you think, okay, remember what? Well, here's the thing I want you to see that you may not see. Just as a cursory reading of this verse is this is actually the imperative of the section, meaning this is the command. This is the thing that Paul is calling us to do, is to remember. And like in the language it says remember. And you could put exclamation point, because that's what he's telling us to do. This is the command.
[00:04:58] 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 the same 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.
[00:05:27] And then the command again, remember.
[00:05:32] But it also says, therefore remember. Which means in light of what we've already discussed about God and His grace and goodness through the person and work of Christ, through the working of His Spirit in us. Therefore, remember also that you were Gentiles in the flesh.
[00:05:49] Remember this. And there's some things we're going to understand here. Remember that you were dead in sin. We already talked about that. That. That God, being rich in mercy, saved us. By grace you've been saved. And that you are his masterpiece. Remember, we see this, that we were dead in our sins and trespasses, following the course of this world and by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Remember you were separated from life. Now he is saying, remember you were separated from the promises of. Of God.
[00:06:24] These promises, God made his promises to Abraham back in Genesis 12. And through Abraham's offspring, he planned to bless every nation. The Gentiles were not missing a better religion. They were missing the promises themselves.
[00:06:39] The covenants were made with Israel, and the Gentiles made with Israel, and the Gentiles stood outside of the door.
[00:06:46] Circumcision was the mark belonging to Israel, the sign of God's covenant with Abraham.
[00:06:52] It was a mark, though, and Paul points this out, made by human hands. And it can never do what God only can do in changing a heart.
[00:07:02] So remember who you are.
[00:07:04] You're the uncircumcision. You're outside.
[00:07:08] And Paul goes in and lists five ways that we were outside, that we were far off. The first one being that you were separated from Christ, meaning you had no messiah, so no one could save you.
[00:07:21] The second thing, he says you were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, meaning you had no place among the people of the Messiah, you had no place with them. Third, you were strangers to the covenants of promise, so you had no place among his people, so you had no claim to the promises of his people.
[00:07:38] Fourth, you had no hope.
[00:07:41] So no promises means you got no hope.
[00:07:44] And without God in the world, no hope finally means you don't have a true God. And he's saying this to a group of people in Ephesus that has this temple of Artemis like as the cityscape, seeing this whole building structure dedicated to all their gods. And he says, you have no God in this world.
[00:08:07] Verse 13 says this and very similar, we're going to get to it. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
[00:08:20] Remember back in chapter two, verse one, you were Dead in your sins.
[00:08:25] Okay, you were dead, but God, now you're alive. Verse 4, right? But God being rich in mercy. Here, similar verse 12 says you were far off, you were cut off in all these ways, these five ways. But now he says in Christ we are being brought near you. See how he kind of gives a parallel in this section, showing the distinction of where you were to where you are now because of Christ. And again, the whole point of this is that you remember notice what didn't happen.
[00:09:00] The Gentiles weren't handed a new religion. They were brought into Israel's story, grafted into the promises of God made to Abraham. Now they are fulfilled in the person and work of Christ. So let's restate those five ways. They were far off, you were separated from Christ, but now in Christ Jesus, not just near him, but in him, in one body.
[00:09:24] You were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. But now you are fellow citizens with the saints, not visitors, but citizens.
[00:09:33] You were strangers to the covenants of promise, but now fellow heirs, partakers of the promise of Christ through the Gospel. The blessing God promised Abraham for all nations has reached us in Christ.
[00:09:48] You were having no hope, but now you have been raised with Christ and seated with Him. You were without God in the world, but now you have access to the Father. Members of the household of God, a dwelling place for God.
[00:10:03] They went from being without God to God dwelling in them.
[00:10:09] This is a powerful shift that happens again, similar to last week. You were dead, but God raised us okay, and you were separated. But now in Christ you've been brought in. Everything they were missing Christ is, everything he is, they now have in Him.
[00:10:29] And then the question would be how?
[00:10:32] And notice it says by the blood of Christ.
[00:10:35] The blood of Christ, like brought to, excuse me, brought to bear. The gap between us and blood is important because blood stands for death of a life that paid our price.
[00:10:50] It reminds us how serious our sin was and how costly our rescue was.
[00:10:56] Remember back in 2, 3, Paul said that we were children of wrath. That is a fundamental reality. That's a problem for us. And it will not be solved by our emotions or being sentimental. It is solved when the wrath of God is absorbed by someone else. Someone who's worthy only Christ.
[00:11:15] That is exactly what happened. Christ took it.
[00:11:19] And then notice this wall of separation became personal for Paul. Now here's what I love. If you've studied the book of Acts, then you've kind of seen this painted out. But so that you get it in Acts 21, 27, 31, Paul was nearly killed in Jerusalem over a rumor that he had brough Trophimus, an Ephesian with him, passed the wall that the Gentiles were not allowed to go in.
[00:11:47] In fact, what's powerful about that Trophimus, the Ephesian, he was with them, but he did not go. He did not do it. Well, they arrested him. And what's powerful is that's where he's writing this letter from the prison sentence he got as a result of being with the Ephesian that was rumored that he took past the wall. And so he's writing this about this wall of hostility and this peace that God brought. And he's living it out. It's his true story.
[00:12:16] This was not something he heard about, it was something he experienced. And then Paul explains how this impacts us. Look at verse 14, speaking of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down his in his flesh. The dividing wall of hostility.
[00:12:37] The wall of hostility.
[00:12:39] Paul's first readers didn't have to stretch to picture what he's saying here. Herod's temple had a literal barrier between the court of the Gentiles and the inner courts where Jews could go.
[00:12:51] Josephus records warning signs posted on it in Greek and in Latin. Archaeologists have found two of these signs. One sign says in part that no foreigner may enter and that anyone caught has only himself to blame for his death.
[00:13:10] A sign on the wall of God's house telling the other nations to stay out or die.
[00:13:19] So how did Christ bring peace?
[00:13:22] He broke it down.
[00:13:23] He broke it down in his flesh. Keep looking. Paul says Jesus took down the wall not with a hammer, but but with his own body, his flesh.
[00:13:34] The law of commandments and ordinances is fulfilled in Christ. So the ceremonial lines that marked Israel off from the world have accomplished their work in Christ.
[00:13:46] He kept the law perfectly and took our condemnation for breaking them on himself.
[00:13:52] Now every person, Jew or Gentile, gets to come to God on the same footing.
[00:14:02] Same footing.
[00:14:06] Think about that for a second with some of the people that you're like, well, I'm not a Jew. You are a Gentile. If you would say that, you need to know that every person that you know is at the same level. You are at the foot of the cross.
[00:14:20] We're all guilty, every one of us, guilty.
[00:14:26] But notice this. It says, for he himself, Jesus is our peace. Notice that he does not say Christ gives us peace as if it were a package he hands over to us and then leaves.
[00:14:40] He says, Christ Himself is our peace.
[00:14:44] You do not find peace with God and with others. And then you add Jesus. No, it's. Jesus is your peace.
[00:14:51] It's in him you find Jesus, and their peace is now. Notice how it was accomplished. He tore down the wall with his flesh. And this is what he did when he accomplished that. He abolished the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two. So making peace now, Jews becoming not Jews becoming Gentiles, not Gentiles becoming Jews. Not a blend, a new humanity. Christ doesn't make us the same. He makes us better than either of us were alone. Now, what I love here is that picture of taking two to one is also the image that we see back in Genesis. We see it in Ephesians 5. We'll get to it next year. But this reality that a husband and wife are joined and made one, and you're like, well, yeah, we're one.
[00:15:47] Until she makes me mad.
[00:15:50] Have you ever thought about this?
[00:15:52] This is something that over my time in marriage, I have proved poorly to Aaron, where I have demanded my way or demanded me being right in all these moments. And every time I am. We are no longer behaving as one flesh. In that moment, we are competitors.
[00:16:13] 2.
[00:16:16] What if I saw the challenges in our marriage as the fact that this is something that we've got to overcome because we're one, like a team.
[00:16:27] What if we saw that we were doing this together instead, as opponents?
[00:16:33] And that's the picture too, here, instead of Jew and gentile, he's saying, no, no, no, you're not opponents anymore in Christ. You're one flesh. You're together. You're one body.
[00:16:44] You've been brought together as a result of the blood of Christ.
[00:16:48] And so you think about the agendas that we bring to bear in these settings, all the baggages and preferences that we bring in these moments, and how instead of drawing us together, they're actually separating us. Us.
[00:17:04] Something to consider.
[00:17:06] Why did he do this? Notice.
[00:17:09] And that he might reconcile us both, both groups to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
[00:17:19] So the things that we use to separate us.
[00:17:21] The cross of Jesus Christ is thereby he killed any of that hostility.
[00:17:25] And so notice, we have two problems in our life.
[00:17:29] We have man against man and man against God.
[00:17:32] But both of them have the same the cross of Jesus Christ.
[00:17:37] The wall doesn't fall because we agree to get along.
[00:17:42] It falls because Christ was torn down for us all, because we were all guilty. The Same blood that brought you near to God, brought you near to your brother and sister in Christ, who doesn't look like you, who doesn't vote like you, who doesn't think like you or dress like you. He brought you near. Those differences don't vanish, they just no longer divide us.
[00:18:08] Notice what effect the peace of God asks of us. And this takes us Back to Ephesians 2:10.
[00:18:19] For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which he planned beforehand that we should walk in them. And again, the command was to remember so that we change how we think a little bit. Right?
[00:18:31] These good works he prepared for us. A life of surrendering your reasons for being separate from other people.
[00:18:42] A life of repentance. Is this fruit of good work? Repenting, of holding onto the past and the past ways?
[00:18:52] The hostility Christ killed wasn't only against us, it was ours against Him. The hostility we had towards him because we wanted to sin and do our own thing, and he's holy, and he killed the hostility of both.
[00:19:06] We had our arms folded and our back turned to him, and we weren't hearing it.
[00:19:12] So repentance. Here's what's powerful.
[00:19:16] Groveling to earn the door.
[00:19:19] It's turning around and repenting because the door in Christ is already open.
[00:19:25] God turned away his wrath and his kindness towards us. And so you and I get to repent. We get to turn to him. And that is a grace for us.
[00:19:37] Notice 17 and 18. And he came, speaking of Jesus, and preached. Now, what's powerful is usually when you see the word preach in the Greek. It's this word, it's this proclamation, this declaration of these truths. But this word is where we get the idea of evangelism from. This is the root here. In other words, he's giving good news. Jesus is giving good news of this peace. The angelion is the silly word that I don't pronounce right, but you can pretend like I did and we're friends.
[00:20:09] What's powerful here is he's giving you this good news of peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. Both of them, they get the same thing. Didn't matter the distance you came far off or near, you get the same thing. Peace.
[00:20:28] And peace is, like I said, it's not a gift. He just hands you and walks away. It's Him.
[00:20:33] He's the gift.
[00:20:36] For through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father. Notice Trinitarian picture here.
[00:20:45] In Christ we have access in one Spirit, one Holy Spirit.
[00:20:50] To the Father, right here in the text. Even those who were near the Jews in this conversation needed peace.
[00:21:02] No one was near enough to get there on their own.
[00:21:07] Apart from Christ, though. The Son in, excuse me, through the Son in the Spirit to the Father. Together, access to God is claimed. Together. We don't shrink back or hide. We come boldly. Why do we get to come boldly if you were here? When we studied Hebrews, we talked about this because of the blood of Christ. We get it to come boldly because of Him. There's no wall too high, no path too dark. You don't clean yourself up and then you come near because even at that point, still can't come near enough. Apart from the blood of Christ, He Himself is the one that brings peace.
[00:21:47] It's in him.
[00:21:48] So notice 19 through 22 with me.
[00:21:51] So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
[00:22:17] In him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God. Here it is again, by the Spirit, this work. Now, a couple things that you see. Here you are no longer, which means you used to be a stranger and an alien, but now you are citizens, you are family.
[00:22:39] And you are a temple by the Holy Spirit of God.
[00:22:43] A city you belong to, a kingdom that does not end. A family. You don't check in and out of family like you do a hotel.
[00:22:53] I love this because that means my sisters can't disown me.
[00:22:59] They're my sisters.
[00:23:01] Together we're a holy temple. And everything holds up because of Him.
[00:23:07] We're a living building.
[00:23:10] God used to dwell behind a wall. Now he dwells in a people.
[00:23:15] God never meant for us to be alone.
[00:23:19] But here's what I know is that each of us in some way have insulated ourselves behind building walls around us and not allowing other people in.
[00:23:33] Some of our walls are made of our politics.
[00:23:37] Some of them are made because of which generation we're born in.
[00:23:41] Some of them are made because of race.
[00:23:45] And we rule people out just based on those walls we have. Some of us have some really hard walls as well.
[00:23:58] Walls because of family hurt.
[00:24:02] And I know some of you, just like me, have family members that you never even got to know because something happened before you were even born.
[00:24:12] They're cousins and uncles and aunts that I'm not able to know because of something that happened prior to me coming around.
[00:24:21] Some of us in this room also have a wall that has happened because church hurt. Somebody in the church failed to do something or they did something, and you're sitting there with the baggage of it, and you built a wall.
[00:24:38] One of the dangers if we don't pay attention is that you forget how far off that you were.
[00:24:48] If you do, what happens is you will treat salvation like it's a possession that you earned rather than a rescue that you didn't.
[00:24:59] You will look at the person still far off with impatience instead of compassion.
[00:25:06] You forget that at one point that was you if you forget how far you came.
[00:25:14] So this image that he gives here of this temple being built and Christ being the cornerstone, he doesn't imagine a stone lying over as if you got extra parts after the assembly, lying by itself.
[00:25:31] If you've ever attended here at Grace without ever being built together, I want to encourage you just as nice as I can. I guess you're missing out.
[00:25:45] You're really missing.
[00:25:48] There's so many things and opportunities for you to get connected, to be seen and known, because you're built as part of this together.
[00:25:55] I said this a couple months ago, like, you belong here.
[00:26:03] Like see that as an invitation, but also as a responsibility.
[00:26:07] I belong here, and here you have a purpose.
[00:26:17] Stones get built in.
[00:26:20] Spectators, however, check in and out and stay apart.
[00:26:25] This is why it's powerful that the first example Paul gives of good works is remembering.
[00:26:31] Remembering who you were.
[00:26:34] Remember and remember what God did to bring you in.
[00:26:38] And if you remember, you will care differently.
[00:26:42] You will care with compassion, with patience for the person that's still far off because someone came after you.
[00:26:52] I think about that and I'm like, I can the list of people that I know that were patient with me as a rascal in that church back home.
[00:27:03] Holy moly.
[00:27:05] I'm sure it's doubled of the people that had to be patient with me, that I didn't even know their name so that that little boy could make it to every youth function somebody was paying for.
[00:27:20] Somebody else picked up the tap because we couldn't afford it. But I didn't miss anything because those people were so patient, because they knew that they once were far off and they knew that this kid needed to be brought in.
[00:27:33] And by God's grace, I was.
[00:27:36] And if you remember, you begin to see differently. You see people the way you were seen as far off, and you see that those people are worth the cost.
[00:27:52] Remembering grows out of the work of the Cross.
[00:27:55] Remembering makes you look at what he's already done and it shapes the way that you live right now. Again, the idea between noise and signal.
[00:28:05] Remembering makes you grateful, and gratitude is what's left when pride has been removed.
[00:28:13] Remembering makes you welcome.
[00:28:16] If the same blood brought you near, that brought the stranger near, then no one has a right to say they don't belong.
[00:28:23] Remembering makes you committed to one another.
[00:28:26] Like, think about that. You and I are committed to each other. We're bound in Christ. Paul doesn't imagine a stone, like I said, lying by itself off to the side.
[00:28:38] We don't remember our past to wallow in it.
[00:28:42] We remember it to marvel at God's grace.
[00:28:47] That's an amazing point of reference.
[00:28:50] And I understand.
[00:28:51] There are times where I want to forget all the boneheaded things I've done. Anybody besides me wish you could forget that?
[00:28:58] Well, me and her, two of us, that's good. Everybody else forgot. Good for them, man. But here's the gift in it.
[00:29:09] God in his grace says, that's no longer who you are.
[00:29:12] That's who you were. Because I brought you from death to life.
[00:29:16] I took you as one who was far off and I brought you near.
[00:29:20] That's the gift of your memory of your past is that it's just a point of reference what God in His grace has so done in your life.
[00:29:30] The Gospel makes us both humble and confident at the same time.
[00:29:35] Humble enough to receive him and confident enough to boldly approach him.
[00:29:40] Remember how far off you were, and that keeps you from boasting.
[00:29:45] However, knowing how far you have come also gives you a reason to worship. Notice that if it were up to you, you could boast. But since it's not, you worship. You boast about him, you worship.
[00:30:03] Maybe you're here today and you're new to this, this morning, but you've always felt like you're on the wrong side of the wall.
[00:30:12] And you're like, I don't even know what the wall is, but I never felt like I belonged in it.
[00:30:16] And you're still standing there where the sign used to be.
[00:30:22] You've kept your distance because of something you've done or what someone has done to you.
[00:30:27] And you forget that we were all far off.
[00:30:30] We were all on the other side of the wall.
[00:30:33] Hear me. Jesus didn't take down the wall and then ask you to climb what's left.
[00:30:43] There's no wall between you and God that His blood hasn't already cleared out.
[00:30:51] He's done it.
[00:30:53] So now there is no sign saying stay out or die.
[00:30:58] The sign now reads come near and live.
[00:31:02] Not because you finally got good enough but because Christ Jesus himself is our peace and made it possible.
[00:31:12] Let's pray.
[00:31:14] Father in Jesus name we thank you so much for this moment that we as brothers and sisters get to approach you.
[00:31:24] We ask that you would in this framing of this moment Lord God help us remember.
[00:31:35] Remember who we were dead in our sins and trespasses.
[00:31:39] Remember who we were that we were separated far from you.
[00:31:45] But in both occasions you being rich in mercy in Christ brought us together. You tore down the wall of hostility in the flesh of Christ.
[00:31:56] So Lord help us respond in faith to these things and as we sing now as brothers and sisters corporately Lord help us do so with boldness Lord God because we can.
[00:32:08] We thank you for this. We trust you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Please stand as we sing.
