New Family in Christ

There have been moments and seasons in history where it seemed the church was done, dead, gone.

The age of enlightenment was a particularly challenging season for the church.

Our modern world seems to believe the church is dying, maybe even dead.

I came across an article this week about Demi Lovato who just released an album.

The album cover depicts her laying on a cross-shaped bed, in very suggestive dress and position

The album has several songs that take strikes at the bible and the faith.

Demi hasn’t always been hostile to the church and Jesus.

She has spoken publically about being involved in Church and her belief in God. Though she has recently said she no longer has any use for organized religion or Biblical Christianity.

She has had a quite public and quite serious struggle with drug that, just a few years ago, left her legally blind after a near death overdose.

Demi Lovato’s journey points to something that is true in all of us.

We are all on a search for who we are and why we exist.

And we all want to belong, to be loved, and to live a life of meaning.

I don't doubt the Demi, and some of us, have had bad experiences with church and with religious people, but, as I hope we will see in our passage today, we cannot and must not give up on the Church.

I pray we will see in these verse just how precious a powerful God’s church is.

But we must understand WHAT the church is first.

Our view of God's church plays a very significant role in how we live as Christians in the world.

When we treat church primarily as an organization or an event we don't see church through the eyes of God.

We are organized and we do have events, but those are expressions of a much deeper and more grandiose identity.

We are the Family of God.

That's what Paul contends for in our verses today.

What does it mean though to be God's family?

I want to look at three things from Ephesians 2:11-22

Ephesians 2:11–22 CSB

11 So, then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh—called “the uncircumcised” by those called “the circumcised,” which is done in the flesh by human hands. 12 At that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh, 15 he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. 16 He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death. 17 He came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So, then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building, being put together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you are also being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.

We are BROUGHT NEAR.

This passage follow a similar structure as the previous one.

He began chapter 2 reminding us of who we were or are outside of Christ, remember?

We are dead, enslaved, and condemned.

Then in verse 4 he uses the most important conjunction in all of the bible, BUT God.

He goes on to describe in vivid and glorious detail who we now are if we are in Christ.

Really, Paul’s focus in 2:1-10 is on the individual realities of the Gospel.

In verse 11, he now broadens his scope to the Church as a whole. Everyone who has and will trust in Christ for salvation.

Who were we before we met Jesus? What defined us as a collection of people?

In a nutshell, we were rejected, outsiders, without Christ, excluded from the promises of God, hopeless, and Godless.

This is the shared identity of everyone who has not trusted in Jesus.

Regardless of the country the live in, the language they speak, the color of the skin, the size of the bank account, the area of town they live in, what their last name is, what their job title is, or anything else that we use to define ourselves outside of Christ.

You might think yourself to be better off than someone of a different political party, social class, or whatever, but outside of Christ we are all the same, lost, hopeless, and Godless.

And then verse 13 and Paul’s glorious BUT’s (not butts)....BUT NOW!!!

Now that we have met Jesus, that is no longer who we are.

Though we were far away from God, rejected and condemned, in Christ we have been BROUGHT NEAR.

This spacial language is important and points us all the way back to the Garden of Eden.

Remember how Moses describes the relationship between man and God?

God was present with them, walking with them in the cool of the evening.

There was a closeness, a relationship with God that was not hindered by sin.

But when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, their punishment was to be thrown out of the garden, out of the presents of the Lord, far off from the relationship they once had.

This is who the church is brothers and sisters, we are those who have been BROUGHT NEAR to God by the blood of Jesus.

Regardless of how broken your life has been, how much sin you have accumulated, and how many religious activities you have been involved with.

The unity we share as believers in Christ doesn’t come from our shared ages, races, or classes.

It doesn’t come from liking the same hobbies, rooting for the same teams, or voting for the same presidents.

The bond we share is a bond of blood, Christ’s blood, which has BROUGHT US NEAR to Him.

We, TOGETHER, are those who have BEEN BROUGHT NEAR.

We BELONG TOGETHER.

Paul is writing this letter to a church that is predominately Gentile (non-Jewish).

These believers came to faith when Paul came to Ephesus back in Acts 19 and started the church there.

After Paul left, arguments seemed to develop between the Gentiles and the Jews as to whether they should become Jews before they can become Christians.

This created quite a bit of confusion and is what Paul is seeking to answer in these verses.

The temptation of the Jewish people who came to Christ was to feel like their way was the better way, that the Gospel came THROUGH THEM.

And so, if you are going to be saved (according to them) you must first become a Jew.

The dividing walls between Jews and Gentiles were quite clear.

So verse 14 is pretty radical:

Ephesians 2:14–15 CSB

14 For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh, 15 he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace.

In Christ, God destroyed the things that separate people from one another.

The need for reconciliation wasn’t just a Gentile thing, it is a human thing.

So in Christ we not only have been brought near to God, we have been brought near to one another.

Our NEARNESS to Christ draws us into a NEARNESS to one another.

It’s the reason we come here every week to sing together, pray together, serve together, give together, and learn together.

It is the reason we gather in small groups to dive deeper into God’s Word and into each other’s lives.

It’s why the idea of a lone-ranger Christian is as odd as a football bat or a three-dollar bill.

For 2000 years, God has been calling people to follow Him from every race, tribe, and tongue.

From every state and zip code across our nation.

From every political party, pop culture trend.

And here’s the gist of what we read in 14-19, WE BELONG TOGETHER.

We belong to a greater purpose, a greater community, and a greater family.

We all share the same identity, we are no longer lost strangers, we are beloved sons and daughters of God.

We are BEING BUILT.

And just like Paul ends the previous section with our purpose as recipients of God’s grace, he finishes this section showing us how we as God’s people are being built together for a greater mission.

He uses the analogy of a building to help us understand who we are as His Church.

Like in every building their is a foundation.

For us it is God’s Word.

And every building begins with a strong and true cornerstone that everything else will be built from.

This is Christ.

So each and everyone of us is a brick that is being built together to accomplish the mission of Christ.

Lego Illustration

This bin full of lego blocks isn’t too impressive is it?

There seems to be potential for something to be built, but as they are, there isn’t anything to look at.

But when these blocks are linked together they make some pretty incredible structures.

We are God’s workmanship brothers and sisters, created in Christ Jesus for good works.

And we together are being build together to be a people that proclaim the goodness of God throughout our world.

Together we make something special:

But we all need to be here.

We all need to be playing our part

And we all need to stay together.

Otherwise we will just be a broken structure or a box of random bricks.