One in Christ
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
One of the greatest changes in animals is that of a worm to a butterfly.
It is always on the topic of study as a child because it creates a great wonder of how this happens.
I looked it up this week and discovered there are 4 stages of life for a butterfly.
Simply put, and I know some of you may correct me in this, but its
The egg, the worm, the cocoon, then the butterfly to start the process over again.
But what is most marvelous is the change from a worm to a butterfly.
There is a great difference from one to the other.
One crawls, while the other flys,
One appears to eat everything, while the other is a beauty to watch.
There is a connection between the two yet they seem so vastly different.
Paul continues this week discussing a common theme that is related directly with the Gospel and the newly converted gentiles in the city of Ephesus.
Turn with me in your Bible to Ephesians chapter two and as is our custom, please stand if you are able as we read this week’s passage
11 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—
12 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.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility
15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,
16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.
18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,
21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Let’s Pray
Us vs Them
Us vs Them
Have you ever been in a situation where you find yourself looking at a different group of people and you think of Us vs them.
We first learn this in school. It’s played out in the games.
Us vs Them
Some see it as competition. Two groups of people comparing themselves and coming to the conclusion one is better than the other.
Both sides say,
Us vs Them
I find it interesting to watch football games and to see the players on the field warming up. For some of them, they know each other, some have played together on the same team, in college, or even in the league.
Some are even brothers on each team, even brother coaches on different teams.
There are friendly conversations before the game, then the whistle blows and it comes down to Us vs Them.
In some situations, Us vs Them is not healthy; however, In this case, Us vs them is healthy, its a part of the process. It’s the game, the end result.
Paul begins his discussion to the people in the previous verses, discussed a couple weeks ago,
telling them they are alive in Christ but now says
Therefore.
He points out to the people that they were once an Us vs Them relationship.
In fact, Paul would have been listed in the Us category and the audience of this letter would be in the Them category.
I wonder how often we find ourselves putting people in the us vs them categories.
Some churches do it with other churches.
They say, “I’m glad we are not like them” How could they ever think that about this topic or another. They are wrong, we are right.
With every us vs them grouping there comes a point of looking down on the them. In fact can I say they go so far as lifting themselves higher than they should be?
Think about the times you were in the Us thinking about them.
It is often a looking down on someone.
Us thinkers often think more highly than they ought to think.
Paul brings to light to the reader that this was the condition of the Gentile believers.
Notice the words,
You were formerly.
Their physical birth into a people group excluded them from God’s blessing working through them.
God chose a people group, the Jewish followers of Yaweh, to bring forth from them the blessing of God.
They were recipients of the blessings of God.
They were chosen,
They were marked, identified, by the circumcision.
Notice Paul makes great effort to point out that this marking of blessing was done by the hands of man.
It is a not so subtle indication of what will happen when Christ marks the church.
His chosen people.
It is and will be a marking no longer done by man but by God.
Paul is pointing out that before their one in Christ, before Christ there was no hope for the Gentiles.
They would have to leave behind all that was theirs and come to follow the ways of Yaweh.
Look at verse 12
12 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.
Folks to truly understand what we have in Christ we first must understand what we once were.
At that time:
Separated From Christ
The blessings, the protection, all that Christ has to offer was not available to them before they were one with Christ.
The Gentiles were also separate from the blessings given to the true followers of Yaweh. The commonwealth of Israel.
The covenants given to His people.
God covenants not dependent on Man to fulfill, but an Almighty God.
God said, to His people, I will.
You will be my people.
Through you all the world will be blessed: however, those people
Us vs Them
They will be without God in their world.
One commentary writes,
Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 42: Ephesians (Explanation)
As the passage begins, the readers, here explicitly described for the first time as Gentiles, are reminded by this Jewish Christian follower of Paul that their pre-Christian state was one of serious religious deprivation. They are asked to reflect on their former condition in terms of categories valid at a prior stage in the history of salvation in order to appreciate all the more their present privileges. It is obviously the writer’s view that at one time Israel had real advantages and that Gentiles, in comparison, had at that time no share in Israel’s Messiah. Being excluded from God’s electing purpose for the commonwealth of Israel, from the covenant relationship and the promise, they were therefore destitute of the true hope and true God.
Take a moment to reflect on those words.
Destitute of the true hope and true God.
Before you came to the Gospel, accepted the Gospel for your lives,
You were once like that.
There is also another thought,
You neigbour, your co-worker, the person who serves you your meal at a restaurant after church, may be in a position of destitute of a true hope and a true God.
What are we doing about them.
Are we always watching for ways to give them the Good News, The Gospel so that they will be no longer lost.
When you came here this morning, to be spiritual refreshed. To be encouraged, To worship God, are we also coming to be changed, to be transformed, to be strengthened to share our faith with those around us.
Look at Paul’s Words of encouragement
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
God’s Chosen People
God’s Chosen People
By Christ’s Blood, we are God’s chosen people.
Later in the service we are going to be reminded of the significance of Christ’s shed blood on the cross for us.
We can now, because of Christ’s work on the cross, draw near to God.
Not only are we able to come near, we are His chosen people.
Think about this
Have you ever won a draw, a prize.
I mean you are standing in a room and the lucky number is pulled and it happens to be yours.
That feeling of excitement as you move forward to claim your prize.
That is what Paul is exclaiming to the people.
As one person wrote.
Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 42: Ephesians Explanation
The dramatic reversal that has taken place for the Gentile readers through their relationship to Christ and through his sacrificial death is described in the language of Jewish proselytism as “having come near.” But as the rest of the passage makes clear, this terminology is transformed to mean not membership within Israel, but access to God himself and membership in his newly created community.
God’s Reconciled People
God’s Reconciled People
We are a community of reconciled people.
On Saturday, while driving to the church, I heard on the radio a well known podcaster interview a member from the Islam faith.
The podcaster asked him to describe the various branches of Islam.
If I heard correctly, the guest speaker stated that the prophet predicted that the faith would have 73 different branches.
He went on to describe how various other faith have various branches as well.
I got me thinking.
As followers of Christ, do we have different branches. I mean we have different churches, different understandings of faith practices, doctrine, beliefs, are those different branches and should we have the same branch the Gospel.
Well folks, if you hold to a view of Us vs them for the church down the street or around the block, in a different city, take a moment to look at vs 14
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility
The wall of hostility was between the Us vs them.
The Jew vs the Gentile.
The barrier set up has been removed and we are now one in Christ.
The old way of approaching the throne of God, His presence has been changed.
The foreshadowing of things to come have come.
15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,
16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
Folks the old self has been reconciled to God through Christ’s work on the cross.
Are you having conflict with a fellow believer, Christ’s work on the cross has brought about peace.
Be reconciled.
Come to the foot of the cross and ask for forgiveness.
There is nothing we have done to deserve this grace, it is freely given.
God choose to align himself with a people group so that He can show the power of His Grace.
The power of reconciliation.
Is there someone in your life that has hurt you greatly, has offended you.
Whether it was done last week or years before.
God has forgiven you, Christ has gone to the cross for you, so that by His example we too can experience peace.
We too can experience forgiveness.
We to can show grace and forgiveness to those who have offended us.
Eph 2:18 “18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.” There is not different branches to God Almighty.
There is only one way and that through Christ.
The gentile believer who was once far from the presence of God can now stand near.
Isaiah reminds us
19 creating the fruit of the lips. Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,” says the Lord, “and I will heal him.
The Core of the Gospel is that God’s plan of salvation from the beginning was to break down the barrier,
and to create a way, through Christ that man can be in a right relationship with God.
And that relationship with God will give us the ability to forgive and to be reconciled not only with God but with fellow believers.
Soon we will be coming together to remember Christ’s work on the cross.
We should come prepared.
We should come with a willingness to forgive.
We should come because we have been reconciled.
May I challenge you this morning. If there is something in your life that needs to be dealt with, to deal with it today.
To deal with that which the Spirit is prompting you to deal with before you take communion.
If it means that when the communion is passed to you that you pass it by.
There is not judgement from from us if you are not ready.
You see Paul reminds us that
18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
Make things right with one another before we come to the access freely giving by Father, through the Son and the Spirit dwelling in us today.
God’s Spirit Dwelt People
God’s Spirit Dwelt People
The last section of this chapter, Paul outlines the result of Christ’s achievement on the Cross.
We are a new community. A community of Faith.
This morning as we gather together we are a part of a larger community of the Church.
The Spirit of God is dwelling not only in the believers in this room here, but in the lives of all believers throughout the world.
As is the practice around the world, there the potential of corporate 24 hr praise to God on a Sunday Morning.
If every church in the world were to practice like we do to have a corporate community of praise on Sunday Morning at 10:00.
God would receive a 24 hr continuous praise service, as the Spirit enables us. Here in Canada alone there are 5 hrs of praise services offering up praises to our King.
We are no longer aliens or strangers, but fellow citizens of God’s great kingdom.
I often get asked, “where do you work?”
I like to answer that I work for a worldwide organization. We have branches in every country in the world. We desire to open up more branches to serve and to spread the mission of our leader.
Our CEO is out of this world, yet if I can say for certain that His passion and heart dwells within me.
In fact, I like to say, anyone is free to join this company and will be welcomed without any job experience and can be an active member of the company. The Organizational structure is simple. The CEO and then the rest of us side by side, submitting to each other.
When you join this company, you will be given a job, we call it a gift that will help the company grow under the guidance of our leader.
The company has grown through the faithful workers in the past who listened to the CEO
Or I say, I’m a pastor. The other way is more fun.
But what does Paul say.
How does he describe the way the church should be
21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 42: Ephesians Explanation
The Church is a new creation which replaces the older order with its divided humanity. It forms instead the “new person,” a new humanity included in Christ as the representative human being, thereby constituting his “body.” This new community is, as we have seen, characterized above all by its unity (“one” in v 14, “one new man” in v 15, and “one body” in v 16). It is the sphere in which hostility has been overcome, reconciliation has been achieved, and peace bears its fruits, and, as such, forms a visible sign of unity for the world. The Church is not only the place of reconciliation between Jews and Gentiles, it is also the place where reconciliation between humanity and God is experienced, where harmony between heaven and earth has been restored, and where access to the Father is enjoyed. The high God of heaven has chosen to make it his dwelling place on earth, and the Christ who has been exalted to heaven forms the crowning stone in its structure. The Church is where men and women experience a sense of being at home, of belonging, not only to one another in a unified humanity as fellow citizens, but also to God himself as part of his household or family. This new society is also a building, a temple, where humans are the building material which God the builder has already made into his dwelling place. No longer the literal temple in Jerusalem but the community of the Church is the focus for God’s presence in the world. The Church is already the temple in which God dwells. Yet, it is at the same time a building under construction, where, through their relationship to Christ and to one another, believers are still being shaped into a fit sanctuary for God. It is to be characterized by growth and holiness as it becomes what it already is. None of these elements contributing to the writer’s vision of the Church are there as part of an abstract description. They are instead taken up into his address to his readers. They are to see themselves as the building material God has chosen to utilize for his temple of the end-time pervaded by the Spirit (v 22), and thereby to gain a greater sense of their identity as those with a privileged role to play in the working out of God’s purposes in this world.
We are the church.
We are the Body of Christ.
Christ’s work on the cross has brought about reconciliation not only to God but to one another.
This past spring while in Pennsylvania, we visited a museum that had a full scale replica of the tabernacle in the wilderness.
It was God’s representation of God’s Dwelling place among His people.
It was there to set apart other people from the presence of God.
It was His dwelling place.
How greater it is today.
We are now His dwelling place.
The law is no longer on stone but written on our hearts.
Re 21:3 “3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”
This is the reconciliation work of Christ.
We have identified with Christ, accepted His work on the cross for us to be reconciled with Him and to have Him dwell within us.
In Summary
In Summary
With this in mind, I ask that the worship team make there way up to the front as we prepare to come to the table to celebrate His action on the cross.
As I am joined at the table, please take a few moments to let the Spirit of God examine your life today. If there is something you need to make right with Him, do it now.
If there is something you need to make right with someone, maybe you need to do that now as well.
Let’s take a moment to examine our lives.
Communion
Communion
Benediction
Benediction