WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.740 If you are a regular attender here at St. Columbus, you know that we are working our way through 00:00:05.740 --> 00:00:08.500 Paul's letter to the Ephesians. 00:00:08.500 --> 00:00:15.300 And really the heartbeat of the letter is found in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 10, where we're 00:00:15.300 --> 00:00:23.280 told that the power of God has come into the world through the gospel, and that God, by 00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:28.539 the power of the gospel, is bringing everything together, even heaven and earth. 00:00:28.539 --> 00:00:35.600 So through the power of the cross and resurrection of Jesus, God is bringing together all things 00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:39.399 that have been fractured in human history. 00:00:39.399 --> 00:00:43.359 Ever since Genesis chapter 3, humanity has been fractured. 00:00:43.359 --> 00:00:45.359 Our relationships have been broken. 00:00:45.359 --> 00:00:48.879 Our alienation from God has been ever present. 00:00:48.879 --> 00:00:54.399 And the meaning of Ephesians is that God is bringing together all things through the power 00:00:54.399 --> 00:00:56.879 of the gospel, even heaven and earth. 00:00:56.880 --> 00:01:00.840 Jesus, we looked at last week, is our peace, our shalom. 00:01:00.840 --> 00:01:05.719 And in the Old Testament, peace really does mean a recovery, bringing things together, 00:01:05.719 --> 00:01:08.879 making things right, bringing justice to the world. 00:01:08.879 --> 00:01:14.120 A Fleming Rutledge is a writer in the U.S. and she wrote a really, really great book 00:01:14.120 --> 00:01:16.120 called The Crucifixion. 00:01:16.120 --> 00:01:21.879 And she's commenting here on verses 11 and 12, the beginning of the passage that we read. 00:01:21.879 --> 00:01:28.959 And she says this, by becoming sin, Jesus allied himself with our farthest extremity, 00:01:28.959 --> 00:01:31.399 perfectly summarized in the book of Ephesians. 00:01:31.399 --> 00:01:37.159 When Paul says, remember at that time, you were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, 00:01:37.159 --> 00:01:42.319 strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 00:01:42.319 --> 00:01:46.039 Thus Jesus entered into our desperate condition. 00:01:46.039 --> 00:01:50.079 No wonder he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:01:50.079 --> 00:01:57.480 God the Son put himself voluntarily and deliberately in the place of greatest accursedness and 00:01:57.480 --> 00:02:01.039 godlessness and he did it all for us. 00:02:01.039 --> 00:02:04.719 And so that's the message of Ephesians. 00:02:04.719 --> 00:02:10.400 Jesus Christ brought peace into this world by becoming accursed for us. 00:02:10.400 --> 00:02:15.879 Now Ephesians two, two things that we've talked about. 00:02:15.879 --> 00:02:19.439 One that if you're a Christian today, that means that you've experienced that power in 00:02:19.439 --> 00:02:21.000 your life. 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:26.079 And that means that you've been saved by grace through faith, meaning that at some point 00:02:26.079 --> 00:02:33.159 God's grace came into your life, the gospel came into your life and it awakened your faith. 00:02:33.159 --> 00:02:38.520 It's like, and many people have said this in the past, it's like the sleeping beauty story. 00:02:38.520 --> 00:02:41.120 Remember the sleeping beauty myth. 00:02:41.120 --> 00:02:46.520 She was asleep, but then the prince came and he kissed her on the cheek and she awoke. 00:02:46.520 --> 00:02:49.800 And that's exactly what happens in the gospel. 00:02:49.800 --> 00:02:55.000 Grace comes into your life and it kisses you and you wake up and when you wake up, you 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:58.800 have faith, you believe, you see it, you become a Christian. 00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:00.680 That's Ephesians two, one to 10. 00:03:00.680 --> 00:03:05.520 And then Ephesians two, 11 to 22 is that the first great example of God bringing things 00:03:05.520 --> 00:03:11.439 together in this world when the gospel enters into our life is he's now gathering a church, 00:03:11.439 --> 00:03:13.920 a place of peace, a community of peace. 00:03:13.919 --> 00:03:20.280 So he brings peace between us and the Father and he brings peace between us and each other. 00:03:20.280 --> 00:03:24.159 And so last week, we said that the greatest example of that, one of the great examples 00:03:24.159 --> 00:03:29.560 of that in the first century was the fact that Jews and Gentiles all of a sudden in 00:03:29.560 --> 00:03:36.000 a city like Ephesus came together and were not only tolerating each other, but were worshiping 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:38.679 together and were actually friends with one another. 00:03:38.679 --> 00:03:40.719 And this was the most unexpected thing. 00:03:40.719 --> 00:03:43.759 Jews and Gentiles have been so hostile to one another. 00:03:43.759 --> 00:03:50.359 Jews and Gentiles, Jews and Gentiles, everybody set against one another, fractured, not friends, 00:03:50.359 --> 00:03:51.359 not at peace. 00:03:51.359 --> 00:03:55.879 And all of a sudden in the city of Ephesus, there is Jew and Gentile worshiping together, 00:03:55.879 --> 00:03:59.919 friends with one another, holding each other spiritually accountable, really relating to 00:03:59.919 --> 00:04:01.479 one another deeply. 00:04:01.479 --> 00:04:06.519 And he's saying that when you realize that you can have peace with God by the cross, 00:04:06.519 --> 00:04:10.280 you then awaken to the fact that you can have peace with other people. 00:04:10.280 --> 00:04:11.280 And that's what the church is. 00:04:11.280 --> 00:04:14.719 The church is the gathering, the community of peace. 00:04:14.719 --> 00:04:19.000 People who have been brought near to God and so have been brought near to one another. 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:23.519 And so let's finish our reflections today on the church. 00:04:23.519 --> 00:04:27.879 Focus on verse 19 to 22, the end of this little section. 00:04:27.879 --> 00:04:32.319 And it's right here in verse 19, Paul gives you the outline. 00:04:32.319 --> 00:04:34.480 He says, what's the church? 00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:35.480 Who are you? 00:04:35.480 --> 00:04:36.800 Who is the church? 00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:43.840 He says, you are no longer aliens and strangers, but now you are citizens. 00:04:43.840 --> 00:04:47.360 So in other words, Paul is saying here two things to think about. 00:04:47.360 --> 00:04:53.519 One is who you were, apart from the gospel, and then who you've become. 00:04:53.519 --> 00:04:58.519 And that's the definition of the church, that we were once aliens and strangers and far 00:04:58.519 --> 00:04:59.519 away. 00:04:59.519 --> 00:05:02.600 And we've really got to remember that if we want to know who we are. 00:05:02.600 --> 00:05:04.000 Who were we? 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:05.720 And then who have we become? 00:05:05.720 --> 00:05:11.240 And he says you've become citizens, the household of God, and the holy temple. 00:05:11.240 --> 00:05:13.800 So who were we and who have we become? 00:05:13.800 --> 00:05:14.920 That's how Paul outlines it. 00:05:14.920 --> 00:05:16.680 Let's look at it that way. 00:05:16.680 --> 00:05:18.600 So first, who were we? 00:05:18.600 --> 00:05:24.240 And Paul says we were strangers, we were aliens, we were far off. 00:05:24.240 --> 00:05:31.940 So in chapter two, verse one, and then chapter two, verse 11, there's a really clear parallel. 00:05:31.939 --> 00:05:37.920 Because Paul in verse one said, you were dead in your sins and trespasses. 00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:42.639 And we said, when we looked at that, that dead people, if you were dead, spiritually 00:05:42.639 --> 00:05:45.439 dead, he's talking about, you cannot make yourself alive. 00:05:45.439 --> 00:05:47.360 You cannot resuscitate yourself. 00:05:47.360 --> 00:05:50.519 You cannot attach the defibrillator to yourself. 00:05:50.519 --> 00:05:51.959 You're spiritually dead. 00:05:51.959 --> 00:05:56.879 And then he comes down in verse 11 and says, you, verse 11 and 12, and says, you were strangers, 00:05:56.879 --> 00:05:59.279 you were aliens to God. 00:05:59.279 --> 00:06:05.159 He goes so far as to say, you were without God and you were hopeless, without hope. 00:06:05.159 --> 00:06:08.079 Now in the first instance, Paul identifies himself in that. 00:06:08.079 --> 00:06:12.319 He says, even us Jews, we were dead in sin. 00:06:12.319 --> 00:06:16.039 Then in the second instance, he says, now let me talk to the Gentiles. 00:06:16.039 --> 00:06:21.000 And he's saying, you were dead in sin, and that's most of us here, Gentiles. 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:26.239 You were dead in sin and you were aliens, strangers to everything that God had revealed 00:06:26.239 --> 00:06:28.679 in world history. 00:06:28.680 --> 00:06:35.079 The Christians that he's speaking with here, the Gentiles and Ephesus, they were pagans 00:06:35.079 --> 00:06:38.160 and they had been worshiping in the temple of Artemis. 00:06:38.160 --> 00:06:42.840 So the temple of Artemis was one of the seven wonders of the world. 00:06:42.840 --> 00:06:47.079 And in the temple of Artemis, in the heart of Ephesus, they were worshiping every single 00:06:47.079 --> 00:06:49.480 God imaginable but the real God. 00:06:49.480 --> 00:06:53.000 And he's saying, when you were there, when you were in that situation, you were without 00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:56.560 God, you were hopeless, you didn't know the real God. 00:06:56.560 --> 00:06:58.600 You were a stranger. 00:06:58.600 --> 00:07:00.720 Now I don't know many of you better than me. 00:07:00.720 --> 00:07:06.439 We'll know the history of Scotland and the UK. 00:07:06.439 --> 00:07:13.200 But you know well that if you go back, as far as we know, that originally the Celtic 00:07:13.200 --> 00:07:20.760 Britons were here and the Gauls and the Picts and the Druids within the Picts and the Liskos 00:07:20.760 --> 00:07:22.720 on lots of different tribes. 00:07:22.720 --> 00:07:25.120 And you go back and you look at and study every one of those, every single one of those 00:07:25.120 --> 00:07:28.840 people groups were polytheists. 00:07:28.840 --> 00:07:33.000 Every single one of them were worshiping all the gods in all sorts of different ways. 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:37.680 And you go to Ephesus in the first century after the Celtic Britons had come to this 00:07:37.680 --> 00:07:43.360 land and they were polytheists and they were worshiping the gods in all sorts of ways. 00:07:43.360 --> 00:07:48.519 And that's Paul is saying here in verse 12, you need to know, even if you can't remember, 00:07:48.519 --> 00:07:53.079 even if you live in the 21st century, you need to know your history that you really 00:07:53.079 --> 00:07:59.800 do come from, you really do come as people who are strangers to the Lord, strangers to 00:07:59.800 --> 00:08:00.800 God. 00:08:00.800 --> 00:08:07.000 And until the gospel went from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth, 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:10.719 all the way to this land Scotland, eventually we were far away. 00:08:10.719 --> 00:08:12.560 We didn't know God. 00:08:12.560 --> 00:08:13.560 We didn't know about the covenant. 00:08:13.560 --> 00:08:15.959 It had never been revealed to us. 00:08:15.959 --> 00:08:17.959 I don't know. 00:08:17.959 --> 00:08:20.719 You've probably, you've had this experience I'm sure. 00:08:20.720 --> 00:08:24.440 Most of the people who live here travel a good bit. 00:08:24.440 --> 00:08:29.040 And when you travel, one of the things that happens is that you feel at some point like 00:08:29.040 --> 00:08:31.600 a stranger in a strange land. 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:35.879 So you go somewhere and you don't speak the language. 00:08:35.879 --> 00:08:38.879 You don't know the customs. 00:08:38.879 --> 00:08:42.840 And sometimes for many of us, it's only at that point do we realize that we actually 00:08:42.840 --> 00:08:44.960 come from a culture. 00:08:44.960 --> 00:08:49.240 We assume most of us, if we've not traveled much, that the culture we grew up in is not 00:08:49.240 --> 00:08:51.240 a culture at all. 00:08:51.240 --> 00:08:52.240 It's just normal. 00:08:52.240 --> 00:08:53.480 Our culture is just what is. 00:08:53.480 --> 00:08:55.799 And everybody else has a culture. 00:08:55.799 --> 00:09:00.680 And then we go travel and we realize actually these people have a culture and I have a culture 00:09:00.680 --> 00:09:01.919 too. 00:09:01.919 --> 00:09:07.840 Maybe we come from an individualist community here in modern Edinburgh. 00:09:07.840 --> 00:09:12.879 You've traveled to a communitarian culture, a culture that's full of honor and shame tradition. 00:09:12.879 --> 00:09:17.639 And one of the things that happens is you get a, you sit down at the table and somebody 00:09:17.639 --> 00:09:20.279 puts a plate of food in front of you. 00:09:20.279 --> 00:09:22.039 And they say, eat. 00:09:22.039 --> 00:09:24.600 This is your, we made this for you, you need to eat. 00:09:24.600 --> 00:09:28.639 And you say, well, I'm on, I'm on whole 30 right now. 00:09:28.639 --> 00:09:31.279 I'm not eating bread at the moment. 00:09:31.279 --> 00:09:33.360 This is my intermittent fasting day. 00:09:33.360 --> 00:09:35.639 And I say, no, no, no, you don't understand. 00:09:35.639 --> 00:09:39.240 When you get food put on the table in front of you, you eat it in this culture. 00:09:39.240 --> 00:09:42.639 It would be very rude for you to say, well, this is the middle of my, this is about the 00:09:42.639 --> 00:09:46.159 15th day of my whole 30. 00:09:46.159 --> 00:09:49.319 And you realize there's culture shock in that moment. 00:09:49.319 --> 00:09:53.399 Probably a more common experience we've had is you, you go to New York City and you go 00:09:53.399 --> 00:09:59.199 to the bus stop and you, you get ready for the bus to come and you get into the queue 00:09:59.199 --> 00:10:01.399 and then you realize there is no queue. 00:10:01.399 --> 00:10:03.899 Right. 00:10:03.899 --> 00:10:10.879 And you come back to Edinburgh and you say, society is unraveling there, you know. 00:10:10.879 --> 00:10:14.000 I can see the beginning of the breakdown. 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:18.960 Where you go in New York City to a restaurant and they bring you out, they bring the bill 00:10:18.960 --> 00:10:23.759 out to you after you eat and you realize in a moment, this is the fake bill. 00:10:23.759 --> 00:10:25.120 Right. 00:10:25.120 --> 00:10:30.360 And the real bill is at least 18% more than this, maybe 25. 00:10:30.360 --> 00:10:34.679 These are moments of culture shock where we, we realize I have a culture and my culture 00:10:34.679 --> 00:10:36.000 is different from this culture. 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:42.000 And I feel right now in different extremities, like I'm a stranger living in a strange land. 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:46.759 And when you come back to your culture and you sometimes you realize that culture is 00:10:46.759 --> 00:10:49.320 actually a little better at this than my culture is. 00:10:49.320 --> 00:10:50.519 That's reverse culture shock. 00:10:50.519 --> 00:10:51.519 Right. 00:10:51.519 --> 00:10:53.039 We call that reverse culture shock. 00:10:53.039 --> 00:10:56.720 Paul here is saying, every single one of us knows what it feels like to go somewhere 00:10:56.720 --> 00:11:02.679 and not feel like you belong, to feel like you're on the outside looking in. 00:11:02.679 --> 00:11:09.000 And he's saying here to Jews and two, one to three and Gentiles, we are all before the 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:13.879 Lord dead, not alive because of our trespasses and sins when it comes to our relationship 00:11:13.879 --> 00:11:15.480 with God. 00:11:15.480 --> 00:11:22.639 And then he comes and he says, and we are all strangers, aliens, foreigners when it comes 00:11:22.639 --> 00:11:24.639 to our relationship with the God who made us. 00:11:24.639 --> 00:11:27.759 And he says, and that means that, you know, what, what is it? 00:11:27.759 --> 00:11:30.279 How do you really know that you're a foreigner to a culture? 00:11:30.279 --> 00:11:32.759 You don't even think about that culture. 00:11:32.759 --> 00:11:34.039 You know, you don't even know it exists. 00:11:34.039 --> 00:11:36.519 You don't, it's something completely foreign to you. 00:11:36.519 --> 00:11:41.679 And for most people, quite often, apart from the gospel, apart from Christ, we don't even 00:11:41.679 --> 00:11:44.120 think about God. 00:11:44.120 --> 00:11:46.179 God is just a stranger. 00:11:46.179 --> 00:11:48.000 He made us, yet we don't know him. 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:51.159 We're living in his world, yet we're like aliens. 00:11:51.159 --> 00:11:54.879 We're not really citizens of the world that he made, not really. 00:11:54.879 --> 00:12:00.360 And Paul is saying here that when God comes into your life, he encounters you. 00:12:00.360 --> 00:12:05.279 The very first thing that has to happen is culture shock. 00:12:05.279 --> 00:12:06.279 Christianity. 00:12:06.279 --> 00:12:10.279 It's, we make it, it feels normal to us if you've grown up in the church, but it's not. 00:12:10.279 --> 00:12:13.439 Actually God comes into your life and it's culture shock. 00:12:13.439 --> 00:12:20.720 And you remember Isaiah six, when the Lord comes down, brings Isaiah up in a vision and 00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:23.959 he sees the holy, holy, holy God. 00:12:23.959 --> 00:12:27.439 And Isaiah says, woe is me. 00:12:27.439 --> 00:12:28.519 I am unclean. 00:12:28.519 --> 00:12:30.360 I cannot stand. 00:12:30.360 --> 00:12:32.120 You know, he was an ultimate culture shock. 00:12:32.120 --> 00:12:35.860 He knew he realized in that moment, he was a stranger before the Lord. 00:12:35.860 --> 00:12:38.279 He was an enemy of God that he needed to be cleansed. 00:12:38.279 --> 00:12:39.480 He needed to be renewed. 00:12:39.480 --> 00:12:41.879 He needed to be healed. 00:12:41.879 --> 00:12:46.440 And that means that the gospel came into the world and turned the world upside down. 00:12:46.440 --> 00:12:53.800 In Acts chapter 17 verse six, Paul and Silas were preaching in Greece, what we, what we 00:12:53.800 --> 00:12:55.159 now call Greece. 00:12:55.159 --> 00:12:59.759 And they preached the gospel and one of the citizens of the city came and said, these, 00:12:59.759 --> 00:13:02.960 these men have turned our city upside down. 00:13:02.960 --> 00:13:07.480 The gospel has just corrupted everything that we stood for here. 00:13:07.480 --> 00:13:12.680 And when the God, when you really see the encounter of God in your life and the experience 00:13:12.680 --> 00:13:18.200 of grace in your life, you realize that the normal order of the world is some combination 00:13:18.200 --> 00:13:25.360 of pursuing power by way of wealth, prestige and indulgence of every desire, some combination, 00:13:25.360 --> 00:13:28.400 every culture in some way, shape or form. 00:13:28.399 --> 00:13:33.159 And the gospel comes and says, the Son of man came not to be served, but to serve. 00:13:33.159 --> 00:13:37.679 The Son of man came to give his life away as a ransom for many, not to seek power, but 00:13:37.679 --> 00:13:39.720 to give it up. 00:13:39.720 --> 00:13:42.519 That the first will be last and the last will be first. 00:13:42.519 --> 00:13:47.559 And you realize that the gospel came into the world and it is not normal. 00:13:47.559 --> 00:13:48.840 It's not normal. 00:13:48.840 --> 00:13:56.679 And so you see what, here's what Paul is saying in verses 11 to 22 verse 11, he says, remember, 00:13:56.679 --> 00:14:00.079 and that is the only command given in the first three chapters. 00:14:00.079 --> 00:14:02.439 There's no other imperatives in the first three chapters. 00:14:02.439 --> 00:14:05.319 So this is the only time he tells you to do something. 00:14:05.319 --> 00:14:12.000 And what he calls every single one of us to do today is remember, remember what? 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:15.759 It could be that you're coming today as a Christian and he's talking to Christians here and you 00:14:15.759 --> 00:14:27.720 are feeling disinterested, bored, frustrated by the message of Christianity and by the 00:14:27.720 --> 00:14:30.360 community of the church. 00:14:30.360 --> 00:14:34.879 And your heart is not soft to these things, but hard to these things. 00:14:34.879 --> 00:14:41.639 And Paul's command is it could be that you don't really remember in your life right now 00:14:41.639 --> 00:14:48.319 that you were a stranger to God, that you were dead in sins and trespasses, that you 00:14:48.319 --> 00:14:52.559 were lost, that you were a foreigner, that you were far away from the Lord. 00:14:52.559 --> 00:14:58.039 If you've grown up in the church, it feels normal to be around Christianity. 00:14:58.039 --> 00:15:04.639 And Paul's trying to say, you've got to remember, think, use your historic memory to look back 00:15:04.639 --> 00:15:12.679 beyond this temporary moment and say, I was lost, I was a stranger, I was dead in my sins 00:15:12.679 --> 00:15:18.080 and trespasses and God came and found me and saved me. 00:15:18.080 --> 00:15:24.879 And that memory, Paul is saying, might be the breakthrough today that you need to find 00:15:24.879 --> 00:15:29.360 renewal in loving God and loving his people as well. 00:15:29.360 --> 00:15:30.360 Who were you? 00:15:30.360 --> 00:15:31.360 You were a stranger. 00:15:31.360 --> 00:15:32.759 You were dead. 00:15:32.759 --> 00:15:36.279 But God brought you near by the blood of the cross. 00:15:36.279 --> 00:15:41.679 Jesus Christ became an alien to the Father. 00:15:41.679 --> 00:15:43.720 He became the stranger. 00:15:43.720 --> 00:15:48.480 He became the enemy of God at the cross so that we might be brought near. 00:15:48.480 --> 00:15:55.279 Now, secondly, and the main idea today, that's who we were now, Paul's focus in 19 to 22 00:15:55.279 --> 00:15:57.000 is who are we now? 00:15:57.000 --> 00:15:59.159 Who is the church now? 00:15:59.159 --> 00:16:06.319 And you can see in verse 15, he says, by the blood of the cross, Jesus created in himself 00:16:06.319 --> 00:16:09.879 one new man in the place of two and made peace. 00:16:09.879 --> 00:16:16.500 So he says, we are the church now is a new humanity, a new people, one new body made 00:16:16.500 --> 00:16:20.959 up of many nations, many people groups from all of human history. 00:16:20.959 --> 00:16:27.199 And then in verse 19 to 22, he gives you three images. 00:16:27.200 --> 00:16:32.400 He says in verse 19, you are fellow citizens in God's kingdom. 00:16:32.400 --> 00:16:35.120 You are the household of God and you are the temple. 00:16:35.120 --> 00:16:41.240 All right, so three images, three metaphors for who the church is, who we are today. 00:16:41.240 --> 00:16:45.240 And if there's one thing to think about as we think about these three things very briefly, 00:16:45.240 --> 00:16:48.840 is Paul is saying, look, I'm going to tell you who you are. 00:16:48.840 --> 00:16:49.840 I'm going to tell you who you are. 00:16:49.840 --> 00:16:53.480 And now I'm going to tell you, you've got to become who you are more and more and more. 00:16:53.480 --> 00:16:54.879 So this is who you are. 00:16:54.879 --> 00:16:58.720 And so our goal, our hope is to become that more and more. 00:16:58.720 --> 00:17:02.480 And so the first thing he tells us here is that we are citizens. 00:17:02.480 --> 00:17:06.000 The church is the citizenship of God's kingdom. 00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:07.319 What's a citizen? 00:17:07.319 --> 00:17:12.640 A citizen in the first century, Greco-Roman Empire, is that you are a person who's under 00:17:12.640 --> 00:17:14.279 Caesar the king. 00:17:14.279 --> 00:17:19.680 You have rights before Caesar and you can own property, you can own land. 00:17:19.680 --> 00:17:24.480 And that's very similar to the way we think about citizenship now in the Old Testament, 00:17:24.480 --> 00:17:30.079 citizenship was God saying, I will be your God, you will be my people, and we will dwell 00:17:30.079 --> 00:17:32.599 together in the land forever. 00:17:32.599 --> 00:17:38.480 And so Paul says the first thing is that church, the church, the gathering of Christians, if 00:17:38.480 --> 00:17:44.920 you've experienced grace in your life, you really are in God's sight, his citizenship, 00:17:44.920 --> 00:17:48.200 the citizenship of the kingdom that God is building in world history. 00:17:48.200 --> 00:17:50.039 Now Peter puts it like this. 00:17:50.039 --> 00:17:55.920 He says you church, the church of Jesus is the holy nation. 00:17:55.920 --> 00:17:58.720 The church is a holy nation, a nation. 00:17:58.720 --> 00:18:01.240 All right, what does it mean? 00:18:01.240 --> 00:18:10.399 It means first that the church is the citizenship of God and that that is our fundamental identity. 00:18:10.399 --> 00:18:14.639 In other words, Paul is saying if you are a Christian today, the church, the family of 00:18:14.639 --> 00:18:18.879 God, the citizenship of God is who you really are at the very bottom. 00:18:18.880 --> 00:18:20.760 It is foundational. 00:18:20.760 --> 00:18:26.920 We are citizens of the household of God before, we said this last week, before we're American, 00:18:26.920 --> 00:18:33.360 before we're German, before we're Scottish, English, Welsh, Irish. 00:18:33.360 --> 00:18:38.080 He says the very first marker of the Christian identity is you are the gathered body of Jesus, 00:18:38.080 --> 00:18:42.320 the citizenship of the kingdom, before anything else. 00:18:42.320 --> 00:18:46.160 And then he says that means that you now have a citizenship in this kingdom, you have a 00:18:46.160 --> 00:18:49.759 place to belong. 00:18:49.759 --> 00:18:51.240 You can never lose your citizenship. 00:18:51.240 --> 00:18:54.080 You have rights with God, you have rights before the Father. 00:18:54.080 --> 00:18:58.640 You are connected to each other as true neighbors no matter how you feel about it, no matter 00:18:58.640 --> 00:19:00.200 how we feel about it. 00:19:00.200 --> 00:19:06.360 And so he says here that in the midst of a Western individualist culture where autonomy, 00:19:06.360 --> 00:19:12.600 choice, individuality all come at the cost of belonging that we really are, we belong 00:19:12.600 --> 00:19:13.600 together. 00:19:13.600 --> 00:19:14.600 We're citizens. 00:19:14.600 --> 00:19:15.600 And it can't be taken away. 00:19:15.599 --> 00:19:17.519 It's who we are. 00:19:17.519 --> 00:19:25.319 And that means that as one writer puts it, when he calls us here a holy nation, a citizenship, 00:19:25.319 --> 00:19:29.719 one writer says it like this, the church is God's holy nation that exists to worship and 00:19:29.719 --> 00:19:31.480 proclaim the Lord. 00:19:31.480 --> 00:19:37.319 One that operates with righteousness and justice, where the prosperous share with the poor, 00:19:37.319 --> 00:19:40.279 where the powerful protect the weak. 00:19:40.279 --> 00:19:46.240 And where individuals work for the common good, where we are more passionate about corporate 00:19:46.240 --> 00:19:48.839 flourishing than selfish gain. 00:19:48.839 --> 00:19:53.440 This is a place where the inhabitants don't only consider their own interest, but decide 00:19:53.440 --> 00:19:58.200 never to put a stumbling block and to pursue what makes for peace and mutual upbuilding 00:19:58.200 --> 00:19:59.319 together. 00:19:59.319 --> 00:20:05.039 This is a place of overflowing truth, grace and love. 00:20:05.039 --> 00:20:06.960 A holy nation. 00:20:06.960 --> 00:20:08.200 People set apart a citizenship. 00:20:08.200 --> 00:20:15.200 Now the final two, not only a citizenship, but also a household, a family and a holy 00:20:15.200 --> 00:20:16.200 temple. 00:20:16.200 --> 00:20:20.680 One of the things you see here is that the metaphors are intensifying. 00:20:20.680 --> 00:20:23.120 So they're gaining momentum. 00:20:23.120 --> 00:20:27.039 And when you come to the second one, he says that we are the church, this gathering, this 00:20:27.039 --> 00:20:29.640 people is a household, a family as well. 00:20:29.640 --> 00:20:32.680 So that's the second thing. 00:20:32.680 --> 00:20:33.680 Here's the intensity. 00:20:33.680 --> 00:20:37.480 He says, it's good to be a citizen of a nation. 00:20:37.480 --> 00:20:39.480 It's great to be a citizen of the United Kingdom. 00:20:39.480 --> 00:20:43.319 I hope to be one day. 00:20:43.319 --> 00:20:48.079 But it's even better to have a family, to be in a household. 00:20:48.079 --> 00:20:50.480 So citizenship is one thing. 00:20:50.480 --> 00:20:51.759 And citizenship is really good. 00:20:51.759 --> 00:20:52.759 It comes with benefits. 00:20:52.759 --> 00:20:54.519 It comes with rights. 00:20:54.519 --> 00:20:59.759 It comes with access to the King, to God himself. 00:20:59.759 --> 00:21:05.000 But then he says, but you're also a household and a family of faith. 00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.519 And so he's intensifying the metaphors and he's taking it up a step. 00:21:09.519 --> 00:21:14.480 And he says in verse 16, you really have been reconciled that God is one body. 00:21:14.480 --> 00:21:20.000 You know, when you're a citizen in a country, you have neighbors. 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:22.240 You all have neighbors. 00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:24.039 And you might like your neighbors. 00:21:24.039 --> 00:21:25.680 You might not like your neighbors. 00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:29.400 But at the end of the day, you can go home and you can shut your door and you can lock 00:21:29.400 --> 00:21:33.039 it and you don't have to interact with your neighbors. 00:21:33.039 --> 00:21:37.240 And so that's why I think he now says, but you are also a household. 00:21:37.240 --> 00:21:43.480 And when you're in a household, you're actually sharing the same space and you're living together. 00:21:43.480 --> 00:21:47.680 There's nothing that helps you get to know somebody else as quickly as staying with 00:21:47.680 --> 00:21:49.680 them. 00:21:49.680 --> 00:21:53.920 And when you stay with somebody, when you live in the same house as somebody, you cut through 00:21:53.920 --> 00:21:56.680 the superficiality very quickly. 00:21:56.680 --> 00:22:00.200 And you break through and you really get to know what is it that annoys them? 00:22:00.200 --> 00:22:02.079 What is it that's bothering them? 00:22:02.079 --> 00:22:04.199 What is it that brings them joy? 00:22:04.199 --> 00:22:06.599 Because you're sharing the same, that same space. 00:22:06.599 --> 00:22:09.639 And so Paul comes along here and says, look, you're citizens. 00:22:09.639 --> 00:22:10.879 You have rights before God. 00:22:10.879 --> 00:22:12.960 Jesus Christ has given you that. 00:22:12.960 --> 00:22:14.039 You have access. 00:22:14.039 --> 00:22:15.639 That can't be taken away from you. 00:22:15.639 --> 00:22:19.319 You have neighbors in the family of God and it will always be that way. 00:22:19.319 --> 00:22:23.799 You are the citizenship of the kingdom that is to come. 00:22:23.799 --> 00:22:27.279 And you've got to live in the same space together. 00:22:27.279 --> 00:22:31.559 In other words, I think what he's saying here with the intensity of the second metaphor 00:22:31.559 --> 00:22:37.200 is that he's calling us not only to say, I am part of the church, but I am a person. 00:22:37.200 --> 00:22:42.159 We are people who really do seek to know each other all the way to the point of deep spiritual 00:22:42.159 --> 00:22:45.960 accountability. 00:22:45.960 --> 00:22:47.480 This might be the breakthrough. 00:22:47.480 --> 00:22:51.559 Are you coming today disinterested, bored, struggling to have a fresh, soft heart to 00:22:51.559 --> 00:22:53.359 the things of God? 00:22:53.359 --> 00:22:56.399 One of the things that you may really need in your life right now, and this could be 00:22:56.400 --> 00:23:03.640 the game changer in your spiritual life, is Paul is saying, do you have real, living, 00:23:03.640 --> 00:23:09.320 deep, vibrant spiritual accountability with a person that knows you very well? 00:23:09.320 --> 00:23:13.440 With a person, a Christian friend in the household, the community of faith that knows you, that 00:23:13.440 --> 00:23:17.880 knows what you struggle with, that knows your sins, that you're able to talk to honestly 00:23:17.880 --> 00:23:18.880 and openly. 00:23:18.880 --> 00:23:21.000 Do you have that? 00:23:21.000 --> 00:23:24.920 That's deep abiding Christian friendship and that's the product of being a part of the 00:23:24.920 --> 00:23:28.360 household of faith, the community of faith. 00:23:28.360 --> 00:23:32.759 The community of faith is family, he's saying, and so there's got to be that person in your 00:23:32.759 --> 00:23:35.240 life. 00:23:35.240 --> 00:23:39.480 It may be the case that we all need today to break through the individualist culture that 00:23:39.480 --> 00:23:45.680 we're a part of and realize that it is very, very biblical to get together with somebody, 00:23:45.680 --> 00:23:50.120 a dear Christian friend, and to talk about the spiritual life, and to talk about the 00:23:50.119 --> 00:23:56.000 struggles, and to talk about the Bible, and to ask for prayer, and to really walk hand 00:23:56.000 --> 00:24:01.199 in hand with another person that is a believer that's in your community of faith. 00:24:01.199 --> 00:24:02.879 Do you have that? 00:24:02.879 --> 00:24:04.719 Are you seeking that? 00:24:04.719 --> 00:24:07.119 That's the household of faith, that's the family of faith. 00:24:07.119 --> 00:24:10.359 It's real deep abiding spiritual accountability. 00:24:10.359 --> 00:24:14.119 And I think it's something that every church community desperately needs, but it's not 00:24:14.119 --> 00:24:16.719 really something that can ever be programmed. 00:24:16.720 --> 00:24:22.039 We St. Columbus as an institution can't start a program for Christian friendship. 00:24:22.039 --> 00:24:26.480 It has to be something that we pursue, that we get serious about, that we walk alongside 00:24:26.480 --> 00:24:28.039 each other. 00:24:28.039 --> 00:24:31.400 The third and final thing that he tells us here is that the intensity of the metaphors 00:24:31.400 --> 00:24:36.120 that keep going, it's not only that we're citizens of the kingdom, that we're members 00:24:36.120 --> 00:24:40.440 of the family, that we actually have to dwell close with one another and know each other, 00:24:40.440 --> 00:24:45.400 but the very last one he says to us is that we're a holy temple. 00:24:45.400 --> 00:24:47.680 He puts it in lots of different ways here. 00:24:47.680 --> 00:24:52.680 He says you are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. 00:24:52.680 --> 00:24:59.360 So the first thing he says is, if you're a Christian today, saved by grace through faith, 00:24:59.360 --> 00:25:02.200 you are now part of a building, you're built. 00:25:02.200 --> 00:25:08.600 Every single Christian transformed by the gospel is a brick in the temple that God is 00:25:08.600 --> 00:25:09.600 building. 00:25:09.600 --> 00:25:11.920 So you're a brick in God's temple. 00:25:11.920 --> 00:25:18.680 And then he tells us that brick, you, have been placed into relationship with the cornerstone. 00:25:18.680 --> 00:25:23.759 And the cornerstone is the most foundational piece, the most foundational brick that you 00:25:23.759 --> 00:25:25.000 have to align perfectly. 00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.200 Jesus Christ himself, that everything else is connected to and built upon. 00:25:29.200 --> 00:25:33.920 And he says, when you take the cornerstone, God attached to the cornerstone a foundation 00:25:33.920 --> 00:25:40.560 stone, lots of little bricks that form the foundation that are the apostles and prophets. 00:25:40.559 --> 00:25:44.599 When you think about that all that together, he's saying, what is the church? 00:25:44.599 --> 00:25:49.440 He's saying, do you realize the church is Catholic? 00:25:49.440 --> 00:25:51.319 It's small sea Catholic. 00:25:51.319 --> 00:25:57.519 It's universal, built on the foundation of the first century prophets and apostles. 00:25:57.519 --> 00:26:01.679 And he's saying, in every little brick that's been attached to it over century and century 00:26:01.679 --> 00:26:06.240 and century, in every nation among every people is part of that temple and you're part of 00:26:06.240 --> 00:26:07.240 it. 00:26:07.240 --> 00:26:14.400 And so he's saying, do you have a big vision, a big Catholic vision, true Catholicity, not 00:26:14.400 --> 00:26:18.599 Roman Catholic, no, not at all, but truly Catholic. 00:26:18.599 --> 00:26:24.160 A vision that you are deeply connected to the foundation of the apostles and the prophets 00:26:24.160 --> 00:26:27.559 and the fathers and the mothers of the church that have come in the first century and second 00:26:27.559 --> 00:26:31.759 century and third century and the brothers and sisters across every tribe tongue and 00:26:31.759 --> 00:26:35.720 language across all of human history that that is your body, that is the temple that 00:26:35.720 --> 00:26:36.920 you're a part of. 00:26:36.920 --> 00:26:40.440 It's a Catholic vision for the church. 00:26:40.440 --> 00:26:46.240 And then he says, you're a brick and you're cemented to the cornerstone, you're connected 00:26:46.240 --> 00:26:50.640 and that means that you're a brick that is also cemented to one another. 00:26:50.640 --> 00:26:56.960 So God has taken concrete, cement and slabbed it onto all of us and connected us all with 00:26:56.960 --> 00:26:58.240 each other. 00:26:58.240 --> 00:27:03.680 And he's saying, in other words, saying, you don't get to have a casual relationship with 00:27:03.680 --> 00:27:07.720 the church because you've actually been cemented to it. 00:27:07.720 --> 00:27:09.400 You really are. 00:27:09.400 --> 00:27:12.200 You really are part of the body of Christ if you're a Christian. 00:27:12.200 --> 00:27:17.360 And so he's saying, the calling now is to be active and grow up more and more in being 00:27:17.360 --> 00:27:18.560 who you are. 00:27:18.560 --> 00:27:23.320 You're cemented to the cornerstone and you're cemented to all the other bricks, but are you 00:27:23.320 --> 00:27:25.000 living that out? 00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:26.240 Is that the way you feel about it? 00:27:26.240 --> 00:27:27.600 Is that the way you think about it? 00:27:27.600 --> 00:27:32.440 Is that your will and desire in your life to be cemented to all the other bricks that 00:27:32.440 --> 00:27:35.759 God has connected you to in the body of Christ? 00:27:35.759 --> 00:27:40.559 The very last thing is he says, you, in other words, this building, these bricks all connected 00:27:40.559 --> 00:27:45.480 to one another, you are the temple of the living God. 00:27:45.480 --> 00:27:49.880 And that means that he's calling us at the very end here to say, who is the church? 00:27:49.880 --> 00:27:57.000 The church has to have something like a corporate spirituality, meaning God loves to indwell 00:27:57.000 --> 00:28:00.519 us when we're together. 00:28:00.519 --> 00:28:08.240 And so I think he's calling us to get past our Western materialistic practical, practical 00:28:08.240 --> 00:28:17.759 unbelief and realize that when the church gathers together on a Sunday right now, God says, 00:28:17.759 --> 00:28:21.799 I love to come and indwell this space. 00:28:21.799 --> 00:28:28.359 This is the temple, the gathering, the bricks all connected to one another. 00:28:28.359 --> 00:28:31.359 God really is present, that's what he's saying. 00:28:31.359 --> 00:28:35.959 And we're about to experience that to its climax, to its pinnacle when we celebrate the Lord's 00:28:35.959 --> 00:28:42.839 Supper, that the Lord really does come down and is present, Christ by the Spirit, when 00:28:42.839 --> 00:28:45.839 we gather together and we celebrate the Lord's Supper together. 00:28:45.839 --> 00:28:48.119 We'll close with this. 00:28:48.119 --> 00:28:55.399 It could be, it very well may be today that you say you think you feel. 00:28:55.400 --> 00:29:00.240 I hear that the church is the citizenship of God, I hear that the church is the family 00:29:00.240 --> 00:29:02.759 and that we're meant to be close and knit to one another. 00:29:02.759 --> 00:29:09.560 I hear Paul say that we really are the bricks of God gathered together as the temple, indwelled 00:29:09.560 --> 00:29:11.160 by the Spirit. 00:29:11.160 --> 00:29:12.880 I see that Paul says all that. 00:29:12.880 --> 00:29:15.640 I don't feel that way. 00:29:15.640 --> 00:29:18.680 I don't actually feel that here. 00:29:18.680 --> 00:29:22.720 I don't feel that in my experiences in the church throughout all the century, throughout 00:29:22.720 --> 00:29:24.880 all my decades. 00:29:24.880 --> 00:29:27.000 I feel lonely in the church. 00:29:27.000 --> 00:29:32.000 I don't feel like I have a deep Christian friend to walk alongside me. 00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:37.920 I feel like I'm part of an institution, not a family sometimes. 00:29:37.920 --> 00:29:43.400 And there's lots of things to say about that, but just let me give you two practical steps 00:29:43.400 --> 00:29:47.640 as we come to the Lord's Table. 00:29:47.640 --> 00:29:51.000 Remember that he says remember. 00:29:51.000 --> 00:29:52.000 He says remember. 00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:54.720 It's the only command in the first three chapters. 00:29:54.720 --> 00:29:58.480 So as we come to the Lord's Table this morning, he says, look, maybe the thing that you've 00:29:58.480 --> 00:30:04.360 got to do in this moment as we begin to pray and enter into this time of communion is to 00:30:04.360 --> 00:30:09.039 remember once again, let me say the same thing again. 00:30:09.039 --> 00:30:18.319 I and we were aliens, strangers, far away from God, hopeless, without God in the world, 00:30:18.319 --> 00:30:24.680 dead in sins and trespasses, deserving every justice that is demanded of us, but God brought 00:30:24.680 --> 00:30:26.400 me near. 00:30:26.400 --> 00:30:30.519 And Paul says simply as you come to the Lord's Table today, the activity that you can take 00:30:30.519 --> 00:30:33.360 up is just to remember and say, I was lost. 00:30:33.360 --> 00:30:34.360 I was asleep. 00:30:34.360 --> 00:30:35.360 I was dead. 00:30:35.360 --> 00:30:37.640 And God found me. 00:30:37.640 --> 00:30:41.440 And when you re-experience that and you wake back up to the beauty and the greatness of 00:30:41.440 --> 00:30:47.840 the gospel, of who you really were and who God has made you, you'll start to feel again 00:30:47.840 --> 00:30:51.759 the connection you have with every other person that's experienced that. 00:30:51.759 --> 00:30:58.680 And so secondly, and finally, Paul is simply telling us here, be who you are this morning. 00:30:58.680 --> 00:30:59.839 Embrace it all the more. 00:30:59.839 --> 00:31:03.720 He's saying that when it comes to the gospel, you do nothing. 00:31:03.720 --> 00:31:06.440 When it comes to forgiveness, God does everything. 00:31:06.440 --> 00:31:10.400 But when it comes to being part of the church family, there really is an active role that 00:31:10.400 --> 00:31:11.960 has to be taken up. 00:31:11.960 --> 00:31:13.960 There's a decision that has to be made. 00:31:13.960 --> 00:31:18.240 There's a moment where you have to say, I'm going to get beyond my feelings and pursue 00:31:18.240 --> 00:31:24.759 the body of Christ and be one of the bricks that's cemented to the other bricks. 00:31:24.759 --> 00:31:30.279 Another way to say it, the last way to say it, you'll never be connected as deeply as 00:31:30.279 --> 00:31:36.640 you possibly can to other people in the community of faith if you're not finding yourself reconnecting 00:31:36.640 --> 00:31:42.079 to Christ the cornerstone every single day. 00:31:42.079 --> 00:31:47.039 You can only be a holy temple really growing together, a family really growing together 00:31:47.039 --> 00:31:51.319 if you're regularly saying, I have a true elder brother. 00:31:51.319 --> 00:31:58.240 If you're regularly reconnecting with the cornerstone himself and being able to say, 00:31:58.240 --> 00:32:00.559 now I can look around and say, this is my brother. 00:32:00.559 --> 00:32:03.399 This is my sister. 00:32:03.399 --> 00:32:09.119 You know, if you're a Christian today, there are people in this room that you don't, I 00:32:09.119 --> 00:32:11.759 know many people in this room, you don't know each other. 00:32:11.759 --> 00:32:15.759 You're sitting here and you say, I don't actually know maybe half the people in this room right 00:32:15.759 --> 00:32:16.819 now. 00:32:16.819 --> 00:32:20.119 Some of you, it's 90%, you don't know, some of you, it's 10%, you don't know, but it's 00:32:20.119 --> 00:32:22.039 all different measures. 00:32:22.039 --> 00:32:25.539 But the reality of what Paul is saying to us is that there could be a person in this room 00:32:25.539 --> 00:32:31.319 sitting across the room that comes from an utterly different culture than you, has completely 00:32:31.319 --> 00:32:36.519 different interests than you, is a person you probably wouldn't have connected with 00:32:36.519 --> 00:32:38.759 in normal course of life. 00:32:38.759 --> 00:32:45.559 But because they are a believer, you are knit together and closer with them forever than 00:32:45.559 --> 00:32:50.240 you are with a pal, with a friend that you grew up with that has every interest that 00:32:50.240 --> 00:32:53.639 you have, but that's not a Christian. 00:32:53.639 --> 00:32:59.679 You are actually that tight with them in reality because you together are the living body of 00:32:59.679 --> 00:33:03.039 Jesus Christ, the true elder brother. 00:33:03.039 --> 00:33:04.039 Let us pray. 00:33:04.039 --> 00:33:11.039 Father, we ask that you would break through now and give us a sense, a longing, a desire, 00:33:11.039 --> 00:33:15.720 an awakening to the greatness of the gospel, the peace that you've brought into our lives. 00:33:15.720 --> 00:33:21.960 And then alongside that, Lord, help us, help us, Lord, to love one another, we ask. 00:33:21.960 --> 00:33:27.079 So thank you, Jesus, that you've connected us to yourself and connected us to one another. 00:33:27.079 --> 00:33:31.440 And today we just ask that our feelings would follow reality. 00:33:31.440 --> 00:33:37.480 So help us, Lord, now to let our feelings and our desires catch up to the truth of who 00:33:37.480 --> 00:33:39.279 we are. 00:33:39.279 --> 00:33:43.240 So as we come to the Lord's table and prepare for that, oh, Lord, would you condescend, would 00:33:43.240 --> 00:33:49.319 you be present, would you come and meet with us, would we break through our modernism and 00:33:49.319 --> 00:33:56.839 forget and not forget today that the spiritual life is more real, is as real as the physical, 00:33:56.839 --> 00:34:00.399 that we would know you truly are present with us by the Holy Spirit as we commune with 00:34:00.399 --> 00:34:01.399 you. 00:34:01.399 --> 00:34:02.399 And we pray for this heart. 00:34:02.399 --> 00:34:03.559 We pray for these hearts. 00:34:03.559 --> 00:34:09.559 In Jesus' name, amen.