Corporate Identification

Joel Hayworth

Ephesians • Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

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Introduction

Our society and media loves rivalries. Dogs versus Cats. Chevy versus Ford. Trucks versus Cars. The University of Missouri versus the University of Arkansas. The Cardinals versus the Cubs. The Yankees versus the Red Sox. The Midwest versus the Coast. Rivalries are often localized, however they can also be national. We know this to be true as there are international rivalries. The United States versus Russia. North Korea versus South Korea. France versus England. There are even rivalries that exist in these countries. Pepsi versus Coke. Samsung versus Apple. Thankfully, these rivalries are mostly peaceful (although there are some exceptions). What we see in is that there exists a very deep and hostile rivalry between Jews and Gentiles.

Gentiles are non-Jews. That includes everyone in this room, I believe. At this time in Scripture, Gentiles did not know Yahweh God. The Jews did. Jews had various religious ceremonies and feasts that were unique to them. Gentiles did not have these. The Jews had the blood of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob coursing through their veins. Gentiles could not boast in this fact. However, as Paul will show us today, Jesus Christ brings these bitter rivals together. Through Jesus Christ, the enemies have become friends. As radical an idea as it would be for a Cardinals fan to root for the Cubs, it is all the more radical for Jews and Gentiles to become unified - yet that is exactly what Christ has done!

What we are going to look at today is the purpose of the church - to share the Gospel with every nation, tribe and tongue - and Paul gives us several things to “remember”. This text is fitting for us today because Paul’s audience was primarily Gentile and that is the boat we find ourselves in today. Let’s dive into this text, .

Ephesians 2:11–22 NASB95

11 Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded 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 formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, 15 by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, 16 and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. 17 And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; 18 for through Him we both have our 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 are of God’s household, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

Ephesians

In this text, Paul shows us that whenever we remember all that God has done for us, we have a greater appreciation for Him and we love those around us. As a corporate body of believers, this is our identity and our purpose.

Who We Were (11-12)

Last week we were in and we saw how before Christ, we were dead in our trespasses and sins. We were disobedient children of wrath and we had no hope because we followed our own fleshly desires in addition to those of the world. Verses 1-3 of talked about our individual status. Each of us are individually lost and dead in our sins. What we see immediately in verses 11-12 is that we (as Gentiles) were separated from Christ! This is a group status, not an individual one. Paul starts by saying that these Gentile believers were at one time strangers to the covenants of promise. They were “Christless”.

The Jews, even if they rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah, at least had an understanding and knowledge of the Messiah. These Gentiles had no idea what this Messiah was and why He was so important. It is hard for us to grasp this concept because Christianity is so commonly known here in the Western hemisphere, however imagine that you traveled to another country that had next to no knowledge of the Gospel. You would be bombarded by a culture that would be foreign to things that we take for granted day in and day out as American Christians. The Gentiles that Paul is speaking about in verse 12 were Christless before they came to know of Christ. This is the case that we find ourselves in today as well. We might have known about Christianity but our lives were Christless before coming to know Jesus Christ.

Next, we see that these people were foreigners. In the Old Testament we know that Israel had kings, there was a united monarchy with Saul, David and Solomon and then the kingdom split into 2 (Israel in the North and Judah in the South). There were many different kings that “ruled” over these kingdoms, however at the end of the day, God was the leader of Israel. The king was supposed to simply be a human leader who submitted and obeyed God’s commands. Unfortunately, things didn’t always work out good for these kings and the people of Israel, though. As bad as things might have been for the Israelites, the Gentiles were complete foreigners. They were excluded from citizenship in Israel and strangers to the covenants. Whenever we think of covenants what are we talking about? We know the covenant that God made with:

Noah - the whole earth would never be flooded again.

Abraham- all the people of the world would be blessed by his nation (a foreshadow of the Messiah)

David - David’s house will rule forever (Jesus Christ comes from the lineage of David)

There are several key covenants that God makes with people in the Old Testament and the Jews would have been familiar with them, however the Gentiles would have been completely confused and lost. Because of that, Paul describes them as foreigners.

Finally, Paul closes verse 12 out by saying that these people had no hope and were Godless. shows us that God will bless all the nations of the world through Israel, however these Gentiles were completely oblivious of this. Because of this, they had no hope! Think of a student who misses his first day of school in which the teacher goes over the syllabus and expectations for the class. Whenever the student showed up to class, he would be clueless of what to expect. Where other individuals would have understanding and comfort, he would be hopeless and up a creek without a paddle. Paul says that these Gentiles had no hope. These individuals were walking into a world without hope because they were unable to see the light. As tells us, Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life. There is hope for those who call upon the name of the Lord, but these Gentiles were aliens and without hope. Not only are these Gentiles facing eternal separation from God in a place called hell, but they face a hopeless situation during their lives on this planet. God is the God of hope. If you do not know God, you do not have this hope.

We must remember that this was the situation that we were all in before we came to know Jesus Christ. If we remember where we came from, how lost we were, then we will certainly live a life of gratitude towards our God who saved us!

Who We Are (13-18)

Anytime we see a “But God” statement in Scripture, we need to get our highlighter ready. We saw one such statement in as Paul wrote that we were dead in our sins and trespasses, but God made us alive with Christ! We see a similar story in . Paul has made the point that we were aliens, we were hopeless and we were Godless “But Christ Jesus has brought us near!” It is by the blood of Jesus Christ that we are saved! Only through His blood can we be reconciled to God.

The dead of Jesus was a public death. It was not a death that only a couple of people knew about or in a very remote place. If we were to compare this to modern terms, he would have been crucified in a park or outside of a mall. People saw Jesus die and we know that He took our place on the cross so that we might be declared righteous. We encounter the effect of the cross with our union with Christ. Paul writes in verse 13 that it is “in Christ Jesus” that we experience the benefits of His shed blood. There was a past event that is experienced presently. Whenever you come to accept Jesus as Lord of your life, your old self dies and you are raised just like Christ was raised! If that has not happened to you yet, I pray that today would be your day of salvation and that your eyes might be opened so that you might experience the present and eternal hope that comes along with being a child of God.

The cross is central to our theology. Some people don’t like talking about the cross because it was gruesome and bloody and painful, however what the blood shows us is the gravity of our sin. It cost something - the blood of the Son of God. Everything comes back to the cross! The cross is our hope, but also serves as a reminder of the severity of our sin in the eyes of a Holy God. As the hymn writer Stuart Townend wrote, “It was my sin that held him there until is was accomplished.” It was our sin that held Him there but praise God that Christ’s sacrifice moves us from a position of alienation to a position of reconciliation. We are brought into the family of God because of the cross. Paul shifts from using “you” to “we” and “our” in this upcoming section of verses. This incredible truth shows us that Jews and Gentiles have the same hope: Christ’s atoning death. There are some heretical groups out there who say that Christ only died for the Jews or for one particular people group. What verse 13 shows us is that those who were far off - Gentiles (the entire world) have been brought near by the blood of Jesus. Church, this is our message to share with the world because there are no exclusions in the Kingdom!

We see several things in these verses: First, Christ has brought us peace (v. 14). Not only do Christians have peace with God, but we also have peace with one another. In our current political and social climate, it can be very difficult to be at “peace” with one another, can it not? The thing that the Christian must keep in mind is that our Savior brings in peace. Even when the world slings insults and opposition our way, we can live at peace with others. We certainly should live at peace with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ as well!

Secondly, Christ has made us one (14-16). In Hebrew custom there were two classifications: Jews and Gentiles. Paul makes the claim that there is now a third group - the church of God which includes both Jews and Gentiles! The longstanding wall that divided humanity has been obliterated in the person of Jesus Christ. We know that the temple in Jerusalem had a physical barrier that separated Jews from Gentiles (there was a part where Gentiles could not go). The temple was eventually destroyed, however this dividing wall was completely destroyed in 33 AD (roughly) whenever Jesus died on the cross because he tore down the wall that separated these groups!

The Jews thought that they were superior than the Gentiles because of the law. What Paul makes apparent is that Christ abolished both the regulations of the ceremonial law and the condemnation of the moral law. Both of these laws were divisive and both were put aside by the cross. What won’t save you are your works! You can try to keep all the hundreds of Old Testament laws but the only thing that can save you is the work of Jesus Christ! This is the rallying cry of the church of God. Jews and Gentiles are saved through the same process. We have a savior who destroyed barriers and our salvation is not founded in ourselves but it is placed in the person of Jesus! The beautiful thing is that Gentiles are not transformed into Jews and Jews do not magically become Gentiles. What happens is that the transformational power of Jesus Christ creates a new man. The old has gone and the new has come. Gentiles and Jews do not just become one but they become better. As the great theologian Jon Chrysostom put it, “It is as if one took a statue of silver and a statue of lead, put them into a forge and they came out a status of gold.” Praise God that this is who we are. We come in as broken pieces but we leave as beautiful pieces of gold because of the work of Jesus Christ.

Those of you who farm know that it can be difficult to build fences. It is tiresome and long work. It is very easy to build mental and social fences, though. Just as a farmer likes to build fences to protect and keep his cattle safe, we like to build fences today. There can be no fences when it comes to the Kingdom of God, though, because Jesus Christ brings in unity! There cannot be racism and favoritism in the Kingdom because Paul writes in that,

Galatians 3:28 NASB95

28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

We see in verse 16 that there is double reconciliation that takes place. As John Stott put it, “God turned away his own wrath, and we, seeing His great love, turned away ours also.” Jesus’ death turns away our hostility towards others. We know that this is impossible and that we will always have problems and quarrels with those around us, however we cannot be people who seek out hostility and anger. We should strive to live at peace with those around us and be people who forgive others because we have been forgiven by Christ. What better testimony for a church to have than to be one who loves others and forgives those who have wronged us? The best antidote for a culture that promotes hostility and disunity is to be a people of peace, grace and fixated on the cross of Christ. We must be a people who are continually seeking first the Kingdom of God!

Verse 17 is yet another call to action for Christians as we see that Christ preached peace before, during and after the cross. As followers of Christ, we too must preach peace! Peace is something that the world says that they want, they claim to desire peace and unity among all people but there can only be true peace by coming to know the creator of peace. We can help people come to know this peace by preaching Christ crucified. This is a message that the whole world needs to hear! Not just those who are “really bad”, not just our family members, not just the “nice people”, each and every person needs to hear this message because we believe that there are 2 eternal destinations and humanity stands in opposition to God. We are all sinners and there is a punishment for our sin. Even if people are not willing to admit their sin, God’s Word tells us that mankind is guilty before a holy God. Therefore, the world desperately needs to hear about the truth of the Gospel! This is exactly what we are going to be doing this week through VBS. We need to be faithful to share the Gospel with whoever walks through our doors this week. We need to be faithful to pray for these children and their parents in the days and weeks after VBS! If you are not helping out with VBS in person, we desperately need you to pray for VBS without ceasing as we are called to do in ! We are called to do this because of what we find in verse 18.

We are given access to God through Jesus Christ. In verse 18 we see the three persons of the trinity. We pray to God the Father through the Son by the Spirit. Because of what Christ has done for us in the past, we have the ability to communicate with God today! We are able to approach the Father boldly because of this. The point that Paul is making here, though, is that this access is provided to both the Jew and the Gentile. Just as our Assembly of God, Church of Christ and Methodist brothers and sisters approach God through praying through the Son, we do the same. There are many differences between our congregations, but we have community in prayer. We can pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ from other denominations and we should do this.

We have access to God through Christ our Savior and we experience peace. If you have never called upon the name of Jesus to be the Lord of your life, I beg of you, transfer your guilt to Him. Call upon His name today and let this be your day of salvation. Look to Christ!

Who We Belong To (19-22)

As we looked at last week with the first 10 verses of , we saw that if you are made alive with Christ, then you belong to God. Now we move from the individual perspective of that to the corporate reality. We belong to God! Our world desperately longs for identity and a sense of belonging. What we see in Paul’s conclusion to is that the Christian has an identification badge if you will because of what Christ has done because He is the cornerstone. Paul first shows us that we are now citizens in God’s Kingdom.

As Christians, we are no longer aliens and strangers wandering through this world - we are now citizens. We are now citizens of the Kingdom. We are not “second-class” citizens, either, as some would have us believe. We are full members of the Kingdom! Imagine how you would feel as a non-Christian coming to worship with a group of Christians. You might feel a little odd at first as you learned what people were doing. You would have no idea what a hymn book was and you probably wouldn’t know what to expect from the people around you. Now, think if you were a Gentile Christian who came to worship with a group of Jewish Christians. You probably would have felt a little uneasy and almost as a “second-rate” citizen. What we see Paul do routinely, though, is fight against the very notion of this idea! Gentile Christians are not visitors or 2nd rate citizens in the Kingdom but they are full members. We are not aliens, we are citizens! We are not servants but we are sons and daughters of our newfound Father. Jews and Gentiles are reconciled together and we are both citizens of God’s Kingdom! shows us that Gentiles are grafted into the good olive tree. The credit here is not ours, but it is all about the mercy of God. We should share this hope and news with others! If a human who was dead in their sins and trespasses can be brought into citizenship of God’s Kingdom, anyone else can as well!

How can we understand the idea of Jews and Gentiles being a part of the same family? Because we have the same Father! We have looked at the beautiful theological truth of adoption several times in Romans and this is the truth that we find again in . Our church is made up of adopted brothers and sisters. We all have responsibilities in our church family. We are one family and we all have a role in bringing glory and honor to our Father in heaven. We are called to treat one another like family. Our church is not this building. We are a living, breathing organism that lives life together on mission! We must be careful to not treat and view our church as a hotel - a place that we visit occasionally and possibly drop in a tip if we feel well served. We should see the church as a part of our Christian identity and understand that we all have a role as a citizen of His Kingdom and a member of His family. This is all because we belong to God!

It can be difficult for us to see the importance of verses 20-22 because we have different building materials and we do not prioritize “apostolic” tradition in the same manner of other religions. With that said, though, Paul mentions both of these things in these verses and they are extremely important for us to realize today as well. We know that the church stands or falls based on its faithfulness to God’s Word. Luke showed us in that the early church devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. This is extremely important and we know that many people tried to claim apostolic connection in order to boost their credibility. We looked at Revelation a couple of weeks ago and talked about the Christian leader Polycarp as an example of a Christian who “endured to the end”. Polycarp was a pupil of John. Polycarp could claim apostolic connection because he was a follower of John who was a follower of Christ. Because of this, people took his words seriously. As Christians 2000 years later, we must be sure to devote ourselves to the teachings found in Scripture. We must be careful to follow false teachers. Social media and technology is great for many things, however it can be extremely easy to find ourselves listening and believing messages that make us feel great but lacking any Scriptural basis! We must base all things upon the Word of God!

Next, we see Paul mention the “cornerstone.” Christ is the cornerstone and He makes the whole building possible. Everything that we do as a church must be about Christ because He is the cornerstone of the church! Jesus is how the church grows and how we hold together. If Christ is not the cornerstone, there is no unity. We have heard it said that whenever Christ is first, everything else falls into place in our lives. The same is true whenever Christ is the cornerstone, everything else falls into place. We see that says that “you also are being built together” in verse 22. This is yet another reference to Gentile inclusion to the building. Gentiles were not able to enter into the temple, but now we are a part of it! God’s special presence is not limited to a place or building or even a specific ethnicity, but His presence is worldwide!

We are joined together as a believing community. We are shaped together and we are related to one another in a special way as we grow to be more Christlike. This means that every person counts. In 2002 the Bush administration passed the “No Child Left Behind” Act in which educators were required to help bridge student achievement gaps in order to help students have an opportunity to have a high-quality education. We should treat those around us similarly! No person left behind. We need one another’s time, gifting, love and encouragement. We must make sure that we don’t leave someone left behind and fail to share the Gospel with them. We are to live a Christian life in community that is rooted deeply in the Word of God and to grow and walk together in the Spirit.

Conclusion

Belonging to a local church should be more important than where you go to school, where you go to work or what sport you play. We are supposed to be in community as Christians. We are called to grow together and hold one another accountable and to encourage one another as we go through life together! The New Testament assumes that every Christian is a part of a local church. A lone-ranger Christian is an impossibility to the New Testament. Yet, we find many people today who would rather practice Christianity by themselves than join a local church. Something must change! We should strive to encourage people to join our church and we should love one another as Christ has loved us.

We also see that we are all a part of the family of God as Christians. We might have our quirks and differences, however we see Paul make the point that Jews and Gentiles are now a part of the same family. If Jesus could bring Jews and Gentiles and make them citizens of the same Kingdom, you’d better believe that He can bring people of every tribe, nation and tongue together as well! We must strive to be a “red church”. We must not see ourselves as a “country church” or as a “small church”. We must be a red church. Invite people of all ethnicities, all economic backgrounds, all ages to our church and encourage them to live in community with us. We must pray for wisdom as we do this, and the work is certainly difficult but it is most definitely worth it! We must be intentional in inviting others and encouraging our brothers and sisters to live in community with one another. The great thing about all of this, though, is that these acts glorify our risen Savior who died to bring us to God and bring us to love one another.