Intro
One time a pastor had a group of children up in front of the church to give them a children’s sermon. He was trying to make the point that money can’t buy everything. He was trying to drive home his point when he asked them, “What would you do if I said I would give you $1000 to quit loving your Mum and Dad?” Everybody was quiet. Finally one little boy in the back raised his hand. He said, “Pastor, how much would you give me to quit loving my sister?”
- Everyone knows what I’m talking about when I refer to tension between a brother & sister
- Those scuffles have happened to all of us
- But when someone from outside the family goes at your brother or sister, we soon discover that we have a strong bond in spite of the little spats that happen
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Q. But what of those who have no family?
Q. What of those who were born into slavery?
- Slavery is not something that we see in western culture
- However, in the screen of history, slavery has only recently been abolished
- Even after slavery was abolished in the US, those divisions remained for many years after
- Remember in the 1960’s, Martin Luther King rallied a quarter of a million people of all different ethnic backgrounds to Washington to protest the inequality that still existed
- They sought the end of such things as racial discrimination in employment & the racial segregation in public schools
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- In the middle of the slave trade, I dare say that most white people never really appreciated what it was like to have to belong to someone else
- That a slave was not an equal deciding of his own free will to engage in a mutually beneficial business arrangement with a white employer
- But he had to work, because he was not free - he had no choice - that was his lot
- He was property, his life belonged to someone else
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- Racial trouble marked divisions in society
- But it could also have marked divisions in the church
- The main problem in the early church was the very real possibility of division between Jewish & Gentilic Christians
- That is, between Jews & everyone else
- In the history of the church, there has been different ideas & beliefs about the Jews & how Gentile Christians fit in
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- In most of the history of the church, there has been the belief that the Jews were responsible for the crucifixion of Christ
- There had been a “look down upon them” attitude
- Also, it was believed that God had rejected them & that they had no part in His kingdom
- Hence during Hitler’s mission to exterminate the Jews, there was little opposition from the institutional church at that time
- In this scenario, a Jewish Christian may have been seen as second rate by the Gentile Christians
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- On the other hand, since the two World Wars, there has been a general pessimism about the world & that God was going to come & stop evil in an apocalyptic way centring on the Jewish state
- The formation of the Jewish state in 1948 has fuelled those apocalyptic expectations
- Many in the church have the belief that Israel is still God’s people & have a special place in His purposes
- In this scenario, a Gentile Christian may be seen as second rate by the Jewish Christian
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- But I am not interested in what the church has or does believe or in what we get caught up in - fashion trends always dictate what we wear & theological trends always dictate what we believe
- I want God’s word, read in it’s context, to shape what I believe
- I want to have ears to hear what the Spirit says to the churches
Q. What about you?
- It’s always someone else we think who needs ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches, but we need to consider if we are the ones that need those hearing ears
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- In today’s passage, Paul highlights the plight of Gentiles (pagans) who were excluded & separated from God without any hope for their future
- This is a message that addresses us here today
- You are Gentiles (non-Jewish) - at least I think we are all non-Jews
- Paul wants us to reflect on the past historic picture of what it was like for us before the time of Christ
1. Remembering the Past
- We consider it important to remember certain past events
- Especially when those events have had a huge impact on us as a nation & as a people
- We remember the great sacrifices that were made to keep us a free nation
- We have special occasions to ensure we remember the sacrifice & what it might be like had those sacrifices not been made
- There is Remembrance Day, Anzac Day
- If we didn’t have those days - “lest we would forget”
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- We would forget the sacrifice, we would forget what was at stake, we would forget to appreciate
- Young people wonder what the fuss is all about (& that is not intended as a slur against them)
- And the further you get away from the moment, the less it will be appreciated
- Many of us never experienced the Great Depression, all we have known is prosperity
- We cannot understand that unemployment was at 35% & that people were going, literally, hungry
- How crazy we think it is that great granddad never threw out as much as a headless screw
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- Look at the list here of what Gentiles formerly were...
- They were...
* Excluded from the people of God
* Strangers to the promises of God
* Without hope & without God
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- The Jew took pride in his position & looked down upon the Gentiles
- God had to extinguish that pride in the apostle Peter because God was opening up to the Gentiles
- He had shown Peter in a vision a sheet coming down from heaven full of animals that Jews were forbidden to eat
- God said to kill & eat
- Peter responded that he had always been a good Jew & never eaten anything that was unclean & unacceptable according to Jewish laws
- God told him clearly that if He decided that now it was no longer unclean, he is to accept what God says
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- Well Jews considered, not only certain foods “unclean”, but also all Gentiles were unclean
- Peter then received an invitation to go to a Gentiles house
Ac 10:25-28 .. 25 When Peter entered, Cornelius met him, and fell at his feet and worshiped him. 26 But Peter raised him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am just a man.” 27 As he talked with him, he entered and found many people assembled. 28 And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean.
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- When Jonah was told to go to the Gentile Ninevites & tell them to repent or else God will destroy them, he took off in the opposite direction
- At the end of the book we discover why he ran in the opposite direction
- He wanted them to get what they deserved - he didn’t want the Ninevites repentance, nor the grace of God to them
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- The Jews believed that Gentiles were created to fuel the fires of hell
- That of all the world, God only loved Israel
- It was inconceivable that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son
- It was not even lawful to give help to a Gentile woman in childbirth, for that would be to bring another Gentile into the world
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- Here we see the situation for the Gentile
- It is important to remember who we were before Christ
- Important to remember the past
- It is also important to understand the present
2. Understanding the Present
Q. What is our position now in relation to Jews?
Q. Are we second-rate; are they second-rate?
Q. Is the Jew more special to God than we Gentiles?
- That last question is serious & has profound implications in respect to salvation
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- If the Jew is more special to God than the Gentile, then do they have another way of salvation than the Gentile?
- If, as the apostle says, “we are saved by the grace of God through faith & that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no man may boast”, then the Jew cannot boast a more special position with God unless they have a salvation different from ours
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- Then, there are other related questions:
- If they do have a higher position before God & therefore are superior to the Gentile, then how could there be unity in the church because you would have a different class of people?
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- However, this is not the case & here it is important we take note of the strong language of equality & unity
1. v.13 Paul says that historically, there were 2 groups: those far away from God & those near to God
- Those who were far away (Gentiles) have now been brought near to God. One group has the same “nearness” to God as the other
2. The peace of God is equally upon both groups
3. v.15 That He might make the 2 (Jew & Gentile Christians) into 1 new man (an expression that means one new group / 2 into 1)
4. v.16 Both groups are reconciled through the cross - there is no other salvation, no other way to God
5. v.16 Both groups are now one body (no one group more special than the other)
6. v. 18 Both groups have access to God through one Spirit
7. v.14 the dividing wall of OT commandments have fallen
- The commandments which were Israel’s pride & possession has been replaced by something OR should I say, SOMEONE more superior - & that is Christ
- The LAW in the OT governed the Israelites relationship with God & it was something covenanted to Jews alone
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- I’m sure you remember the dividing wall – the Berlin Wall – that separated east & west Germany
- Scenes of jubilation were experienced as that wall was knocked down & the nation was reunited
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- As a church, we need to understand the present position that exists between Jew & Gentile Christians
- No one can claim a more superior position since both groups are equally part of the family of God through the cross & the cross alone
- That great old hymn of 1776 “Rock of Ages” sums it up perfectly
“Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to the cross I cling”
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- The rest of this passage of Scripture is very understandable to me because Paul uses building images to make his illustrations
- As a former builder, I can relate to foundations and the purpose of a cornerstone
- Paul says that Christ is the cornerstone
3. Christ the Cornerstone
- A cornerstone is very important because without it, the walls would come apart - it’s the stone that locks the walls together
Q. Would you like to be in a cyclone in a building that is not tied together at the corners?
- Jesus is the glue that holds the church together - that ties both Jew & Gentile Christian together
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- Talking to the Gentile Christians, Paul says...
Eph 2:19-22 .. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens (no longer spiritually dead / no longer separated from God), but you are fellow citizens with the saints (with Jewish Christians - equals), and are of God’s household, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
- The building image is taken from the temple in Jerusalem
Q. What was so significant about the temple in Jerusalem?
- It is the place where God dwelt - God’s presence was there!
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- When Solomon dedicated the Temple to God, the singers sang, the musicians played and the Temple filled with the glory & presence of God
- The priests were so awestruck that they couldn’t carry out their tasks
- By His Spirit, God dwells with His people equally - Jew & Gentile Christians
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- That is what the Church should be like. Its unity comes not from organization, or ritual, or liturgy, or tradition; it comes from Christ
- Finally...
4. The Apostles and Prophets the Foundation
There was a boy who spent many Summer hours on the beach working on perfecting sand castles; whole cities would appear beneath his hands. One year, for several days in a row, he was bothered by bullies who smashed his creations.
Finally he tried an experiment: he placed bricks, rocks, and chunks of concrete in the base of his castles. Then he built his sand kingdoms on top of the rocks.
When the local toughs appeared, he disappeared and watched from behind a sand dune as they swung & kicked with their bare feet at his creations. There were no small howlings of pain. But from then on, because of the rocky foundations, his sand castles were safe from the bullies
- The church is not built upon the foundations of church tradition but the teaching of Jesus’ apostles and prophets of the 1st Century
- That teaching is now incorporated in the Bible which we call the NT & Scripture
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- I do think the church has a lot to answer for when it imports teaching that does not come from, OR is consistent with, Scripture
- And I think some people have been burnt; have been turned away from Christ because the church is putting forward a different foundation
- And unfortunately, these people have mistaken the antics/nonsense of some churches with the truth of Christ & therefore, rejected Him
- They were looking at baked beans when they thought it was steak & veges
Conclusion
- Eph. 2 gives a historic overview of our situation before & after Christ
- It deals with questions of our past position before God; how we were so seriously separated from Him & how we were recipients of His anger
- It deals with how we have been forgiven by God & how we can have a relationship with Him
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- It deals equally with the person who has an inferiority complex - that they are not good enough for God
- As well as the proud, competent person who thinks they are good enough for God
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- It says that we need to accept the under achiever, the Jewish Christian, as well as the various ethnic Christians as equals & fellow recipients of the gift of God’s grace
- There can be no place for judging a person’s worthiness for God when our relationship with Him is based solely on His free grace
