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)
b. This verse tells us that we are “Christ’s ambassadors.” As his ambassadors, we are his representatives in our society.
c. Now, if we are his ambassadors, don’t you think that we should act in this world as if we were him?
d. If we are his ambassadors, don’t you think we should lead the way to bringing all people together?
e. If we are his ambassadors, don’t you think we should treat all people the way that Jesus himself would do?
f. We should accept all people regardless of their skin color, nationality, or social standing.
g. We should accept all people the way we want them to treat us.
h. As his ambassadors, we should be leading the way toward bringing reconciliation to our society.
Transition: But how do we lead the way?
II. The Way of Reconciliation (13-16).
A. But Now You Have Been United
1. These Gentile’s were once outsiders and people without hope.
2. However, God did not leave them that way. In v. 13 Paul says, “But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.”
a. Last Sunday, I told you that the two most important words in the Bible are “But God.”
b. Well, here we see what comes a close second, “But now!”
c. These two little words show how God intervened on their behalf by sending Christ from heaven to earth, and now they had become united with Christ.
d. Once they were far away, but now they had been brought near. And they only way they could be brought near was by the blood of Christ.
e. Salvation, whether Jew or Gentile, could only come through the death of Christ.
f. “In fact, according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.” (Heb. 9:22).
g. But the blood of Jesus does more than just make us right with God.
h. “and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.” (Col. 1:20).
i. “But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.” (1 Jn. 1:7)
j. “And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.” (Rev. 12:11)
3. Then Paul takes it to another level when he says in v. 14, “For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us.”
a. Christ himself is our peace. Through his death and resurrection, Christ has destroyed the walls that separated us, and made peace possible for us.
b. Even more than making peace between us, he reconciled us to God.
c. Anyone who believes on Jesus would become one people, called Christians!
d. When Paul talks about “the wall of hostility that separated us,” he is talking about that wall in the Temple that kept Jews and Gentile separated.
e. In fact, there was a notice written in both Greek and Latin that said, “No foreigner may enter within the barricade that surrounds the sanctuary and enclosure. Anyone who is caught doing so will have himself to blame for his ensuing death” (Barton, (p. 812).
f. But Christ destroyed this wall, and he made not only our reconciliation with God possible, but also our reconciliation with one another possible.
4. Look at what Paul says in v. 16, “Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.”
a. In Christ, there is no more us vs them, there is only us, one body in Christ.
b. We are not one group against another group, there is only the church, His church.
c. And this could only come because of the death of Christ on the cross.
d. Not only did Christ take our sins to the cross, but he also took our differences, hatred and anger against each other. He made us one people!
B. One in Christ
1. Illustration: And may peace rain down from Heaven
Like little pieces of the sky
Little keepers of the promise
Falling on these souls
This drought has dried
In His Blood and in His Body
In the Bread and in this Wine
Peace to you
Peace of Christ to you (Peace by Rich Mullins)
2. By his death on the cross, Jesus not only brought salvation, he also brought peace.
a. “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal. 3:28)
b. In Christ, there is no longer Jew or Gentile.
c. In Christ, there is no male or female.
d. In Christ, there is no more black or white.
e. In Christ, there is no more Hispanic or Asian.
f. Because in Christ, we are all one people, one nation, one church.
g. Jesus didn’t die on the cross so that we would continue to hate and look down on others because of the color of their skin or what family they came from.
h. Jesus died on the cross to bring us all together.
Transition: Because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross we can see…
III. The Result of Reconciliation (17-18).
A. Good News of Peace
1. Not only does the blood of Christ bring us peace with one another, but more importantly, it brings us peace with God.
2. In v. 17 Paul says, “He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near.”
a. Jesus bringing the Good News refers to his preaching to the apostles directly after the resurrection, and Jesus coming through the Holy Spirit to preach to everyone.
b. The Gentiles were far away because they knew nothing about God.
c. The Jews, on the other hand, were near because they had the Scriptures and worshiped him in the Temple.
d. But both groups needed to be saved, because they could not do it themselves through good deeds, knowledge or sincerity.
e. They both could only come to God through Christ.
3. The Good News is that because of what Jesus did on the cross that we can all come to God. In v. 18 Paul says, “Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.”
a. Notice again the word “now,” it indicates that something changed. It changed because of Jesus death on the cross.
b. Now we can all come through the power of the Holy Spirit that we can come to Christ.
c. It doesn’t matter your race, gender, or political views, we can all come to the Father because of Jesus victory on the cross.
B. One Body
1. "I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.. ...I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character; I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made law, the rough places will be made plain and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together…” (Martin Luther King Jr.)
2. I too, have a dream, that we would stop looking at people based on how they look and start looking at the content of their hearts.
a. “So, we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! 17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (2 Cor. 5:16-17)
b. When we stand before the judgment, God is not going to ask if we were white, or black, or Hispanic or Asian.
c. He is not going to ask if we were conservative or liberal.
d. He is not going to ask if we were Republican or Democrat.
e. He is not even going to ask us what church we went.
f. No, he is only going to ask, “did you know my Son?”
g. He is going to ask, “did you live by my Word.”
h. He is going to ask, “did you worship me in spirit and in truth.”
i. Because that is how God judges people.
Conclusion
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. What’s the point? We need to start looking at people the way God does; he looks at the heart! “The LORD doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1 Sam. 16:7)
