WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.919 Well, if you're a regular here at St. C's, you know that we are working our way through 00:00:05.919 --> 00:00:08.439 this letter to the Ephesians. 00:00:08.439 --> 00:00:14.080 And the heart, the main idea in all of the letter to the Ephesians that Paul wrote is 00:00:14.080 --> 00:00:16.519 found in chapter one, verse 10. 00:00:16.519 --> 00:00:22.359 So we looked at that for a few weeks, right at the beginning, where it says, Paul says, 00:00:22.359 --> 00:00:29.400 that the ultimate plan of God in all of world history is that God is bringing everything 00:00:29.399 --> 00:00:34.000 together in Jesus Christ through Jesus Christ, the King. 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:39.799 So everything that was splintered and fractured and broken from Genesis two and three all 00:00:39.799 --> 00:00:44.759 the way till now, Jesus is doing this work of bringing it back together. 00:00:44.759 --> 00:00:49.959 So everything that was broken and fractured is going to become harmonious again. 00:00:49.959 --> 00:00:55.119 And that's the main thing Paul's saying, and he's saying it in hundreds of little ways 00:00:55.119 --> 00:00:56.920 all throughout this letter. 00:00:56.920 --> 00:01:00.120 All the different ways that Jesus is doing this, and how's he doing it? 00:01:00.120 --> 00:01:01.840 He's doing it the past three weeks. 00:01:01.840 --> 00:01:06.040 We looked at Ephesians two, one to 10 by the power of the gospel. 00:01:06.040 --> 00:01:11.840 So through the cross of Jesus, God is reconciling all things to himself. 00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:16.079 And so that starts, if you're a Christian today with you, that if you are a believer 00:01:16.079 --> 00:01:23.120 in Jesus, God has now by the power of the cross and resurrection began the process of 00:01:23.120 --> 00:01:28.079 healing and bringing back together all the things in you that were fractured. 00:01:28.079 --> 00:01:32.680 And so we said last week, God says you are his workmanship. 00:01:32.680 --> 00:01:35.359 His poetry is what that word means. 00:01:35.359 --> 00:01:42.360 I won't try to say the word I couldn't pronounce last week again after all the comments. 00:01:42.360 --> 00:01:45.400 Poetry, art, you're his art. 00:01:45.400 --> 00:01:46.400 You are his workmanship. 00:01:46.400 --> 00:01:47.400 He's beautifying you. 00:01:47.400 --> 00:01:50.080 He's putting you back together. 00:01:50.079 --> 00:01:55.480 And this week, when you come to chapter two, verses 11 to 22, this is when he gives you 00:01:55.480 --> 00:02:00.359 the first really concrete example of that bringing things together that have once been 00:02:00.359 --> 00:02:01.359 fractured. 00:02:01.359 --> 00:02:05.799 And so what we have here, what we just read, what Dean read for us is a case study in how 00:02:05.799 --> 00:02:11.759 God uses the power of the gospel to bring things together that were once split apart. 00:02:11.759 --> 00:02:16.479 And the case study is about the Jews and the Gentiles, who were people that were fractured 00:02:16.479 --> 00:02:20.959 and completely set against one another at this time and how the gospel did something 00:02:20.959 --> 00:02:26.399 unbelievable, brought them together into the same space and made them even friends. 00:02:26.399 --> 00:02:28.799 And so that's what verses 11 down to 22 is about. 00:02:28.799 --> 00:02:32.879 We're going to look at it for two weeks and look at two big ideas. 00:02:32.879 --> 00:02:36.719 But Paul is doing something here that's not easy for us. 00:02:36.719 --> 00:02:40.319 And you can see it in verse 11, the very first thing he says, we'll come back to the 00:02:40.319 --> 00:02:47.599 there for in a minute, but he says, remember, which is a word that relates to our human 00:02:47.599 --> 00:02:49.359 reason here. 00:02:49.359 --> 00:02:53.280 If you translate it very literally, it could be something like, use your mind to consider, 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:54.560 that's the phrase. 00:02:54.560 --> 00:02:57.439 So he's saying, think about, think about what? 00:02:57.439 --> 00:03:02.479 And we're going to see that he says, think about the hostility that was there between 00:03:02.479 --> 00:03:05.859 the Jews and the Gentiles apart from the gospel. 00:03:05.859 --> 00:03:09.079 And he's calling on us because this is God's word to us too. 00:03:09.080 --> 00:03:12.480 He says, take a minute this morning. 00:03:12.480 --> 00:03:16.320 Will you take some time this morning as we look at this passage to think about all the 00:03:16.320 --> 00:03:22.439 hostility that has ever been present in your life between you and other people? 00:03:22.439 --> 00:03:27.320 All the pain, all the resentment, all the separation. 00:03:27.320 --> 00:03:32.400 Here he's talking about hostility, hatred, divisiveness, neglect that came about through 00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:37.320 resentment towards people because of nationality, because of ethnicity, because of race, because 00:03:37.319 --> 00:03:41.840 of language, because of cultural barrier, because of clothing, because of all sorts 00:03:41.840 --> 00:03:46.879 of little cultural decisions about even the way people approach the dinner table that divides 00:03:46.879 --> 00:03:47.879 people. 00:03:47.879 --> 00:03:52.319 He's talking about division over political persuasion and parties. 00:03:52.319 --> 00:03:56.919 And he's talking about if we go deeper, every little hostility that we've ever experienced 00:03:56.919 --> 00:04:04.319 in our lives, road rage and anoints with people and the thousand little cuts that we experienced 00:04:04.319 --> 00:04:07.199 with the people that are closest to us. 00:04:07.199 --> 00:04:15.319 So we alienate, we divide, we're hostile people to people between groups like ethnicities 00:04:15.319 --> 00:04:20.399 and then also with people that are most like us and closest to us as well. 00:04:20.399 --> 00:04:23.240 Which means this is just a universal problem. 00:04:23.240 --> 00:04:27.879 We have hostility with people who are most unlike us and most like us. 00:04:27.879 --> 00:04:29.599 We can't get away. 00:04:29.599 --> 00:04:30.599 It's everywhere. 00:04:30.599 --> 00:04:32.079 And that's exactly the issue he's talking about. 00:04:32.079 --> 00:04:38.479 Human creates hostility and alienation between people and the word here that he uses for 00:04:38.479 --> 00:04:43.159 hostility is a word that can also just be translated as hatred even. 00:04:43.159 --> 00:04:46.159 And so that's the case study that he's dealing with. 00:04:46.159 --> 00:04:50.279 And Paul says, remember, think about it. 00:04:50.279 --> 00:04:56.159 Ask yourself this morning, what are the ways in my life now over many years where I've 00:04:56.160 --> 00:05:06.040 struggled even subtly with small or big hostility towards people because of their behavior, 00:05:06.040 --> 00:05:12.879 their lifestyle, their ethnicity or in the thousands of other ways that we might alienate. 00:05:12.879 --> 00:05:14.040 That's what he's asking us to do. 00:05:14.040 --> 00:05:15.040 So let's see that. 00:05:15.040 --> 00:05:17.400 First, let's consider the case study. 00:05:17.400 --> 00:05:21.600 And then secondly, the wall of hostility broken. 00:05:21.600 --> 00:05:23.560 How can we break through? 00:05:23.560 --> 00:05:28.720 And then finally, what he calls here the new humanity that God is by the power of the gospel, 00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:30.319 building a new humanity. 00:05:30.319 --> 00:05:31.839 How do we get that? 00:05:31.839 --> 00:05:38.439 So first, this case study in human hostility between Jews and Gentiles, you'll see it in 00:05:38.439 --> 00:05:39.439 verse 11. 00:05:39.439 --> 00:05:44.600 He says that one time you Gentiles in the flesh were called the uncircumcision by the 00:05:44.600 --> 00:05:47.000 Jews who were called the circumcision. 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:51.720 And then he carries on into verse 12 and he says, remember you Gentiles. 00:05:51.720 --> 00:06:00.360 So he's talking here to Ephesians Christians that were previously pagans, very literally, 00:06:00.360 --> 00:06:03.800 not using that word in derision, but just technically pagans. 00:06:03.800 --> 00:06:06.360 They were worshiping many, many gods. 00:06:06.360 --> 00:06:11.440 And we haven't talked about this yet in Ephesians, but in the city of Ephesus, one of the great 00:06:11.440 --> 00:06:15.760 cities of the Roman Empire, there was one of the seven wonders of the world as we now 00:06:15.760 --> 00:06:18.400 label them, the temple of Artemis. 00:06:18.400 --> 00:06:19.400 It's destroyed. 00:06:19.400 --> 00:06:20.400 We don't have it anymore. 00:06:20.399 --> 00:06:23.839 The temple of Artemis, as we understand it, was one of the great architectural wonders 00:06:23.839 --> 00:06:25.439 of world history. 00:06:25.439 --> 00:06:29.879 People still aren't unsure of how they were able to build it at the time. 00:06:29.879 --> 00:06:34.679 And it was a place where every single god was being worshiped, but the true God. 00:06:34.679 --> 00:06:39.199 And so here he says down in verse 13, you were strangers to Christ. 00:06:39.199 --> 00:06:42.779 You were not part of the citizenship of Israel. 00:06:42.779 --> 00:06:45.359 And then at the very last clause he said, you had no hope. 00:06:45.359 --> 00:06:47.759 You were without God in the world. 00:06:47.759 --> 00:06:51.839 Now that's a word without God in the world that we use for atheism. 00:06:51.839 --> 00:06:55.800 So it's a theism very literally, you were godless. 00:06:55.800 --> 00:06:57.560 You didn't have God. 00:06:57.560 --> 00:07:05.279 And so he says here to them, you were separated from God and you were separated from one another. 00:07:05.279 --> 00:07:10.519 And he's talking first about their relationship to God just being very historically, very 00:07:10.519 --> 00:07:12.039 literally separated. 00:07:12.039 --> 00:07:17.079 So they were not part of the covenant people of the Old Testament. 00:07:17.079 --> 00:07:21.560 They were without Christ, meaning without the anointed one. 00:07:21.560 --> 00:07:24.680 They literally did not know about the Messiah at all. 00:07:24.680 --> 00:07:25.759 So they're in Ephesus. 00:07:25.759 --> 00:07:31.159 They're worshiping at the temple of Artemis, worshiping many, many gods and they just didn't 00:07:31.159 --> 00:07:32.159 know God. 00:07:32.159 --> 00:07:34.779 They didn't know the real God. 00:07:34.779 --> 00:07:40.479 And so he says because of that back one step in verse 11, you had this relationship between 00:07:40.479 --> 00:07:44.279 you and Gentile of hostility. 00:07:44.279 --> 00:07:45.279 You were separated. 00:07:45.279 --> 00:07:49.839 So when he talks in verse 11, he said, you were called the uncircumcision by what is 00:07:49.839 --> 00:07:52.399 called the circumcision. 00:07:52.399 --> 00:07:57.839 He's talking about the name calling that that went on between Jew and Gentile at this time. 00:07:57.839 --> 00:08:05.839 And so the Jews called the Gentiles the uncircumcised and we even see this in the gospel. 00:08:05.839 --> 00:08:10.799 Sometimes they would use the name dogs for the Gentiles. 00:08:10.799 --> 00:08:14.519 And the Gentiles turned around and called the Jews dogs. 00:08:14.519 --> 00:08:20.399 So the Greeks thought the Jews were uneducated and the Jews thought the Greeks were unholy 00:08:20.399 --> 00:08:22.319 and it went in every direction. 00:08:22.319 --> 00:08:25.519 So this is not a Jewish thing or a Gentile thing. 00:08:25.519 --> 00:08:29.919 What we see here is this is a human thing and that there was hostility going in every 00:08:29.919 --> 00:08:31.479 single direction. 00:08:31.479 --> 00:08:35.360 And he's saying that if you were a Gentile, you look down on the Jews. 00:08:35.360 --> 00:08:39.319 And if you were Jewish in this time, you look down on the Gentiles and you separate, you 00:08:39.319 --> 00:08:43.319 look down the nose as we say at the other person. 00:08:43.320 --> 00:08:48.360 And when you think of, you know, you go back to the Old Testament and you learn about God's 00:08:48.360 --> 00:08:51.840 revelation of Himself through Israel. 00:08:51.840 --> 00:08:57.080 He said many, many times, Psalm 86 is one example, all the nations are going to come 00:08:57.080 --> 00:08:59.440 together and worship me. 00:08:59.440 --> 00:09:03.760 Through my revelation to Israel, everybody, every nation, every Gentile nation is going 00:09:03.760 --> 00:09:06.760 to come into worship and worship me. 00:09:06.759 --> 00:09:13.720 And here we have a case study that the Gentiles and the Jews just separated themselves, no 00:09:13.720 --> 00:09:15.519 matter what they believed in. 00:09:15.519 --> 00:09:18.439 Now what about us? 00:09:18.439 --> 00:09:21.220 He's talking here about a very human thing. 00:09:21.220 --> 00:09:23.939 We divide into teams. 00:09:23.939 --> 00:09:31.240 We divide into groups and hold enmity against people who aren't like us. 00:09:31.240 --> 00:09:35.480 And it's been happening for all of human history and it's not just Jew and Gentile, it's also 00:09:35.480 --> 00:09:36.679 Gentile to Gentile. 00:09:36.679 --> 00:09:40.799 There were thousands of ethnicities in this time and they all separated. 00:09:40.799 --> 00:09:43.919 They all were in derision against one another. 00:09:43.919 --> 00:09:49.000 And Paul refers here to this symbol that he uses to talk about this. 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:50.159 You can see it. 00:09:50.159 --> 00:09:53.639 He talks about the wall of hostility that had been created. 00:09:53.639 --> 00:09:59.000 So in the Jerusalem Temple, there was very literally a five foot wall. 00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:03.199 And this was a wall at the very edge of the Jerusalem Temple and it was called the wall 00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:06.960 that separated the Jews from the Gentiles, the court of the Gentiles. 00:10:06.960 --> 00:10:11.400 And so no matter even if you came to faith, even if you believed in the true God, you 00:10:11.400 --> 00:10:16.000 were relegated to a court, a setting as far away from the center of the temple called 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:17.000 the court of the Gentiles. 00:10:17.000 --> 00:10:22.480 By a five foot wall, Paul here says that is the wall of hostility. 00:10:22.480 --> 00:10:27.040 And he says the wall of hostility doesn't just exist between Jew and Gentile, but between 00:10:27.040 --> 00:10:30.640 in the heart of every single person that's ever existed. 00:10:30.639 --> 00:10:36.080 We all alienate, we've all separated, we all struggle with this. 00:10:36.080 --> 00:10:43.279 Sometimes think about it in our, sometimes people in a wealthy neighborhood look down 00:10:43.279 --> 00:10:50.919 on people even if we don't say it out loud, people that live in low income, poor neighborhoods. 00:10:50.919 --> 00:10:54.799 And people in poor neighborhoods look down on people who live in wealthy neighborhoods. 00:10:54.799 --> 00:10:58.559 I don't know if you've seen the recent Wonka movie. 00:10:58.559 --> 00:11:00.620 It's pretty good. 00:11:00.620 --> 00:11:05.639 But one of the characters, one of the bad guys in the Wonka movie is Mr. Ficklegruber. 00:11:05.639 --> 00:11:10.279 And if you've seen it, you know that every time somebody says the word poor in front 00:11:10.279 --> 00:11:14.039 of Mr. Ficklegruber, he gags. 00:11:14.039 --> 00:11:17.639 He can't stand even hearing the word. 00:11:17.639 --> 00:11:22.440 You see the wealthy look down on the poor and then the poor turn around and call the 00:11:22.440 --> 00:11:24.840 wealthy snobs. 00:11:24.840 --> 00:11:27.360 It goes in every direction. 00:11:27.360 --> 00:11:35.159 Somebody may be here, a woman in this room that's been hurt by a man. 00:11:35.159 --> 00:11:38.879 And sometimes what happens after that is then you hold all, you can come to a place where 00:11:38.879 --> 00:11:41.440 you hold all men in derision. 00:11:41.440 --> 00:11:43.800 Where you don't have any regard for men. 00:11:43.800 --> 00:11:47.560 And some men here may have been hurt by a woman. 00:11:47.560 --> 00:11:51.800 And you come front through that and you hold women, you hold women in derision. 00:11:51.800 --> 00:11:56.440 And it happens and you see, we're hot, we separate, we divide, we do it at every single 00:11:56.440 --> 00:11:58.840 level, we alienate. 00:11:58.840 --> 00:12:04.800 And we have alienation between political persuasions, between ethnicities, between rich and poor 00:12:04.800 --> 00:12:07.080 socioeconomic classes. 00:12:07.080 --> 00:12:12.200 Now all of you are well aware that in our modern world, in a city like Edinburgh, people 00:12:12.200 --> 00:12:15.600 are working very hard to stamp this out. 00:12:15.600 --> 00:12:16.720 So we talk about this. 00:12:16.720 --> 00:12:19.720 People say, no, fight racism. 00:12:19.720 --> 00:12:21.440 Don't separate. 00:12:21.440 --> 00:12:22.880 Don't have hostility towards people. 00:12:22.879 --> 00:12:27.840 See the dignity and the value in every single person that lives in a city like Edinburgh. 00:12:27.840 --> 00:12:31.320 But part of the difficulty in that is modern people will talk about that. 00:12:31.320 --> 00:12:36.679 They'll say, and it's a very good thing to push back against hostility, to maintain peace. 00:12:36.679 --> 00:12:39.919 And at the same time, we don't know why. 00:12:39.919 --> 00:12:42.000 Modern people, we don't know why. 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:43.000 Why is it? 00:12:43.000 --> 00:12:46.759 So Thomas Nagel, maybe you've come across this before, Thomas Nagel, who's a philosopher 00:12:46.759 --> 00:12:47.759 in the United States. 00:12:47.759 --> 00:12:53.159 He wrote a really important essay in the 1970s called The Absurdity of Life. 00:12:53.159 --> 00:12:54.159 And this is what he says. 00:12:54.159 --> 00:13:00.879 He says, we are tiny specks in the infinite vastness of the universe. 00:13:00.879 --> 00:13:07.120 Our lives are mere instance, even on a geological time scale, let alone a cosmic scale. 00:13:07.120 --> 00:13:10.480 We will all be dead in any minute. 00:13:10.480 --> 00:13:14.759 We are, and this is a paraphrase from here, an accident on top of an accident. 00:13:14.759 --> 00:13:16.879 We're random. 00:13:16.879 --> 00:13:21.220 And one day, the sun will burn up and we will all freeze to death. 00:13:21.220 --> 00:13:26.879 And there will be no memories left, no consciousness to remember anything we've ever done. 00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:31.519 Therefore, love one another. 00:13:31.519 --> 00:13:34.919 Show dignity to every person. 00:13:34.919 --> 00:13:37.159 Stop racism. 00:13:37.159 --> 00:13:39.320 Fight to not separate. 00:13:39.320 --> 00:13:42.000 You know, we're all accidents upon accidents upon accidents. 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:44.879 And one day we'll all be dead and there's no memories left. 00:13:44.879 --> 00:13:47.720 And so you should love your neighbor as yourself. 00:13:47.720 --> 00:13:49.919 Now that is the ethic of modernity. 00:13:49.919 --> 00:13:53.240 And you can see that the therefore doesn't make any sense. 00:13:53.240 --> 00:13:55.159 What is the therefore therefore? 00:13:55.159 --> 00:13:58.200 Now the Bible does better. 00:13:58.200 --> 00:14:02.879 Paul is coming here and saying, there is a reason for seeking peace. 00:14:02.879 --> 00:14:06.360 There is a reason to push back against the hostility we have in our hearts to people 00:14:06.360 --> 00:14:09.279 who aren't like us or are like us. 00:14:09.279 --> 00:14:11.360 And it's also a therefore. 00:14:11.360 --> 00:14:14.799 And it's the therefore that's found in verse 11. 00:14:14.799 --> 00:14:17.679 But Paul says therefore remember. 00:14:17.679 --> 00:14:23.159 And when he says therefore, he's trying to get us to go backwards one verse to remember. 00:14:23.159 --> 00:14:27.000 What's the reason for pursuing peace with one another? 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:31.639 And he says the reason is because you are the workmanship of God recreated in Christ 00:14:31.639 --> 00:14:33.139 Jesus for good works. 00:14:33.139 --> 00:14:38.479 In other words, he says because God has come to heal the vertical relationship you have, 00:14:38.479 --> 00:14:42.519 to bring you at peace with God the Father, now in your life you have a real reason to 00:14:42.519 --> 00:14:44.639 seek peace with one another. 00:14:44.639 --> 00:14:49.919 In other words, he's telling us that he's telling us exactly why it will never work. 00:14:49.919 --> 00:14:50.919 Hostility will never stop. 00:14:50.919 --> 00:14:52.559 Why won't it stop? 00:14:52.559 --> 00:14:54.279 Because we will always be hostile. 00:14:54.279 --> 00:14:59.039 We will always be at war with other people as long as we are at war with God. 00:14:59.039 --> 00:15:04.639 He says you've got to heal your vertical relationship if you ever want to heal horizontal relationships. 00:15:04.639 --> 00:15:06.360 Meaningfully, forever. 00:15:06.360 --> 00:15:10.679 And so he says therefore, he draws us back to verse 10. 00:15:10.679 --> 00:15:13.480 And let's take it just a step further. 00:15:13.480 --> 00:15:16.800 He says if you're a Christian today, you are God's workmanship. 00:15:16.800 --> 00:15:19.080 You are being beautified by the gospel. 00:15:19.080 --> 00:15:22.120 You have peace with the Father, therefore you're called to have peace with other people, 00:15:22.120 --> 00:15:27.120 to seek, to put away any hostility in your heart towards other people. 00:15:27.120 --> 00:15:32.600 In other words, what he's saying is that the deep problem that creates hostility between 00:15:32.600 --> 00:15:37.800 humans, we're told here, is unbelief. 00:15:37.800 --> 00:15:42.420 Unbelief, if you have unbelief, we have unbelief towards God the Father, then we're going to 00:15:42.419 --> 00:15:43.879 have hostility to neighbors. 00:15:43.879 --> 00:15:44.879 Why? 00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:50.319 Because unbelief is the hand that reaches into the glove of pride. 00:15:50.319 --> 00:15:54.839 All the way back in the very beginning in Genesis 1 and 2, 2 and 3, we looked to God 00:15:54.839 --> 00:15:57.039 and said, I don't need you. 00:15:57.039 --> 00:15:58.039 I don't believe in you. 00:15:58.039 --> 00:16:00.360 I can live my life without you. 00:16:00.360 --> 00:16:06.000 And what the Bible is saying is from that moment, that created not only hostility, enmity, war 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:09.159 between us and God, but between us and every other person around us. 00:16:09.159 --> 00:16:14.639 He said, the more you embrace unbelief, the more and more you have hostility in the world. 00:16:14.639 --> 00:16:17.000 And he's saying that that's because of our pride. 00:16:17.000 --> 00:16:19.039 It's because of our self-righteousness. 00:16:19.039 --> 00:16:23.759 He had just said just before, the gospel is about coming and saying, I have nothing to 00:16:23.759 --> 00:16:24.759 boast in. 00:16:24.759 --> 00:16:27.159 I have nothing to be prideful about. 00:16:27.159 --> 00:16:32.519 And so we look down our noses at God by sin and unbelief. 00:16:32.519 --> 00:16:35.519 And so we look down our noses at other people. 00:16:35.519 --> 00:16:38.959 Self-righteousness, unbelief, it's at the heart of all hostility. 00:16:38.960 --> 00:16:40.800 It is what separates humanity. 00:16:40.800 --> 00:16:45.080 It is what keeps us from coming together. 00:16:45.080 --> 00:16:49.519 People in our time, in our city, people in the modern world are hungry for peace. 00:16:49.519 --> 00:16:51.440 They're hungry to come together. 00:16:51.440 --> 00:16:52.940 They're hungry to be at one. 00:16:52.940 --> 00:16:57.080 And the Bible comes and says, you can never understand why you're in hostility and you 00:16:57.080 --> 00:17:02.800 can never heal from it, not ultimately until you see that you are at hostility, enmity, 00:17:02.800 --> 00:17:04.779 with God the Father. 00:17:04.779 --> 00:17:09.200 And without that healing, there will never be true peace. 00:17:09.200 --> 00:17:11.559 Secondly, how can we have it? 00:17:11.559 --> 00:17:13.039 The wall has to be broken. 00:17:13.039 --> 00:17:18.799 All right, so he turns in verse 13 to tell us what we can do, how we can have it. 00:17:18.799 --> 00:17:25.799 And he says in verse 13, but now in Christ, you who are far off have been brought near 00:17:25.799 --> 00:17:27.399 by the blood of Jesus. 00:17:27.399 --> 00:17:31.839 All right, remember if you were here with us the last few weeks, he said, you were dead 00:17:31.839 --> 00:17:38.000 in your trespasses and sins, but now, but God made you alive. 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:44.279 Now he's doing it against talking specifically to Gentiles who were once pagans and saying, 00:17:44.279 --> 00:17:49.159 you were far away from God in the temple of Artemis, but now God has brought you near 00:17:49.159 --> 00:17:50.759 to him by the blood of the cross. 00:17:50.759 --> 00:17:54.079 So he's doing a parallel thing as in the previous section. 00:17:54.079 --> 00:18:01.759 And he says in the next verse, he himself, Jesus, verse 14, has now become our peace. 00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:05.799 So he says by the power of the cross, Jew and Gentile are now in the city of Ephesus 00:18:05.799 --> 00:18:07.559 worshiping together. 00:18:07.559 --> 00:18:11.799 And he says, Jesus is our peace. 00:18:11.799 --> 00:18:12.799 Jesus is our peace. 00:18:12.799 --> 00:18:16.359 What kind of peace is he talking about here? 00:18:16.359 --> 00:18:22.839 When we think of peace, most of us probably first go to the inner tranquility that we 00:18:22.839 --> 00:18:24.720 long for in our lives. 00:18:24.720 --> 00:18:29.160 So we think about the opposite of anxiety, the opposite of depression. 00:18:29.160 --> 00:18:31.920 We want in our hearts peace, rest. 00:18:31.920 --> 00:18:34.720 We want to be able to sleep at night. 00:18:34.720 --> 00:18:38.400 And that is something the gospel offers, but that's not exactly what he's talking about 00:18:38.400 --> 00:18:40.200 here. 00:18:40.200 --> 00:18:45.480 When he says he is our peace, he's talking about something very objective, very concrete, 00:18:45.480 --> 00:18:46.800 very visible. 00:18:46.800 --> 00:18:50.480 And when you go back to the Old Testament, there's an Old Testament scholar, Gerhard 00:18:50.480 --> 00:18:52.080 Esavan-Rod. 00:18:52.080 --> 00:18:58.360 He says when you go somewhere like Psalm 85, the writer says righteousness when the Messiah 00:18:58.359 --> 00:19:02.959 comes, righteousness and peace shall kiss. 00:19:02.959 --> 00:19:04.479 They'll come together. 00:19:04.479 --> 00:19:09.000 And Von Rod says when you look at the word peace throughout the Old Testament, there's 00:19:09.000 --> 00:19:16.240 a negative side, peace is the end of all warfare and the positive side, peace is the establishment 00:19:16.240 --> 00:19:19.599 of communities of justice and love. 00:19:19.599 --> 00:19:25.519 So he says in the Old Testament, peace is not usually a word referring to inner tranquility, 00:19:25.519 --> 00:19:27.319 the absences of anxiety. 00:19:27.319 --> 00:19:35.200 Instead, peace in the Old Testament is ending warfare and creating communities of love. 00:19:35.200 --> 00:19:36.200 It's very objective. 00:19:36.200 --> 00:19:37.200 It's very external. 00:19:37.200 --> 00:19:38.799 You can see it. 00:19:38.799 --> 00:19:44.879 Now what he says here is that because of the cross, Jesus Christ has become our peace. 00:19:44.879 --> 00:19:49.899 And he's talking about Jews and Gentiles that hated one another. 00:19:49.899 --> 00:19:52.159 They called each other dogs. 00:19:52.159 --> 00:19:53.240 They wouldn't eat together. 00:19:53.240 --> 00:19:55.480 They wouldn't share the same spaces. 00:19:55.480 --> 00:20:01.759 And he says, and because of the cross, Jesus has ended the warfare, but even more than that, 00:20:01.759 --> 00:20:02.759 that's not just peace. 00:20:02.759 --> 00:20:06.000 Peace, he says peace in the Old Testament is love. 00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:07.000 It's shalom. 00:20:07.000 --> 00:20:08.480 It's actually, it's more. 00:20:08.480 --> 00:20:11.120 It's more than just saying, I'll be okay with you. 00:20:11.120 --> 00:20:13.640 We can share the same restaurant. 00:20:13.640 --> 00:20:15.480 Peace is actually being in relationship. 00:20:15.480 --> 00:20:17.200 It's knowing the other person. 00:20:17.200 --> 00:20:19.279 It's sitting down to dinner. 00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:23.599 The greatest example I can think of that reflects what Paul's talking about here comes from 00:20:23.599 --> 00:20:30.679 where I grew up in the South in Mississippi and many other places in Mississippi and many 00:20:30.679 --> 00:20:33.359 other places in the US, especially in the South. 00:20:33.359 --> 00:20:36.879 In the middle 20th century, we had the Jim Crow laws. 00:20:36.879 --> 00:20:40.879 And the Jim Crow laws separated black people from white people. 00:20:40.879 --> 00:20:45.039 And black people and white people, it was illegal for black people to eat in the same 00:20:45.039 --> 00:20:51.799 restaurant to ride on the same buses, to occupy the same seats, spaces, schools. 00:20:51.799 --> 00:20:57.240 And I think what Paul's saying here is, look, when Jim Crow ended, a lot of what happened 00:20:57.240 --> 00:21:01.759 was legally everybody had to be together. 00:21:01.759 --> 00:21:04.200 But that's not peace. 00:21:04.200 --> 00:21:06.279 He's talking about something more than that. 00:21:06.279 --> 00:21:12.399 Legally, people were in the same spaces and tolerated that. 00:21:12.399 --> 00:21:19.200 But he's saying, look up in the first century and realize that there are Jews and Gentiles, 00:21:19.200 --> 00:21:24.039 former pagans and people of the Old Covenant who are worshiping together in the same space 00:21:24.039 --> 00:21:29.880 and actually loving one another, knowing one another, communing together. 00:21:29.880 --> 00:21:31.720 He says, that's the power of the gospel. 00:21:31.720 --> 00:21:32.720 He is our peace. 00:21:32.720 --> 00:21:34.480 That's what the gospel can do. 00:21:34.480 --> 00:21:38.080 And before we move on to the final thing, how does it happen? 00:21:38.080 --> 00:21:43.120 And this is what he says, but now in Christ Jesus, you've been brought near by the blood 00:21:43.120 --> 00:21:44.880 of Jesus, by the blood of Christ. 00:21:44.880 --> 00:21:46.360 He is our peace. 00:21:46.360 --> 00:21:48.000 He's made us one. 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:49.000 How? 00:21:49.000 --> 00:21:54.960 Notice this very specific language at the back half of verse 14. 00:21:54.960 --> 00:22:01.640 He broke down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. 00:22:01.640 --> 00:22:04.319 He made a new community, a new humanity. 00:22:04.319 --> 00:22:08.960 And here's the language, in his flesh broke down the dividing wall of hostility. 00:22:08.960 --> 00:22:14.279 Now what Paul is saying there is that the way the cross deals with hostility between 00:22:14.279 --> 00:22:22.200 people groups, between people is that very literally Jesus Christ became the hostility. 00:22:22.200 --> 00:22:26.879 It says he in his flesh became the dividing wall. 00:22:26.879 --> 00:22:29.039 He took it on. 00:22:29.039 --> 00:22:35.000 He's saying that when Jesus went to the cross, he bore every single bit of resentment that 00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:37.240 we've ever had for other people. 00:22:37.240 --> 00:22:42.879 When Jesus went to the cross, he bore every bit of unrighteous anger, every bit of hostility, 00:22:42.880 --> 00:22:50.360 every bit of hatred, every bit of inner heart eye rolling at other communities, every bit 00:22:50.360 --> 00:22:55.080 of looking down the nose, every bit of self-righteousness and pride. 00:22:55.080 --> 00:22:59.280 Look it's saying Jesus actually became that. 00:22:59.280 --> 00:23:01.200 He became the hostility. 00:23:01.200 --> 00:23:02.400 How so? 00:23:02.400 --> 00:23:04.600 First Corinthians 5. 00:23:04.600 --> 00:23:12.860 He who knew no sin became that sin for our sakes so that we might in him become righteous. 00:23:12.859 --> 00:23:16.479 He's saying that very objectively in the eyes of God the Father, God the Father put 00:23:16.479 --> 00:23:23.599 every single act of resentment, hostility, anger, hatred that we've ever bore in our 00:23:23.599 --> 00:23:31.119 lives, that we've ever committed right onto him legally, that he objectively became that 00:23:31.119 --> 00:23:38.240 so that in his death that hostility might die with him and justice might be established. 00:23:38.240 --> 00:23:44.759 Psalm 85 verse 10, in the Messiah justice and peace will kiss. 00:23:44.759 --> 00:23:50.880 Jesus Christ became the injustice of our hostility so that for us justice and peace 00:23:50.880 --> 00:23:52.200 would kiss. 00:23:52.200 --> 00:23:56.980 We would receive justice objectively before the Father, access to God and then we could 00:23:56.980 --> 00:23:58.599 have peace with one another. 00:23:58.599 --> 00:24:05.519 In other words, what he's saying is that when Jesus became hostility for us, we became 00:24:05.519 --> 00:24:10.559 people at peace with God the Father so we could be at peace with one another. 00:24:10.559 --> 00:24:13.200 It's objective so that it can become subjective. 00:24:13.200 --> 00:24:16.720 And so lastly, how can it become subjective in your life? 00:24:16.720 --> 00:24:18.240 How can we grow? 00:24:18.240 --> 00:24:21.680 And this is really just a preview of next week. 00:24:21.680 --> 00:24:26.079 Come back next week because we don't have time today to say really the main point he's 00:24:26.079 --> 00:24:34.000 making which is the great example of the gospel's power of bringing people together is the church. 00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:37.720 And we'll focus on that next week but let's just think of two ways we can see that today. 00:24:37.720 --> 00:24:44.599 This week, Monday, as you go forward, he says down in verse 15, he has created in himself 00:24:44.599 --> 00:24:48.039 one new man, one new humanity. 00:24:48.039 --> 00:24:49.559 And he's brought us together. 00:24:49.559 --> 00:24:53.880 He's created a new humanity and he's talking here about the church. 00:24:53.880 --> 00:24:54.880 Two ways. 00:24:54.880 --> 00:25:02.839 He says first, how can you grow in your life if you're a Christian in peace with people? 00:25:02.839 --> 00:25:08.199 And what he tells us here is he says, the gospel comes into your life and it stops every 00:25:08.199 --> 00:25:09.199 single one of us. 00:25:09.199 --> 00:25:10.199 It stops us. 00:25:10.199 --> 00:25:13.319 It must stop us from boasting. 00:25:13.319 --> 00:25:19.000 So Ephesians 2 verse 10, verse 8, 9 and 10, he said, when you see the gospel, the power 00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:23.119 of the gospel come into your life, you know that it's not by merit that you were ever 00:25:23.119 --> 00:25:24.119 accepted. 00:25:24.119 --> 00:25:25.279 It's not by self-righteousness. 00:25:25.279 --> 00:25:27.279 You have nothing to boast in. 00:25:27.279 --> 00:25:33.240 He says the way to kill hostility in your life towards other people is to see, is to 00:25:33.240 --> 00:25:35.799 say, I've got nothing to boast in. 00:25:35.799 --> 00:25:40.680 I cannot have any self-righteousness before God and other people. 00:25:40.680 --> 00:25:44.879 In other words, he's saying, do you realize, are you able today to say, but for the grace 00:25:44.879 --> 00:25:47.240 of God, who would I be? 00:25:47.240 --> 00:25:51.119 When I look down and I see other people in my heart, you know, I want to look down my 00:25:51.119 --> 00:25:52.119 nose. 00:25:52.119 --> 00:25:58.479 He said, but can you say, but for the grace of God, who would I be? 00:25:58.479 --> 00:26:01.479 Is there anything in my life that I haven't received as a gift? 00:26:01.479 --> 00:26:05.079 Everything good in my life has come to me as a gift. 00:26:05.079 --> 00:26:08.919 You know, if you were born here or there, if you were born somewhere else, if you were 00:26:08.919 --> 00:26:12.919 born into a different time in a family, who would you be? 00:26:12.919 --> 00:26:15.959 And he said, do you have nothing to boast about? 00:26:15.959 --> 00:26:19.599 And he's saying, the gospel kills our boasting. 00:26:19.599 --> 00:26:22.679 And when our boasting dies, our self-righteousness dies. 00:26:22.679 --> 00:26:26.039 And when our self-righteousness dies, our hostility dies. 00:26:26.039 --> 00:26:29.359 And so in other words, you can call sin, sin. 00:26:29.359 --> 00:26:34.379 You can look at a community or culture and say, there are sinful practices here, perhaps, 00:26:34.379 --> 00:26:40.000 but never hold a people in derision at the very same time because of the power of the 00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:41.000 gospel. 00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:45.439 Now, the second thing, the final thing is this. 00:26:45.439 --> 00:26:48.359 The second thing in the final thing is the necessity of the church, the reality of the 00:26:48.359 --> 00:26:49.480 church. 00:26:49.480 --> 00:26:55.799 He says here that when we realize the gospel, we realize that we've been made one new man, 00:26:55.799 --> 00:26:58.839 we've been made part of the community of the faithful, the church. 00:26:58.839 --> 00:26:59.960 You've become the church. 00:26:59.960 --> 00:27:05.440 We are the church together, gathered standing before God with access to God. 00:27:05.440 --> 00:27:10.120 And so he says in verse 15, we are, quote, his body. 00:27:10.120 --> 00:27:15.799 If you have reconciliation to God the Father today, you have legally, objectively obtained 00:27:15.799 --> 00:27:19.759 reconciliation to every single Christian that's ever existed. 00:27:19.759 --> 00:27:22.039 You see, it's a legal thing. 00:27:22.039 --> 00:27:28.680 In Jesus, when he died, holding our hostility in himself, we were legally granted access 00:27:28.680 --> 00:27:29.680 to God the Father. 00:27:29.680 --> 00:27:35.399 And he's saying, now we've been legally made one with each other. 00:27:35.399 --> 00:27:41.240 And so whether we like it or not, we are one new humanity in Jesus, shoulder to shoulder, 00:27:41.240 --> 00:27:46.319 with every other Christian that's ever existed, every people group, every race, every ethnicity, 00:27:46.319 --> 00:27:49.920 we are very legally before God the Father won. 00:27:49.920 --> 00:27:54.019 Now one thing to take away and we'll pray. 00:27:54.019 --> 00:27:59.880 If you're a Christian today, that means for all of us, we don't get to have a casual relationship 00:27:59.880 --> 00:28:03.759 to God's church. 00:28:03.759 --> 00:28:09.039 He's saying to us, you are the reconciled community of faith, no matter what you think 00:28:09.039 --> 00:28:14.440 about it, no matter how you feel about it, no matter how much we want to sleep in on 00:28:14.440 --> 00:28:16.079 Sundays. 00:28:16.079 --> 00:28:17.720 We are the reconciled community. 00:28:17.720 --> 00:28:23.440 We stand as one new humanity, legally bound to Christ before God the Father, and it'll 00:28:23.440 --> 00:28:25.480 be that way forever. 00:28:25.480 --> 00:28:31.159 And so he's telling us here, we don't get to have a casual relationship to the church. 00:28:31.159 --> 00:28:32.839 It's a relationship of necessity. 00:28:32.839 --> 00:28:35.240 It's actually who we've become. 00:28:35.240 --> 00:28:40.960 And so one old Scottish theologian, he puts it like this, John Mackay, he says, you are 00:28:40.960 --> 00:28:45.640 the church that is your socially defining attribute. 00:28:45.640 --> 00:28:49.960 If you are a Christian, that is your socially defining attribute. 00:28:49.960 --> 00:28:55.920 And so he says, we can no longer say separate by male, female, Greek and Jew, circumcised 00:28:55.920 --> 00:29:00.839 and uncircumcised, barbarian, skivvy and slave, free man, as Paul puts it. 00:29:00.839 --> 00:29:02.559 But in Christ, we are all in all. 00:29:02.559 --> 00:29:03.680 We're all together. 00:29:03.680 --> 00:29:04.680 We're all one. 00:29:04.680 --> 00:29:09.400 So John Mackay says, friends, that's more fundamental. 00:29:09.400 --> 00:29:13.519 That's more important than any other identity. 00:29:13.519 --> 00:29:16.519 That's more important than nationality. 00:29:16.519 --> 00:29:24.240 So English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, American, German, it's all second. 00:29:24.240 --> 00:29:26.519 That's all second. 00:29:26.519 --> 00:29:28.519 Christian is first. 00:29:28.519 --> 00:29:37.559 Janitor, lawyer, doctor, teacher, university professor, student, unemployed, it's all second. 00:29:37.559 --> 00:29:43.279 Your fundamental core identity is the church, Christian, one with Christ, legally, subjectively, 00:29:43.279 --> 00:29:44.400 objectively. 00:29:44.400 --> 00:29:53.160 And so one pastor writes, can the surpassing power of God come into your life and change 00:29:53.160 --> 00:29:57.160 your life only individually and not corporately? 00:29:57.160 --> 00:30:01.279 Can the surpassing power of God come into your life and flow through your life if you're 00:30:01.279 --> 00:30:08.320 not willing to become deeply grafted into the community of faith, love, truth and mission? 00:30:08.320 --> 00:30:13.560 Can the power of God, according to the Bible, work through your life only as an individual 00:30:13.560 --> 00:30:17.960 and not as part of a new group that you get involved with, the church? 00:30:17.960 --> 00:30:22.080 And the answer of the Bible is absolutely not. 00:30:22.080 --> 00:30:23.080 Absolutely not. 00:30:23.079 --> 00:30:27.359 The power of the gospel come into your life and you not bed down into the life of the 00:30:27.359 --> 00:30:28.359 church. 00:30:28.359 --> 00:30:30.559 And the Bible says absolutely not. 00:30:30.559 --> 00:30:33.599 It says that we are the church and we have to be. 00:30:33.599 --> 00:30:36.799 It's a necessity. 00:30:36.799 --> 00:30:41.159 The church is objective reality, reconciled community. 00:30:41.159 --> 00:30:45.079 God has made peace between us and the Father. 00:30:45.079 --> 00:30:47.759 The Lord Jesus has made peace by the cross. 00:30:47.759 --> 00:30:52.399 And so we must, we have to have peace with one another. 00:30:52.400 --> 00:30:53.400 Let us pray. 00:30:53.400 --> 00:30:58.040 Lord, we thank you for the peace that we've been offered in Christ by the blood of the 00:30:58.040 --> 00:30:59.040 cross. 00:30:59.040 --> 00:31:05.200 And we pray now that you would help us to put away derision, not an eye to saying, to 00:31:05.200 --> 00:31:09.400 calling sins in, but hostility towards others. 00:31:09.400 --> 00:31:14.200 Lord, we ask that anywhere that there is not truth and love that you would kill that, you 00:31:14.200 --> 00:31:16.160 would crush that this morning. 00:31:16.160 --> 00:31:21.759 Show us in our hearts, show us in our lives in the ways that we remain hostile to people 00:31:21.759 --> 00:31:22.879 in our hearts. 00:31:22.879 --> 00:31:28.119 And we ask Father that we would be motivated by the power of the cross above all else to 00:31:28.119 --> 00:31:32.519 seek love, truth, harmony, justice and peace with one another. 00:31:32.519 --> 00:31:34.319 And we pray this in Christ's name. 00:31:34.319 --> 00:31:52.319 Amen.