A Bigger Story -Week 2: United in Christ

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Title of the message this Morning

A Bigger Story-

Week 2: United in Christ

Big Idea:

The bigger story God is telling has to do with unity and oneness.

God has made us alive in Christ by the same power that raised Christ from the dead.

And he has given us work to do; to create a dwelling place for God on earth.

We do it by fitting ourselves together in unity and harmony and oneness and love, as members of God’s household, his body, his people, the church.

Prayer:

“Father, make us one.

By the power of your indwelling Spirit, tear down the walls of separation that divide us from each other.

Let us be a witness to a divided and broken world that there is healing and wholeness in Christ alone.”

Scripture: Ephesians 2:1-22

Introduction

Welcome back church family! We saw last week that Christianity is a story, not just a system of beliefs.

In order to understand what is happening in your life, and in the larger world, you have to see the big picture, the larger story and get away from the smaller stories that so many of us get entangled in.

It begins in Genesis, of course, where the opening lines are “In the beginning…” which is just another way of saying, “Once upon a time…” the way all good stories begin.

The first two chapters show the Creator in all his glorious creativity, a process that comes to its crescendo with the creation of humankind, to which God gave life by breathing his very spirit into them.

And when the whole symphony of creation was completed, God pronounced it good, very good.

Actually, the creation stories in Genesis just tell the story from where we come in.

Did you know there is a much older creation story in the pages of scripture?

It’s found in John’s Gospel, chapter 1, which also opens with the phrase, “In the beginning…”

But this story goes back far beyond the Genesis stories into the mystery of God’s very existence and essence.

And what we learn is that God’s essence is a relationship of unity, Father and Son in oneness of Spirit.

So, returning to Genesis, it should not surprise us to see that all of creation originally existed in that same spirit of unity, a reflection of God’s very nature.

But it didn’t stay that way.

In Genesis 3 we read the story of the great Fall from this original goodness and oneness.

And the result was separation, fragmentation.

1. From God

2. From each other

3. From the Created Order

The result: We live in a fragmented world.

1. Racial prejudice

2. Gender tension

3. Religious hatred and discrimination

4. Rich vs. Poor

5. Young vs. Old

6. Republican vs. Democrat

7. And the list goes on and on. There are a thousand things that divide us from each other.

And yet, there remains in us a Primal Longing for Unity and Oneness.

Why? Because we were created for Community.

As God said, “It is not good for man to be alone.”

We were created in God’s image, and God Himself exists in a community of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

This longing shows up in a thousand ways:

1. When I consider the “I have a dream” speech given on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial by Martin Luther King Jr.,

I can’t listen to the events of that day, or read it, or even think about it, without being moved.

It touches something deep inside with its description of a better America with no more division and hatred.

You say, “It’s just a dream.”

Yes, but it’s the right dream; it’s God’s dream.

It’s what the Old Testament prophets did when they looked far out into the future and saw the Kingdom of God.

2. The longing was expressed for older generations in John Lennon’s song “Imagine.”

“Imagine there’s no countries

It isn’t hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace.

Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger

A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people

Sharing all the world

You may say I’m a dreamer

But I’m not the only one.

I hope someday you’ll join us

And the world will live as one.”

Again, the temptation is to dismiss it as so much hippie, socialistic, sixties gobbledy-gook.

Except that it sounds so much like the way Jesus lived.

Have you read the New Testament?

Now I don’t think John Lennon understood what the real answer was—that real peace, love, justice, and unity can only be found in Jesus Christ.

But it also causes me to wonder, why do so many who long for those things so quickly dismiss Jesus and Christianity as the way to find them?

Part of it is because they have been blinded to the truth, but part of it may also be that we, the church, have failed in presenting real, New Testament Christianity, the dream of God for the world.

3. The longing was expressed in 1971 in the most popular T.V. commercial ever made.

I’d like to buy the world a home

And furnish it with love

Grow apple trees and honey bees

And snow-white turtle doves

I’d like to teach the world to sing

In perfect harmony

I’d like to buy the world a coke

And keep it company

The camera starts out on one girl’s face, then pans back farther and farther.

And we see thousands of young people, all races and nationalities, dressed in their traditional costumes, all holding bottles of coke, and singing the song together.

We chuckle and think, “How silly to think that a soft drink could bring the world together.”

But again, the point is the longing.

It’s real, and it’s universal.

4. Sporting events bring us together.

I remember living in Denver the years the Broncos won 2 Super Bowls, and the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup.

It united the city. (

Pastor -

share a similar story from your context here)

5. Music Concerts bring us together.

6. Our culture’s obsession with sexuality…

It’s an expression of a deep longing for oneness.

Because people are spiritually dead, they don’t know how to connect on any other level, so they connect physically.

G.K. Chesterton said, “Every man who darkens the door of a brothel is looking for God.”

7. Even tragedies can bring us together, just consider the events of 9-11.

Main Teaching

So, What is God’s Solution?

Ephesians 2 – Two parts:

1.First, we are made alive in Christ. Verses 1-10 “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

God’s first problem is not that we are all divided; it’s that we’re all dead.

Spiritually dead.

Dead in our rebellion and separation from God.

Remember Genesis: The forbidden tree in the Garden. “In the day you eat from it, you will surely die.”

The two trees in the Garden offered a choice.

The choice is about free will.

Free will is the prerequisite for love.

When we choose to walk away from a love relationship with God, we are choosing Spiritual Death, because life is only found in God.

So, how do you bring the dead back to life?

There has to be a Resurrection.

And that takes power.

Power that you and I don’t have, and neither does

Chapter 1:19-20 says the same power that raised Christ from the dead is available to us.

Ephesians 2:4-6 “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.”

Illustration:

There’s a marvelous picture of this in the Old Testament in Ezekiel 37, the Valley of Dry Bones. (Pastor, you could tell, not read, this vivid story here.)

2. So, first God gives us life.

Then he gives us work to do…

Verse 10: “ For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” The NLT puts it this way; “So that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

What things?

Remember God’s secret plan?

Chapter 1:10 This is God’s plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ – everything in heaven and on earth.

So, our work is to work for Unity.

To fight for it.

To live it out.

To model it for a fragmented world to see.

Jesus prayed, “That they all may be one, just as you and I are one, Father – that just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us, and the world will believe you sent me.”

(John 17:21) Then he told his followers, “By this will all men know that you are my followers, if you have love for one another.”

Paul uses four images to describe our Oneness in Christ.

One nation (Ephesians 2:11) “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)— 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.

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

There is to be no separation between Jew and Gentile.

The Gentiles may no longer be treated like foreigners and aliens.

They are fellow citizens of God’s people.

One race (v. 14-18) “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 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, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.”

In Christ, God has made us all one people.

Jesus is the first of a whole new race on the earth.

We are members of one body; His.

One family (v. 19) “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household.”

So, we’ve gone from one nation, to one race, to one family.

One house. (v. 20-22) “Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”

The analogy takes a little detour here.

We’re not just one big family all living in one house.

We are the house, and it’s where God lives.

So Pink Floyd was right: All in all you are just another brick in the wall.

But what a wall!

We are part of the glorious dwelling place of God on earth!

Conclusion

In Ephesians chapter 2, Paul is continuing to remind his readers of the story we’re a part of.

And it all has to do with unity.

In this chapter of the story, Paul says, God has made us alive in Christ by the same power that raised Christ from the dead.

And he has given us work to do; to create a dwelling place for God on earth.

We do it by fitting ourselves together in unity and harmony and oneness and love, as members of God’s household, his body, his people, the church.

There are many parts, but one body.

And each of us has a unique role to play.

Consider your unique role this coming week.

What are you gifted in?

What do you enjoy doing?

How could you serve and love the people God has put into your life?

How can you be an “ambassador of reconciliation” in your home, neighborhood, workplace, etc…

Let’s pray together.

Salvation:

The Word of God says in: John 3:16

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Romans 10:13 NKJV

For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

If you’d would like to receive Jesus today, please pray this prayer with all of us:

Lord I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He died On the cross for my sins and His resurrection from the dead gives me eternal life. I ask forgiveness of my sins, and I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Amen.

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Benediction

This is God’s plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ – everything in heaven and on earth. — Ephesians 1:10—

Have a Great Week! Goodbye!