WEBVTT 00:00:00.280 --> 00:00:06.440 Lord, we pray this in your son's holy name. Amen. Thank you for rejoining us. We're back for session 00:00:06.440 --> 00:00:12.280 two. Our retreat is obviously Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1, and so we're going to continue looking 00:00:12.280 --> 00:00:27.120 at that in more depth. But no, seriously, we'll say a little bit more about this later. I think 00:00:27.120 --> 00:00:31.320 we've decided that because there's a lot of content, a lot of richness, and we don't want 00:00:31.320 --> 00:00:36.780 Esau to feel rushed because it's such good content, and I feel like I'm just sort of absorbing as much 00:00:36.780 --> 00:00:42.799 as I can, that we are going to make a change so that actually instead of evening prayer, we're 00:00:42.799 --> 00:00:54.320 actually going to have a kind of session three. Okay? So, yeah. So, more on that later. I give you Esau. 00:00:57.119 --> 00:01:07.579 My pastor used to say to the worship team, y'all can sing as long as y'all want. I'm still 00:01:07.579 --> 00:01:14.379 going to preach for an hour. So, it's up to you to decide when we leave, but I got my stuff 00:01:14.379 --> 00:01:24.479 I got to do. So, y'all were late too, so let's not be judgy. Okay? I mean, people, I have students, 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:28.719 they really getting their feelings about their syllabus. Like, they do everything on time as they 00:01:28.719 --> 00:01:31.600 say they're going to do it. I was like, you didn't follow directions on the stuff I gave you. Anyways, 00:01:31.780 --> 00:01:37.280 just kidding. That part can't go in the video. I love Wheaton, and I love my students. 00:01:38.640 --> 00:01:41.140 Please donate through the Wheaton Alumni Fund or wherever you are. 00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:48.900 So, those of you who were volunteering earlier, I was supposed to get through all of chapter two, 00:01:48.900 --> 00:01:56.219 but I made it through about ten verses. What we did is we made a claim in verses one to three that 00:01:56.219 --> 00:02:05.300 Paul gives this analysis of the human condition apart from Jesus Christ as being effectively linked 00:02:05.300 --> 00:02:11.360 to the Anglican baptismal liturgy as the world, the flesh, and the devil as being the things that 00:02:11.360 --> 00:02:17.319 influence us and take us in a certain direction. And then in the second half of that section, 00:02:17.319 --> 00:02:23.319 beginning at verse four, you have what I call the glorious conjunctions in Pauline theology, 00:02:23.319 --> 00:02:28.340 but God who is rich in his mercy. And then we talked a little bit about the alternative community 00:02:28.340 --> 00:02:35.699 that he begins to create amongst us. And particularly, we emphasize the ascension that Christ 00:02:35.699 --> 00:02:42.419 has raised us up with him. So that in places like Romans six, where you have the dying and the rising 00:02:42.419 --> 00:02:50.639 of Christ, and it focuses on a new life that actually Paul says that we ascend to heaven with Jesus. 00:02:51.299 --> 00:02:56.419 And we now see the world from the perspective of the ascended and ruling Lord. So the things are 00:02:56.419 --> 00:03:02.759 never falling apart. That God always remains sovereign over human history. And that sovereign 00:03:02.759 --> 00:03:10.000 perspective allows us to function well in a society that sometimes can feel like it's going sideways. 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:18.319 So now we come to the second half of chapter two. And I'm going to do the same thing, hopefully a 00:03:18.319 --> 00:03:22.099 little bit more quickly. I'm going to read a little bit, talk a little bit, read a little bit, talk a 00:03:22.099 --> 00:03:28.280 little bit. Is that okay? Okay. Because you always got to hear the Bible. Okay. But God's word is 00:03:28.280 --> 00:03:32.599 important. Talking about it. It's a power. There's a power that gives you just hearing it. Okay. 00:03:32.819 --> 00:03:38.240 Anglican liturgy, read all the lessons. Okay, here we go. And put on investments. I'm sorry. 00:03:38.240 --> 00:03:46.820 Get a chastable. I'm sorry. I'll leave that alone, Tommy. Get a chastable. It's okay. We'll talk about it 00:03:46.820 --> 00:03:56.460 later. Verse 11. Therefore, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh, called the 00:03:56.460 --> 00:04:03.520 uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in flesh by hands. Remember that you 00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:09.560 were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to 00:04:09.560 --> 00:04:16.680 the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Once again, Paul starts with the 00:04:16.680 --> 00:04:22.660 wonderful news that things are horrible. But one of the things this, this, and this is actually important 00:04:22.660 --> 00:04:30.040 because Paul is saying a word, sorry, I am caught up on a word again. Paul, the word that Paul uses in 00:04:30.040 --> 00:04:41.180 verse 11 is remember. Remember. And what Paul is actually doing is he is calling for them to think 00:04:41.180 --> 00:04:47.439 of themselves differently than they would have thought of themselves. So when they were without 00:04:47.439 --> 00:04:52.120 hope and without God in the world, they didn't actually perceive of themselves that way. So there's 00:04:52.120 --> 00:04:58.340 one way of articulating the Christian gospel in which you say there's this God-shaped hole that we all 00:04:58.339 --> 00:05:03.279 walk around in and then sometime we encounter Jesus and that missing part is filled and you go, 00:05:03.459 --> 00:05:10.019 yay, the gospel. And for some people that is, that's true. They live these angsty, unfulfilled lives 00:05:10.019 --> 00:05:18.639 that like Jesus then fixes. But for some of us, maybe just me, I was completely fine not being a 00:05:18.639 --> 00:05:25.059 Christian. Didn't bother me at all. And I was not walking around thinking that I was out without hope 00:05:25.060 --> 00:05:28.560 without God in the world. I just did the things the same reason we'll do at the time. 00:05:29.920 --> 00:05:36.540 Right? But when Paul says, you need to remember that you are actually messed up. 00:05:38.699 --> 00:05:44.560 And so what Paul is doing is he's calling upon us to reflect theologically 00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:53.699 of our past as a part of God's story. Because one of the things that is easy to do, especially if you 00:05:53.699 --> 00:05:59.680 had a rough past or if you did something bad, you could say, no, no, no, I'm a Christian now and my 00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:05.420 story begins when I met Jesus and all of the things that happens after that. Like I'm this person, 00:06:06.160 --> 00:06:10.340 like, I mean, some of us are happy that we live in the pre-internet days when we were in high school. 00:06:10.339 --> 00:06:17.819 Some of us would be unelectable. I mean, I would give you an example of my unelectability, 00:06:17.979 --> 00:06:24.359 but this is being recorded, right? If there was Instagram, like the amount of, you know, 00:06:24.479 --> 00:06:28.319 the amount of like things that I see, I don't know if you guys have how big this is, you may not have 00:06:28.319 --> 00:06:33.159 college students, but things like TikTok and Instagram, these videos, like, that's gonna be a problem 00:06:33.159 --> 00:06:36.239 when you run for office, right? Because you look like you're without hope without God in the world. 00:06:36.240 --> 00:06:45.780 But the whole point, the whole point is that Paul wants them to engage in a theological reconstruction 00:06:45.780 --> 00:06:57.840 of their past as a part of God's story. So it's precisely because they were imperfect that now they 00:06:57.839 --> 00:07:07.060 are loved and longed for by God. I think that there tends to be within churches kind of two equal 00:07:07.060 --> 00:07:12.399 psychoses or, psychoses is probably the wrong word, two equal anxieties. One are for the people who are 00:07:12.399 --> 00:07:17.659 raised in the Christian church. And they go, I have no dramatic conversion story. I was never without 00:07:17.659 --> 00:07:21.859 hope and without God in the world. My parents who were rich in their mercy sent us to Christian school 00:07:21.859 --> 00:07:26.679 from the day we could walk and I went to Wheaton, right? And so you feel like, well, no, like, 00:07:26.680 --> 00:07:32.759 I don't have a story. I don't have this transformation. But even if that is the case, 00:07:33.180 --> 00:07:38.579 Paul is still asking you to engage in this theological reconstruction of your past as a 00:07:38.579 --> 00:07:43.420 manifestation of his glory. And so what he wants you to do is to look back on that time and see 00:07:43.420 --> 00:07:47.360 that even when you were, if you were already Christian, then praise God that you actually 00:07:47.360 --> 00:07:50.780 don't have to go through all of the crazy stuff that those of us who existed outside of the church did. 00:07:50.779 --> 00:07:56.659 And if you existed outside of the church, then it is also a manifestation of God's glory. 00:07:57.000 --> 00:08:00.439 Now, in this particular case, Paul is talking about 00:08:00.439 --> 00:08:10.839 Gentiles who are now coming into God's family because he says they were called circumcision by 00:08:10.839 --> 00:08:17.019 those who are circumcised with human hands. And so what he is saying is that before the coming of 00:08:17.019 --> 00:08:24.339 Jesus, there were the Jewish people who were seen as God's chosen people. And from the position of 00:08:24.339 --> 00:08:30.359 God's chosen people, there could be a tendency to look upon Gentiles simply as the unchosen. 00:08:31.699 --> 00:08:38.620 But he's not talking about like all Jews everywhere criticizing Gentiles. He's referring to a particular 00:08:38.620 --> 00:08:43.100 form of Judaism as it was practiced, as it relates to these Gentiles. You were called the 00:08:43.100 --> 00:08:47.779 circumcision uncircumcised by those who had a circumcision that was made in human hands. 00:08:47.779 --> 00:08:53.500 And when he talks about the circumcision that was made in human hands, he is drawing upon actually 00:08:53.500 --> 00:08:59.600 the Old Testament itself. He's talking about what Deuteronomy says real circumcision always is going to be. 00:08:59.680 --> 00:09:02.480 This is Deuteronomy chapter 6, sorry, chapter 30, verse 6. 00:09:02.480 --> 00:09:12.379 The Lord will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants so that you may love him with all of your heart and with all of your soul. 00:09:13.659 --> 00:09:19.740 As he says, even though you were called the unchosen by those who were seen to be the chosen people, 00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:28.820 even within that context, it was possible to miss what God is doing. Paul's point is it was never actually about circumcision. 00:09:28.820 --> 00:09:32.740 And he doesn't make this argument on the basis of throwing away the Old Testament, 00:09:32.860 --> 00:09:38.280 saying the Old Testament God was bad, and now we have this new, better version of religion rooted in Jesus. 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:46.680 That's not what Paul does. Paul says that Deuteronomy itself looks to a different form of circumcision 00:09:46.680 --> 00:09:53.340 in which the manifestation of being a part of God's family is a transformed heart. 00:09:53.340 --> 00:09:58.840 He then goes on to further describe what does it mean to be a part from the people of God. 00:10:00.019 --> 00:10:01.000 You're without the Messiah. 00:10:02.060 --> 00:10:02.879 You're without the Messiah. 00:10:03.320 --> 00:10:05.360 You're without the wrong, the one true king. 00:10:05.420 --> 00:10:06.259 We talked about this. 00:10:06.600 --> 00:10:11.300 When you're without the Messiah, you're without your proper ruler, and you're subject to the rulers of the day. 00:10:12.080 --> 00:10:13.700 So you're without proper leadership. 00:10:14.320 --> 00:10:16.139 You're excluded from citizenship in Israel. 00:10:16.240 --> 00:10:17.820 You weren't in God's family. 00:10:17.820 --> 00:10:24.320 You were foreigners to the covenants of promise, the promises that God made to David and Abraham 00:10:24.320 --> 00:10:27.800 and the entire redemptive story you didn't know about. 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:33.660 So we live in this world where, like, we read the Old Testament, we say, sure, we're children of Abraham. 00:10:33.860 --> 00:10:34.320 Of course. 00:10:34.580 --> 00:10:37.260 We're like, you know, David, Jesus is our true king. 00:10:37.460 --> 00:10:38.800 And so we know the promises. 00:10:38.799 --> 00:10:47.120 But the Christian claim is that all of human history was at one point centered on this one person, Abraham, 00:10:47.279 --> 00:10:48.719 and the promises that God made to Abraham. 00:10:48.919 --> 00:10:50.719 And this extends out to the nation of Israel. 00:10:50.899 --> 00:10:52.979 And then it focuses on the person of the king. 00:10:53.219 --> 00:10:55.139 And so you have this entire history, right? 00:10:55.179 --> 00:10:56.279 This is what we read our Bibles. 00:10:56.379 --> 00:10:57.259 It's the inspired word of God. 00:10:57.479 --> 00:11:01.699 All of human history is moving through this one family, right? 00:11:01.759 --> 00:11:02.659 This one nation. 00:11:03.219 --> 00:11:04.699 You know who's excluded from that? 00:11:05.120 --> 00:11:06.000 Everybody else. 00:11:06.939 --> 00:11:08.359 So you weren't in the story. 00:11:09.599 --> 00:11:11.699 He said, this is what they were saying about you. 00:11:13.359 --> 00:11:14.799 This is what they were saying about you. 00:11:16.319 --> 00:11:17.379 So without hope. 00:11:17.539 --> 00:11:23.559 So then if you live and you're not a part of the story, like, what exactly it is that we want? 00:11:24.479 --> 00:11:25.399 Like, what is the future? 00:11:25.479 --> 00:11:28.240 So if you're a Jewish person, there's this eschatological future. 00:11:28.599 --> 00:11:30.159 One day God's going to come back. 00:11:30.399 --> 00:11:31.399 He's going to fulfill his promises. 00:11:31.719 --> 00:11:32.919 We're going to be in the new creation. 00:11:33.039 --> 00:11:33.899 There's going to be a king. 00:11:33.899 --> 00:11:35.719 So you're, like, looking to this. 00:11:35.720 --> 00:11:40.759 But if you're without this hope, then what are you heading towards? 00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:42.060 He's saying, as a Gentile. 00:11:42.480 --> 00:11:45.680 When you were a Gentile, like, what was your peak of existence? 00:11:46.480 --> 00:11:47.600 Maybe you get a plot of land. 00:11:47.720 --> 00:11:50.100 You have a, well, you'd have a wife and a mistress and some slaves. 00:11:50.160 --> 00:11:51.000 But that's another story. 00:11:52.519 --> 00:11:52.879 They did. 00:11:52.980 --> 00:11:53.379 So, sorry. 00:11:53.500 --> 00:11:53.620 Let me. 00:11:53.820 --> 00:11:54.920 Actually, this is important. 00:11:54.919 --> 00:11:56.740 So this is your hope. 00:11:57.259 --> 00:11:59.199 You're sitting in Greco-Roman world in the first century. 00:12:00.379 --> 00:12:05.860 You have one woman who, if you're a man, and ladies, you can kind of see where your hope is. 00:12:05.939 --> 00:12:07.639 You get to see the downside of this. 00:12:07.959 --> 00:12:11.240 You have one woman who you have children with. 00:12:11.639 --> 00:12:13.699 And for the most part, she's kind of off to the side. 00:12:13.959 --> 00:12:16.639 And she's mostly put away, very little political power. 00:12:16.979 --> 00:12:17.639 That's her place. 00:12:17.639 --> 00:12:21.679 So if you're lucky, you had a good husband who isn't abusive and who kind of leaves you alone. 00:12:22.139 --> 00:12:26.279 And then if you're not one of the women who get married and you're part of the lower class, 00:12:26.899 --> 00:12:30.419 then you're at the sexual whims of the people who have power in society. 00:12:30.840 --> 00:12:34.679 So you may be a mistress or you may be a slave because you didn't go to your wife for sexual pleasure. 00:12:34.879 --> 00:12:36.699 You went to the slaves and the prostitutes. 00:12:36.980 --> 00:12:41.480 And so if you are a successful man in particular, you had a lot of people working for you. 00:12:41.480 --> 00:12:44.220 You had a, you know, you had a nice house. 00:12:44.600 --> 00:12:45.659 You had your wife here. 00:12:45.659 --> 00:12:48.240 You had your slaves here and the people who you assaulted. 00:12:48.679 --> 00:12:53.339 And then maybe you had a great name and they built something for you and you died. 00:12:55.600 --> 00:13:01.159 First of all, even for the people who win in that battle, right, if you win, 00:13:01.199 --> 00:13:04.579 if you become one of those landed gentry, what have you actually attained? 00:13:05.740 --> 00:13:09.360 You most likely cause real misery to most of the people around you. 00:13:10.600 --> 00:13:12.000 And maybe you get a sign. 00:13:12.039 --> 00:13:13.379 I used to work at Dartmouth College. 00:13:13.379 --> 00:13:15.919 And this isn't a shot at Dartmouth. 00:13:15.919 --> 00:13:20.980 But I remember I'm walking across campus and I'm meeting some student at some building. 00:13:21.059 --> 00:13:23.019 It's called like Johnson Hall or whatever. 00:13:23.059 --> 00:13:23.379 I don't know. 00:13:23.480 --> 00:13:27.460 But I remember walking to this building and seeing the name on it and thinking, you know what? 00:13:27.799 --> 00:13:29.299 I have no idea who that guy is. 00:13:29.379 --> 00:13:30.200 Completely dead. 00:13:30.460 --> 00:13:30.539 Right? 00:13:30.759 --> 00:13:31.559 No idea. 00:13:32.279 --> 00:13:33.299 It's dead as a doornail. 00:13:33.379 --> 00:13:34.759 And no one knows who he is. 00:13:34.759 --> 00:13:43.879 But at one time, he was famous enough to have his name on the building of one of the top universities in the country and he's gone. 00:13:45.019 --> 00:13:46.360 So what has he accomplished? 00:13:48.399 --> 00:13:54.559 So when Paul speaks about people being without hope in the world, he's once again saying, what is it that you're chasing? 00:13:54.559 --> 00:13:59.319 You ultimately had nothing because you're without God. 00:14:00.299 --> 00:14:06.399 So he's once again, he's not trying to be, you know, Paul gets the grumpy reputation, right? 00:14:07.259 --> 00:14:12.579 But he's not trying to say that like life without Jesus is like a conscious experience of misery. 00:14:12.580 --> 00:14:23.020 Because the person who actually wanted that, their name on their building or the people who are currently engaging in it, like there's people who are right now who says, I want to be remembered. 00:14:23.860 --> 00:14:28.220 And so the people who are wanting to be remembered aren't necessarily always experiencing the emptiness. 00:14:28.960 --> 00:14:37.320 What he is saying now, now as you look back on what you used to do, we can actually reasonably say that all of this stuff was nothing. 00:14:38.280 --> 00:14:40.759 It's a theological reconstruction of your past. 00:14:40.759 --> 00:14:47.220 And it is important because you live amongst people who are still in a sense in your past, right? 00:14:47.319 --> 00:14:50.139 In the sense that they are still chasing these things. 00:14:50.460 --> 00:14:52.939 And every now and then you kind of lose your mind. 00:14:54.080 --> 00:14:56.019 And you go, you know, I kind of want that. 00:14:56.939 --> 00:14:59.480 I kind of want those things. 00:15:00.080 --> 00:15:01.259 I want to win. 00:15:03.299 --> 00:15:04.919 But Paul goes, no, no, no, no. 00:15:05.819 --> 00:15:07.220 Remember what you were. 00:15:07.220 --> 00:15:13.680 Because it is only by remembering what you were that you can know who you are. 00:15:13.840 --> 00:15:14.560 And we go forward. 00:15:14.840 --> 00:15:15.200 See, I did. 00:15:15.300 --> 00:15:16.139 I went through that faster. 00:15:17.680 --> 00:15:20.960 And once again, the gospel in conjunctions. 00:15:22.600 --> 00:15:22.720 Right. 00:15:22.720 --> 00:15:30.160 But now, in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off. 00:15:31.040 --> 00:15:37.440 We were seemingly nowhere near the story that we're now a part of. 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:41.980 You've been brought near by the blood of Christ. 00:15:42.100 --> 00:15:43.000 Here's our peace. 00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:50.460 And he has made both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. 00:15:50.779 --> 00:15:53.320 By abolishing the commandments expressed in the ordinance. 00:15:53.740 --> 00:15:56.779 That he might make in himself one new man in place of the two. 00:15:57.559 --> 00:15:58.500 And so making peace. 00:15:58.679 --> 00:16:04.440 And that he might reconcile us both to God in one body through the Christ, through the cross. 00:16:04.759 --> 00:16:06.059 Therefore, killing hostility. 00:16:06.059 --> 00:16:23.279 So now, instead of being these people who are in a unknowing kind of hostility to God, who are far from him. 00:16:23.319 --> 00:16:24.559 They didn't know they were far from him. 00:16:25.179 --> 00:16:26.859 But God has brought them near. 00:16:27.239 --> 00:16:34.439 And when God asks to bring the Gentiles near, he brings them to the Jewish people who are already close to God. 00:16:34.440 --> 00:16:37.520 And this is the part of the covenant. 00:16:38.180 --> 00:16:46.460 And he has acted to bring Jews and Gentiles together as the basis of our peace. 00:16:46.960 --> 00:16:51.520 So the question that, and we talked about this, what is the basis of our community? 00:16:52.320 --> 00:16:59.840 We've talked, and Paul talks about it in different places, about the basis for the community built apart from Jesus. 00:17:00.900 --> 00:17:01.040 Right. 00:17:01.200 --> 00:17:03.800 Following the spirits of the air, the sons of the disobedience. 00:17:03.799 --> 00:17:08.440 This world constructed around these competing passions and desires that is inherently unstable. 00:17:08.700 --> 00:17:12.039 This is the basis by which our community is functioned. 00:17:12.299 --> 00:17:13.659 Our mutual desires. 00:17:14.240 --> 00:17:19.139 All of marketing is rooted in the ability to get you to die at something and spend your money. 00:17:19.399 --> 00:17:23.980 So you go to work, you get paid, and then they convince you to give them the money back. 00:17:25.539 --> 00:17:26.839 So it's in desires. 00:17:27.599 --> 00:17:29.019 Trust me, this is like, sorry. 00:17:29.900 --> 00:17:30.700 Back to desires. 00:17:32.319 --> 00:17:35.779 So I'm relatively happy with my life when I'm living in Rochester, New York. 00:17:35.980 --> 00:17:39.539 We have this, like, little bitty yard that's about, like, you know, you live downtown. 00:17:39.779 --> 00:17:41.319 Like, you live in the city. 00:17:41.420 --> 00:17:42.740 You have, like, a tiny yard. 00:17:42.920 --> 00:17:44.400 And I had, like, one of those push moors. 00:17:44.500 --> 00:17:45.299 It didn't even have a motor. 00:17:45.420 --> 00:17:47.259 It's just, like, my one strip of grass. 00:17:47.259 --> 00:17:49.619 I would go outside and I would, like, push it down. 00:17:49.759 --> 00:17:51.279 I could just let it roll to the end of the street. 00:17:51.339 --> 00:17:51.700 I'm done. 00:17:52.559 --> 00:17:54.259 So then I moved to the suburbs. 00:17:55.099 --> 00:17:58.379 And I've never in my life cared about a lawn. 00:17:58.799 --> 00:17:59.119 Ever. 00:18:00.660 --> 00:18:02.960 And next thing you know, I arrive. 00:18:03.500 --> 00:18:06.140 And they, I don't know if you guys, you may not, you've not seen this. 00:18:06.240 --> 00:18:07.480 There's grass in the rest of the world. 00:18:07.660 --> 00:18:08.960 It's not downtown D.C. 00:18:09.299 --> 00:18:13.059 So they have it where you can do the thing sideways. 00:18:13.279 --> 00:18:14.299 Have you seen the people who can do this? 00:18:14.360 --> 00:18:15.340 It's super impressive. 00:18:15.860 --> 00:18:18.860 And I was like, ooh, how did you get one of those? 00:18:18.900 --> 00:18:20.140 How do you make it go sideways? 00:18:20.819 --> 00:18:22.980 And so you may not know what I'm talking about. 00:18:23.000 --> 00:18:24.860 It's like when you kind of checkerboard your yard. 00:18:25.160 --> 00:18:28.240 So I'm not, like, I've been in this neighborhood for, like, two weeks. 00:18:28.240 --> 00:18:32.319 And all of a sudden, I'm, like, desiring checkerboard, like, yard. 00:18:32.840 --> 00:18:36.120 And then, and then I say, well, they say, well, you need to get a lawnmower. 00:18:36.200 --> 00:18:37.100 I say, well, what lawnmower do you get? 00:18:37.099 --> 00:18:40.799 Well, the only proper lawnmower that you can get is the new, what do you call it, 00:18:40.879 --> 00:18:43.799 battery-powered eco-friendly lawnmower. 00:18:44.139 --> 00:18:45.839 And so next thing you know, this happens. 00:18:45.939 --> 00:18:47.159 There's no redemptive story. 00:18:47.259 --> 00:18:49.699 This is me following all the way down. 00:18:50.119 --> 00:18:56.159 I find myself buying a $300 battery-powered eco-friendly lawnmower in the suburbs. 00:18:56.159 --> 00:18:58.740 And then I wake up the next day, what has happened to me? 00:18:59.579 --> 00:19:01.319 Because they tricked me. 00:19:02.339 --> 00:19:04.859 And I was carving my desires. 00:19:04.859 --> 00:19:07.000 And I went back. 00:19:10.379 --> 00:19:14.439 Paul, Paul, Paul says that we are far off. 00:19:15.859 --> 00:19:20.099 And that instead of being in this community, and this is how the community functions, right? 00:19:20.319 --> 00:19:23.519 There's a series of things that you always need that they're telling you to get. 00:19:23.719 --> 00:19:25.919 That's the basis for the community, shared desire. 00:19:26.599 --> 00:19:32.159 Paul says that Jesus Christ becomes the basis of our peace. 00:19:32.160 --> 00:19:35.840 The Jews and Gentiles who lived in hostility to one another. 00:19:35.840 --> 00:19:43.840 The Jews are hostile towards the Gentiles because the Gentiles oppressed them or were seen as people who colonized them, 00:19:44.279 --> 00:19:47.000 people who were seen as godless, immoral. 00:19:47.400 --> 00:19:53.660 And so the Jews, rightfully in many cases, looked upon the Gentiles as godless heathens in deserving judgment, right? 00:19:53.660 --> 00:20:02.400 And then the Gentiles looked upon the Jews as these strange religious fanatics who didn't worship the gods of the empire. 00:20:03.060 --> 00:20:04.640 So there was this fundamental hostility. 00:20:06.080 --> 00:20:07.080 And he says that, no, no, no. 00:20:07.380 --> 00:20:16.620 Jesus Christ and his cross as the basis of their reconciliation is what creates community. 00:20:16.619 --> 00:20:24.579 So we now have, because of the cross of Jesus Christ, two things happen at exactly the same time. 00:20:25.159 --> 00:20:26.659 We are reconciled to God. 00:20:26.819 --> 00:20:28.239 That's probably the most important part. 00:20:28.599 --> 00:20:29.439 We're reconciled to God. 00:20:29.619 --> 00:20:33.259 So though the Gentiles didn't know they were enemies of God, they in fact were. 00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:36.559 And so at the very moment, sorry, this is the glorious thing about the gospel. 00:20:36.879 --> 00:20:40.979 At the very moment that you find out that you're an enemy of God, even though you might not have known it, 00:20:41.139 --> 00:20:43.019 you also find out that God wants to be your friend. 00:20:43.019 --> 00:20:47.779 Like, he doesn't say, you're an enemy of God, come back next week and let me tell you what to do about it. 00:20:48.759 --> 00:20:52.139 He's like, you're an enemy of God, but don't worry, Jesus. 00:20:53.079 --> 00:20:55.339 And you say, we have peace. 00:20:56.319 --> 00:20:59.619 But, he says, there's also a family that you're now a part of. 00:21:00.440 --> 00:21:02.299 A people who are very different from you, the Jews. 00:21:03.539 --> 00:21:06.200 And so at the very moment that you're reconciled to God, 00:21:06.200 --> 00:21:13.940 you're also become a part of this multi-ethnic community where you have to learn to live together. 00:21:16.460 --> 00:21:20.860 What does it mean then to become a Christian? 00:21:21.779 --> 00:21:26.779 It means to become a part of one new family. 00:21:26.779 --> 00:21:33.980 One of the things that people ask me often, like, why don't you give up? 00:21:34.960 --> 00:21:38.740 Especially when you talk about, like, diversity in the Christian context and say, why don't you give up? 00:21:39.000 --> 00:21:44.220 And I gave one reason for it, like, earlier when I talked about the resurrection and plausibility structures. 00:21:44.740 --> 00:21:49.019 The other one is, like, the union with Christ makes y'all inescapable in a sense, right? 00:21:49.480 --> 00:21:50.960 We're literally one new man. 00:21:51.000 --> 00:21:51.700 Where am I going to go? 00:21:51.700 --> 00:21:54.140 Like, I can't leave Jesus. 00:21:54.900 --> 00:21:57.100 And Jesus has united me to my brothers and sisters. 00:21:58.180 --> 00:22:06.120 And so sometimes we feel like, well, I am so upset with, like, the church or whatever, and I'm going to leave the church. 00:22:06.240 --> 00:22:07.120 You can't. 00:22:08.160 --> 00:22:11.000 We're stuck with one another in our brokenness. 00:22:11.299 --> 00:22:11.680 Sorry. 00:22:12.980 --> 00:22:14.600 And the other thing, and I'll say this. 00:22:14.640 --> 00:22:16.640 This is, like, the tricky part of this verse. 00:22:16.660 --> 00:22:19.779 And I always like to give this clarity to this particular section of Ephesians. 00:22:19.779 --> 00:22:28.539 When we talk about the Jew and Gentile reconciliation, and it is used, I think rightfully so, to talk about racial reconciliation more broadly. 00:22:29.119 --> 00:22:32.539 But there's a dangerous way of talking about this that I think is fundamentally misunderstood. 00:22:33.099 --> 00:22:34.720 And this is the potential misunderstanding. 00:22:35.879 --> 00:22:40.259 The Jews in this scenario, in the American context, can easily become white people. 00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:41.339 Right? 00:22:41.420 --> 00:22:42.960 And then the Gentiles become black people. 00:22:42.960 --> 00:22:48.319 So when you're in a white church and they say, we should go evangelize, just like Paul evangelized the Gentiles. 00:22:48.400 --> 00:22:48.680 No, no. 00:22:48.759 --> 00:22:50.019 That makes you the Jew. 00:22:50.160 --> 00:22:50.319 Right? 00:22:50.400 --> 00:22:52.079 That makes you God's chosen people. 00:22:52.900 --> 00:22:54.019 That's not what you're like. 00:22:54.100 --> 00:22:54.680 Oh, yeah, it is. 00:22:54.700 --> 00:22:55.360 That's not it. 00:22:56.120 --> 00:22:59.200 So black people aren't Gentiles and you're not Jews. 00:23:00.400 --> 00:23:01.160 This is important. 00:23:01.480 --> 00:23:01.779 Why? 00:23:02.100 --> 00:23:03.740 Because we're both actually the Gentile. 00:23:04.940 --> 00:23:08.380 We're both the people who've been grafted into the story. 00:23:09.140 --> 00:23:13.340 Paul actually has no category for, like, the American version of racism. 00:23:13.820 --> 00:23:14.220 Right? 00:23:14.740 --> 00:23:18.820 Because, like, he doesn't say, like, one Gentile is going to think another Gentile is better. 00:23:18.880 --> 00:23:19.920 It's like, that's a stupid thing. 00:23:19.960 --> 00:23:20.640 The Jews are better. 00:23:20.980 --> 00:23:21.120 Right? 00:23:21.760 --> 00:23:22.560 That's what he said. 00:23:22.780 --> 00:23:22.980 Right? 00:23:23.280 --> 00:23:27.040 And the Jews wouldn't be better because they have an inherent ethnic superiority. 00:23:27.260 --> 00:23:32.100 They would have been better, in this sense, because they had the laws and the promises. 00:23:32.620 --> 00:23:36.580 Which then becomes even more amazing because Paul then goes on to say later in Romans, 00:23:36.579 --> 00:23:41.099 the Jews who are supposed to be better are actually not better at all because even though they have the law, 00:23:41.159 --> 00:23:41.939 they don't keep it. 00:23:43.159 --> 00:23:45.659 So everybody loses in Paul's theology. 00:23:47.039 --> 00:23:48.359 And then everybody gets the win. 00:23:49.039 --> 00:23:49.159 Right? 00:23:51.960 --> 00:23:52.359 Why? 00:23:54.599 --> 00:23:55.879 I want to move forward. 00:23:55.960 --> 00:23:56.319 I want to move forward. 00:23:56.439 --> 00:23:56.539 Okay. 00:23:57.159 --> 00:23:57.460 He came. 00:23:57.720 --> 00:23:59.779 I'll try to get through this and at least get into verse 3. 00:24:00.319 --> 00:24:01.519 He came by abolishing. 00:24:01.619 --> 00:24:02.319 Chapter 3. 00:24:02.319 --> 00:24:03.200 He came. 00:24:04.059 --> 00:24:08.460 He does this by abolishing the law of the commandments expressed in the orderliness. 00:24:08.819 --> 00:24:12.119 He might make himself one new man in the place of two, thus making peace. 00:24:12.480 --> 00:24:16.359 He might reconcile us both in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 00:24:16.939 --> 00:24:19.200 He came and preached peace to those who are far off. 00:24:19.679 --> 00:24:22.200 And listen, also peace to those who are near. 00:24:22.279 --> 00:24:24.139 So even the Jewish people needed to hear God's peace. 00:24:24.140 --> 00:24:31.720 For through him, we both have access in one spirit to the father. 00:24:33.640 --> 00:24:39.100 This is Trinitarian theology, robustly articulated right in the middle of Ephesians. 00:24:40.220 --> 00:24:47.480 God the father sends the son to bring about our reconciliation with God. 00:24:47.840 --> 00:24:51.800 And that reconciliation with God is access through the spirit. 00:24:51.799 --> 00:24:53.599 So what does it mean? 00:24:54.119 --> 00:24:55.639 This is what Paul's going to get to later. 00:24:55.799 --> 00:24:58.619 This is what Paul thinks this is hard for the Christian to grasp. 00:24:59.599 --> 00:25:13.359 You are caught up in a Trinitarian narrative where the three persons of the Trinity are cooperating to end racial strife, reconcile you to God, and function as one body so that you might manifest his glory in the world. 00:25:14.919 --> 00:25:15.639 Like, what? 00:25:16.279 --> 00:25:16.759 What? 00:25:17.099 --> 00:25:20.220 I thought I was just singing God of Wonders on a Tuesday afternoon, right? 00:25:20.220 --> 00:25:27.620 So I do want to say a quick thing here about the law. 00:25:28.339 --> 00:25:33.000 Because he says he, like, he talks about the nullification of the law and the dividing wall. 00:25:33.600 --> 00:25:42.779 And so one of the problems with this is that Paul extensively argues in other places, like in Romans 7, 7 to 25, that the law is holy, just, and good. 00:25:42.779 --> 00:25:43.220 Right? 00:25:43.220 --> 00:25:48.819 So if Paul says the law is holy, just, and good, how is the wall, this dividing wall, and this creation of hostility? 00:25:49.099 --> 00:25:49.980 Why is this the case? 00:25:50.019 --> 00:25:51.339 Is Paul saying the law is bad? 00:25:51.539 --> 00:26:02.980 The reason this is important, at least to say in an Anglican context, is because one of the things that we tend to do in the church today is we say, like, religion are all the things that I don't like about God and relationships are the things that I do like about God. 00:26:02.980 --> 00:26:09.160 And so anything that related to what people call religion is then added to ritual, right? 00:26:09.180 --> 00:26:13.839 So it's an implicit statement that the Old Testament was bad, and God kind of put up with it for a long time. 00:26:13.980 --> 00:26:21.259 And now it's just you and Jesus and the end of ritual, which implicitly makes Anglicans heathens, right? 00:26:22.019 --> 00:26:26.559 Because we're, like, barely above the Old Testament because we have our rituals, laws, and rules. 00:26:26.960 --> 00:26:28.339 You see the logic there? 00:26:28.559 --> 00:26:31.240 Because then we kind of reconstruct early Christianity. 00:26:31.319 --> 00:26:32.039 We don't say it. 00:26:32.039 --> 00:26:36.139 We kind of think, yeah, the early church, they sang five or six songs, then they preached, right? 00:26:36.139 --> 00:26:37.220 That's what they did, right? 00:26:37.559 --> 00:26:40.599 And then eventually the Catholic church came and gave us liturgy. 00:26:43.519 --> 00:26:44.460 That's what people think. 00:26:45.539 --> 00:26:50.859 And all of that's rooted in a certain understanding of what Paul says about the law as being bad, and then you link these things together. 00:26:51.579 --> 00:26:58.019 But I don't think that Paul is saying that, like, law in and of itself is bad. 00:26:58.019 --> 00:27:10.240 I think he is saying that sin hijacks the law and uses what is good for evil and divided people. 00:27:10.619 --> 00:27:16.160 So if you actually go back and read the law, Paul said, the Old Testament is passage after passage. 00:27:16.220 --> 00:27:16.819 We won't go to it. 00:27:17.180 --> 00:27:21.079 Where he says, like, you are going to be a kingdom of priests who serve the nations. 00:27:21.079 --> 00:27:22.500 You're going to be a city set up on a hill. 00:27:22.759 --> 00:27:31.399 The idea was that the Jewish people's obedience to the law was supposed to reflect such a transformed life, the Gentiles would say, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord. 00:27:31.960 --> 00:27:33.299 This is what you see in Isaiah, right? 00:27:33.500 --> 00:27:37.220 Isaiah says, one day the people are going to go to Jerusalem and learn the law. 00:27:37.559 --> 00:27:40.019 And so the law was never meant to divide people. 00:27:40.359 --> 00:27:44.720 It was meant to transform people so that their lives can say, I want some of that. 00:27:44.720 --> 00:27:49.620 Paul's argument in other places are like, because this didn't happen, the opposite occurs. 00:27:50.120 --> 00:27:53.839 God's name is blasphemed amongst the Gentiles because of disobedience to the law. 00:27:54.579 --> 00:28:02.140 So when Paul gets rid of the hostility in the law, he's not saying because the Jews had a bad form of religion that has not been superseded by Christianity. 00:28:03.339 --> 00:28:13.380 He's saying that the purpose of the law was to eventually, and it's a longer story, but he was saying the purpose, I will chase the long story really briefly. 00:28:14.720 --> 00:28:24.579 I think Paul believes that God intended always to create one new people through Abraham's family. 00:28:24.680 --> 00:28:27.339 That begins in Genesis chapter 12, right? 00:28:27.480 --> 00:28:29.799 Through you, all the nations of the world are going to be blessed. 00:28:30.319 --> 00:28:36.759 But the problem becomes, well, what happens when the people who are designed to be the blessing to the world themselves are sinful? 00:28:38.200 --> 00:28:42.900 And Israel, because of their corporate disobedience, finds themselves under God's judgment. 00:28:42.900 --> 00:28:44.900 And God has two options. 00:28:45.780 --> 00:28:48.820 He only has one, but like rhetorically, because God's going to do what he's going to do. 00:28:49.019 --> 00:28:54.400 But in theory, God could say, okay, I'm going to abandon the Jewish people and then create a new people. 00:28:55.180 --> 00:28:59.259 Or God can say, I'm going to save the Jewish people and save the Gentiles. 00:28:59.259 --> 00:29:14.980 And so God's promise to Abraham, according to Paul, creates the beginning of this epic, right, in which the purpose of the law, which is to bring people together, is finally accomplished in Jesus Christ. 00:29:14.980 --> 00:29:21.319 So that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, two things happen simultaneously. 00:29:22.400 --> 00:29:29.740 Jesus takes upon himself the curse of the law, they're bringing about Jewish forgiveness and allowing them to exist on the other side of the covenant curses. 00:29:30.099 --> 00:29:33.759 While at the same time, opening up the path for Gentiles to be blessed as well. 00:29:34.319 --> 00:29:36.259 Both rooted in the cross of Jesus Christ. 00:29:36.680 --> 00:29:39.059 Out of two, making one. 00:29:39.059 --> 00:29:41.960 So that's what I think Paul is talking about there. 00:29:43.119 --> 00:29:45.399 And all of that is accomplished through the Trinity. 00:29:45.839 --> 00:29:48.099 And I'm going to get down to the end of this section. 00:29:49.240 --> 00:29:54.759 For through him, through him, we both have access in one spirit to God the Father. 00:29:55.419 --> 00:29:57.899 So then, what is our reality? 00:29:58.440 --> 00:30:07.179 We are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. 00:30:07.180 --> 00:30:14.740 You go from, remember, you're part of the sons of disobedience, and you're now in a new family with new citizenship under a new king. 00:30:15.140 --> 00:30:18.560 And we all know how the change of leadership affects all of our lives. 00:30:18.840 --> 00:30:23.700 He's saying that you had a very bad and wicked king who was leading you towards your doom. 00:30:24.600 --> 00:30:28.440 Who called himself your father, but who did not love you. 00:30:29.380 --> 00:30:34.460 And now he brought into a new family that is actually rooted in love and in reconciliation. 00:30:34.960 --> 00:30:36.460 You are part of God's family. 00:30:37.180 --> 00:30:43.380 Built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the cornerstone. 00:30:43.840 --> 00:30:48.840 In whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a, now you're the holy temple of God. 00:30:49.360 --> 00:30:53.539 In whom you're being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit. 00:30:53.779 --> 00:30:59.779 We talked about how there was a temple in Ephesus that was the basis of their identity. 00:31:00.180 --> 00:31:01.019 The temple to Diana. 00:31:01.320 --> 00:31:03.759 They went there and they made their offerings there. 00:31:03.759 --> 00:31:07.980 There was also a temple to the divine Julius and the god Roma. 00:31:08.379 --> 00:31:10.180 They gave offerings to that empire. 00:31:10.519 --> 00:31:15.039 And he says you were an external aspect of that that you made offerings to. 00:31:15.119 --> 00:31:20.099 And that was how you participated in that temple that ultimately led to your doom because that king did not love you. 00:31:20.099 --> 00:31:24.740 But now you are an actual part of this building built by God. 00:31:24.799 --> 00:31:27.039 He's doing analogy upon analogy upon analogy. 00:31:27.199 --> 00:31:30.480 This is bad homiletic practice, but this is an inspired word of God, right? 00:31:31.299 --> 00:31:36.379 You are a house, a family member, and a temple and a citizen all together. 00:31:36.380 --> 00:31:44.140 His whole thing is like, you know that like there's this meme by Oprah where Oprah, when she gave everybody a car. 00:31:44.540 --> 00:31:46.780 You get a car, you get a car, you get a car. 00:31:47.140 --> 00:31:49.680 You're like, you're a temple, you're a house, you're a family, you're a citizen. 00:31:50.020 --> 00:31:52.860 Paul is like saying all things are yours. 00:31:53.660 --> 00:31:56.680 I'm the first person to use Oprah as Paul. 00:31:56.680 --> 00:32:01.820 I'm going to copyright that like LeBron tried to copyright Taco Tuesday. 00:32:02.060 --> 00:32:02.460 Okay, okay. 00:32:03.700 --> 00:32:05.100 We're going to make some progress here. 00:32:05.240 --> 00:32:06.240 We're going to make some progress here. 00:32:08.500 --> 00:32:10.340 We're going to actually get into chapter three. 00:32:11.560 --> 00:32:18.279 For this reason, for this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles, 00:32:18.740 --> 00:32:22.340 assuming that you've heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, 00:32:22.720 --> 00:32:26.019 how the mystery was made known to me by revelation as I've written briefly, 00:32:26.019 --> 00:32:29.639 when you read this, you can, when you read this, you can perceive my insight. 00:32:29.759 --> 00:32:34.319 It's the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men and other generations, 00:32:34.319 --> 00:32:38.720 as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and promised by the spirit. 00:32:39.139 --> 00:32:44.480 This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, 00:32:44.720 --> 00:32:49.359 and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 00:32:50.660 --> 00:32:52.639 A couple of things, and I have to be really brief here. 00:32:52.779 --> 00:32:53.920 I'm going to highlight a couple of things. 00:32:53.920 --> 00:33:00.880 Paul says that he is a prisoner for Christ on behalf of the Gentiles. 00:33:01.680 --> 00:33:06.539 So the important part of that for us is that when Paul begins to come to grips with this gospel, 00:33:06.920 --> 00:33:09.900 and he begins to preach it, this reconciliation between Jew and Gentile, 00:33:10.360 --> 00:33:13.680 rooted in God's reconciliation of all things to himself through the Son. 00:33:14.440 --> 00:33:18.080 And when Paul preaches this, it's not that everyone goes, this is great. 00:33:18.079 --> 00:33:23.119 Let's all love Paul and give him, you know, what do you call them? 00:33:23.639 --> 00:33:25.740 We live in the suburbs now. 00:33:25.759 --> 00:33:26.339 I talk about this. 00:33:26.639 --> 00:33:27.839 And we move to the suburbs. 00:33:28.039 --> 00:33:29.299 This has never happened to me before, too. 00:33:29.579 --> 00:33:30.919 People just start giving you stuff. 00:33:31.079 --> 00:33:32.759 We get like, people that brought wine. 00:33:32.980 --> 00:33:34.039 They bought cookies. 00:33:34.220 --> 00:33:35.039 They bought cakes. 00:33:35.279 --> 00:33:37.980 Like, I've never been feted like I did when I kind of came into the suburbs. 00:33:38.079 --> 00:33:40.039 It's like, welcome to the middle class. 00:33:40.119 --> 00:33:42.000 It's like, here you go. 00:33:42.359 --> 00:33:43.759 There's cookies here, right? 00:33:43.839 --> 00:33:45.660 Like, oh, I didn't know. 00:33:45.720 --> 00:33:47.259 I didn't know you used to get cookies when you get rich. 00:33:47.380 --> 00:33:49.400 I mean, you would think you'd give cookies to the poor people, but no. 00:33:49.619 --> 00:33:51.759 You get really nice wine when you already have money. 00:33:51.859 --> 00:33:55.579 Anyways, this is not what happens to Paul. 00:33:56.460 --> 00:34:01.200 Paul goes and he preaches the gospel, and he ends up in jail. 00:34:02.480 --> 00:34:07.059 I think that this is an important part, right? 00:34:07.059 --> 00:34:13.340 Like, I wish I could say that when I stood up in front of people and said to Anglicans 00:34:13.340 --> 00:34:17.820 and people, like, hey, the Bible has this multi-ethnic vision for all things reconciled in Jesus Christ. 00:34:17.900 --> 00:34:19.599 People go, Esau, you're amazing. 00:34:20.539 --> 00:34:22.299 I said, no, you're a cultural Marxist, right? 00:34:23.840 --> 00:34:29.340 And so the point of all of that, the point of all of that is that it always cost us something. 00:34:30.199 --> 00:34:31.239 It always cost us something. 00:34:31.239 --> 00:34:33.619 And this part of it isn't bad. 00:34:33.759 --> 00:34:35.099 Like, we all have our preferences. 00:34:35.099 --> 00:34:38.460 For example, we have music that we like, things that we like. 00:34:38.819 --> 00:34:41.659 And, like, being with different people is tricky. 00:34:43.259 --> 00:34:44.579 It always is annoying. 00:34:46.559 --> 00:34:52.679 We have a nine-year-old boy, an 11-year-old girl, a five-year-old boy. 00:34:52.880 --> 00:34:53.500 Yeah, I'm trying to remember. 00:34:53.619 --> 00:34:56.839 When you get past three, like, gendering and naming them is tricky. 00:34:57.779 --> 00:34:59.559 Like, I didn't plan this out. 00:34:59.659 --> 00:35:01.440 Like, I should have not given middle names. 00:35:01.519 --> 00:35:04.679 I'd, like, use some really good first names that are middle when I didn't realize we had that many kids. 00:35:04.679 --> 00:35:13.699 But anyways, when you have four kids and they, like, when they go from three to 11, they're at the point now where they all have different television shows that they want to watch. 00:35:14.399 --> 00:35:18.019 And so, like, television time, maybe it's like an hour, hour and a half, or three. 00:35:18.139 --> 00:35:18.500 I don't know. 00:35:18.539 --> 00:35:19.179 Don't judge me as a parent. 00:35:19.460 --> 00:35:19.579 Okay? 00:35:19.579 --> 00:35:29.559 When that happens, World War IV breaks out, because World War III was fought the last weekend, because each one of them wants their own thing. 00:35:30.400 --> 00:35:33.440 And I say to them, look, you're in a family now. 00:35:34.960 --> 00:35:35.400 Yeah. 00:35:35.840 --> 00:35:36.840 Against your will. 00:35:36.840 --> 00:35:39.740 And you have to live together. 00:35:39.900 --> 00:35:42.360 And you have to live together for a really long time. 00:35:43.500 --> 00:35:49.240 And, like, the hardest thing to teach a kid is that being a part of a family involves suffering. 00:35:50.780 --> 00:35:52.120 And dying to self. 00:35:52.119 --> 00:36:02.839 And Paul thinks that, like, his ministry, as someone who is an apostle to the Gentiles, leads him to prison. 00:36:03.799 --> 00:36:08.219 If Paul had chosen not to be an apostle to the Gentiles, it's the possibility he never would have ended up in prison. 00:36:10.259 --> 00:36:10.519 Right? 00:36:10.519 --> 00:36:22.059 I mean, Peter, it's possible to construct a version of Christianity that is socially acceptable, that ruffles no one's feathers, and it causes no one to change too much, and you don't suffer. 00:36:24.559 --> 00:36:26.840 There's also a version that gets you in prison. 00:36:28.059 --> 00:36:38.000 And I think that the gospel articulated in chapter 2 leads to the suffering described in chapter 3, even if only briefly. 00:36:38.000 --> 00:36:44.199 But Paul thinks that he is a steward of something. 00:36:45.300 --> 00:36:48.800 He actually thinks of this suffering as a gift. 00:36:49.619 --> 00:36:52.719 Because he thinks that he was the least of all apostles. 00:36:54.079 --> 00:36:57.039 And God gave him this precious thing. 00:36:58.320 --> 00:36:58.539 Right? 00:36:58.980 --> 00:37:00.960 That no one knew about beforehand. 00:37:02.460 --> 00:37:03.219 So we have this. 00:37:03.619 --> 00:37:06.000 And, sorry, this is good. 00:37:06.059 --> 00:37:06.579 I think some of you. 00:37:06.579 --> 00:37:07.699 Has anyone seen the movie? 00:37:07.819 --> 00:37:09.639 Forgive me for my old person analogies. 00:37:09.920 --> 00:37:11.539 Remember the movie The Usual Suspects? 00:37:12.279 --> 00:37:13.059 Okay, thank you. 00:37:13.179 --> 00:37:15.000 When I teach these undergrads, they know nothing. 00:37:16.659 --> 00:37:19.380 So, and The Usual Suspects, spoiler alert, right? 00:37:20.039 --> 00:37:23.219 Like, the guy Kaiser, so say, it's like working in the whole time. 00:37:23.279 --> 00:37:27.340 So you get to the end of the movie, and then you see, you can kind of go back and re-watch the whole thing. 00:37:27.400 --> 00:37:29.679 The same thing happens with something like, is it The Sign? 00:37:29.679 --> 00:37:30.619 Or the seventh, what's it? 00:37:31.179 --> 00:37:31.899 With Bruce Willis. 00:37:31.960 --> 00:37:32.779 Six, same thing, right? 00:37:32.940 --> 00:37:36.980 And you go back, and you re-watch the movie, and you see all of the signs to it. 00:37:37.579 --> 00:37:39.079 So it was like, it was always there. 00:37:39.460 --> 00:37:47.659 So when Paul here talks about the mystery that was not made known in previous generations, it is like no one read the Old Testament. 00:37:47.899 --> 00:37:48.259 Nobody. 00:37:48.699 --> 00:37:49.139 Trust me. 00:37:49.539 --> 00:37:51.440 You can go through all of the texts at the time. 00:37:51.679 --> 00:37:53.920 Nobody read the Old Testament and said, you know what's going to happen? 00:37:54.519 --> 00:38:02.440 God's going to send his Messiah to suffer and die, thereby nullifying the law and enabling justification by faith, and Jews in the doubt creating one new community. 00:38:02.639 --> 00:38:03.639 Like, nobody did that, right? 00:38:04.199 --> 00:38:09.440 If you even read the Gospels, the people, when Jesus shows up, they're like, what are you doing? 00:38:09.960 --> 00:38:13.219 Like, John is like, well, the Messiah's come, but I'm in jail. 00:38:13.219 --> 00:38:14.980 This isn't like, I've been reading my Bible. 00:38:15.099 --> 00:38:17.119 There's no part where, like, I go to jail. 00:38:17.119 --> 00:38:22.440 So he, like, sends people there and says, are you the one who should ask for another? 00:38:22.900 --> 00:38:29.039 The other thing you should do is, like, read the beginning of Luke's Gospel and read the song of Zechariah. 00:38:29.299 --> 00:38:33.639 And Zechariah's like, we're going to be free to worship God without fear, and all of these going to, no. 00:38:33.859 --> 00:38:35.079 I mean, yes and no, right? 00:38:35.500 --> 00:38:40.500 When Zechariah is saying that song, he is not perceiving the passion. 00:38:41.299 --> 00:38:42.279 No one is. 00:38:43.339 --> 00:38:44.339 No one sees it. 00:38:44.340 --> 00:39:02.760 But once Jesus comes and his life literally exegetes the Old Testament, Jesus' life is an exegesis of the Old Testament where all the strands are gathered up together and they form a new coherent whole. 00:39:03.519 --> 00:39:07.960 And then you go, oh, Genesis 12. 00:39:08.260 --> 00:39:09.519 This is what we do naturally, right? 00:39:09.660 --> 00:39:10.780 Like, everybody was doing this. 00:39:10.780 --> 00:39:14.160 You know, Genesis 12, all the nations of the world are going to be blessed. 00:39:15.019 --> 00:39:17.380 Genesis 15, you're justified by faith. 00:39:17.960 --> 00:39:20.880 Oh, Isaiah 53, some mysterious suffering servant. 00:39:21.400 --> 00:39:26.680 Oh, here's Psalm 72 that says that the promises to David are somehow fulfilled through the person of the king. 00:39:27.000 --> 00:39:30.560 Oh, here's all of these passages about justice and righteousness and hope for the oppressed. 00:39:31.140 --> 00:39:32.640 Oh, it's all there. 00:39:32.639 --> 00:39:40.299 But no one saw it until the word became flesh and exegeted it for us. 00:39:41.199 --> 00:39:48.359 And Paul finds it amazing that he is the one who is now given this message. 00:39:49.559 --> 00:39:51.619 He's a steward of it. 00:39:51.619 --> 00:39:56.960 I think this is also similar to what he says. 00:39:57.219 --> 00:40:01.139 We talked about this when he speaks to these people and acts. 00:40:01.219 --> 00:40:06.139 And he says, I may not see you again, but I deliver to you the whole counsel of God. 00:40:07.079 --> 00:40:09.659 One of the things, like one of my goals has to communicate. 00:40:09.759 --> 00:40:11.239 I think this is what Tommy wants. 00:40:11.519 --> 00:40:12.400 We're stewards. 00:40:13.359 --> 00:40:15.619 Like, you deliver the mail. 00:40:15.619 --> 00:40:15.699 Wow. 00:40:16.339 --> 00:40:21.859 So our goal is to make you aware of this thing that we have that is precious. 00:40:22.639 --> 00:40:24.679 And so I could be wrong in my interpretations. 00:40:24.819 --> 00:40:25.659 I'm not infallible. 00:40:25.759 --> 00:40:30.339 I actually tell my students there are no perfect theologians apart from like Jesus. 00:40:30.839 --> 00:40:32.339 Everybody got something wrong. 00:40:33.639 --> 00:40:36.219 But I don't know what I'm wrong about. 00:40:36.380 --> 00:40:38.139 If I knew what I was wrong about, I would change it. 00:40:38.380 --> 00:40:39.259 But I don't. 00:40:39.260 --> 00:40:45.720 So in some sense, I'm walking in reality, recognizing my human limitations. 00:40:46.460 --> 00:40:55.080 But as best as I can come to grips, as best as I can understand the gospel, as carefully as I can read it, these things remain true. 00:40:55.620 --> 00:41:04.760 So it's my job or our job with those who preach like Paul talks about here is to deliver this to you and make it clear to you all that you all have something precious. 00:41:04.760 --> 00:41:10.040 And even when it is attacked on every side, it still remains precious. 00:41:10.460 --> 00:41:20.460 Even when it'd be easier to say that the prison that I now exist in, for the sake of this kind of gospel, easy to accept, easy to reject, it still remains precious. 00:41:23.480 --> 00:41:30.440 And the mystery of all of this, the mystery, like the thing that he thinks that blows his mind, we're together. 00:41:30.440 --> 00:41:44.300 The mystery, no one saw this before, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus. 00:41:44.500 --> 00:41:45.099 So this is the thing. 00:41:45.380 --> 00:41:53.179 Paul isn't just saying that it's great that like black people, white people, Latino people, Asian people, first-Nation people hang out together and just like sing songs. 00:41:54.240 --> 00:41:57.460 Like reconciliation just in general is a good idea, though it is good. 00:41:57.460 --> 00:42:12.400 It is valuable in so much that it's in Christ Jesus because then that reconciliation is a manifestation of his glory, not just some sociopolitical construct that allows us to chase our desires free of conflict. 00:42:12.400 --> 00:42:24.139 Of this gospel, I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given to me by the working of his power. 00:42:24.740 --> 00:42:37.900 To me, though I'm the least of all of the saints, this grace was given to me to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery of the ages. 00:42:37.900 --> 00:42:50.880 This is in God who created all things so that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. 00:42:51.300 --> 00:42:55.420 This was according to the purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus. 00:42:55.420 --> 00:43:03.900 The gospel is something that he stewards. 00:43:04.760 --> 00:43:06.220 And I can't decide. 00:43:06.380 --> 00:43:08.099 This is in verse 8. 00:43:09.599 --> 00:43:14.519 He talks about the unsearchable riches of Christ. 00:43:14.639 --> 00:43:18.320 The word here is not exactly clear to my mind. 00:43:18.420 --> 00:43:21.460 I've heard different translations of me articulate this a little bit differently. 00:43:21.460 --> 00:43:27.420 It could be unsearchable in the sense that it's like you can't come to the end of it. 00:43:27.440 --> 00:43:30.440 Someone who's super wealthy or something, you can't search to the end of it. 00:43:30.900 --> 00:43:35.079 But I think the unsearchable doesn't really get to it because I don't understand unsearchable mysteries. 00:43:35.460 --> 00:43:37.280 The other one, unsearchable riches. 00:43:37.380 --> 00:43:44.000 So like I have so much money, you can't like comb the depths of it, calculate it all, put it in piles and kind of come to the end of it. 00:43:44.000 --> 00:43:48.840 But also the other potential word that is used in some translations, it's inscrutable. 00:43:49.940 --> 00:43:54.679 It's like not it's incomprehensible how rich Jesus is. 00:43:55.639 --> 00:43:55.880 All right. 00:43:56.760 --> 00:44:06.460 And I think that the riches of Christ refers to all of the manifold things that all of the things that God has for us in Jesus. 00:44:06.460 --> 00:44:16.800 And so what Paul is saying is the gospel is so good that I've just told you about that I can't even understand it. 00:44:18.119 --> 00:44:19.599 And so this is the strange thing, right? 00:44:19.980 --> 00:44:25.740 He thinks of himself as a steward of a mystery. 00:44:25.739 --> 00:44:38.539 So I actually cannot and Tommy cannot and whoever your other pastors cannot actually explain to you all that you can receive in and through Jesus Christ. 00:44:39.179 --> 00:44:44.139 We can't like if we just sat here and said, here are all the things that come into being a Christian and let me just list them for you. 00:44:45.359 --> 00:44:48.139 But no, what we want to do is we introduce you to a person. 00:44:50.199 --> 00:44:50.599 Right. 00:44:50.599 --> 00:44:56.400 You meet Jesus and then your life is transformed in unimaginable ways. 00:44:57.500 --> 00:44:58.679 Paul talks about it later. 00:44:58.860 --> 00:44:59.679 It's like glory to God. 00:44:59.759 --> 00:45:01.599 He can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. 00:45:02.319 --> 00:45:06.460 Like Jesus is literally can do stuff for you that you can't even think of. 00:45:06.900 --> 00:45:09.279 For example, have you preaching to people in West Virginia? 00:45:09.719 --> 00:45:09.799 Right. 00:45:10.880 --> 00:45:16.719 Like if you had said to me like 18 year old Esau, what are the things that are likely to happen to you? 00:45:16.719 --> 00:45:23.439 I was telling Tommy, I'm sorry, I have one more minute, but I'm going to talk about Manifold Riches and I'm going to tell this story and then we'll be done. 00:45:23.679 --> 00:45:23.799 Okay. 00:45:23.800 --> 00:45:23.840 Yeah. 00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:30.760 So I was when I when I was thinking about doing graduate work, I initially wanted to be a missionary. 00:45:31.640 --> 00:45:35.000 And so I said, well, I'll just go and go anywhere to get my Ph.D. 00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:40.860 It doesn't matter about prestige because, you know, I just wanted to have something cheap so I can have my degree so I could then go overseas. 00:45:40.860 --> 00:45:41.180 Right. 00:45:41.220 --> 00:45:43.440 I'm just like economical education. 00:45:43.440 --> 00:45:50.679 And so one of my professors emails, I email him and say, hey, will you send this recommendation off to this school? 00:45:51.079 --> 00:45:53.480 And he goes, Esau, you shouldn't apply there. 00:45:53.840 --> 00:45:56.380 You should apply somewhere better because I think you have some more talent. 00:45:56.539 --> 00:46:00.019 And I go, okay, like where would I apply? 00:46:00.139 --> 00:46:01.960 It doesn't really matter because, you know, I just want my degree. 00:46:02.240 --> 00:46:05.079 He said, if you go anywhere in the world, where would you go? 00:46:05.559 --> 00:46:07.700 And, you know, offhand, I'm an Anglican, right? 00:46:07.860 --> 00:46:10.440 So what would you have said if you were an Anglican in like 2013? 00:46:10.440 --> 00:46:12.800 I want to stay with N.T. Wright, right? 00:46:13.320 --> 00:46:15.720 And he says, okay, well, then apply. 00:46:17.179 --> 00:46:21.280 And so, you know, it's almost like, you know, those movies just start with like, I'm going to just apply. 00:46:21.579 --> 00:46:23.780 And so I applied and I got accepted. 00:46:24.860 --> 00:46:33.820 I'm a black kid from Alabama who was raised in the primitive Baptist church who is now flying to Scotland to study with the greatest living theologian of our day. 00:46:35.440 --> 00:46:37.760 Like, if she wouldn't have said to me, you sign up to be. 00:46:37.760 --> 00:46:43.280 I remember when he came to Gordon-Conwell and we were like, oh, my goodness, Thomas here. 00:46:43.880 --> 00:46:44.180 Oh. 00:46:46.520 --> 00:46:48.980 But, like, that's not something I can ask or imagine. 00:46:50.380 --> 00:46:55.320 That was God's unsearchable riches in Christ towards me. 00:46:55.320 --> 00:47:00.320 And I could also give you the opposite version of that, right? 00:47:00.380 --> 00:47:05.220 Where things were really, really difficult in my life and I would be tempted to despair. 00:47:05.300 --> 00:47:07.740 But you don't get to hear all of the worst parts of the story, right? 00:47:08.160 --> 00:47:15.180 But it was precisely in that despair that God's goodness manifested itself to me. 00:47:15.179 --> 00:47:21.339 So it's not that God gives you way better stuff than you can imagine, right? 00:47:21.819 --> 00:47:27.759 But that God's goodness towards us in Christ come to us in ways that are unimaginable. 00:47:29.859 --> 00:47:31.119 And what's the purpose of all of that? 00:47:31.259 --> 00:47:32.779 And this is the last thing I want to talk about. 00:47:32.780 --> 00:47:48.560 He talks about in verse, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring to light for everyone the plan of mystery that was hidden for ages in God. 00:47:48.660 --> 00:47:50.720 So that in the church, the manifold wisdom of God. 00:47:51.140 --> 00:47:55.340 So the word there for manifold, I looked this up when I was studying for you all. 00:47:55.640 --> 00:47:57.060 And I could be wrong about this. 00:47:57.059 --> 00:48:01.519 So my level of confidence is about 20 to 30 percent, but it preaches well. 00:48:01.579 --> 00:48:04.320 So I'm going to say it as an idea. 00:48:04.759 --> 00:48:04.880 Okay? 00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:06.920 So don't, like, email me if this is wrong. 00:48:07.000 --> 00:48:08.340 But it'll make you feel good. 00:48:09.480 --> 00:48:11.099 This is probably a bad method. 00:48:11.440 --> 00:48:14.440 But it's plausibly true until I find out that it is false. 00:48:15.960 --> 00:48:20.480 The language there for manifold, and it's one of those Bible terms, manifold means nothing. 00:48:20.579 --> 00:48:23.679 Because I never say manifold when I'm not saying manifold witness of God, right? 00:48:23.759 --> 00:48:26.779 So it's just like, it's one of those Bible words that just lose meaning. 00:48:27.360 --> 00:48:31.820 So I looked at manifold because I said, you know, I'm getting paid to do this. 00:48:31.880 --> 00:48:33.259 I should go beyond the English version. 00:48:34.340 --> 00:48:41.779 And I looked at the word there, and the word there for manifold actually comes from this multicolored. 00:48:41.880 --> 00:48:43.940 It's actually the language that is used there. 00:48:44.199 --> 00:48:50.219 So when you had a multicolored cloth where they, like, wove the different pieces together so it shined as a fabric, manifold. 00:48:50.219 --> 00:49:03.859 And so you can see how, like, a multicolored cloth that, like, glistens differently or looks differently based upon the angle that you look at it becomes a metaphor for diversity. 00:49:03.860 --> 00:49:16.960 But I'm going to say, just because I want to, that the translation, the multicolored wisdom of God is significant. 00:49:16.960 --> 00:49:25.599 Especially in a context in which he's talking about Jews and Gentiles together. 00:49:26.760 --> 00:49:27.780 Could be wrong. 00:49:28.059 --> 00:49:28.679 Could be wrong. 00:49:28.679 --> 00:49:39.359 But at least as I'm thinking about this section, he is saying that before we were in the darkness to the plan of God. 00:49:39.419 --> 00:49:40.399 He says, bring to light. 00:49:40.460 --> 00:49:41.419 So we're in darkness. 00:49:41.980 --> 00:49:44.139 We don't understand what God is doing in the world. 00:49:44.139 --> 00:49:58.799 And then the lights come on, and we see the multicolored wisdom of God manifested in the fact that the Jews and the Gentiles are co-heirs in the gospel. 00:49:59.699 --> 00:50:01.599 And this is particularly true. 00:50:01.699 --> 00:50:02.319 He says this. 00:50:03.019 --> 00:50:09.980 So that through the church, the multicolored wisdom of God might, now you can actually say that, like, multicolored is what the word means. 00:50:09.980 --> 00:50:11.339 The multicolored wisdom of God. 00:50:11.480 --> 00:50:12.059 He saw it. 00:50:12.079 --> 00:50:13.119 He looked in my lectionary. 00:50:14.139 --> 00:50:21.039 The multicolored wisdom of God might be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 00:50:21.599 --> 00:50:36.920 Now, he is saying that the diverse wisdom of God or the manifold wisdom of God or the multicolored wisdom of God as seen in the reconciliation of Jews and Gentiles together in one body is a testimony to spiritual powers. 00:50:36.920 --> 00:50:45.000 Now, we talked about how the spiritual powers were at work in the sons of disobedience who failed to create the community they desired. 00:50:45.960 --> 00:50:48.380 They ultimately brought about the destruction of people. 00:50:48.380 --> 00:50:56.400 So he says that the church is a testimony to the powers of what God's wisdom can bring about. 00:50:56.400 --> 00:51:04.139 The church is God's counter witness to the world. 00:51:04.139 --> 00:51:12.839 Because Paul contends in numerous places that the spiritual powers actually exercise influence on the earth. 00:51:13.599 --> 00:51:19.920 So he says the church isn't simply a testimony to these divine, not these semi-divine invisible beings. 00:51:20.139 --> 00:51:27.079 The church is a witness to those beings and those who are influenced by them here. 00:51:27.079 --> 00:51:33.559 So what is the work then of the church as one people of God? 00:51:34.360 --> 00:51:36.139 Yes, don't get me wrong. 00:51:36.460 --> 00:51:40.920 I believe that the church has a public voice in society. 00:51:41.099 --> 00:51:44.420 I think there's tons of stuff the church can and should do in the culture. 00:51:44.420 --> 00:51:53.240 But merely the existence of the church as God's miracle is a manifestation of this glory. 00:51:54.300 --> 00:52:02.820 And before there was any political power in the church, in Paul's day, there may be 20, 30, 40,000 Christians totaling the entire world. 00:52:03.220 --> 00:52:04.420 They had no political power. 00:52:04.519 --> 00:52:05.480 They had no influence. 00:52:05.700 --> 00:52:08.760 They couldn't do anything but celebrate the Eucharist and sing songs to Jesus. 00:52:09.360 --> 00:52:11.159 We know they celebrate the Eucharist because it's in 1 Corinthians. 00:52:11.159 --> 00:52:13.699 And Acts. 00:52:14.699 --> 00:52:27.619 But even as simply the Eucharistic community united across difference, worshiping the Savior, there are testimony to spiritual powers and the world of what God can do. 00:52:28.619 --> 00:52:35.159 So what is your call then as the church of God in D.C.? 00:52:35.679 --> 00:52:40.519 Part of your job is to simply be stewards of the gospel. 00:52:41.899 --> 00:52:50.759 The whole of it, whose very existence is a testimony to an alternative vision of what it means to be human, what it means to be the community. 00:52:51.339 --> 00:52:52.500 And I'm only going to say this. 00:52:52.559 --> 00:52:53.000 Sorry, Tommy. 00:52:53.039 --> 00:52:54.659 I'm going to keep going because I've got to get to this part. 00:52:54.659 --> 00:53:00.879 But this, and once again, this story is too big. 00:53:02.199 --> 00:53:13.319 The Trinitarian work of God reconciles all things together in his son that creates a new people whose very existence testifies to an alternative vision of what it means to be human. 00:53:13.320 --> 00:53:15.680 That is a lot. 00:53:15.679 --> 00:53:22.899 And all I can do is just point to the very end of chapter 3 where he says, 00:53:22.900 --> 00:53:52.900 00:53:52.900 --> 00:54:05.619 So that you may know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge. 00:54:05.619 --> 00:54:10.599 So this is the prayer that Paul actually leaves the church in Ephesus with. 00:54:11.139 --> 00:54:12.099 And I'll leave you all with. 00:54:12.679 --> 00:54:22.039 This is that somehow you all come to grips with the expansive love of God as manifested in the gospel 00:54:22.039 --> 00:54:27.480 and take it upon yourselves in whatever ways is possible to actually begin to live it out. 00:54:27.900 --> 00:54:28.300 Thank you. 00:54:28.300 --> 00:54:34.080 Thank you. 00:54:34.320 --> 00:54:36.880 Think you was a great to have been admitted to this world of God. 00:54:36.920 --> 00:54:37.960 Thank you. 00:54:37.960 --> 00:54:38.940 Thanks.