Tearing Down The Barriers

When we think of walls coming down or great barriers coming down for many of us the thought of the Berlin wall that separated East and West Europe comes to mind. The great Iron Curtain. This wall was very physical (Baltic Sea to Adriatic Sea), but it was also political (communist on one side and capitalist on the other). It also served as a spiritual wall (serving as a barrier to the gospel message).

This wall separated family, friends, nations and created fear, turmoil, enmity, and animosity. This would remain in place for over half a century. It was in 1989 (some of us remember this so clearly) just two years after Ronald Regan challenged the communist dictator Gorbachev to “tear down this wall”.

Both side contributed to breaking down, ripping apart, and tumbling over this great wall of separation.

What I find amazing is that as great as this wall was, there are even greater walls that still exist today:

These walls are formed in our hearts by:

envy, prejudice, discrimination, and pride

Today in our passage we look at some walls that were torn down by none other than the Son of God Himself, Jesus Christ. As we consider WHO we were, WHAT Christ did, and WHY we need to praise God for this work of Christ, my prayer is that we heed the words of scripture and truly seek the unity and oneness as believers that God is calling us to.

Belief Creates Behavior… Consider what we are called to know, believe and how we should act in light of this truth… Ephesians 2:11-18

Ephesians 2:11–18 NLT

Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ. For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death. He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near. Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.

...But God!

Last week we looked at God’s intervention as we realized:

We were His enemies

That God intervened

He desires to point to His work in us

That God works through Grace

...SO THAT we can live and walk in grace!

This work of salvation occurs in the INDIVIDUAL for the purpose of them being called into something GREATER THAN THEMSELVES! The Christian walk and life is very Corporate not Individualistic!

Paul (a Jew) now writes to a church (predominantly Gentile) and addresses who they were…

Remember Who We “Were”

In our passage today we will look at FIVE THINGS that separated Jew and Gentile that in Christ have been torn down…

Let me emphasize that Christ with tear down these barriers for the purpose of building something up… something greater!

ILLUSTRATE: My wife loves those home remodel shows. There is a house there in various forms of condition, but they desire to make it better, newer, something amazing! In order to do this every show has a segment they do demolition. Throughout the show they reference back to what it did look like as they see rooms opened up and transform into something beautiful.

Paul is doing this for his readers… he is giving a past snapshot of the way things “WERE”

This weeks message focusses more on the demolition and next week we look more at what Christ is building!

Paul addresses the fact that we were “outsiders” or separate. Back in Genesis God told Abraham that He was making a people for Himself. They would be separate and the outward indication off this would be circumcision.

Paul makes note that this only impacted thier body NOT HEARTS!

The things that did separate us gentiles from the Jews was not to have a negative impact on the hearts of the people rather challenge them to be a light to ALL PEOPLE around them...GENTILES!

Exodus 19 declares that Israel was to be a kingdom of priest

Deuteronomy 4 speaks to how as a nation of priest they would point people to God by obeying God and seeing God work in thier lives and nation.

Israel because they merely looked to the external rather than the heart issues failed in this endeavor greatly.

As you have read Ephesians you no doubt have seen how God desires to use His church in the same way

Living in contrast to the world

Being a light in the dark

Allowing what we believe to impact our behavior…

As outsiders we “WERE” marked by five things…

1) We were: Christless

Gentiles had no “Messiah” coming that they were looking for to come and redeem them

Gentiles had no one they could look for to come

They had no Savior to look to in thier lost state

2) We were: Stateless

The Jews are God’s chosen people, gentiles were referred to as “dogs”

The gentiles even if they believed were still foreigners in God’s nation

They lacked the belonging

Even at the temple they had to stand outside the temple wall

3) We were: Friendless

Gentiles were strangers to the promises God had given Israel

The covenant with Abraham, the land covenant, the Davidic covenant … God unfolded these covenants to the Jews in a special relationship

The Gentiles were strangers to these promises of God with no part in these covenants

4) We were Godless

Wait… Gentiles had gods, in fact they had many gods!

They had empty gods void of power, hope, void of life

What kind of god is it if it needs to be made, formed, fed, moved

Their gods kept them walking this life DEAD with no hope

5) We were: Hopeless

No savior, no home, no promises, no real god… NO HOPE

Their plight… left them looking needing with emptiness

Imagine facing the struggles and turmoils of life, facing the thoughts of what is after death… with no HOPE!

Living day to day with NO HOPE would be agonizing, pointless, and futile

As Paul points to the situation us gentiles “WERE” in he waste no time drawing our attention to focus on WHAT Christ did!

Focusing On What Christ Did

Jesus Christ “the Prince of Peace” brought PEACE!!!… Peace between Jew and Gentile!

At Calvary on the cross Jesus tore down the barrier between us.

Paul shifts from saying “you” to “us”!

Jesus brings PEACE between God and Mankind tearing down the barrier between God and man

This work Christ did on the cross cannot be overstated as to its magnitude!!!!

Consider what this work of Peace that was done did…

We were once Christless, but now we are “in Christ Jesus.”

We were once stateless, but now we are full citizens.

We were once friendless, but now we are members of God’s family.

We were once hopeless, but now we are promised a glorious future.

We were once godless, but now we can call God our Father.

NOTICE: There was a “Hostility” that separated “us” Paul says… there was a PREJUDICE and a DISCRIMINATION that developed in the hearts on BOTH SIDES of this barrier wall, and a HOSTILITY formed.

Consider… PREJUDICE: injury or damage resulting from some judgment or action of another in disregard of one’s rights. A preconceived judgment or opinion... an adverse opinion or leaning formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge. Prejudice is an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics and it causes injury or damage by some judgment or action

Consider DISCRIMINATION: to perceive or to distinguish by discerning or exposing differences especially: to distinguish from another like object to make a distinction to make a difference in treatment or favor on a basis other than individual merit

Can I point out that prejudice is a learned sin… we are not born with it, we are taught it

I love the cartoon of Dennis the menace… standing next to a boy who is black skinned says, “Mom, me and my friend are exactly the same except for one thing. He has a different birthday than I do.”

For some there is prejudice based on skin. Others it is race, gender, social status, or political sides.

Sadly in the church these are not absent… we even go further to discriminate and have prejudice with BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN CHRIST due to denominations, where we fellowship, or music, or bible translations!

The church is the one place the ground should always be LEVEL!

Stop the hostility! Paul says it again in Galatians 3:28

Galatians 3:28 NLT

There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.

We focus on “these things” and fail to FOCUS on what Christ did, what He died for… PEACE!

Our world is full of “peace” monuments… we build one after every war!

When we focus on the cross and all Jesus Christ did we begin to realize WHY we praise God!

Realizing Why We Praise God

When we realize that in Himself Christ fulfilled the law, where we failed over and over… we have to praise Him for a work we could not do!

Swindoll states it well concerning Christ ending or abolishing the law…

Broken down … abolished … put to death—these are the terms Paul uses to describe the Old Testament Law of Moses. In his letter to the Colossians, Paul uses similar terms: “canceled out the certificate of debt,” “taken it out of the way,” “nailed it to the cross” (Col. 2:14). All of the laws, commandments, ordinances, rules, and regulations that had both condemned us before God and separated us from His people have been done away with.

No wonder Paul can confidently proclaim in Romans 10:4 that “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” I’m constantly amazed at the number of Christians who try to defend the continued validity of the Law as a rule of life today, even in light of such explicit statements as Ephesians 2:14–16. Though we are under the “law of Christ,” empowered to live like Him by the Spirit (Gal. 5:16; 6:2), we are not obligated to keep the Law of Moses.

When I step up into Heaven, it will not be to what I have or have not done that I will point to… I have to point to my Savior Jesus Christ and declare HE DID IT ALL praise the Lord! I did nothing but because Jesus did, I count on His righteousness and because of this I am united with Him,

Because YOU are united with Him we are united together

Because Jew and Gentile are united in Him we are now united together

Praise God for the work He did through Jesus Christ… Paul uses the word RECONCILED: Hostility to Friendship… made right with God

I want to close today challenging us to think a little…

Creating Behavior…

As we go through this letter to the Ephesians there has been a desire by me for us to consider our lives lived out in contrast. Trying to drive home the concept that:

Our Beliefs Create Behavior… Let me ask you?...

Do you really believe what is written here in these verses? Is it theory or theology?

Two Men before an audience quoted the 23 Psalm… the one man, a gifted orator and noted speaker quoted it beautifully and with passion,(the crowd loved his rendering of it and cheered) that man then turned and asked the second man, an older pastor, and a good friend of the first man to quote the same passage. When the old man finished there was not a dry eye in the place. Someone asked the first man what was the difference that caused contrasting reaction?

The man smiled and stated, I know the words of the Psalm, and he knows the Shepherd!

If you believe this and have recieved this truth… are you living it? (has your belief created a behavior in your life)

What walls do you still hold up that Christ came to tear down?

What area are you still trying to earn His favor and love in?

What hostilities do you need to allow the Peace of Christ to work?

Belief Creates Behavior… what is it you believe?