3. A New Family - All Things New [Ephesians] Tim Mackie (The Bible Project)

good good to have you guys here how are you tonight good welcome to do it's good to have you here if you knew my names my name is Tim we're going to keep on cruising through well book of the New Testament book of Ephesians so I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Ephesians Ephesians chapter 3 so again just kind of paint the big picture we have the the Apostle Paul and he's writing this letter to a number of different churches I think in the region in and around Ephesus it's in modern-day Turkey kind of a Western Turkey by the coast and Paul spent a lot of time and invested in a lot of relationships sharing the good news about Jesus in this area and a lot of churches communities of Jesus came into existence during that time and so he's writing to them and really his basic purpose is to kind of summarize and paint the big picture to remind them one of the gospel the story of the gospel but specifically about how it is that these communities of people in these cities in around Ephesus and mostly non-jewish people Greeks and Romans who are not Jewish at all and his basic message is that through Jesus they have been welcomed into the Covenant family of God's people now Ephesians chapter 3 what Paul is talking about here what he's really focusing in on is probably almost certainly not what any of us look up thinking about this morning and it's this is if he's trying to get as a question how is it that you and I most of us being non-jewish people so I'm guessing maybe you have an eighth or a quarter to with blood in your background somewhere so the vast majority of us sitting in this room right now we're not from any kind of Jewish background and Paul's moving towards this issue of how is it that you and I who are not Jewish people but in Jesus the Jewish Messiah we have been included into the Covenant family of God how how how did that happen which I'm guessing is just not a burning question for most of us you know it's a go you didn't think oh I'm not Jewish but somehow I'm part of the Jewish heritage now like what you didn't think about that this morning you know thing about whatever Raisin Bran or something whatever your coffee - coffee probably most of us thing about our coffee and so the challenge of certain parts of the Bible and this part of the letter of Ephesians is that Paul is like really focusing in on something that most of us like don't really care about and don't really think is an issue so we yeah there you go but I actually think that this this set we're focusing on the first half of Ephesians chapter 3 this actually speaks a really profound and important word to us or Pope sitting here in 21st century in inner Portland but we need to kind of take a deep dive into the into the dense substance of what he's saying before we get punched in the gut at the very end so you guys we have to we have some ground to cover are you guys with me okay so let's uh let's let's dive in here no no we're not going to dive in here sorry I have to show you a picture first because I usually show you pictures before anyway that's just my way so I want to show you building and it's kind of want to frame the significance for today of what Paul's getting out of patience chapter three here so usually I show you pictures of people who died a long time ago and then tell you stories about them not today today I'm showing you a picture of a building that still stands today so this this is a church building and it's located right at the center of the town of Nazareth which is the town where do where Jesus grew up it's a it's a small city or large town now is about a hundred thousand people but a large town or small City let you be the judge of that so whatever it's a hundred thousand people living in Nazareth today it was not that size when Jesus grew up there the ruins of first century Nazareth are actually not far from this building you can go visit them and what they have dug up and so on in terms of size of the buildings how many there are the max population of Nazareth and Jesus is a was about five hundred so he's from small podunk hill country town that's where Jesus is from and and this church right here it's a Catholic Church building and it's called the Church of the Annunciation and this it's there to commemorate the moment in the story where the angel comes to Mary and announces to her that she's pregnant with with Jesus the Messiah therefore the Church of the Annunciation and here's what here's what's really cool about this about this church and I'll show you the painting how many of you are familiar with this painting right here at least this image it's kind of a kind of fixed image in Western cultural history art history what's the name of this painting the Madonna and Child yeah so this is depicting Mary the mother of Jesus and then sweet baby Jesus who's not smiling smirking maybe I'm not sure he's something I think so this this painted by the Renaissance painter Raphael early 1500s and this this image has become kind of a kind of a fixed image in Western art cultural history history of Christian art and so on now there's it there's a few things that should stick out to us actually there's one major thing that should be very conspicuous to us as we look at this painting and what and what is that they're white furgus they're white baby Jesus was a white anglo-saxon I said Joseph last news to me right so last I heard it was Jewish right so so yeah that's really interesting about this is that they're both depicted as fair-skinned you know why Europeans essentially and so that raises a whole set of issues because of course like people didn't weren't utterly blind the fact were they that that Jesus was actually Jewish and maybe some people were now I think there's something deeper going on here is that when when the story of Jesus when the good news about Jesus enters into a culture because it speaks to such a deep the gospel speaks is such a deep universal human experience of our of our lostness of our lost sense of identity and innocent and our desire for meaning and hope and purpose that whenever the gospel goes into a culture usually human beings we just can't help but talk about and think about and even depict Jesus in light of our own cultural background and so I know so you get a white European student paging Jesus or the white other white European okay here's what's so cool about the Church of the immense when you when you go into the building they built this church in the late 1960s and what they did is they commissioned artists Christian artists from all around the world all these different countries around the world to paint this painting but using their own cultures traditional imagery traditional clothing colors symbolic symbols and so on and so you walk into this Cathedral and you're just surrounded by dozens of images of the Madonna and Child but from every possible culture you can imagine so I can't really recreate the experience I'm sorry front row people I didn't even think about that so you can look online sorry so I'll just kind of I'll just count name the countries this won't recreate the experience but you'll just get the idea some of them are really really cool so Singh Singapore and Greece and Ecuador and they're standing on this moon which means something I'm sure but I don't know what it means Ecuador Ecuador next one Bolivia and Romania in Vietnam next one Korea really like Korea's are like the floral art China Croatia which that's quite striking isn't it all right this is super striking Thailand I love Thailand so looks so Thailand ease the story just looks really Scotland that's home team for me there it is that Scottish baby Jesus all right so it looked like me as a kid I wrote a Scottish Scottish Italy next one these are my two favorites from inside and they're much bigger than the rest the left is by a Kenyan artist artist from Kenya and what's cool is it's depicting all these canyons offering tribute to to the king baby Jesus with these kind of bowls and then can you guess on the right Japan yeah and so Mary is wearing this Japanese kimono robe and so on what's cool about the ones from Japan is actually it's a moat tile mosaic made up of thousands of little tiny shiny colored tiles so so beautiful so you walk you walk into you walk into this building and it's just all kinds of things are striking you and the first thing that strikes you at least as an American from you coming in is just like holy cow whatever Christianity is it is not and never was a Western religion first of all you don't say and so there's very much the tendency especially in American at least labeling white Christians as all belonging to a certain socio-economic class belonging to a certain political group here in America and having certain views on this or that policy and so on and this what's walking into that church is just obliterates that and you're like whatever Christianity is it is way bigger than any small experience of it that I've had in mind whatever however many years you you've been alive it just bowls you over though this is an ancient multicultural international movement of Jesus's people it's just overwhelmed to usually go into the building and it raises it raises all kinds of questions having this experience and and seeing all of these Christians depicting Jesus from within their culture it raises the question first of all is that that that church is even standing in that town how do you explain the fact that this man Jesus of Nazareth who grew up in small podunk hill country he grew up in the sticks right he's this this Jewish rabbi messianic figure how do you explain that 2,000 years later he is this universal figure who has looked to by now you know after 2,000 years by billions of human beings from every background you can imagine all looking to Jesus as the one in whom they find meaning and hope and salvation and restored relationship with God how did that happen how do you explain something like that just as a historical fact I mean Christianity is the most culturally diverse religious movement in the history of the human race that's remarkable how did that happen and however it did happen it did happen which should just immediately humble every single one of us because what it does is you walk in there and you realize like the form of Christianity that I know that you may have happened to grow up with or that you've come into contact with and positively or negatively that's just such one tiny sliver of the expression of the Jesus Movement in one place at one time that there's just this whole other thing that I have no clue about all these diverse and different expressions and people following Jesus that is what Paul wants to get us in touch with in Ephesians chapter 3 Paul's driving passion was that Jesus the Jewish Messiah was was a savior and a figure who came to do something for all people of all places of all times and he was very much the Jewish Messiah for all nations and again that's not the burning issue for most of us but the issues that at work here are actually pretty pretty core to just the basic human human story so that's what we're going to touch on here tonight you guys with me here okay so let's dive in to Ephesians chapter chapter 3 and watch how Paul works this out surgeon general's warning this is dead so I have the white board here with me so chapter 3 verse 11 for this reason by which he means everything that came before chapters 1 and 2 what Josh talked about last week what with josh garrels talked about week before what i talked about leaving for and what Josh talked about the week before that all that said for this reason I Paul the prisoner of Christ Jesus and just to a reminder is Christ Jesus as last name not Jesus's last name it's a title that means Messiah or anointed king so I'm gonna say King so I Apollo the prisoner of King Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles which just means non-jewish people surely you've heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you now he's alluding he just actually revealed something for the first time in the letter so far and that's where he's sitting as he writes it where is he sitting as he writes a letter just did a prison cell like whoa okay so if you didn't know that already from reading the book of Acts he's sitting in a prison cell and he calls himself a prisoner of King Jesus which is kind of ironic because whose prison cells what governments prison cell to be sitting in he's hearing in a Roman prison cell but he's like yeah the Romans incidental whatever so I'm first and foremost a prisoner and a servants of of King Jesus and for whose sake is he sitting in that prison cell was he say you you guess you you Gentiles and he's not laying a guilt trip right now he's stating a fact fact here and he's actually just alluding to a story that you're supposed to know and since probably most of us don't know it let's put our thumb right here and I do this from time to time which I flip back about 50 pages with me to the book of Acts book of Acts chapter 21 how did Paul end up in prison and how is it for the sake of you Gentiles who live in and around FSS and here's here's the story ship Acts chapter 21 we're going to start at verse 17 so Paul's been out and about for about over a decade now moving into new cities he gets work there as a tent maker he worked with leather and then he would just get to know people Jewish people not non Jewish people and start talking about Jesus and people would put their faith in Jesus new start build up little church communities and then move on to the next town and so he's been doing this for a decade now and we wanted to come back to Jerusalem with some friends where the whole Jesus Movement got started so verse 17 Luke the author of Acts II he writes here when we arrived at Jerusalem the brothers and sisters there they greeted us warmly the next day Paul and the rest of us we went to go see James and the elders who were present there now James is the brother of Jesus and he became a real prominent leader in the Jewish Christian community in Jerusalem so he's going back to like home base this is where the whole Jesus Movement started and exploded from was right here in Jerusalem and so Paul greeted them this is verse 19 and he reported in detail everything God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry and when they heard about this what's their response are you awake you're awake I know you're away your eyes are all open so what was their response here yeah they're really excited they praise they praise God then I holy cow all of these non-jewish people coming to faith in Jesus the Jewish Messiah is awesome this is so exciting and so they're super thrilled but then they say to Paul they say this they say you see brother also how many thousands of Jews have come to believe all of these Jewish people are coming to faith in Jesus to be see here's the thing about the Jewish Christians who are in Jerusalem right now all of them there's zealous for the law they're zealous for the law and for lot here you could insert the term that you might know you may not know the word Torah which is it's just the Jewish term for referring to the first five books of the Old Testament Genesis Exodus Leviticus numbers Deuteronomy so known as the Torah or the Torah of Moses and specifically it's referring to the commands the Ten Commandments and all the other commands given to Israel on Mount Sinai as the about that covenant relationship with Israel we'll talk about that in a second so they're super zealous about the commands of the Torah and here's what they go on to say that these Jewish Christians who were super zealous for the Torah they've been informed Paul that you're going around teaching all of the Jews who live among the non-jewish people to turn away from Moses and telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs what are we supposed to do here I mean everybody's going to hear that you've come and so what they tell Paul is they say listen you we just need you to act really Jewish for a while while you're here in in Jerusalem okay now so there's a back this is the back story of Asia 3 now here's the back story to the back story so the whole point of God redeeming his people out of slavery in Egypt right this is the story of Old Testament he brings Israel out of Egypt he brings them to the foot of Mount Sinai to enter he binds themselves to Israel in a covenant relationship and you give them the commands of the Torah and Bible geeks you know that there are 613 of those commands in the four books of the Bible there in the Torah and those commands were meant to do a number of things they were to urge Israel to become a nation of extreme generosity and love for each other love for their neighbors a nation of justice as a as a light and a witness to the nations around them God also called Israel to become a holy and a distinct people who were culturally different from their neighbors and so there are a number of a lot of commands in the Torah that are kind of symbolic or cultural and they became kind of identity markers for the Jewish people and they're the ones that is still the same ones that mark observant Jews that's different from today so observing the Sabbath regularly Friday night to Saturday night cert male circumcision and a kind of strict particular dietary restrictions like not eating pork and not ever having milk and meat together you can have a cheeseburger your Orthodox Jews milk and meat because it's a whole other that's that would require a back story to the back story the back story and we're not going to go there so so it's all of these all of these cultural markers and essentially as we're going to see here's what is what happened is Israel because they're just broken flawed human beings like the rest of us they failed to become a nation of justice and extreme generosity and so on and what they did do is that they took these cultural markers of Sabbath and dietary laws and these became kind of these became ways of asserting their cultural identity over against non-jewish people they became matters of cultural pride and so Israel came to isolate itself more and more and more cutting themselves off from non-jewish people and so Paul he comes into town and he's telling life he would tell us but most of us are non-jewish here hey Jewish Messiah died for you he was raised for you place your faith in Him he's present here with us he wants to completely transform and heal us and forgive us and we'd be like yeah good news and then you would say now they're going to be some other Jewish Christians who might come in and they're going to say all the guys in the room you gotta get the circumcised thing and we'd be like bummer that's not practice right and they and so this was a tension in the early church do you have to become Jewish if you really want to follow the Jewish Messiah and there's all these people in Jerusalem who relax absolutely yes and this Paul guy he's way off base he disrespects the tour he disrespects God's Word and he's leading everybody astray and so they ask him they say listen Paul can you just work with us here when you're in Jerusalem just act as Jewish as you can just right and so look what happens look at verse 27 and Paul says yes absolutely totally I'll eat kosher this week no big deal look down to verse 27 now when the seven days are nearly over some of Jews from the province of Asia they saw Paul at the temple in Jerusalem and they stirred up the whole crowd and they were seizing him shouting hey everybody Israelites help us this is the man he's teaching everyone everywhere against our people against the Torah against our law against this place the temple saying that the temple is no longer the temple in Jerusalem isn't where God's presence is anymore he's actually saying what he says in Ephesians which is it's the believers in Jesus who are now the temple of God and where God dwells they're totally kicked off and besides they say he he brought some Greeks non-jewish Greeks right here into the temple he's defiled this holy place now Luke whispers in her ear here he says not they had previously seen trophimus the what who was he said be seasoned a guy for Ephesus they had seen this guy trophimus from Ephesus with Paul in the city earlier and they assumed that Paul brought him into the temple the whole city was aroused and people came running from all directions they seized Paul they dragged him from the temple immediately the gates were shut everybody's trying to kill him and news reaches the commander of the Roman troops the Roman soldiers come and then they arrests him and boom there even present he's in prison the whole rest of the book of Acts and he gets moved around into different prison cells and so on that's how that's what and that's from where he's writing the letter to the Ephesians when Paul says I'm a prisoner for the sake of you Gentiles he's just stating he's reminding them in the store remember trophimus yeah probably I guess he got a little too close to the temple I guess with me and so there you go he's in prison because of this passionate conviction he has that God is the God of all nations and wants to create a multi-ethnic family of his covenant covenant people and Paul went to prison for this vision I must keep going keep going he says surely you have heard about the administration there's sorry back Ephesians chapter 3 did I say that Ephesians chapter 3 verse 2 surely you've heard about the administration of God's grace it was given to me for you the Gentiles that is the mystery made known to me by revelation as I've already written about briefly and then reading this you'll be able to understand my insight into the mystery of the Messiah the king and he's referring here just Ephesians 1 and 2 but we just worked through over the last couple weeks this was not made known to people in other generations as it's now been revealed by the spirit to God's holy people excuse me to God's holy apostles and prophets and here is this mystery the through the gospel the good news the non-jewish people the Gentiles they are heirs together with Israel members together of one body sharers together in the promise in King Jesus in the Messiah Jesus now what word did he just repeat three times there for those of you paying attention you repeated word three times in there this mystery did you see it there the mystery made known by revelation insight into the mystery verse 6 the mystery through the gospel now here's what's interesting then this kind of English thing when we hear the word mystery in English we think of something that's super obscure incomprehensible and can't really be understood next to some of you this is what I think I've me the word mystery is completely linked to like Agatha Christie novels except that your mystery novels right and so that's what we take up it's like this puzzle and nobody can figure it out maybe one person can that's that's the idea and it's actually Sunday with this super random has nothing to do with anything but when I lived in Madison Wisconsin not far from where we lived it was one of these I don't know how these businesses survived it was a mystery bookstore and then every Friday night they do these mystery murder roleplay dinners you know what I made I feel like how does that place survive you know but there it was it was right there in Madison Wisconsin I'm sure there are some in Portland I'm sure they do great in Portland expect so there's no strange people like that but in Madison it kind of stuck out anyway so I that's what we think of mystery and comprehensive loves not what mystery means in the Bible mystery means something that was not known and now it's been made known nobody knew about it at all and now it's public open out there for everybody to see and so what he's saying is this this idea that God's plan so you could read the Old Testament and you could totally get the idea that what God is doing he his heart is for all nations he said to Abraham I'll make you a great nation I'll bless you and in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed you could read the prophet Isaiah and he saw a day of the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham he saw all the nations flooding into Jerusalem and obeying the Torah and basically becoming Torah observant becoming becoming Jewish but the idea that that God's covenant family would come so that actually the the circumcision obeying the Torah that that actually was fulfilled came to its end and is over now that was a completely radical new idea that ticked a lot of Jewish people off and Paul staked everything on this claim but what happened in Jesus was for everybody it's for every tribe every tongue every language and it's only faith in Jesus that unites us as a covenant covenant family together which he's going to which is going to get into so let me just I'm going to I'm going to draw this out because well I don't know that's just how I think visually and I'm just going to force it on you so there you go I'm in the process now to remind you this is the drawing about Ephesians that I did the other week but this will kind of help explain I think what where he's going with this here and I think it's a note is this in the light enough over here okay great so this is the this is the story that Paul has in his mind he's telling throughout the whole letter to the Ephesians he has a story begins with God making humans and humans at the beginning of the story of the Bible happy happy face or sad face so happy really it's really great humans made an image of God they're meant to reflect the goodness and love of the Creator back out into the world and so on really great story how long do the good times last yeah so two pages there's something in your mind right so stages and then comes the comic book Kapow all right and the Kapow is when humans decides to seize autonomy from God and to define good and evil and their identity independently of the creator's wisdom and love for them and it ruins everything and in Paul's mind as he says in use of the word in chapter 1 to describe what Jesus came to do to unite all things back together in Paul's mind this act of sin fragmented and divided human beings in a million different self-centered direction and so Paul's basic vision here excuse me Paul's vision is that he's reading the story of the Bible and in the story of the Bible is about God's choosing one of these broken fragmented families out of all the nations through whom he's going to bring salvation and redemption and healing to human history and what's the name of that family so Israel in the Old Testament the family of Abraham and he gives them matura the commands of the Torah and these commands like I was just saying he brought rescued them out of Egypt slavery brought them to Mount Sinai and he commissioned them to be a witness to the nation's through how they lived through being an of generosity and love for neighbor and justice and so on and also to be different from the nation's so they have these kind of cultural markers of the Sabbath and circumcision and all these dietary laws and so on and so how did this reel do at fulfilling their end of the covenant relationship get really really bad because does Israel is somehow Israel morally superior to all the rest of the nations on theirs no of course not they're just as screwed up as we are and so here's what happens is that Israel does not fulfill the the call to be just and generous and love for neighbor they fail that you just read the story of the Old Testament but what they also do and you can just read this throughout the story they take these cultural boundary markers of Sabbath and circumcision and dietary laws and these becomes matters of cultural pride then and every culture has this it's it's unique ways of like music or food or dress and it's a way of kind of asserting our identity here's who we are here the boundary markers if you do these things you're part of us and this is why we know everybody else sucks because they don't do it our way you know I mean that's I mean come on that's just how human cultures work it's cultural pride and so not only did they not fulfill their calling they became prideful in Mis cultural symbols in in the Torah and so here's Paul's I mean this was both giasses and Paul's basic point was the Israel as a nation forfeited its role to be a light to the nation's and in fact Jesus the Jewish Messiah came to do and be for Israel would it could never do and be for itself which is in Jesus in his life of complete obedience to the Torah in utter self giving love to every person he came into contact with and he was not just being like the ultimate Jew he was being like the ultimate human he was being a human in the way God designed us to be but because of our selfish self focus mess going on inside of us we just aren't because we're just apathetic and and care about ourselves more than other people and so Jesus lives for us and he dies for us as well and this is this is where Paul sees all the threads coming together is Paul and Paul's visions what happens in Jesus is that the brokenness of every tribe of every people group of every family all of the pride the cultural pride the corporate communal pride and arrogance the individual selfishness and self focus and apathy to the needs of others all of that gets focused in on Jesus the ultimate human on the cross and he bears into himself the collective result of humanity he he shoulders the trainwreck of human history and of human individual sin and human cultural pride and and he bears it spiritually but also literally what kind of cross is he hanging on who put him up on the cross Romans by the accusations of whom the Jewish the Jewish leaders who were compelling them and were manipulating the Romans I mean the reason Jesus is on the cross is because of the hostility between the Jews and the Romans and the wrangling the system he's up there precisely because of the conflict between all of these tribes and families and so go back look at chapter 2 this is what Josh did last week but I just want to reread this because this is part Paul's the core his core vision of the gospel and of Jesus as the Jewish Messiah go back to chapter 2 this is really dense isn't it but it's Paul so what are you going to do go argue with Paul chapter 2 verse 14 he says Jesus himself is our peace he made the two groups one in other words he takes all the different tribes of humanity and here the two groups Jew and non-jew and he reduces it all down to one to one thing he destroyed the barrier the dividing wall of hostility by setting aside in his flesh the Torah the law with its command and regulations his purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two thus making peace and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross by which he put to death their hostility now this is I don't this may seem very natural to you or may seem like very strange to you but this really this is a story of the gospel it's that policies Jesus as the ultimate human the one who lived as a human the way all of us are called to be but can never be because we're so compromised by sin and so all of the mess of human history and of our sin and pride gets focused in on Jesus on the cross and so when when people grab onto Jesus and faith and trust what happens is that Jesus's life is now attributed to me his death becomes my death the just the the crap that I release out into the world through my own selfishness the the horrible things that our cultural pride releases out into the world he he absorbs it into himself on the cross and it kills him but because God I mean he said in Chapter two God's love and His mercy are so much stronger than even our own sin and the death that it causes in Jesus's resurrection from the dead will signal that by this resurrection from the dead his purpose then is to his life is for us his death is for us his purpose was always to create one new humanity a new human family and this is a human family in whom every nation in every earth is welcome on one term and that is just to confess out loud I am a selfish sob that's what I am right and the entry card is to humble myself before Jesus is Grace and just to recognize I'm so screwed up I'm so prideful I belong to a culture we think we're better than everybody else and it's just released havoc into this world and the entry card and this family is just to say as the Son of God loved me he gave His life for me and his resurrection life has invited me to experience for and grace and to become a part of this new family that he's making what Paul calls a new humanity and this is the story that Paul's telling in Ephesians and this thing is called the new humanity or as we're going to see behavior it's called the church and in this new humanity in the church every tribe and language and culture is welcomed based off of the entry card which is simply faith in Jesus that's it that's it and so that's the great it's the great mystery he calls it through the good news people from every background where look at verse 6 again heirs together with Israel because Jesus is he never stopped being Jewish this is still the Jewish hope for all nations were members together of one body shares together in the promise in Jesus hi guys doing okay let's keep going he's going to begin to cash cash this out here verse 7 he says I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given to me through the working of his power listen I am less than the least of all the Lord's people so this really key what he's saying he's saying if anybody should be barred entry into this new family it's him he says I was a murderer of followers of Jesus I conspired in the murder murder of followers of Jesus Paul says and by sheer grace he included me in this family and given me the burden of this message and so look at look at verse let's bursae he says i'ma less than the least of all the Lord's people this grace was given to me to preach to the non-jewish world the boundless riches of the king of the Jewish Messiah and to make plain to everybody the administration of this mystery which for ages past was kept hidden in God who created all things his intent was that now through the church the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in King Jesus our Lord everything clear a mountain there okay so all right so he's a herald of this message that all nations find common ground at the cross and that's the entry card into the new humanity is just confession of faith and trust in King Jesus who loves me and and died and was raised for me and here's what he says here he says the existence of this family here which by the way definite doesn't like erase all of our cultural differences of course this is all you walk into the Church of the Annunciation and you see like whoa this is a this is new humanity has made up with people from all kinds of very very different cultures but the idea is that all of the broken sinful prideful distorted ways that those cultures you know assert themselves in the world that all dies is across and what happens here is just a beautiful expression of what is good and beautiful in the diverse cultures of humanity that's at least the idea and so what he's saying here is the existence of this thing look at verse 10 this is strictly for so long I think I'm I understand what he means he says God said purpose in doing this was to announce his wisdom through the existence of the church to him what does he say right here to whom to the powers so the powers and rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms so this is not the first time we've heard about these powers is it if you've been following through with the series here we talked about them in Chapter one you talked about them in chapter two and so this is and I won't rehash it all both josh garrels Jeff white and myself we've all worked through it Paul has a deep conviction that evil in our worlds can't only be explained just by human decisions he believes that there's a real realm or dimension where there exists spiritual beings he calls some different names call some spirits or demons who influence and speak lies to human beings to destroy us and so when Paul talks about in in as an individual you giving in to evil giving in to these dark spear powers it we'll use the word Satan or the devil when Paul wants to talk about the ways that whole cultures were tribes or societies get distorted and led into evil Paul uses this language of the powers the powers and this is intentional and this is so profound what he's saying he's saying essentially the existence of this redeemed humanity we're all of a sudden our cultural differences they make us different but the most important common denominator in this family is not your skin color it's not what music you like it's not the size of your jeans it's just purely faith and trust in Jesus who loved me and gave himself for me the existence of this he says announces the God's wisdom and challenges the powers so the powers is Paul the way of talking about how evil is distorted distorts and reflects whole human societies and here in the matter of cultural pride cultural pride and so think about think about a modern example here that I think Paul would absolutely resonate with and exactly the kind of thing he's talking about so within our lifetimes if you're if you're 19 years old or above actually the the bloodiest 90 days in recent human history has taken place in our lifetimes did you know that the most murderous three months of you recent human history the only only thing that rivals it would be the Holocaust and it happened in our lifetimes I have been in the summer of 1994 what happened then Rwanda the Rwanda genocide happened and I remember I was I was in high school and I was just at that age where I starting to realize like oh there are people in the world outside of myself and because I remember the headlines and it really like whoa what's going on in the world and so you have you have 90 days where somewhere but secound it's actually it's really disputed what the number is this somewhere between half a million to 3/4 of a million human lives were ended by a machetes and machine guns and what is the sort what was the source of that conflict this it was tribal hatred and fear and pride and you had this this this conflict brewing over decades between to two tribes the Tutsis and Hutus one of them gates leverage and military power over the other a million different moments come together and then this the greatest overflow of evil the recent human history has done in terms just the annihilation of 3/4 of a million human lives in 90 days is absolutely horrifying how do you exposed a blame for that how do you explain that is that just simply the collective result of a bunch of bad human decisions that Paul would say do wake up wake up there are forces at work here the X the over a long history exploited the the the sinful selfishness of cultural pride in that part of the world and it just it broke through the gates in the summer of 1994 and it's cultural pride and what's happening what happened there is if what happens in many places and it happens in every culture it happens in every subculture it's just it's human beings who were so whatever either arrogant or insecure but we just find something to grab onto in the world that gives us meaning and identity and purpose and so for some people it's tribe and ethnicity and it's our music and it's our heritage and our history and it's us and this is how I know who I am in the world and they are not that in fact they're the enemies of that and so we scapegoat them and direct our fear and our hatred towards them and you get Rwanda or you just get something much more subtle than that you know and so think about like when Josh was talking about the half-hearted Woo's you know winning me something like that and as part of it you know it's just you know we're here and kind of inner East Portland and I mean the air is just sick with so much coolness you choke here in inner Portland I mean it's like never no one gets too excited by anything here because if that's not cool to be expected about something you know and it is very subtle in terms of just kind of whatever it is in Portland here there's just a million different little I make fun of all the times it's the niche subcultures of this or that clothing or music or food preference and that's who I know who I am that's how I ground my adjutant identity and value and assert my identity over against someone else and Paul says dude when we give in when we allow tribal identity of any kind to define who we are the powers will be right on that to exploit to divide human beings through superiority complexes through pride through arrogance and it may be serious or it may be silly but it's the world that we live in Paul would say the powers are all over that and what Paul is saying is the existence of a community of human beings who no longer let the the distorted tribal prejudices and prides that work and that have destroyed and wreak so much havoc and human being the existence of this family of people who dis humble themselves before the cross and say you know what I'm a sinner saved by God's grace and I belong to a community of people who are also sinners saved by God's grace and I hate the music they listen to and I don't understand why they eat that food and the way they talk makes me feel uncomfortable sometimes but you know what did I probably that probably that's how I come off to others too and I'm really glad Jesus saved us the existence of this right here Paul says is a direct challenge to the powers he says this is God's Way of canceling out the influences the powers don't get to define what happens here in this family and so you get a statement like what Paul says in Galatians chapter 3 he says in this family in Christ he says there's no Jew or Gentile ethnic boundary lines don't matter anymore there's no slave or free socio-economic boundary lines there's no male or female the way that gender has turned into a dividing line and a distorted abusive or power thing all of the things that here divide and break human beings and fragment them they don't get a say in here all that gets to say here is God's love and grace that's saving and renewing human beings amen and then this is a vision of the church and so look what he says here well kind of we'll finish it out and I'll land the plane verse 12 he says in him in Jesus and through faith in him that's it we all may approach God together with freedom with confidence therefore I ask you don't be discouraged because I'm in prison because I'm suffering for you know this this is your glory the fact that I'm in prison because you Ephesians the Greek Ephesians are included in the Covenant family of God Paul says as my privilege and I'm giving I'm giving you something to be proud of that your leader in church planter is now in prison because I went to bat for you and said you belong in the Covenant people of God it's very very powerful and so how does how does this cash out for us I think there's - there's two ways that this can can speak a word to us here at door of Hope in in Portland and the first one is it's the same thing that happens when you walk into the Church of the Annunciation it's that great humbling of just your own personal story and who you are and of your own your own identity and just what this does is it just humbles any one of us from thinking that we're better than other people I don't know how to say it it humbles our tribal pride and whatever you know my wife and I sometimes I'm going to get into arguments or fights something we're just one of the ways we have learned to defuse an argument with each other is to just name the core of what's really happening and I'll just say dang it I'm better than you don't you know that you know I just I don't know I'm better clearly I'm better than you you know and this just humor can diffuse difficult moments you know because but that's clearly what's going on in half of our disagreement is I just think she's wrong and that I'm right and I'm better than her I mean come on like that and and that's just one human being you times that by a thousand human beings who all like we're the same size G's or something and then they think that about the people who don't wear that size jeans and then you have that going on this cultural tribal pride and arrogance and so what the gospel does is it's absolutely what membership in this new family it challenges and humbles every way that we think we're better than other people and there's no better way to do that by getting around people who are very from you and it's like Josh says you know a million million times it says all the time we're if we're a new family you don't get to pick the members of your family right if you just pick the members of your family then you just pick people who are like you and make you feel comfortable with yourself and that's fine but don't expect to ever grow as a human being if you just hang out with people who are like you all over the time it's precisely because of the tension and the mess and and the conflict is generated when we're all trying to do this together and joining in a community together that's where we grow together and so you know you're in community group or you here in the sunny gathering whatever and you know it's like that person whatever you like I showed her her mmm he said she likes you too yeah we have she dresses why does she talk like that or whatever and what's going on there that's pride in this year on the tribe of you is very prideful in that over something there's some way you think you're better than that person and so you ignore them you don't talk to them you don't extend any kindness to them whatever and I'm guessing that's never happened here a door of Hope before you know I sang like a chorus we're human beings and so the first thing that does it just challenges our own personal and tribal pride based off of the silly because what happened in that moment I'm what I'm forgetting is that we have a common identity in Christ and in placing some thing as the core of Who I am over Jesus and then judging other people based on that standard and what Paula gist would say dude in that moment you're letting the powers begin to introduce divisions and risks into the family yeah don't do that dude it's not right that's not don't you get the whole story the whole point is that this stuff doesn't get to say anymore and how this new family operates so in tribal pride and arrogance personal pride and arrogance and give each other this message 3 speaks turn to Ephesians 4 with me and we'll conclude with this little piece I think the second way in which this this passage challenges us and we'll come into this later is that the powers will try to introduce divisions to us because of anger and resentment that's a result of that pride and those collusions of tribal pride in our myths look at chapter four verse 26 chapter 4 verse 26 Paul says in in your anger when you get angry don't sin don't let the Sun go down while you're still angry and don't give the devil a foothold now there's a few things around here one is so does he say don't get angry and don't sin that what he says no he doesn't see so he knows that if you try and get a bunch of people together who are very different from each other like you're going to pick each other off you know like you're gonna somebody's going to say something that they didn't think through beforehand and it's going to offend somebody right and I'm sure that's already happened tonight even I don't know and I'm already sorry for what I've said or what somebody else has said till you like if that's can happen you don't pick the members of your family so it's going to happen here add or hope that someone's going to do something and they didn't think it through and intentionally unintentionally and they're going to like wronged you or say something that's totally unkind it's going to happen and in Paul's mind the question of a sign of a healthy growing church who's victorious over the powers is not that we never get angry at each other what does he say he says when you get angry in your anger don't sin against each other and how do you sin against each other by stewing on it right by letting the Sun go down are you letting time go by and you don't move towards it and resolve it and what happens what are the powers do when we begin to Harbor bitterness towards and other people the powers are right there dude the powers of the right side whispering the lies about you know it's a thousand is the thousandth time you play the story through in your mind you know and you're like what were their motives what did she really mean by that why did she say that I bet she knows this by that you know and just you've done this before and he's just saying dude you're opening yourself up to the influence of the powers you don't let the Sun go down the sign of a healthy church is not the absence of anger and conflict it's the presence of a commitment to work it out to move towards the person forgive and to reconcile and if we're if we're if this is going to work you have to have that a lot of that going on all the time and so there might be somebody here in the troops community that you've got an issue with and there might be an issue of pride of where it started it might be an issue of carelessness and and Paul would challenge us deeply we really believe this is what Jesus is calling us to the first thing you need to do is go talk to that person and you might have very different views of the world you might have very different ways of whatever thinking talking living behaving whatever but there's common ground before the cross and if the gospel means anything it means you have to find reconciliation in that relationship because that's how we do it in this family amen so I don't know where you're at I don't know I would just as we move into the time of worship I would just encourage you just focus in on these two things just ask the Lord to show you if there's an area of personal pride or maybe I've just sub cultural pride we're just you'd straight up you think you're better than other people and it's affecting your relationships here and it's potentially even introducing rifts into the community and Paul would say dude you're you're losing to the powers wake up like turn from that recognize it and and go back to the cross again and I would just encourage you to get if you have a conflict here within the community somebody and you've been letting the Sun go down and the powers are introduced eating that bitterness into you I just encourage you man to make it make it right and just ask God to give you grace and courage to go to go make it right and this is what we're committed to it's kind of a tension again yes but this is that this is Ephesians 3 and so I'm going to close a closing prayer and just ask that the spirit would bring to mind the things and the people that that he needs to let me pray you

Channel: Tim Mackie Archives

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Length: 55min 25sec (3325 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 21 2017