One New Humanity Series

One New Humanity

Text: Eph. 2:11-18

Introduction

1. After the incident in Minnesota where George Floyd was killed, at the prompting of the Holy Spirit, I called two of my friends and asked their forgiveness. The reason I asked their forgiveness was that I had always referred to them as my “black friends.” I told them that from now on I would only refer to them as my friend.

2. Church, we live in a society that is deeply divided. We are divided between white and black, conservative and liberal, democrat and republican, young and old, and the list goes on and on.

3. It doesn’t have to be this way! It doesn’t have to be this way because Jesus Christ died on the cross to make us not only right with God, but also to make us right with one another.

4. The Church needs to lead the way in bringing reconciliation for humanity. In our text today we see…

a. The Need of Reconciliation

b. The Way of Reconciliation

c. The Result of Reconciliation

5. Read Eph. 2:11-18

Proposition: The Church needs to lead the way to reconciliation in our society.

Transition: First, we need to see…

I. The Need of Reconciliation (11-12).

A. Used to Be Outsiders

1. Paul begins by addressing the Gentile Christians who had been treated like second class citizens by the Jews.

2. Look at what Paul says in v. 11, “Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts.”

a. The Jews had always been prideful of their sign of the covenant they had with God, circumcision.

b. Once a Jewish man was circumcised, he was identified as a Jew for life. Plus, circumcision was a sign to them of “cutting off” their old life of sin and dedicating themselves to God.

c. But circumcision ended up causing them to become arrogant and proud. As a result, they considered the Gentiles to be outsiders because they were not circumcised.

d. It caused them to think that all they needed was to be circumcised to be godly.

e. Notice what Paul says, “it effected only their bodies and not their hearts.”

f. As a result, instead of reaching out and bringing Gentiles into a life of faith, they excluded them and treated them as unworthy.

3. Then Paul reminds the Gentiles how things used to be. In v. 12 he says, “In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope.”

a. Before coming to Christ, the Gentiles had five distinct disadvantages.

1) They were living apart from Christ and had no expectation of a Messiah to save them.

2) They were excluded from God’s people, Israel. They could never fully partake of the spiritual privileges of Israel. In fact, they were only allowed to enter the outer part of the Temple and could not enter where worship was taking place.

3) They did not know the covenant promises that God made to Israel.

4) They were without God. Oh, they had many gods, but they did not have the one true God. They lived in this evil world, and because they were without God this world was all they had.

5) Worst of all, they were without hope. There was no hope for them to find the one true God and could not obtain anything beyond physical life in this world. The worst thing in the world is to live without hope, and they had none.

b. This text shows that the Jews and the Gentiles were both in the same situation; they both needed to come to Christ in order to be reconciled to God.

B. Ministry of Reconciliation

1. Illustration: The preacher invites two people up on the platform. One represents “God the Father” and the other represents “fallen humanity.” The preacher plays the part of Jesus. He stretches out his hands like he is on a cross. He asks the two helpers to each grab one of his hands. Then he pulls his hands together until the two volunteers are touching. In the same way, Jesus bridged the gap between humans and God. Jesus reconciled us with God. Now, the believer does the same thing. We have the ministry of reconciliation which means we grab people by the hand and bring them closer to God. As “ministers of reconciliation” we bring God and people together.

2. God has called us, His Church, to agents of reconciliation in the world.

a. “So, we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” (2 Cor. 5:20)