05) He Unites Us
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Today we are continuing in our series in preparation for Easter. We have seen his Great Love demonstrated on the cross. His Forgiveness given by Jesus paying the penalty we deserved for our sins. His righteousness bestowed on man by uniting us with his perfect life through faith. And last week we looked at the Spiritual life given to us. Today we are going to look at how God has united his people.
We are going to pick up where we left off in Ephesians last week and so lets read Paul’s words in Ephesians chapter 2,
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.
After Paul speaks about being dead in sin, walking in the ways of the world, walking in the flesh. That we are given new life as we were saved by grace and raised us up to be seated with him in heaven. For was God’s gift.
8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—9 not from works, so that no one can boast.
Because of what Jesus has accomplished in the life of a believer he continues with a call to them to remember what they were once were and the state that they were in.
Far Away
Far Away
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.
He is speaking to those that are not Jews. They are not descendants of the nation of Israel so they were called Gentiles. Heathens and pagans. God gave Abraham a symbol of the covenant that he had made with him. That symbol was the act of circumcision. It was passed down through the child of promise, Isaac, and then through Jacob whom God called Israel. This symbol continued into Egypt with Jacob and his family and after 430 years they would be led out by Moses as an entire nation, where they would receive the Law and the God would make his covenant with Moses.
There were two groups, the Jews and the Gentiles. They were physically distinguished between each other through the physical symbol of circumcision.
He reminds them that as Gentiles, they were far away in five ways.
He reminds them that they were without Christ. They were separated from him.
18 They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts.
21 Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds as expressed in your evil actions.
Second they were excluded from citizenship of Israel. They were neither in the community or in the commonwealth of God’s chosen people. They were alienated from these people.
Third they were foreigners and strangers to the covenants of promise. They were unacquainted with them.
The covenants of promise. He is speaking of the Abrahamic covenant, the Davidic covenant, and the new covenant. These were the covenants, the promises, that were eternal. They depended on God’s work alone to fulfill and were gracious as they were undeserved. The Gentiles were strangers to these promises.
Fourth, they were without hope. There was nothing on the horizon that could provide them a way into the promises of God. They could not do anything of their own to receive the blessing that God promised Abraham’s offspring.
Fifth, and probably the harshest reality and reminder it that they were without God in the world.
1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins 2 in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. 3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.
He reminds them, that as Gentiles they were in a desperate state. They did not receive what the Hebrews did.
4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple service, and the promises.
This is the state of all Gentiles. It is our plight before Christ, our neighbor’s curse, our children’s reality.
But this is not where God left the Gentiles.
Drawn Near
Drawn Near
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.
But now in Christ Jesus. There is a change from the hopeless state of separation, those that were found to be far away. Those that were on the outside. They have been brought from far off to being near. How did this change occur? What overcame all of the separation that existed between the two peoples? It was by the blood of Christ. Remember where you were and remember where you are now, and most importantly remember how you got here. You were brought near by the sacrifice of Jesus.
And in his blood, Paul states he is our peace. Paul being an Israelite writing to Gentiles has included both groups, that both have God as their peace. That he has tore down the dividing wall of hostility. A wall of hatred and enmity between the two. He did this by making the law ineffective or abolished it, resulting that, in Jesus, one group will be made from the two, and the result is peace between the Jews and the Gentiles. Or Peace between all men.
For the purpose of reconciling both to God. Both the Jews and the Gentiles were not reconciled to God without the blood of Jesus, without his body hung on the cross. This is what brought all people back to God. It wasn’t the Law of Moses that did it, it wasn’t the heritage of Abraham, it was only through the cross.
Jesus proclaimed one message not two. He proclaimed
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
No one comes to the Father except through the son and then through the cross. This is what he proclaimed to both those that were near and far to both the circumcised and the uncircumcised, to the Jew and the Gentile.
For through Jesus both have access to the Father in one Spirit. That is the Spirit of God.
The Jews set their hope in the works of the Law or in their heritage to justify them before God and the Gentiles were just hopeless.
The wall of hostility was thrown down as God reveals through Paul that Abraham was credited with righteousness before the Law was ever given, not by his great character and great works but by his faith.
6 Likewise, David also speaks of the blessing of the person to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 7 Blessed are those whose lawless acts are forgiven and whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the person the Lord will never charge with sin. 9 Is this blessing only for the circumcised, then? Or is it also for the uncircumcised? For we say, Faith was credited to Abraham for righteousness. 10 In what way, then, was it credited—while he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? It was not while he was circumcised, but uncircumcised. 11 And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while still uncircumcised. This was to make him the father of all who believe but are not circumcised, so that righteousness may be credited to them also.
The symbol had been given as a seal of his righteousness that he had been given by faith. God credited Abraham when only Abraham’s faith was required so that when the time came, it would be shown, that righteousness is credited to Jew and Gentile the same, by faith.
We must come to understand that God has more for the believer than just making him right before God. We are his workmanship and he is using us and building with us.
Built Together
Built Together
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.
After the reminder in verses 11 and 12 he resolves the five realities that he was reminding them of.
First the Gentiles are no longer without Christ, separated from him. They have not only been drawn near but they are in him and he in them.
Second, They are no longer foreigners but fellow citizens with the Saints. With all of those that are called the Holy ones. All that have been united into one kingdom. The Gentiles are now part of the community and commonwealth of God’s people.
20 Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Third, they are no longer foreigners and strangers to the covenants of promise, they are members of God’s household.
So what is a covenant. It is a contract or agreement between two parties where both or one party makes promises to each other. I read a lease last week that specifically called it a covenant between the lessor and the lessee. We see this in marriage when a man and a women make vows, solemn promises to each other.
There were multiple covenants of promise made to the Israelites. All of them were ratified and set in force once they were given except for one. The new covenant was spoken of by the prophets of old.
Paul would write to the Galatian church as they struggled to understand the promises of God. After they had believed in Christ they were being drawn back to the Mosaic covenant.
1 You foolish Galatians! Who has cast a spell on you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? 2 I only want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by the Spirit, are you now finishing by the flesh? 4 Did you experience so much for nothing—if in fact it was for nothing? 5 So then, does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law? Or is it by believing what you heard—6 just like Abraham who believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness?
They were struggling moving away from the old covenant of works that had been abolished and living under the new covenant of faith.
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second one. 8 But finding fault with his people, he says: See, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 9 not like the covenant that I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. I showed no concern for them, says the Lord, because they did not continue in my covenant. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11 And each person will not teach his fellow citizen, and each his brother or sister, saying, “Know the Lord,” because they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them. 12 For I will forgive their wrongdoing, and I will never again remember their sins. 13 By saying a new covenant, he has declared that the first is obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old is about to pass away.
This new covenant was given through the prophet Jeremiah chapter 31 a new covenant that will replace the Mosaic Covenant. The tendency was for the Jews to want to go back to the ways of the Law. Generation after generation they were taught how to live but they missed the part about faith.
7 You know, then, that those who have faith, these are Abraham’s sons. 8 Now the Scripture saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and proclaimed the gospel ahead of time to Abraham, saying, All the nations will be blessed through you. 9 Consequently, those who have faith are blessed with Abraham, who had faith. 10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, Everyone who does not do everything written in the book of the law is cursed. 11 Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith. 12 But the law is not based on faith; instead, the one who does these things will live by them. 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. 14 The purpose was that the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles by Christ Jesus, so that we could receive the promised Spirit through faith. 15 Brothers and sisters, I’m using a human illustration. No one sets aside or makes additions to a validated human will.
The promises given to Abraham were based on faith in the promised seed.
16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say “and to seeds,” as though referring to many, but referring to one, and to your seed, who is Christ. 17 My point is this: The law, which came 430 years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously established by God and thus cancel the promise. 18 For if the inheritance is based on the law, it is no longer based on the promise; but God has graciously given it to Abraham through the promise. 19 Why, then, was the law given? It was added for the sake of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise was made would come. The law was put into effect through angels by means of a mediator. 20 Now a mediator is not just for one person alone, but God is one. 21 Is the law therefore contrary to God’s promises? Absolutely not! For if the law had been granted with the ability to give life, then righteousness would certainly be on the basis of the law. 22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin’s power, so that the promise might be given on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ to those who believe. 23 Before this faith came, we were confined under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith was revealed. 24 The law, then, was our guardian until Christ, so that we could be justified by faith. 25 But since that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for through faith you are all sons of God in Christ Jesus. 27 For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. 28 There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.
It is by faith that Abraham is credited with righteousness and it is by faith that the Gentiles are brought into this promise as they are heirs according to the promise according to the covenant.
The Greek word for covenant is was translated into Latin as testamentum where we get the English word testament.
Eventually in time the writings of God would be separated into two parts. The Old and New Testament, in other words, the Hebrew writings were generally called the Old covenant which included all of God’s covenant with the Hebrews but would focus on the Mosaic Covenant and the Mosaic Law.
The writings of Jesus life and the early church were were titled the New Covenant as they focused on the New covenant that was inaugurated with Jesus’ death.
22 Because of this oath, Jesus has also become the guarantee of a better covenant.
The gentiles have been brought into the eternal covenants, the eternal promises made to Abraham, David, and the new covenant.
Fourth, they have been given a living hope.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. 5 You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
Fifth, they are no longer without God but his Spirit dwells in the hearts of his children.
We are no longer foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints. We are no longer strangers but we have become members of God’s own household. To go from a wanderer with no nation to be a part of to be an orphan that has no family, no home, no Father. But now we have been brought into the community and even more intimately, into the home.
God’s household built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with the first block, the first and most important stone, the cornerstone in which it the Lord Jesus himself. There is one household and in Jesus the whole building, is being put together, piece by piece, into a holy temple. In Jesus, God is building us together for God to dwelling in the Spirit.
This was God’s plan before the foundation of the earth for those who are saved by faith will find that they are now adopted sons.
3 Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. 5 He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One.
Not only have we been recieved into the covenants of promise but he has made us to be minister of it.
4 Such is the confidence we have through Christ before God. 5 It is not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God. 6 He has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Five weeks ago we started a series that had no over arching title other than Advent to Easter. The goal was to have a season of time before Easter that we would slow down and redirect our focus to the meaning and importance of Easter. Much like we do for Christmas with the Advent season. The season where we dive into the Love, Peace, Joy, and Love that came to earth when the Jesus was born in the humblest of places. Far away in a manger the King of kings has arrived. The messiah, the chosen one. The awaited for savior had come.
3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were in slavery under the elements of the world. 4 When the time came to completion, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
He has arrived. So during the Christmas season, we look back to the first advent of Jesus and we look forward to the second advent when he returns.
But with Easter, is isn’t the arrival of the Person of Jesus that our attention is drawn to but the arrival of the pivotal moment in redemptive history. The right and proper time for the ransom to be given and men to be saved.
6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.
9 He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he purposed in Christ 10 as a plan for the right time—to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth in him.
5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time.
This is the time that all mankind was waiting for, even if they did not recognize it. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is of the highest magnitude. It is through the cross and the resurrection that we have come to see that we are loved. Demonstrated by the work of God on the Cross of men.
We are those that have been forgiven as penalty of our sins were paid for by another.
We are righteous before the moral law of God by faith.
We have been made Spiritually alive for the first time being saved by Grace.
Today we see that by faith in Jesus as Lord and savior we are given once again that which we could not gain on our own. We were united into one body and united with God. Through the blood of Jesus.
We should be filled with gratitude for all of what has been accomplished for each and every person who call on the name of the Lord. For if you go back over the previous four sermons will will find a common theme in all of them. God does the work, he accomplishes his purposes on his own, men and women benefit from this work, and in response are called to live and work differently. Each sermon reveals that without the resurrection there is no hope for mankind, no possible work can they achieve to solve their desperate need of reconciliation to the just and Holy God.
In two weeks from today we will be presented with an opportunity. An opportunity to reflects and celebrate in the Resurrection of our Lord, our savior, our redeemer. The resurrection of the son of God. A day that should have great importance us as Christians. For without it we are left without hope. Easter a day that is so central to history that in the 1500’s the calendar was changed and shifted 10 days for one reason. To align the resurrection of Jesus to the day of the year in which it took place.
Gregorian Calendar
It is so tempting to fall into the temptation that our actions and behaviors are important to God’s plan. Men and women continuously add to the gospel of God by adding rules, regulations, expectations, or any other external requirement.
Easter is about God, not man, it is about what he has accomplished, while remembering that we were the recipient of his grace. It is about faith in the saving work of Jesus. If we get Easter wrong, the rest of our faith is poluted with all sorts of other ideas.
So for the next two week, remember who you were without God and reflect on who His and what he has done to save your soul.
Prayer
Benediction
Romans 15:13 (CSB)
13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
