One And The Same

A Unified Different

Ephesians 2:11-21

October 20, 2019

A couple of weeks ago at the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers football game a controversy was started. It literally had nothing to do with the game itself. The officials didn’t blow a call, nobody said anything too bizarre. The controversy had to do with who was sitting next to whom. That’s right, it’s really pretty bizarre, but as I thought about it, it’s exactly what this passage that we’re going to talk about today is referring to.

You see sitting in the suite of the Cowboys owner, Jerry Jones, and sitting next to each other were - -

President George Bush and Ellen DeGeneres. They were sitting next to each other, talking to one another and laughing together. This created a firestorm.

Why were people freaking out about this? I want to share with you what Ellen DeGeneres said on her show about sitting next to President Bush. She said - -

"People were upset, they thought, why is a gay Hollywood liberal sitting next to a conservative Republican president? A lot of people were mad. And they did what people do when they're mad . . . they tweet."

She showed a tweet which stated, "Ellen and George Bush together makes me have faith in America again."

She continued by saying, "Exactly. Here's the thing. I'm friends with George Bush. In fact, I'm friends with a lot of people who don't share the same beliefs that I have."

She concluded by saying, "Just because I don't agree with someone on everything doesn't mean that I'm not going to be friends with them. When I say, 'be kind to one another,' I don't only mean the people that think the same way that you do. I mean be kind to everyone."

Now, we can learn from Ellen . . . and she really does have a point. Can we really be kind to one another and kind to those who are different in what ever way than we are? Can we do more than put up with people, instead, can we love people who are different than we are? In the end, isn’t that what the church is supposed to be about? We’ll hear more about that next week.

So, with that in mind, let’s look at what Paul was telling the folks in Ephesians 2. We’ve been looking at a lot of great news that Paul has given us over the past few weeks, but today, Paul is doing some pushing to the early church.

Remember this about Paul, he’s in a Roman prison and he’s the pastor to the gentiles. Very simply, the gentiles were the ones who were not Jewish. According to Jewish people, a gentile is anyone who isn’t Jewish. That’s pretty simple. And the word GOY, is a slang term for someone who is a non-Jew.

We’re going to be looking at Ephesians 2:11-21 this morning. In verse 11, Paul tells the gentile Christians 11 –

11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands —

If we stop here for a second, the sign of a Jewish man according to Genesis 17 was the fact that he was circumcised. That started with Abraham. Now, the Gentiles were not. So, Paul is reminding the Gentiles, who are unaffectionately called the UNCIRCUMCISION by the Jews about their past heritage. And - - in order to be part of the circumcision group, to be Jewish, you had to be circumcised, which is done by people. So, Paul goes on to say in verse 12 -- 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ,

Now, Paul is moving towards his main point, and this is really intense in these verses. He starts out pretty basic, reminding the Gentile Christians that at one time they were separated from Christ.

It’s true about anyone who doesn’t claim Jesus as Lord and Savior. They’re separated from Christ. They don’t have a relationship with Him, they don’t have a relationship with the church, and they have no benefits in the kingdom of God. Paul goes on and says they were not only separated from Christ, but they were -

alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

These Gentiles were in trouble. Not only were they separated from Christ, they were without God and had no hope since they didn’t have God. To make matters worse, Paul tells them they were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenant of promise.

The fact that they were alienated and strangers to Israel, had dramatic consequences. In those days, if you were a stranger or an alien, you had no rights. They had no rights to protection from the government, they were foreigners with no rights and no privileges for anything.