The Family of God

Ephesians 2:11-22

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Ephesians 2:11–22

“Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers…”

Pray

‌There is a pride that can happen to all of us, a type of forgetfulness if we do not stay diligent with our thoughts. As we grow and hopefully get better, become more successful, make new friends and grow with the changes of life, sometimes we can forget what life before life right now was like.

There was a man named John. He was born into the shipping industry. He spent a lot of his young life at sea. He was a rowdy young man, he was pressed into the Royal Navy where he tried to desert. He got out of the navy and was on another ship, he didn’t get along with the crew so they left in West Africa at which point he became a slave, he was rescued by another sailing party and he spent the next several years gathering slaves from Africa and selling them to North America.

On one of his voyages there was a great storm and John cried out for God’s mercy. The sea quit raging and it was on that ship that he accepted the Lord. It would be some years later before he fully surrendered.

He later became an Anglican priest, one of the biggest voices in the fight against slavery and… a hymn writer. You know his most famous song. The title of the Hymn is “Faith’s Review and Expectation”, but it is best known for the first line, “Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.”

John Newton wrote his own epitaph on the side of his tomb:

JOHN NEWTON. Clerk. Once an infidel and libertine a servant of slaves in Africa was by the rich mercy of our LORD and SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST preserved, restored, pardoned and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy.

While he had been forgiven, he never forgot what he was saved from.

The first 10 verses of Ephesians 2 is all about our state of death that we were in before Christ. Jesus reached through the vail and called us by name and offered us the free gift of salvation. We were saved by grace through faith, not of works so that no man can boast. He gave us a name. He brought us into the family. Praise God.

Paul reminds the Ephesians of their former state.

Ephesians 2:11–12 “Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ,

We need this kind of humility in the church today.

Ephesians 2:12–13 “alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

What is this text saying? We Gentiles were once mocked and ridiculed by those people of God, the Jews. We were not circumcised like they were, we did not share the lineage that they had, we were separated from Christ. We had no hope in the world.

That is who we were. We were Mephibosheth. For those of you unfamiliar with that name, he shows up in 2 Samual 9. King David is now the King of Israel after God took the Kingdom from the first king, Saul. Saul had a child named Jonathan, who became King David’s best friend, and Jonathan had a son named Mephibosheth. When Mephibosheth was a boy, his nurse dropped him and he became lame. His father, grandfather and most of his family are killed, he cannot walk, he owns no land, he has nothing.

David, wanting to show kindness and honor to his friend, Jonathan, who had died in battle asked if there was anyone still alive in his family that he could show the kindness of God to him, takes Mephibosheth and sets him at his table, gives him land and resources and tells him that he will always have a place at the table and that he would be taken care of all of his life.

That is the story of us. We should always be mindful of our state before we were made white as snow through Christ. Our only hope is Christ showing us His great mercy.

Just like David calling out to Mephibosheth…

Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”

We can’t fathom the space that was between us and the Lord. The chasm of sin is so far that there is no way that we can get to the Father. I have heard this used before, it is a great analogy. We talked quite a bit a few weeks ago that we cannot earn the gift of salvation. We can’t be good enough, we can’t do enough good works. It is like swimming to Hawaii. You can be the best swimmer in the world and you may get farther than most, but eventually you will drown and never make your destination. The Father must come to us and He did by coming down to us in Jesus Christ.

That was the perfect plan of the Father, to send Jesus to die so that the chasm could be closed and we could have direct access to Him.

Ephesians 2:14-16 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit falls and believers are meeting together from all parts of the world and verse 44 says that, “all who believed were together and had all things in common.” There is plenty of difference between the Jew and the Gentile. Different families, different countries, different religious backgrounds, but when people come to Christ, that banner of peace is what flies over each participant.

We have talked about it before, we all love camps. Denominational camps, theological camps, social camps, ethnic and racial camps, but Jesus doesn’t care about those things. He desires unity under His name. He comes to break down the hostility, He comes to abolish the law and He creates in Himself one new man out of two so that He can reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross. If you notice in all of that, Jesus does that work in us and through us because He is the head of the Church, “which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”

The church and what it is and what it means…