In the first chapter of Ephesians
Paul reviews God's original plan for the church. His
original plan and purpose for the church. And he says that His
original plan and purpose for the church from even before the beginning
of time was to bless it with every spiritual blessing available in heaven. And he also reviews for his
readers what those blessings are a way of encouraging them
exhorting them. And then he changes the course of his prayer from
Thanksgiving. You know he's giving thanks to God for having blessed the
church with all of the spiritual blessings. He changes from doing
that to a request for God to enable the Ephesians to
truly grasp and appreciate the eternal glory that awaits
them in heaven with Christ. I think that's a valid
prayer because many times I've seen people have so many
blessings just earthly blessings, good health, perhaps family, meaningful work and
so on and so forth and they're not happy. So they have a lot of things. But the
thing that's lacking is the ability to enjoy what they
have. And so. Paul is describing all of the things that God
has given to the church. And then his the second part of his prayer
is please Lord give the church the ability to appreciate and enjoy what they already have in Christ. And then in the last verse he makes a kind of a
transition or a bridge to get to his next topic which will be about
the church itself it will center on the church itself. And so in chapter two he starts to discuss
the sinful past of those who are now members of the church and
how because of their slavery to their own desires or the
course of this world they were subject to God's condemnation. So he starts with a blessing and thanksgiving and
so on and so forth. And then he starts talking about the common past that
everyone in the church has. Everyone in the church comes from the
same place perhaps not culturally or socially but, from a perspective of sinfulness
disobedience to God. Everyone shares that same kind of past. And he says
because of that in the past all of these people were subject to
God's condemnation. So this gives him the opportunity to remind them
of God's grace and God's mercy in sending Jesus to die for their sins
and offer salvation to them to these sinners to those who are condemned
on the basis of faith. And not on the basis of
perfectionism. Now we said that God's grace is seen in two ways. Again I'm still
reviewing for those of you who may not have been at this in this class. First of all His grace
is seen in the fact that He chose to offer us salvation in the
first place. Instead of simply leaving us to perish in our sins. And He could
have done that too, He could have said you know what? I created a perfect world. I gave you everything.
And you decided this is not what you wanted. You rejected me rejected my
word so on and so forth. You know go your way.
But He didn't do that. What He did: He offered us salvation.
And so the fact that He offered salvation is one aspect of
God's mercy rather than allowing us simply to perish in our
sinfulness. The second thing that he mentions is the fact that God offered
salvation on the basis of faith and not on the basis of
perfectionism. So that everyone could attain to the salvation
that is in Christ Jesus. So we also spent a little time explaining
that in the New Testament faith was expressed in belief in Jesus
Christ, repentance of sin and baptism. We explain that baptism according
to the New Testament is immersion in water. Yes there is faith. I
acknowledge I believe it's true that Jesus is the Son of God and so on and so forth and
the Bible says the way I express that faith biblically according to God's will is
through repentance and baptism. So now that Paul has summarized how
and why the church was formed he's going to start to explain to them
its universal nature and deal with a problem that existed among
this particular church. So he starts off talking about
the universal nature of the church. So far Paul has described how
God relates to the church as a single unit. You know everybody
receives blessings. Everyone is saved in exactly the same
way. So from an earthly perspective, however, the church struggled
with issues of strife and division because of the cultural and religious
differences in each member's background. And so the major fault line
at this time was between Jewish Christians who had been
converted from Judaism and non-Jewish converts referred to as Gentiles or
Greeks who had largely come out of various pagan religions. So there was
tension there was friction between these two groups in the
church that Paul is addressing here at Ephesus. Of course
there were other difficult differences to deal with such as you know the
difference between male and female the attitudes in those days or slave or free.
But in this particular epistle Paul addresses the problem of
unity between Jewish converts to Christianity and Gentile
converts to Christianity. It seems that there were poor relations
between Jews. And here is kind of the social background between Jews
in the church who were a minority but they had the priority in
receiving the gospel first. And the Gentile Christians who were in
the majority but they were the new converts. So each one had a position of pride if you wish. The
Jews could be proud of the fact that hey we were the first ones to receive the gospel,
we're sophisticated when it comes to religion. We've had training we know the
law so on and so forth. You know the rituals and you know we do
church really well. Most of the Jews and the Gentiles say yeah but we
got more bodies here in the room. We can out vote you, more people. So if the church was to be universal
as Jesus and the Apostles taught as well as the Old Testament
prophets. Then the break between Jew and Gentile had to be closed. That breach had
to be closed. A simple human solution would have been: you know what, why
don't we just have the Gentile church over here and let's have the Jewish church over here.
Maybe the Jews will meet in the morning and you Gentiles meet in the afternoon. That way we won't
have any problems. And that would have been a human solution but it would not have
fulfilled what Jesus is asking us to fulfill. So in chapter
two verses 11 to 22 Paul turns his attention to the
Gentile Christians at Ephesus. And he explains what Christ has
done specifically for them in order to sharpen their
gratitude and to strengthen their faith. So we begin with the position of the Gentiles before God.
That's how you know he addresses the Gentiles at the Ephesian church and he says
consider you know what your position was before God. And so we read
in chapter 2 beginning in verse 11 he says,
"Therefore remember that for formerly you, the Gentiles
in the flesh, who are called 'uncircumcision' by the so-called
'circumcision,' which is performed in the flesh by human hands." So he
says first of all you were uncircumcised. Now
circumcision was a sign in the flesh that you were included in the covenant
between God and Abraham back in the Old Testament. God promised
Abraham. A promise land if you wish. He promised him protection
and blessings and of course the Messiah to come. And circumcision
was the sign in the body that you were part of this
promise in your generation. And the idea behind it was every time
you bathed, every time you had bodily functions, every time
you had sex with your spouse you were
reminded of who you were. Because the mark was not just an
intellectual marking it was a marking right there in your most intimate parts. And so you were part of the promise and the sign of that promise was indelibly
marked in your body and you'd have it your whole life. So to be uncircumcised meant that you were separated from
God you were not part of this promise. It was actually a way to
curse someone if you called somebody uncircumcised. That was not just a
reference to the fact that they had not gone through this procedure. It was actually a
curse. It meant you have no part of God you have no part of the of the
promise. So for the Jews it was a sign of pride. For the Gentiles
it was a reminder of their ultimate rejection. Gentiles, Paul says should be grateful that as members of
the church God had removed this barrier between them and
Himself. He says that symbol no longer separates the two of us. So he goes on and
just verse 12a he says, "remember that you were at that
time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of
Israel." I'll just stop just halfway through that verse there. So they were
excluded from the commonwealth of Israel. Commonwealth of Israel describes not only
the Jewish culture but also the body of true believers who were
regarded as God's people. So Paul reminds them as Gentiles, they
were not part of the group of true believers they were idolaters. They were pagans. And
then again he says, but now regardless of their
culture in the church they could be considered true
believers. So circumcision was not something that could separate you from
God anymore. The fact that you were not part of the commonwealth of Israel. The fact that you are not part of that culture, a descendant of blood
descendant of Abraham, also was no longer a reason to separate
you from God. He keeps going in verse 12 and he says, "separate from Christ,
excluded from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise." Another negative thing. They were
strangers of the covenants of
promise. They had not been promised anything by God. God had
not promised the Gentiles land, He hadn't promised them blessings,
He hadn't promised them a Messiah. Only the Jews had been promised
these things. The only thing awaiting the Gentiles had been
condemnation and punishment. And so Paul says as members of the
church however they had escaped condemnation. They had escaped
suffering. And then one more thing, All in verse 12, lots of things. "Remember
that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel
strangers to the covenants of promise having no hope and
without God in the world." They had no hope. They had no God. Their
religion was false. Their gods helpless to provide any
comfort or security. Your religion is not validated by the
fact that there are many adherents. Your religion is validated by the
power of the one that you worship. So the Gentiles worshiped all kinds of gods
and they were in the majority but the gods that they worship had no power
so their religion no matter how intricate no matter how grand
was useless because the thing that they worship had no power
to save them save them from death. But as members of the church God
Himself was their protector. God Himself was their Savior. And
so he's contrasting these blessings or rather contrasting these
blessings of the various relationships that the Gentiles have had with the
Jews throughout history. It's not mentioned here but
those reading this at that time understood that the relationships are not
explained but they were quite evidence to Paul's Gentile and Jewish readers to
understand the magnitude of this reconciliation between Jew and Gentile. One had to
understand the past relationship of these two nations. You know before their respective conversions the Jews and the Gentiles I mean
literally hated each other. It's not just they had separate
cultures. They hated each other. The Jews had nothing to do with Gentiles. They
misunderstood the admonitions in the Old Testament concerning remaining separated from
the Gentiles. And they actually took it way too far. God did not want
them to be influenced by pagan behavior and many
times He used the Jews to punish and eliminate the pagans in the Promised
Land. We read about that in the Old Testament. However, once established they were
to serve as a light to them to convert the Gentiles to belief in the true
God they were to be evangelistic. The Jews usually
reacted in extremes. They either copied the Gentiles
and fell into idolatry themselves or they despised and
rejected them without influencing them for God in any way.
You know for example a Jew would not allow his shadow to
cross the shadow of a Gentile if they were walking in the same place
for fear of personal contamination. Or they would do purification rituals if
they even touched something that had been previously touched by a non-Jew. Talk about taking it to an extreme. So there was a built in hatred that
had a long history between Jew and Gentile. What was it, the thing that
was on TV the Hatfields and McCoys. You know generational hatred, generational feuding. Well
they had, Jews and Gentiles, had generational centuries old hatred and separation. Paul then examines the relationship
between Jewish and Gentile converts to Judaism. First it looks that the relationship between Jews and Gentiles
in general and he reminds Gentiles. Guy you guys were way way far away. You
didn't have a chance. Now he talks to the relationship between Jews and
Gentiles when the Gentiles were converted to Judaism which happened. If a
Gentile did want to convert to Judaism there were several things to do: he
had to be circumcised, purified in water and offer a sacrifice. That was the
process. The expression of his faith if you wish. There were limits
however a Gentile convert could not mingle with the Jews in the inner court
of the temple. They were relegated to an outer court which was reserved for
them. It was in this outer court that merchants and money
changers had set up shop depriving the Gentiles even of this far away
access to the temple worship and incurring the wrath of Jesus. One of the
reasons for the wrath of Christ when he chases the money changers out of
the temple (Matthew 21) is the fact that they had set up their booths in the
court of the Gentiles. The Gentiles couldn't get any closer than this
furtherest courtyard. But yet that courtyard was the place that they would
and could worship God by setting up their booths they were desecrating
that place for the Gentiles. And Jesus righteously removes them from this place. So the whole idea
in Judaism was that there was a separation between God and the Jews, and
there was a separation between the Jews and the Gentiles. The
barrier between God and the Jews was demonstrated in the fact that they
could only approach God through the priests and only the high priest could go into the holy of
holies. In other words the presence of God. And then only once per year on
behalf of the people. And the barrier between God and the Gentiles was made evident by
the fact that the Gentiles were not allowed to enter any part of the
temple under pain of death. So God was pure and holy
unapproachable. So the Jews had access only through the priests convert had
access only through the Jews and Gentiles had no access whatsoever. I'm giving you all this
to explain that these ideas and ways to relate to each
other were well ingrained. And still very much in the minds of
both the Jews and the Gentiles who had converted to Christianity.
And if we read between the lines it seems that the Gentile Christians
who had so long felt as second class citizens, now that they were full
partners in salvation through Christ began to despise their Jewish brothers who
had despised and rejected them for so long. And it could also be that the Jewish Christians at Ephesus were having a
little problem accepting Gentile Christians as equal partners in God's plan of
salvation because for so long in the Jewish religion even if a Gentile had
converted to Judaism he was still a second class citizen within that
religion according to the Jews. But now in Christ everyone was the same. Everyone had all
the same blessings everyone had the same access. And so in the next verse Paul shows how Christ unifies both
Jews and Gentiles in the church before God.
And so the relationship now between Jew and Gentile convert to
Christianity. How is that different. And so first of all he talks about the
Jews and Gentiles united to God. He explains how God reconciles both
Jews and Gentiles to Himself. So let's read verse 13 shall we
he says, "But now." And he says but now because he's been explaining
in the past these things happened in the past "but now" he says, "in
Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought
near by the blood of Christ." So Paul says by His cross Jesus
eliminates the barrier of sin that separated the Gentiles from God.
No need for a Jewish priest or any other mediator. Jesus Himself
offers His blood to atone for all sins so the Gentile can come
before God through Christ at all times. He doesn't need a Jewish
mediator. Christ is the mediator for the Gentiles. Keep
reading the passage. Verse 14 he says, "For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups
into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by
abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments
contained in the ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one
new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both
in one body to God through the cross, by it having put
to death the enmity." So what's true for the Gentile
is also true for the Jew. The difference is that the revelation of the
sacrifice and salvation was given to the Jew earlier through the Law and
the sacrificial system and the prophets. But now he
says both the Jew and Gentile who were condemned because
of sin. Why? Because the Jew didn't live up to the Law, that was sin. He
was given the Law, great but he didn't live up to it. So he's
condemned because of that. And the Gentile was ignorant of the
Law therefore he was guilty of sin. So both the Jew and the Gentile
are saved and reconciled, and here's the key: in
exactly the same way. Why? Because they both come from the
same place. The culture may be different the religion may be different
but the problem was the same. The Jew was guilty of sin because he didn't
live up to the Law. The Gentile was guilty of sin because he was
ignorant of the Law. Both sinned, both condemned, both with the exact
same problem before God. And so both Jew and Gentile are saved
and reconciled in exactly the same way. The Jew no longer needs
the temple. The Gentile no longer needs the Jewish
religion. Now the Jew and Gentile are united to God only by
Christ. The common Savior. And so the first step that
Paul makes is describe how both Jew and Gentile are
united to God. The next step is how the Jew and the Gentile
are united to each other. Keep reading verse 17 he says, "And he came and preached peace to you
who were far away, and peace to those who were near;" Who do you think the
far away are? The Gentiles. And who do you think the near are? Well those of the
Jews. And he says, "for through Him we both have our access in
one Spirit to the Father." Stop there 17 and 18. So the Law kept the Jew and the Gentiles
separate from God. Neither of them could obey it. And separate from each other. Why? Because
the Law demanded it. The Jews were not allowed to kind of mix with the
Gentiles. So he says Jesus fulfills all of the demands of the Law and thus
removes its requirements from both the Jew and the Gentile. Now both groups are united to God
and they can be united to each other. Why? Because he who fulfills the
law can make a new law. Jesus makes a new law. What's
the new law? The new law is unity between Jew and
Gentile. That's the new law. So Jews and Gentiles couldn't break down
the wall that separated them through marriage or dialogue or
politics or economics. Paul says Jesus is the peace
upon which they can be united. He is the bridge that
unites them. Through faith in Christ they enter into a unity
with God and they share one body with Christ. And of course
the meeting point is baptism where the old man is buried and the
new man is raised. And this is the same both for the Jew
and for the Gentile. I mean it was a problem. Imagine the witness before the world of Christianity if Jews
and Gentiles were at each other's throat in the church. Well, wouldn't have
gotten beyond the first century. So then Paul gave three images of
unity between Jew and Gentile. Verse 19 to 22. He says the following, "So then you
are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with
the saints, and are of God's household, having been built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself
being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together,
is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being
built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit." So now Paul describes in
a noble high sense the beauty of the unity that
can exist between a Jew and a Gentile. He calls them first of all a
kingdom of saints, a kingdom of saints where Gentiles have the
same rights and privileges as the Jews. You know when everybody has the
same privilege there can be unity. Isn't that the problem in our society. Isn't
that what the courts always fight about. Civil rights groups fight about so on and so
forth. What when are they always fighting about. We want equal rights for everybody for
men for women. For those who are handicapped, for those who come from a
different culture. We feel that we want everyone to have the exact same
rights. How successful are we at it? Sort of kind of right. So Paul says in the church however
we have all the same rights and all the same privileges because
we've all come to God in exactly the same way. We've
acknowledged that we were separated from God no matter
who we were. And we have expressed our faith in His Son in
exactly the same way no matter when we have lived where we have
lived or who we are. Whether it's a different culture or
social situation or physical difference. You know
I've baptized black people, white people, Asian people,
people that don't speak English. People who are poor, people who are
wealthy, people who are well-educated, people who are not well-educated, people who are
handicapped, where we actually needed some special devices and two or three people to get that person
in the water because they couldn't walk out of their wheelchair into you
know. In thirty three years or so of ministry all kinds of
different people but they all did exactly the same thing in obedience to God. They said, I asked them, Do you believe that Jesus is
the Son of God in a variety of ways and I said well yes I do, or yes, or amen and most
certainly I do believe Jesus Son of God. And then the water sometimes was cold
sometimes it was hot sometimes it was lukewarm Sometimes there was lots of water sometimes it
wasn't too much water in a building outside the building in a lake but it
was always in the water. And it was always in the name of Jesus and
it was always for exactly the same thing that your sins may be forgiven and that you
might receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The sins forgiven wipes out the
past the gift of the Holy Spirit guarantees the future into eternity. All the same. And if I brought different people
up here of course I think first of all of Dayton who has been ministering much
much longer than I have he would have the exact same story perhaps a lot more
countries that he's visited than I have but the exact same thing
would have happened in his ministry. And the same thing with all of you. And so he says, Paul, you're the kingdom of
saints you've all come to the courage to God in exactly the same way.
Therefore you all receive the same thing. He calls them a family or a
household where all the members have the same father. When I went
to Haiti many years ago to preach, of course
they all speak French there. The man who was leading
the prayer stood up and said, Dear Father, Mon Pere, Pere Celeste, heavenly Father in French,
Pere Celeste. He addressed the Father in a different language in a different
culture. But the Father he was addressing is the same Father that I'm
addressing and that all men and women have addressed in their
prayers throughout history. The father. And why do we call Him Father? Because we all
belong to his household. We are His children. Where Christ is the foundation and each
member is a stone. Excuse me. Where all members have exactly the
same Father and the same relationship with one another brother. Why do you
think we call each other brother and sister. Because we're in the same family. It's
easy here because we're (well let me see now), we're all white. Various shades anyways. What if you go to a congregation
like in Montreal where there are perhaps 18 different cultural groups from
Africa from the Philippines from South America from the United
States from everywhere. There it's much more significant when you say
brothers and sisters because they're not all white and they don't all speak English
and yet everyone's brother and sister. And then he says
they're a spiritual temple. Where Christ is the foundation
and each member is a stone and God is the builder. We are all part of the
same thing. We are all working towards the same goal. And so Paul says the church is at
once all of these things because everyone is united in and
through Christ. We can all agree to these things. So Paul explains the universal nature of the church
by outlining the way that God has brought together the most
disparate of groups at that time: Jews and Gentiles. And the
lesson for us is very simple: if these two groups
that had centuries of separation and hatred between
them and it was mutual, the Gentiles hated the Jews, the Jews
despised the Gentiles and this went on this was ingrained for
centuries. The lesson for us is: if these two groups could come
together in Christ and obey Jesus' command concerning unity, well
certainly we can do it too. We don't
have generational hatred towards any culture or any
people. Certainly we can attain the same goal in this day and age. Well anyways in the next
chapter Paul will continue on with this theme and he's going to discuss
his own role in God's plan of creating a body into which all men can be united. But
we're going to continue with this theme of unity that Paul talks about in the book of Ephesians.
