Ephesians 2:13-22
July 13th, 2003
Restoring Unity in our Community!
The Early New Testament church was known for its love. That’s why it grew so incredibly fast. People were attracted to the love which changed Christians so much.
Now, Satan knew that thousands of people were being drawn to Christ through this love, so he attempted to destroy the church. At first, he tried to splinter it from the outside. In A.D 64, he moved the Roman Emperor Nero to blame the Christians for a terrible fire in Rome. Hundreds of Christians were arrested, covered in animal skins and torn to death by dogs; some were crucified, coated in tar and lit on fire. Satan incited many other powerful men to persecute, imprison and murder Christians for years. Thousands died for the faith, but the Church continued to grow; more and more people joined when they saw the love and dedication of Christ’s followers.
So, Satan tried another tactic: splinter the Church apart from the inside. If he could get Christians to fight with each other, to stab each other in the back, not only would the Church fall to pieces, but unbelievers would smell the hypocrisy from 100 yards and steer clear. He has had much more luck with that tactic: Destruction through Disunity. Leveled through a Lack of Love.
How successful has Satan been with St. Paul’s? Has he caused Destruction through Disunity? Has he Leveled us through a Lack of Love? Well, think of it this way: What is St. Paul’s known for in our community? a. Teaching b. A building c. Rigidity or d. Love? When people say “St. Paul’s” do they picture a family of believers bonded together in Christ, working together in love to bring him to a dying world? Or, do they see an assembly of spiteful squawkers who love to tear each other down behind the back?
I’m not entirely sure what they think, but it’s a very important question. If we cannot lovingly unite, we cannot do Christ’s work of glorifying God and reaching the lost. We’re wasting our time! We must make sure that we are united as a congregation, as families, as friends. If not, God will take his work elsewhere regardless of our beautiful building.
The Church in Ephesus faced a similar challenge, to stay united so they could do God’s work. Satan had already started to divide them. Let’s listen to Paul’s words to them to help us Restore the Unity in our Community.
We start with…
I. The Conflict
Look at verse 13: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility,”
Paul talks about the hostility between two groups of people in the Ephesian church. Those two groups were the Jews (those who were near) and the Gentiles (those who were far away). The Jews were the physical descendants of Abraham whom God had delivered from slavery in Egypt and given the Promised Land, modern day Palestine. They were God’s chosen people. The Gentiles were everyone else, those who were not descended from Abraham. These would be people like the Romans, the Greeks and the Egyptians. Most of us are Gentiles, descended from Gentiles of European descent.
At the time Paul wrote this letter, the Jews and the Gentiles did not get along very well. The Jews had the Ten Commandments and the special laws of God. They prided themselves on the stress and strain they went through to keep these precious laws. And they loathed the ignorant Gentiles who mostly lived self-indulgent lives. The Gentiles, on the other hand, got sick of hearing the Jews preach on and on about their law, especially because many Jews dreamt up clever ways to circumvent God’s laws. It annoyed the Gentiles that such people called themselves “God’s favorites.”
The reality was that both were guilty of sin and both needed Jesus—The Gentiles because they lived how they wanted and rarely cared what God wanted, the Jews because they knew better and disobeyed God anyways—the Gentiles because of their self-indulgence; the Jews because of their hypocrisy. Like Paul writes in Romans, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God!” Two guys jump out of a plane; both of their parachutes fail. It doesn’t matter if one lands high up on a mountain, the other way down in a valley; both are going to splat.
How it grates on God’s ears to hear us dividing because we think that we are better than the lady two rows in front of us. How it annoys him to see us rating our ministries as though one person’s work were more important than another’s. How it annoys him to see us exploiting the mistakes of others so that no one will notice our faults. How quickly we, in an attempt to satisfy our demonic cravings for blood, devour gossip or cling to one side of a two-sided story. How arrogant to ignore the fact that we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. This foolishness divides the church, and the stench of hypocrisy drives people away.
In 1917, when the Russian revolution was rocking the streets of Petrograd, leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church were meeting a few blocks away from the fighting, having a heated debate over what color vestments (stoles, etc) the priests should wear! (From When God Builds a Church, Bob Russell, p. 167) When we battle with each other, we forget the real battle, to win souls for the glory of God. The church will never grow when it is driven by disunity and lovelessness.
We must unite to glorify God and to reach our community, and there is only one place to do that—in…
II. The Resolution
Listen to verse 15ff, “by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in this one body (Christ’s body) to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. 19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
When we were kids and guests came over, there were two tables: the adult table and the kid’s table. The kid’s table was always a bummer. When the adults were pulling sirloin steaks off the grill, we would ask, “Do we get steak, too?” My dad would reply, “Yeah, tube steaks. Ha, ha.” And throw hot dogs on our plates at the kid’s table. All the cool conversation took place at the adult table; we got stuck talking about Strawberry Shortcake dolls and Masters of the Universe. We weren’t welcome at the adult table. These verses tell us that God welcomes us all to his table through trust in Jesus; no one is turned away—no one.
Look at these verses. Verse 16: No matter who you are, Jew or Gentile, blue-collar or white collar, man or woman, child or senior, you have been reconciled to God through Jesus’ blood on the cross. In other words, God has been turned from your enemy into your friend, from your judge to your Father. Verse 17: No matter who you are, you are at peace with God through Jesus (Romans 5:1). Verse 18: No matter who you are, you have access to God. God always welcomes you into his presence whether you are coming for protection, promises or prayers. Verse 19: No matter who you are, you are a member of his household. Membership has its privileges and heaven is yours.
But remember something else…the guy next to you, yeah him, the one you don’t like because he thinks Brett Favre is a putz, or, worse yet, because he thoughtlessly slammed you in front of your friends—yeah, that guy is also God’s child. Remember verse 16, “Jesus reconciled both of them to God…” And verse 18, “through Jesus we both have access to the Father.” As much as you may not care for that guy, he is your brother in Jesus, and Jesus has made you one. You are loved; he is loved. You are forgiven; he is forgiven. You are blessed; he is blessed.
Pastor Bob Russell of Southeast Christian Church writes something interesting about this: “The twelve apostles were a diverse group. Simon the Zealot was a patriot—a kind of redneck who hated the Roman government. Matthew was a tax collector—a collaborator with Rome. That would be like Rush Limbaugh and Ted Kennedy serving on the same committee! They’d about slit each other’s throat! But Jesus united them.” (Russell, p. 197) Simon the Zealot and Matthew the Tax Man were both forgiven and loved by Jesus. All of us here today are forgiven and loved by Jesus. We all have peace with him; we all have access to him; be all belong to him. We are united in him.
And if that is the case, then it will certainly change…
III. Our Response
21 In [Jesus] the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (NIV)
I’m sure that many of you have heard of Ladan and Laleh, the Siamese twins from Singapore. Ladan and Laleh were joined together at the skull but had individual brains. Last week, doctors attempted to surgically separate the 29 year old twins. Unfortunately, they did not survive. They were joined together so closely that it’s couldn’t be done.
Interestingly enough, Paul tells us we are “joined together” like that in Jesus, wholly dependant upon each other, brothers and sisters for eternity. And in Jesus we find the strength to build each other up until we become a marvelous mosaic that projects his loving face to a dying world.
When that world sees us closely joined together and building each other up, they see Jesus and they are drawn to him! They are turned away by hypocrisy and dissention; they see enough of that in the workplace and government. But when they see unity and love, they are drawn to Jesus.
So, 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 Honor 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. Listen to both sides of the story; take words and actions in the kindest possible way; be patient. Do everything on your part to restore the unity and the love. That way, our families, our friends and our community will be drawn to the love of Jesus who welcomes us all!
