Unlikely Unity / Ephesians 2:11-22

Syri and Me - From the worlds perspective, we have nothing in common. I grew up in the church. Our dress. Our personalities. Where we are from. And yet, I am closer to him than some of my blood family. How?

Tonight we will consider two people groups who had nothing in common, but end up united. In the end you will learn how to mend relationships with people you’d typically avoid.

11 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— 12 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.

Some of the people who gathering at the church at Ephesus never thought they’d end up worshiping the God of Israel. By birth, they were gentiles, which means that they weren’t Jewish. They didn’t grow up learning about God. They didn’t grow up with symbols and traditions that taught you about faith. And as a result, it was tempting for the Jews to look down upon the gentiles. In a similar way that those who grew up in church may be tempted to look down upon those who know nothing of God.

But God didn’t choose the Jewish people because there was anything special about them. Instead, he choose them so that they could show the world his goodness and beauty. Deturonomy 7:6 “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the Lord loves you.”

He choose them to show the world his love, and though they failed, there was one decedent from Abraham who succeeded, Jesus Christ.

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

The sign over the dividing wall: “There was an inscription on the wall of the outer courtyard of the Jerusalem temple warning Gentiles that they would only have themselves to blame for their death if they passed beyond it into the inner courts.” - esv study

Amazingly, even though this two groups hated each other. Their hatred of Jesus united them in an effort to have him crucified. But what they did not realize is that through killing Jesus, Jesus killed their hostility.

What walls have you built in your heart toward others? Let the death of Jesus destroy those walls of hatred. He died for them. He died for you. He desires all to be saved from the common enemy - death.

17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off 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 strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

“cornerstone Refers to the first and most important stone laid in a new building. Proper placement of a cornerstone ensured a straight and level foundation.” John D. Barry

Builders would etch their name into the cornerstone. If Jesus has etched his name into the core of who you are, then we belong to the same foundation.

The church isn’t this building. We are the church. God doesn’t live in a temple made by human hands. We are the temple. His spirit dwells in us.

In Christ, you have all the rights and privileges of a citizen of heaven no matter what your background is. Because in the end, we all have the same background. We were lost, now we’re found.

Billy Graham removing the barrier: “Graham did the unthinkable at the 1952 Jackson, Mississippi crusade; he removed the red segregation rope that separated black and white worshippers.”

“The closer people of all races get to Christ and His cross, the closer they get to one another.” - Billy Graham

Syri and me are brothers because we have the same problem, sin. And we have the same hero, Jesus. Who gave us the same father, God.