Oneness In Christ

Introduction-

Isn’t God good?

We as believers in America have opportunity to gather in a place of worship and lift up the name of Jesus without someone busting down the door- At least today.

We have a God who not only wants to save us, but a God who wants to deliver us, protect us, dwell with us.

He is a God that will never leave us or forsake us, even when things get tough. Even when we are going through dry times and don’t feel His presence. He says on the promise of His Word that He will be there!

That is the God that I want to hear from today! Amen.

Prayer-

Today Father, I want to have an open heart to hear from you. I want to hear through your word, I want to sense your presence by your Holy Spirit dwelling, I want to see Jesus in each one of us as we leave this place so this community can experience Jesus! May your word speak to us..

Read Ephesians 2:11-22

A few weeks ago, we were in this chapter looking at spiritual awareness.

We have a choice to be either spiritually alive or spiritually dead and the difference is very simple… do we have Jesus in our lives or not.

This morning, Paul goes farther and talks about not only being spiritually alive but also being spiritually one with Christ.

There are so many barriers that can keep us separated from each other.

The color of our skin (Nationality)

Where we live (demographics) (Were you born on the wrong side of the tracks? (By who’s standard?)

Poverty level- classified by income

Religion

This is not new! It has been a problem since God put people together-But Christ came to bring that barrier down.

Apostle Paul is speaking to the church at Ephesus. A church filled with Jews and “other people”. The unconverted Jews hated those other people.

In fact, verse 11 The Apostle to the Gentiles says that you have to remember;

That you were called the un-circumcision by the circumcision.

He tells them of the condition of Gentiles before Christ came.

You had no hope!

You had no Messiah or Savior

You were Aliens in Israel

Strangers to the covenant of God

You were in this world without God

The Gentile’s (anyone who was not a Jew) were called “the un-circumcision” by the Jews who thought they were special because they were the chosen people of God. They thought that circumcision merely by human hands had made them better than someone else?

So thinking that you are better than someone else would definitely qualify as a barrier.

They believed that the Gentiles were created by God to be the fuel for the fires of hell.

That God only loved the Jews and no one else.

If a Jew married a Gentile, which was absolutely forbidden- they actually had a funeral for the Jew. They were disowned. Death was there sentence. As if they had died. (Samaritans) that is why they hated Samaritans.

Samaritans were half -breeds- Jews mixed with those people- Jews wanted no part of them.

If a Jew went into the home of a Gentile, they were considered unclean.

You could not help a Gentile women in childbirth because it would be to help bring another gentile into the world.

Before Christ, the barriers were up; after Christ, the barriers are to come down!

Illustration- (SermonCentral)

There was once a subway car, almost empty, except for a Chinese man and a Jewish man, who sat in their seats, silently, holding their newspapers high as they read. Suddenly the Jewish man stood up, rolled up his newspaper, walked over and whacked the Chinese man over the head.

"Hey! Cut it out! What did you do that for?" said the Chinese man, putting his arm up to defend himself against any further blows. The Jewish man sat down, and said, "That was for Pearl Harbor."

The Chinese man said, "It was the Japanese who bombed Pearl Harbor. I'm Chinese. We didn't have anything to do with it."

But the Jewish man said, "Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, . . . . It's all the same."

They glared at each other for a moment, then they went back to reading their newspapers and all was quiet.

But then, suddenly the Chinese man stood up, rolled up his newspaper, whacked the Jewish man over the head, and said, "And that's for the Titanic."

The Jewish man said, "The Titanic? It was an iceberg that sank the Titanic. I didn't have anything to do with that!" But the Chinese man answered, "Iceberg, Rosenberg, Goldberg, . . . It's all the same."

Crazy how people think? Right.

When the nation of Israel was right with God, they enjoyed the blessings of walking with God. When they didn’t follow God they struggled and had become hard core and felt they were privileged. But God called a man, the Apostle Paul, a Jew, to make it very clear that God's invitation was to all nations, that Jews and Gentiles were called to be citizens side by side in the kingdom of God. Paul refused to accept this idea of Jewish privilege. All the blessings of God were for the Gentiles, too. Jesus had died to end the separation. Paul dedicated his life to breaking down the barriers and bringing the Gentiles into the church. And we, who are Gentiles, owe Paul a great debt for his faithfulness to God's call.