What a Difference You Made in My Life
Ephesians 2:13-22
· This morning we looked at the pagan’s condition ‘without Christ’. That defines lostness. You can be very worldly and lost or you can be very religious and lost. The question is your relationship with Jesus Christ. The ‘Gentiles’, which the Ephesian church was made of, were once ‘excluded’, ‘strangers’ and without hope or God’. Tragic description of lostness.
· Tonight we are going to look at the transforming power of God’s grace: BUT NOW IN CHRIST.
We are constantly bombarded by the conventional thinking or our world. Often comes to us in pithy sayings
If you give him an inch he will take a mile
Two wrongs don’t make a right
If you lay down with the dogs you will get up with the fleas
God helps those who help themselves
Cleanliness is next to godliness
Don’t get mad get even
When in Rome do as the Roman’s do
A dog may be able to whip a skunk but the fight just ain’t worth it.
When in the world do as those in the world do. Politically Right. Don’t make waves, blend in, go with the flow.
Problem is this encourages and condones wicked lifestyles and leads us to conform to ungodly standards.
· Tonight I want you to consider the difference knowing Jesus makes in our lives. Add Two more to this mornings message:
1) WITHOUT CHRIST
2) IN CHRIST
3) THROUGH CHRIST
IN CHRIST: (13) But now IN CHRIST Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (14)For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall , (15) by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that IN HIMSELF He might make two into oone new man, thus establishing peace, (16) and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the Cross, by it having put to death the enmity. (17) And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near.
1. Paul reminds us of Christ’s role as the GREAT
PEACEMAKER:
ISA 9:6 His name shall be called ‘Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, PRINCE OF PEACE’
2. History is filled with different groups who have not gotten
along: Hatfields and McCoys, Protestants & Catholics in
Northern Ireland. Muslins & non-muslims today
None matched how Jews and Gentiles felt about one another
Gentiles were made for the fires of hell.
a. Imagine how Jonah felt when told to go to the Gentile capital of
Ninevah and introduce them to God. Rivaled God asking Abraham to
put Isaac on the altar.
3. Three mentions of Peace in this passage: He Himself is our
peace….Himself he might make…establish peace…He came
and preached peace.
a. He Himself is the origin of Peace. He is our peace.
1) Peace doesn’t come when two armies lay their weapons down and sign some paper. They are just tired of war and need time to reload. It is never lasting.
True peace is a PERSON.
2) Luke 2:14 ‘Glory to God in the highest, peace among men. They didn’t end all wars. Jesus said that ‘there will be wars and rumors of wars’ till the very end.
The peace Jesus brought is peace by God’s definition.
It starts with a Person. It is satisfying and permanent. He
comes in and starts solving the conflict in our lives.
b. He Himself makes or establishes peace:
1) Breaks down the walls(14) The barrier of the dividing wall.
The Temple in Jerusalem was built with a 3’ to 4’ high wall which ran through the court and separated the court of the Gentiles from the rest of the inner court. Only Jews were permitted past this dividing wall. Archaeologists in 1871 uncovered the inscription: ‘No man of another race is to proceed within the partition and enclosing wall about the sanctuary. Any one arrested there will have himself to blame for the penalty of death which will be imposed as a consequence.
Compare that to today: Merry Go Rounds in Churches, McDonald’s like play grounds. Churches with everything but the truth!
a) Jesus broke down the wall. The VEIL was torn from
the top to the bottom.
b) It would not be for some years after Paul wrote that the
wall would actually be destroyed in 70AD but as far as
God was concerned as soon as Jesus proclaimed, ‘it is
finished’ the wall came down.
2) Creates a new man(15)
a) Word CREATE literally means to make something that has never been before. Something only God can do. Man can be creative but he is always rearranging what already is. This word means to make something that has never been.
b) Jesus did this by ‘abolished in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments’. In His flesh Jesus died on the Cross and met the demands of righteousness and removed the condemnation.
c) He brought everybody to the same level: In need of forgiveness. He rendered everybody guilty as one.
John 8: Woman taken in adultery by a crowd of self righteous Pharisees. Gathered around to condemn her. Jesus didn’t deny her guilt but stooped and wrote something on the ground. We don’t know what that was but we do know what that did: All became convicted of their own guilt and from the oldest to the youngest they each left. ‘Let him who is without sin cast the first stone’.
ROMANS stands us all on the same ground with the same need of forgiveness. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
3) Reconciles us to God in one body(16) His work made peace between us and God. He presents us Jew & Gentile, male and female, black or white…whatever the distinction we are all one body in Christ.
a) Imagine being presented to God the Father by God the Son. Once enemies through sin now forever reconciled.
John 17:3 ‘This is eternal life that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent’.
c. He came and proclaimed peace: (17) He came and
preached peace to you who were far away(common phrase
for Gentiles) and peace to you who were near.
THROUGH CHRIST (18) for THROUGH HIM we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. (19) So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, buy you are fellow-citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, (20) having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, (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.
1. THROUGH HIM: The difference that Christ makes regarding
who we now are. Compare our new standing with our old as
mentioned in 2:11-12.
a. Those with free access(18)
b. No longer strangers or aliens(19):
1) Stranger: We have all been strangers at one time or another. Unfamiliar city, part of town unsure of. It is characterized by not knowing. We now know life’s most important set of facts.
Went backpacking in Australia over a college break. Rented a car and immediately began driving on the wrong side of the road. Shouts and honks to which my friend with me yelled back at them, ‘Be quiet, we’re tourists’!
2) Aliens/Foreigners: The difference is that an alien might be very familier with a place he is in but he is limited. He does not have the same rights. No citizenship.
Those who are very familiar with church life: attend regularly, study the Bible, familiar with the hymns, raised in a Christian family, know the language of Christianity but they are Aliens. They have no real citizenship in God’s kingdom. When it comes to Saints and Aints they is an AINT.
a) Citizenship was very important in Paul’s day. Roman citizenship was especially highly prized and sometimes paid for. Paul was blessed with special rights because he was born with Roman citizenship. But in Phil 3:20 he speaks of a citizenship even more coveted, ‘For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.’
c. Now of God’s Household(19-22)
1) Not just new rights and privileges but new intimacy: God’s family. Brothers and Sisters in Christ.
2) ARE GOD’S HOUSEHOLD: Bunch of bricks together
a) Built on the Foundation: Prophets/Apostles
(1) Word of God is the foundation of the Church.
Leaning Tower of Pisa had been increasing it’s lean at a rate of 1/20th of an inch a year until recently engineers halted it. The problem is that this 179 ft tall building was built on marshy land and given a foundation of only 10 feet in depth. A shallow foundation only leads to destruction.
b) Build from the Cornerstone(20) Christ Jesus
(1) The cornerstone is that very important stone from which are measurements are taken. He is the standard to which we are being fitted.
c) Built being fitted together(21)
(1) The most difficult of all for us to accept. Fitted
and formed together as the body of Christ. The
Bible says that ‘iron sharpens iron’ and God is
at work in us using one another. He is knocking
off the rough edges, shaping us up, fitting us
together.
(2) You sit surrounded by chisels.
d) Built into God’s dwelling place(22) Fitted together as God’s dwelling place. Nobody likes to live in a place where nobody is getting along. How do you think God feels? We are His chosen residence and He lives in the church through the Spirit.
Thermostats on our walls at home for the purpose of setting the climate we chose to live in. God has established in His Word the setting, the climate He desires to dwell in.
Gal 5:13 Serve one another / Rom 15:7 Accept one another / Col 3:13 Forgive one another / Gal 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens / Rom 12:10 Be devoted to one another / Rom 12:10 Give honor to one another / Rom 15:14 Teach one another / Eph 5:21 Submit to one another / 1 Thes 5:11 Encourage one another / James 5:16 Pray for one another / James 5:16 Confess your sins to one another. THAT IS THE PERFECT WEATHER
GOD ONLY LIVES IN THE BEST: OT Temple was only 30’ wide by 90’ long. Mere 2700 square feet. Smaller than many homes today. IT has been estimated that to rebuild one by the directions in the Bible would cost today about FOUR BILLION DOLLARS. Incredible amounts of gold, expensive wood and tapestries, the finest stone. Most expensive building per square foot every built. Queen of Sheba saw it and swooned.
We have great value as His dwelling place today. He has invested great wealth in us as His people and every need we have to be together the greatest climate of love and care the world has ever seen has been provided through His loving grace.
