Ephesians 2:19-22
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. Every other week I lose my tv remote. No, I don’t have a spot for it on a shelf, nor do I carefully place it on a coffee table that I can always find it on. And no, walking to the television and press the ‘on’ button isn’t an option- my power button doesn't work! Because of this, I find myself perpetually trapped in a specific routine when it comes time to watch television.. A routine which involves the following steps: 1. Frantically searching for the remote for 15 seconds to 15 minutes 2. Turning the television on 3. Watching television for a bit 4. Turning the television off 5. Putting the remote down somewhere and leaving (typically leaving it exactly where I was sitting) 6. After some period of time, returning to the television only to find the remote is mysteriously gone 7. [Repeat the process] I actual perform this same process for several other areas of my life: Locating car keys Searching for my work badge Finding my socks ...Really anything in my home that isn’t permanently fixed in its location is at risk of being temporarily lost or forgotten. The reason I start here is this: It’s so, so important for us if we call ourselves Christ followers not to lose track of Christ, lose focus of His love for us, or lose sight of His grace for us. We cannot succeed in a life of pursuing God without remembering daily that Jesus is the center of our faith, and the object of our affection and worship. Some of ideas discussed thus far in the letter, and specifically in Ephesians 19-22 really show us why Christ is in the center of our faith, and what happens when that is not the case. When we lose sight of Christ, we lose sight of our citizenship - In Ephesians chapter 2 there is a prominent idea of things that were once separated becoming united. Paul primarily is speaking about Gentiles and Jews coming together under 1 new identity of being citizens of heaven. Citizenship is important; it signifies that we belong to something, and it provides certain rights that those who do not have it are not privy to. Today we can hold onto the reality we are no longer strangers to God and can approach Him freely. When we lose sight of Christ, we become the new cornerstone and this leads to spiritual deadness - A cornerstone is the specific feature on which a particular thing depends on. In verse 20, Paul declares Christ is the cornerstone of God’s household, and furthermore our faith and salvation. Without Christ, the one thing that holds our faith together, our faith will fall apart. We see early in the chapter that before Christ we “were dead in [our] transgressions and sins. (v1)” When we lose sight of Christ we naturally veer toward sin. We also become more susceptible to believing in and acting upon things that don’t bring life, but instead hurt ourselves and others. Again, without re-focusing and re-committing our lives to Christ repetitively the whole building falls apart. When we lose sight of Christ, we cannot be the ambassadors of Christ that we were meant to be - The final verse of the chapter tells us that we are the dwelling places in which God lives by his Spirit. The purpose of this, I think is for us to display the light of God that is within us. How can we be ambassadors or promoters of something we ourselves aren’t emulating? We can’t! When we lose sight of Christ, we miss out on this opportunity to be the representatives God has tasked us to be. Finally, when we lose sight of Christ, we miss out on grace - This isn’t mentioned in the last couple of verses, but I think it’s still worth sharing! Earlier in chapter 2 Paul explains “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves (v8-9)” I’ve recently had a chance to spend time with several Mormon missionaries, and talk about our beliefs about salvation (specifically salvation by grace vs. salvation by works). What I’ve come to realize is my friends haven’t experienced the freedom of God’s gift of salvation, and instead believe they are only entitled to God’s grace if they work towards it. The heartbreaking truth is without their attention on Christ, they will always be slaves to the impossible task of earning their way into God’s favor. In a sense, they are the cornerstone of their faith! Often times I find myself doing something similar, perhaps you do to. Whether it’s trying to not sin, or serving or reading my Bible because I know i should, I personally can become consumed with accomplishments and reaching milestones for the sake of “earning” God’s approval (or that of the people around me). When we do this, we quickly fall out of dwelling in God’s grace, and step into something entirely different. Even if you’ve heard all these things 1,000 times I hope you hear it with fresh ears: 1) The truth is that we who are in Christ are fully accepted no matter what we do, and no longer enemies to God or separated from his promises. 2) We who are in Christ, can rely on him to be a sturdy cornerstone and centerpiece of our lives, and He will give us the strength to turn from sin. 3) We who are in Christ, have His spirit in us, and have the opportunity to participate in God’s plan of redeeming people. 4) Finally, we who are in Christ can rest in grace, and rely on the atoning work of Christ’s death on the cross for salvation.
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Ephesians 2:14-18 14 For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. 15 He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. 16 Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death. 17 He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near. 18 Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us. Jesus Brought peace to us: He came down from heaven took on flesh, lived a life with the same temptations of sinful people and still he chose to love us with grace and truth. He came down and brought us an example of peace. As you read in the Gospels you see him do this, a few examples the woman at the well, matthew the tax collector, the adultress who was about to get stoned, He called Peter to a deeper following of him, or making Paul the murderer of Christians to disciple of Jesus. Christ has destroyed the barriers people build between themselves. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people, in his own body on the cross. He united people with barriers that can divide us from each other: age, appearance, preferences, intelligence, political persuasion, economic status, race, theological perspective. One of the best ways to stifle Christ’s love is to be friendly with only those people that we like. Fortunately, Christ has knocked down the barriers and has unified all believers in one family. Calls us to be in community with one another to love one another. His cross should be the focus of our unity. The Holy Spirit helps us look beyond the barriers to the unity we are called to enjoy. Jesus ended the system of law and commandments By his death, The Jews at that time thought they needed to follow the laws to earn favor with God and so they tried to put that on the Gentile Christians at the time. Christ ended the angry resentment between Jews and Gentiles, caused by the Jewish laws that favored the Jews and excluded the Gentiles. Christ died to abolish that whole system of Jewish laws. Because these walls were removed, the Jews and Gentiles could have real unity with people who are not like each other. This is true reconciliation. Because of Christ’s death, the hostility against each other has been put to death. We can all have access to the Father by the Holy Spirit. We are no longer strangers or foreigners to God and we are all being built into a holy temple with Christ as our chief cornerstone Then he took the two groups that had been opposed to each other and made them parts of himself. “One new people” means that Christ made a single entity out of the two. Thus, he fused all believers together to become one in himself. That his God purpose through his death to bring people together. To not use his law as measuring stick but as means of how to love one another. His law does have purpose. We will always fall short and sin but we help each other to live a life worthy of God. The Jews were near to God because they already knew of him through the Scriptures and worshiped him in their religious ceremonies. The Gentiles were far away because they knew little or nothing about God. Because neither group could be saved by good deeds, knowledge, or sincerity, both needed to hear about the salvation available through Jesus Christ. Both Jews and Gentiles are now free to come to God through Christ. If you're a believer you have been brought near to him. So lets us as Christians who are near to him, who worship him, bring the news of his salvation to others. There are people in all of our lives who are far from God just as Gentiles at the time were. People who are living a life apart from God that need God. We are to tell of his great love for all people, to not use his commandments as burdens on people but a means of his grace to follow. Let us rely on the Holy Spirit to tell others of what he has done for Us. That we were once far apart from him, sinful and separated. But because of God’s love for us he came down lived a life we couldn't, sacrificed for us through his death on the cross and by believing in that we can be set free from sin in our lives through forgiveness and have certainty that we will have eternal life because of this. Jew and Gentile Reconciled Through Christ
“11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— 12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. “ - Ephesians 2: 11-13 NIV If you watch the news today, it would seem as if we live in a time where everyone is divided. Lines are drawn along our political beliefs, skin color, zip codes, what we buy and by which college football team we root for. Division amongst people is nothing new in a broken and sinful world, and for centuries, God’s Chosen people, the Jews, were divided from the rest of the world. In Genesis, circumcision was given to Abraham by God as an outward symbol of God’s Covenant with Abraham and his descendants. In chapter 17, God told Abraham that men who did not accept the sign of the covenant would be cut off from God and his promises. This was one of several ways that the Jews were to appear and act differently than the various groups of people who surrounded them. These other people were not part of God’s plan and were separated from the promises that God had given to His people. This understandably created deep animosity between the Jews and everyone else. Thankfully, for us, God’s plan for salvation was not for only one group of people. Paul, in this section of his letter to the new church in Ephesus, reminds these new Christians that where there was once division, Jesus Christ has now brought unity. Ephesus was an ancient port city in Asia Minor, on the edge of the Aegean Sea. Ephesus would have been a hub for commerce and bridge between the people of eastern Europe and the Middle East. Therefore, it was likely a very diverse city, with both Jews and many different Gentile peoples. People from all over the ancient world would pass through Ephesus to conduct their business. People, as they tend to do, would have separated themselves into their various groups by language, profession, social class, or other identifying characteristics. This certainly created some tensions in that city. Paul, in the verses immediately prior, reminded this new church how sin hurt has the individual and separated them from God. Now, Paul calls to mind how sin has also destroyed the bonds between different people. Enter in Jesus Christ. Through his blood on the cross and his rising from the dead, Jesus has not only drawn all people out of their sin and close to Him, but they are now drawn closer also to each other. Promises and blessings once met for the Jews alone are now open to all people from all nations through Jesus and this new Covenant. The scene comes to mind from one of my favorite movies, Remember the Titans. When Head Coach Boone brings his team on a grueling run to the gravesites at Gettysburg. A team divided between black and white players is shown the cost of racism and told that they must come together as one team with a united goal and purpose. That is what Paul is telling the Ephesians, and it is what Jesus still calls us to today. Once we are in Christ, washed in His Blood, old allegiances become secondary to our new family, the Church, and our new King, Jesus. Despite differences in appearance or culture, we are part of one body, that is the body of Christ in this world. All people are made in the image of God, full of value and dignity, and loved by Him equally. The United States has seen itself as a nation where people from all over the world come together. Since its founding, we have the motto E Plurbis Unum, Out of Many, One. However, Jesus Christ was uniting people from every walk of life long before we came around, and His Kingdom will last forever. Highlight sentence: "Through His blood on the cross and His rising from the dead, Jesus has not only drawn all people out of their sin and close to Him, but they are now drawn closer also to each other." |
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