Opening illustration: A young African refugee who goes by the name of Steven is a man without a country. He thinks he may have been born in Mozambique or Zimbabwe. But he never knew his father and lost his mother. She fled civil war, traveling country to country as a street vendor. Without ID and unable to prove his place of birth, Steven walked into a British police station, asking to be arrested. Jail seemed better to Steven than trying to exist on the streets without the rights and benefits of citizenship.
The plight of living without a country was on Paul’s mind as he wrote his letter to the Ephesians. His non-Jewish readers knew what it was like to live as aliens and outsiders (2:12). Only since finding life and hope in Christ (1:13) had they discovered what it meant to belong to the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3). In Jesus, they learned what it means to be known and cared for by the Father He came to reveal (Matthew 6:31–33).
Paul realized, however, that as the past fades from view, a short memory can cause us to forget that, while hope is the new norm, despair was the old reality. May our God help us to live in security—to know each day the belonging that we have as members of His family is by faith in Jesus Christ and to understand the rights and benefits of having our home in Him. (Mart DeHaan, ODB 03/10)
Introduction: It’s easy to feel lost. Apostle Paul knew some of his readers felt that way. In his letter to the Ephesians, he wrote to them about being part of God’s family. They were no longer “foreigners” and “excluded” (2:12) but were “fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household” (v. 19). How does knowing you are part of God’s family help when you feel lost and alone?
In this text, we see that we who once were far off as Gentiles, without hope, and God-forsaken in this world have now been brought near by the blood of Christ. We were far off. But now, we have been brought near.
How is your foundation built?
1. What You Were? (v. 19)
Let me illustrate it like this. We have had an influx of asylum seekers in our country over the last many years or so. When they enter our country, they are strangers and they know it. They do not speak the language they do not know the culture they are looked at as foreigners they are treated as foreigners. They do not have the same rights as those of us who are born here, those of us who are residents here.
If you have been on holiday in a foreign country, you will know what it feels like to be a foreigner in someone else's country especially if you do not speak the language. You know that as a holidaymaker you are treated differently from those who are permanently resident there. Well let's imagine that an asylum seeker is granted permission to stay in our country and is allowed to work. He then becomes an alien living in our country but still without the full privileges that an American would have. Then one day he decides that he wants to be a permanent Citizen of the USA. So, he applies and goes through the procedure and eventually becomes an American citizen. Now that person has the same rights as every other American citizen and can now rightfully call himself American if he so desires.
Well this is what has happened to these Gentile believers at Ephesus only they have not become citizens of some country but they are now fellow Citizens with God's people but they are more than that for they are members of God's household. These Gentiles now have the same privileges and the same rights as every believing Jew has, they now belong to God's household they are now in God's family the believing Jews are now their brothers and sisters in Christ.
Indeed, he goes on to say that the Gentiles were looked down upon by the Jews -- they were "called 'Uncircumcision' by the so-called 'Circumcision.'" There was a division: those who were God's people by birth, versus those who were not God's people. He then describes the Gentiles in five ways:
• Separate from Christ.
• Excluded from the commonwealth of Israel.
• Strangers to the covenant of promise.
• Having no hope.
• Without God in the world.
Now of course what is true of these Gentiles is also true of us as well. We once were foreigners and aliens to God and to God's people. Perhaps before we were saved we went long to a gospel church for a while. But we just didn't seem to fit in. We were made very welcome but there was a difference between us and those who were members there. Although we were part of the church in the sense that we went along and even gave some money to it we knew we were not part of it. We were not invited to take the Lord's Supper, … and we were unable to enter into the spiritual conversations that were going on. But then God in Christ brought us near to himself through the cross, we repented and believed and suddenly everything had changed. We now belonged to God's household we knew we were in God's family and soon we entered into the full rights of membership within God's local church. We were without any foundation.
So, there is a great contrast between the people of God -- the Israelites -- and the other people. But Paul moves on to say how this changed.
2. What did Jesus do to change your situation? (vs. 20-21)
But there's a second thing that Paul says here. Notice again in verse 19, he says, “You are of God's household.” Isn't that beautiful? Not only by grace are we fellow citizens of God's kingdom, but by grace we are now members of God's family. We are God's family members! Isn't that a beautiful thing? These Jewish and Gentile Christians in Ephesus are now part of the same family, even though their lineages are very different. They’re part of the heavenly Father's family, and here Paul especially wants to stress that that means that they are part of a brotherhood with all fellow believers, no matter what their tribe or language, or people or genealogy or national origin, may be. And that means for us that we are part of a brotherhood that stretches across all racial, and national, and political and cultural barriers, and that is to be expressed in our love for all Christians, but especially in the local congregation.
The Gentiles who were excluded, without hope, now have hope! By what means? The blood of Christ! While the Old Covenant was between God and the Israelites, the New Covenant of the blood of Jesus is for all mankind! The Gentiles did not have to give up their heritage and become Jews in order to gain access to the promises; God now via the New Covenant accepts Gentiles and Jews on the same basis: "by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." The basis of God's acceptance is faith in Christ's blood, for both Jews and Gentiles.
Furthermore, Jesus destroys the "barrier of the dividing wall." Gentiles could enter the outer court of the Jewish temple, the Court of the Gentiles. But they could go no further. They could not approach the altar, much less the Holy of Holies, the picture of God's dwelling place. Gentiles who entered the inner parts of the temple would be subject to capital punishment.
This is the barrier of the dividing wall: your birth, your nationality made a difference. In Christ’s church, we cannot have these man-made barriers. As Christ destroys that, through His blood giving access to the very presence of God not only to the Jews, who themselves could not enter the Holy of Holies, but also to the Gentiles. And the two groups, who used to be divided, are now made into one people.
Christ is the measure of the entire house – the standard by which every other stone in the house is tested and aligned. And of the whole church, the cornerstone is Christ; if you take the cornerstone away the whole arch will collapse in rubble. It is the cornerstone which holds everything together. The New Testament Apostles and prophets are the foundation stones. And now we can say that we all have been built upon this foundation as the stones in the walls.
My friends, when there is a grace in our relationship with one another which is clearly manifest to the world that it could not have come from our own hearts, it only could have come from the grace of Jesus Christ working in our hearts, then we bear witness to the world that there is a God, and that Jesus Christ is His Son, and that His power to redeem and change us is immeasurable! And, my friends, that kind of witness cannot be refuted. There is no refutation to that witness to our community. It is a display of the power of God!
If you are a Christian this morning then you are fellow citizens with God's people all over the world, you can call yourself a child of God and you are a member of God's household, you are in his family. All of this becomes ours not because of what we have done but because of what God has done for us in Christ Jesus. As a member of God's people and as a member of God's household we have the same privileges as every other believer. Your foundation is being built in Jesus Christ.
3. What are You Now? (v. 22)
The Apostle Paul not only says that by God's grace we are fellow citizens of God's kingdom, he not only says that by God's grace we are now God's family members, God's household, God's house, but, by God's grace we are now stones in a living, growing temple.
Now this is an extraordinary thing. You remember that in the Old Testament ... what was the greatest visible symbol that God dwelt in the midst of His people, near to His people, present with His people, blessing His people? The greatest visible symbol was first the tabernacle, and then the temple. For a thousand years, the temple stood as a visible reminder as that Shekinah glory had come down and filled the temple, that God was in the midst of His people, that God was near His people, that God was dwelling with His people.
You see, the greatest promise that God ever gave to His people in the Old Testament or the New is that He would dwell with us, and that we would dwell with Him forever ... we would be in fellowship, in sweet communion with Him. You see what the Apostle Paul is saying here? He is saying ‘Once upon a time, the visible demonstration that God was in the midst of His people was the temple. But now Jesus is building a new temple.’
It is the fulfillment of every promise, it was the dream of the depth of the heart of every believer in Israel, and Paul is saying to that little group of Gentiles and Jews gathered in Ephesus ‘You are the temple of God.’ And I'm saying that to you on Paul's authority and the authority of the word of God. If you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart alone for salvation as He is offered in the gospel, you are part of that temple of God.
If you are a Christian, you are a brick in God's building. You might not think about it but the building could not be complete unless you were in it. Therefore, you are just as important as any other brick in the building, we interlock with one another so that God's temple will eventually be built. It is a tremendous privilege to be a brick in God's temple; we are a brick in his temple not because of ourselves but because of Christ Jesus. If we are ourselves the temple of God, how grievous a thing it is for us to live like the world, to besmirch with sinfulness the place where God dwells.
And if today you are a believer and you’re struggling with your weaknesses and your infirmities and the way you stumble and you fall, and the way sometimes you’re drawn after the world … but your heart really isn't with the world, it's with the Lord God ... then remember what God has made you, and live like it.
Application: Think about yourself. For us, the major dividing lines are not between Jew and Gentile, but along some other category. What divides you from other people? What group to which you belong feels superior to those outside your group? Is this group based on:
• Race?
• Wealth?
• Nationality?
• Education?
• Theology?
So how are we doing in this area? How do we act when someone who looks and acts different comes here on a Sunday morning? Are we as friendly and welcoming to that person as we are to someone who looks and acts "just like us"?
How are you doing individually? Are you exhibiting unity with the Christians you know? Do you have a genuine love for the brethren -- including the brothers and sisters we have around the world, in different cultures and countries?
Are you tempted toward self-righteousness, or group-righteousness? I believe all of us are. When you begin to sense those temptations, think back to the three exhortations of today's passage:
• Remember what you were!
• Know what did Jesus do to change this situation!
• Know what we are now! A nation, a family, a building intimately knit together, dependent on each other, filled with the Spirit, bringing glory to God.
