Breaking Barriers
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Today we are concluding this series called Bridge Builders. This is our fourth week talking about forgiveness and unity. We talked about needing blueprints and tools to complete the bridge. Last week we talked about there are times that we need to rebuild, start all over, mistakes are made. And today we want to conclude this series by looking at ways that we can break barriers.
We live in a world today where barriers are everywhere. There are walls that get created every single day. Walls divide us from people. They keep people from being a part of our life. There are walls of politics, social status, wealth, race, gender, the economy. As Christians, we have to find ways to break down the walls that separate us from people that need Jesus.
How do we learn to come together and unite over Jesus?
During World War II, Hitler commanded all religious groups to unite so that he could control them. Among the Brethren assemblies, half complied and half refused. Those who went along with the order had a much easier time. Those who did not, faced harsh persecution. In almost every family of those who resisted, someone died in a concentration camp.
When the war was over, feelings of bitterness ran deep between the groups and there was much tension. Finally they decided that the situation had to be healed. Leaders from each group met at light of Christ’s commands. Then they came together. Francis Schaeffer, who told of the incident, asked a friend who was there. “What did you do then?” “We were just one,” he replied. As they confessed their hostility and bitterness to God and yielded to His control, the Holy Spirit created a spirit of unity among them. Love filled their hearts and dissolved their hatred.
When love prevails, especially in times of strong disagreements, it presents to the world an indisputable mark of a true follower of Jesus Christ. When we come together, break down barriers, show love and reconcile with each other we become united.
Unity, harmony, peace. These are all trademarks of the Kingdom of God.
Go with me to one of Paul’s letters to one of the churches that he started. It is the letter to the church at Ephesus. The book of Ephesians.
I want you to go to chapter 2. I will begin reading at verse 11.
11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)—
12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
In our text Paul is addressing the Gentiles. Pious Jews considered all Gentiles to be outsiders because they were uncircumcised. The Jews erred in being proud of their circumcision and believing that circumcision was sufficient to make them godly. In their minds the body change was enough. They didn’t need a change in their heart.
Compared to the Jews, there were many disadvantages that the Gentiles had against them. During this time, they were living apart from Christ. They had no expectation of a Messiah to save them. They were excluded from God’s people, Israel. The Gentiles did not know the promises God had made to Israel. They were without God and they were without hope. There was no hope for the Gentiles to fine the one true God or to obtain anything beyond physical life in this world. But it doesn’t end there. God himself intervenes.
If you were to look up the word reconcile in the Greek you would find the word ‘Katallasso’ which is an intensified word that describes an exchange. It was originally used to describe two people exchanging money, the New Testament picks it up in its description of people exchanging an old way of life for new. Think about two people who exchange their different positions for the same position. Trading in an old life for a new life.
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
As we are breaking barriers and building bridges, we must look to Christ as our example when we begin the process of reconciling. You have the blueprints, you have the plans, and you have the tools. Now, you must understand that in Christ we have the gift of reconciliation.
We are called to be ministers of reconciliation. We are called to be facilitators of divine exchange. We are to help people move from their old life to a new life in Christ. We are to help move the broken to help them become whole again. Help people to no longer be offended and hurt to now being forgiven and set free. Jesus helps us to do this. He gave us the example for us to be ministers of reconciliation.
Some of you have probably heard of Corrie Ten Boom. In one of the most powerful stories of reconciliation I’ve ever heard, she meets her concentration camp prison guard after a talk she gives on forgiveness. The guard asks her forgiveness, and as Ten Boom reaches out her hand to accept, this is what she describes;
“And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.
“I forgive you, brother!” I cried. “With all my heart!”
A concentration camp survivor being reconciled to her nazi guard, that is an incredible exchange. It is only in and through the power of Christ can something like this happen.
God’s work of reconciliation is not only between singular persons, although that is probably most often how it happens. It’s also between groups of people that are at odds, such as the Jews and Gentiles were in the days of Paul.
Reconciliation is powerful. That power is rooted in Christ.
Jews and Gentiles didn’t see eye to eye with each other, but Jesus death on the cross brought them together. Look at the rest of our text beginning at verse 13.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility,
15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace,
16 and in one 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.
I love how Paul changes the narrative in this text. He use two little words. Those words are found in verse 13. Those words are “but now.” Those two little words reveal God’s intervention from heaven to earth and the entire story of redemption.
Then there are two more words, far and near. These words describe the position of Gentiles and Jews in relation to God.
To take those who were far away and bring them near to him could only happen because of the blood of Christ. Salvation could come only through Jesus’ death on the cross.
22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
Jesus went to the cross and reconciled us to the Father. He has built a divine bridge where there once was only a vast chasm. The cross became the bridge that we need to walk over to God. Jesus defeated the great divide that stands between us and God that sin created.
There is a true story of a man named Billy Neal Moore, who would find both Jesus in prison and ultimately find his victim’s parents to be his greatest advocate.
When Billy Neal Moore was in jail, awaiting trial in which he would be sentenced to death, a minister shared with him the good news that Jesus loved him and wanted to forgive his sins. Moore learned that no one is beyond redemption. From prison, he wrote to his victim’s family and asked for their forgiveness. Astoundingly, they immediately wrote back to say that they also were Christians and that they forgave him. Then the family decided to petition the Georgia parole board to commute Moore’s death sentence. In 1991, Moore was paroled from prison, transformed by the grace of God and his victim’s family members. “When I was released, they embraced me like a brother.” Moore said of Stapleton’s family. He has been preaching the gospel of forgiveness to schoolchildren and church groups ever since.
Much like Moore, when we come to Christ we realize that in him we can break any barrier, any hostility. Moore had a barrier of prison and bitterness based on his actions but was able to come closer to God in order to reconcile a relationship that was severed by murder. By any measure, this is an unthinkable exchange only made possible through the power of Christ.
Think about all the relationships from your past. What barriers are there that have been built that can only come down by the power of Jesus? Are you choosing to seek Jesus as your barrier breaker or are you using some other means? Anything less than Christ will not do.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
When Jesus died on the cross that work became the common ground of salvation for both the Jews and Gentiles. Because of this work, there is no longer any dividing wall between us today; Jesus broke down that wall. The wall of separation is gone because Jesus is greater than any form of division.
5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
The church is unified as one body. We are one in Christ and yet we are distinct as individual members of the church. In the body of Christ there is unity but no uniformity. We err when we neglect either aspect. Unity should never be prompted at the expence of individuality, and individuality should never diminish the church’s essential unity in Christ. Although we are different individuals, Christ is our common ground. We can all agree on that. We may have a difference in opinions but I can agree with you that Jesus Christ is the savior of the world. We are one body in Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Diversity in the body was God’s plan. However, division was not. And it is important for you to understand the difference when you consider the job of bridge building and reconciliation and forgiveness. In other words, I’m not like you and you are not like me, that is what makes this world great is that we are not all alike. We have different personalities and political views and lifestyles and I could go on, but we all have a common ground and that is Jesus.
Jesus Christ came to seek and to save the lost. The only hope that we have in this world is Jesus.
This division that we see in this world is not of God. Division and hostility are far from the heart of God. Reconciliation is the heartbeat of the Kingdom.
Let me finish with this.
A.W. Tozier has said, “Has it ever occured to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers meeting together, each one looking to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could ever possibly be...”
This is a reminder to us that when we “tune” ourselves to Christ. The one who is our example, our teacher, our leader, our Rabbi… When we are all pointed towards Him, worshipping Him… we are closer to each other than we could ever get by any other means.
Jesus is the key.
He is our example. He’s given us the greatest blueprint of all time. He has the plans we need to follow. However, in order to follow we must be willing to take action. We must be willing to get out of our comfort zones and routines in pursuit of forgiveness and healing.
I told you about the prodigal son last week and just like the Father in the story, we run towards reconciliation. We extend a hand in the process and we celebrate when relationships are healed. Healing is at the heart of the Father. Reconciliation is the ministry He’s given us.
So, here’s your homework.
Make plans to come back next week as we begin a new series. We are going to look at what God says about money.
What can you do, today, to build a bridge? What can you do, today, to close the gap and decrease the chasms around you? It is going to take intentionality and grit. And it is going to take one person at a time. Just like Rome wasn’t build in a day, you will not be able to complete a bridge in a day, but you can start today and be intentional about bringing reconciliation.
Also, let me remind you of Mary’s words to the angel in Luke 1:37
37 For with God nothing will be impossible.”
If you are thinking that the division and walls that have been build between you and that person will never come down, I say to you nothing is impossible with God.
Let’s pray.