Whenever scripture says, “Therefore” (2:11) it would be wrong to try to understand what follows without referring back to what has just been said. I guess I could say please listen to Phil Wason’s excellent sermon from last week on our Church website; but instead I’ll give a quick summary of Ephesians 2:1-10. St. Paul, writing to the believers at Ephesus in modern day Turkey has just been reminding them that they were once spiritually dead in their sins (2:1) because of the disobedient way in which they used to live (2:2); but he has also reminded them that God is rich in mercy and full of love (2:4). Even when they were dead in their sins God saved them by grace and made them alive in Jesus (2:5). God has been incredibly kind in Jesus (2:7) and Paul wants the recipients of his letter – and us – to know that we are saved and made alive in Jesus not because of anything we have done, achieved or earned (2:8). No, we have done nothing to deserve salvation.
And since we’ve done nothing to deserve God’s kindness and never can do anything to alter God’s view of us, we simply cannot and must not boast – not ever (2:9). It is God’s gift to us; God’s grace; God’s kindness; God’s own Son Jesus given to us, for us.
None of us can live a perfect life to please God. It is all about God’s free gift; his grace.
“Therefore” (2:11) writes Paul. Therefore since you’ve been reminded that you cannot save yourself by moral achievements; since it is all about God’s grace; now hear what is coming! Are you ready Church?
Therefore, you believers who are Gentiles - in other words you believers who are not Jewish (2:11) remember that you were once separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world (2:12). That was then; but now in Jesus the Messiah you who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ (2:13). This is now!
And if you’re here this morning and you’re thinking, “Oh no, what’s the Vicar going on about this time” or “can you put that in plain in English, or plain Essex for me” or “What did you mean by that” – let me explain.
I’m talking about my firm belief that without God, and more specifically without the Lord Jesus, people in this world are effectively lost and without hope – like being on a sinking ship without a destination, without life rafts, without communication, without a crew, and without any back-up; whereas with Jesus and in Jesus, you and I and the people of our community find hope, purpose, meaning and an eternal future – like being on a ship with engine trouble, but with a captain who knows where he is going, with an individual life-preserver for everyone, communal life-rafts, satellite navigation, plus a well-trained crew and a heavenly harbour in view as our destination; and I know which boat I want to be in.
How about you? Which boat are you in? Are you lost without hope (2:12) or safe in Jesus (2:13)?
St. Paul is telling non-Jewish believers there was a time when we were once separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope (2:12).
God made covenants with Abraham and then later with Moses, and as he did so God chose a small and insignificant people to be his own; so that through them – through the Jews - he could display his character and his wonders to the whole of humankind.
Before Jesus we were excluded from citizenship in Israel; not from the Land of Promise, but from the Kingdom, the Community and the Fellowship that existed between God and his people. Jews and Non-Jews were at enmity with each other. We Gentiles were far away, but now in Jesus we have been brought near. God is no longer out of our reach.
I remember an occasion when Rebekah was reaching up trying to pick an apple from a tree in our garden. She was stretching up but the apple was beyond her grasp until I lifted her up and she gladly picked it.
God is not out of our reach because Jesus lifts us up so we can share the good things of God.
These verses deserve several hours of unpacking but I’m attempting to do it in just a few minutes!
Once we were excluded from citizenship in Israel (2:12) but now we are not! Verse 19 says that we gentiles – we non-Jews – are “no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household”.
I need to be very clear by saying that when I say ‘Israel’ I’m not talking about the physical modern-day map of Israel – even though that is itself a very important Biblical concept. What I’m talking about is the household of God – the Israel of God (Galatians 6:16) – which is made up firstly of Jews who trust in Jesus as Messiah, and then also and equally Gentiles such as us who trust in Jesus the Messiah.
At the time of Jesus a non-Jew was considered to be an alien, a foreigner and far away from the one true God and they could not enter the inner Temple Court.
But now, it is as if we have been given a new passport. We don’t just have temporary permission to reside or to work, but we have been granted full citizenship because of Jesus.
Having said that, where verse 12 refers to citizenship, the King James Bible refers to ‘the commonwealth of Israel’, and so do several other translations. So our new heavenly Passport - issued by God and authorised by Jesus because he has signed our passport photographs in his blood – our passports confirm that as believers in Jesus we are members of the Commonwealth of Israel with believing Jews.
In Romans Chapter 11 St. Paul presents another image, another illustration of what it means to be part of the wider commonwealth of Israel. In Romans 11 he refers to an Olive tree representing the people of God. Some natural branches – native Israelites, Jews by birth have but cut off, but other wild olive branches have been grafted in, representing gentile, Non-Jewish believers, grafted in to the tree.
But when we hear and imagine that illustration we must remember that the original, natural Olive tree was and is Israel. We have been grafted into that same tree, and not the other way around. The faith and life of Jesus was Jewish; a fact that some churches seem eager to gloss-over or forget entirely.
If you believe and trust in Jesus you are a fellow citizen in the commonwealth of Israel along with Jews who also believe in Jesus – Yeshua in Hebrew; and in modern day Israel there are a growing number of Messianic Jews – those who trust in Jesus as Lord.
But we’re not just granted all of the rights and privileges that come with citizenship. We’ve not been granted some form of political asylum in God’s kingdom to protect us from all that troubles us. No, we’re not just citizens, we’re fellow-citizens; fellows with each other – yes; but primarily fellows with the natural citizens of God’s Kingdom – the Jews. So, to what degree do we live out our responsibilities of fellowship with the Jews, and with each other?
The Church has a terrible history of anti-Semitism, and it still exists in many different forms today; but the truth is that we have been grafted into their tree, and we are now fellow-citizens with them. Verse 18: “Through [Jesus] we both [Jew and gentile] have access to the father by one Spirit”.
Verse 14: “[Jesus] himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility”.
What is this dividing wall? St. Paul may have had in mind the low wall that in some Jewish synagogues separated men from women. He may have had that in mind when he wrote elsewhere that now in the Messiah Jesus there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Jesus. If you belong to [the Messiah] then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3:28-29); and that doesn’t mean there are no differences between us, it means we all share equally in the inheritance. I am still male. My wife is female!
More likely Paul has in mind the wall at the Temple in Jerusalem that kept out non-Jews from entering the inner courts of worship, for only Jews were allowed in; but thank God Jesus came to destroy the barrier that mean gentiles could not access the holiness of God.
That wall was a physical barrier, but more importantly Jesus breaks down and destroys the relational barrier of enmity that existed and still exists between Jew and Gentile; and as God’s workmanship (verse 10), created in [Jesus the Messiah] to do good works” (2:10) we have a part to play in Jesus in that work.
Just occasionally I don’t agree with the way the New International Version translates a Bible verse from Greek into English. I’m no Greek expert myself but when placing several Bible translations side by side, and listening to different Bible commentators I have difficulty with how verse 15 reads. The NIV says that
Jesus abolished “the law with its commandments and regulations”, thus strongly suggesting that the Jewish law was the barrier that needed to be broken.
Whereas Jesus himself said he did not come to abolish the law or the prophets. Matthew 5:17 says, “I have not come to abolish them but to fill them up” so what does Ephesians 2:15 mean?
Two major Bible translations – the Catholic Jerusalem Bible and the Messianic Jewish New Testament – use similar English. They say that Jesus has “destroyed the enmity occasioned [or caused] by the Torah with its commands set forth”. The difference is important.
It’s not the Jewish law with its commandments that needed to be broken. It was the spirit of discord and resentment that came about as a result of the commandments that needed to be broken.
By way of illustration it is not the laws of football that need to be changed or abolished, it is the response of angry Dads running along the touchline screaming at their kids and the referee that needs to be abolished!
The Messianic Bible Commentator David Stern puts it like this:
The Jewish law evoked Gentile envy at the special status of the Jews and it still does. It led to Jewish pride at being chosen and still does. It led to gentile resentment of that pride and still does; and it led to dislike of each other’s customs which led to anti-Semitism, and still leads to anti-Semitism.
In his body, on the cross, the purpose of Jesus was to make one new man out of the two – one new man out of Jew and gentile, thus making peace (2:15) and putting to death their hostility (2:16).
Jesus - the Jewish Messiah - is the only hope for the Jewish Nation; and the only hope for the non-Jewish world too. He is the one true hope for all who trust in him, for he himself is our peace. Verse 14, he himself is our ‘shalom’ – true peace, wholeness, well-being, unity with one another and with God.
Musalaha is a charity in the Holy Land working for reconciliation. It is an Arabic word that means Reconciliation and I recently received this communication from the head of Musalaha - Salim Munayer, who writes: At the end of 2010, more than 150 people assembled, stood up, and boldly made a controversial statement in the middle of Jerusalem. But in this rally hands were raised in surrender rather than grasping picket signs, voices singing in exaltation rather than shouting in anger, and a message of love, unity, and hope rather than of a political agenda. Last week we did what should be one of the most natural and obvious activities for believers, but is unfortunately an unfathomable concept for many. We simply joined together, as Israeli and Palestinian believers, and praised our Father. The Messianic Jewish Congregation Shemen Sasson of West Jerusalem and the Palestinian Christian Alliance Church of East Jerusalem teamed up along with Musalaha to host a worship event featuring songs in both Arabic and Hebrew. With just this act, we rattled the foundations of the barriers between us.
He is the only hope for Egypt. He is the only hope for Afghanistan and for Iraq. He is the one true hope for you, for your family and for your relationships.
Let’s pray.
