Eph 2: A New Humanity

Intro

Good morning, we are in week 2 of the book of Ephesians.

If you were not with us last week, One of the things about the book of Ephesians is that it is not necessarily written because of a specific problem in the church, Paul isn’t calling them out the way that he does in his letter to the church in Corinth. But Paul is streignthing them. He knows the people of Ephesus are right in the middle of spiritual battle!

And he is revealing something that is supernatural….

Something that I don’t think we would necessary see on his own.

See there are two threads that go though this entire letter that Paul wants the church to know…And we will see one of these threads here today

The two threads are that

1. God has called the church to unity..>And this unity is somehow supernatural. The unity we have as a church is not found in human things, it is found in the death and the resurrection of Jesus

2. The second thread is this. Somehow this unity defeats and protects us from evil. The devil’s playground is division…This is what happened in the garden of Eden….

Did God really say. Separating humanity from God’s words!

So we are going to see this even more today. Lets look at the first 10 verses

Ephesians 2:1–10 NIV

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.

These 10 Verses are doing so much and they all work to build a much larger picture of what God is doing in the world: And Paul starts this missional picture with the gospel

Before Jesus we were dead in our transgressions and sins. In this case the word transgressions sort of serves as the word “lapses” or in other words, We were dead in the stuff we accidentally did wrong and in our sins…the things we willfully did wrong. Paul puts these two words together to give a full picture of sin.

All of our sin is both what we willfully do wrong and what we even accidentally do wrong

It’s building this picture of the chaos of sin and how as just ordinary humans we are powerless to do anything about it.

And not only this…But Paul talks about the darkness that is alive behind all of human disobedience and sin.

Paul is in a sense saying, hey your default way of life was actually following the ways of the ruler of the kingdom of the air….

So when Paul says “ruler of the kingdom of the air” he is not metaphorically taking about the bad things we do, This is Paul’s way of saying, apart from Christ we are open to the influence of Satan…Its not as if we are all seeking out the devil, but in ancient Jewish Cosmology 1. It is believed that the evil spirits who were kicked out of heaven sort of occupy the air space but 2. It is actually satan behind all human rebellion.

Paul’s perspective is that Satan dwells in the region around the earth and actively tries to destroy the unity of the church

And then Paul says “All of us” did this

we all followed our desires

All of us gave in to the cravings of the flesh

And because of this we were all deserving of wrath.

Its hard to see for us 21st century Americans because this just such a normal part of the gospel for us. That before Jesus we are sinners deserving of God’s wrath. Its almost hard to see the Jewish Perspective here and how much Paul has changed

See Good Jewish believers were members of the “covenant” if you were circimcized, if you went to synagogue, if you kept the sabbath and the festivals Then you would have never counted yourself as a sinner!

So for Paul, a former Pharisee to says ALL OF US DID THIS!

ALL OF US GRATIFIED THE CRAVINGS OF THE FLESH…

See once Paul encounter Jesus and his holiness he realized how much he needed Jesus

So then Paul says

We were deserving of wrath!

This is where we are at in our sinful lives. But

All of us need to experience the grace of Jesus

Years ago…In the 1990’s my brother and I put our skateboards down and we started rollerblading…Guys even though we don’t freely admit it now…in the 90’s we all rollerbladed…Well This became an addiction for us…Every day we skated…We did ramps and hand rails and all kinds of other things….And one year…My brother tells me…Guess what…I found out where mom and dad hide their christmas presents…

So one day when they are gone, we go up in the attic and we find two pair of brand new rollerblades, in our size and we freak out and get excited…Well we get them down and rollerblade all around the house….

We carefully re-packaged them and put them back up

But we had hardwood floors and even though we thought we got all the wheel marks off the floor we must not have gotten them…

and one day my mom just asked me…DO you know what you’re getting for christmas…And I have just always had the hardest time lying…My face is a dead giveaway…don’t get me wrong, I tried to lie I was just really bad at it…

And when it finally came out that when my parents left my brother and I would play with our christmas presents before christmas we got in huge trouble…

My mom was so upset that she told us she returned the rollerblades

As a kid I remember thinking…That’s the right thing to do…What we did was so wrong, I am deserving of wrath…

I have transgressed the law of mom and dad…and guys what I will tell you is that its good for your kids to feel that sometimes because too often kids today do not feel the weight of what they did wrong and when you don’t feel the weight of your sin you don’t appreciate the salvation when it comes!

So 100% I believed that the rollerblades were gone.

My parents sat us down and told us they had returned them.

And on christmas morning when we came out…It was just socks and boring stuff…We knew we had messed up…

But that christmas hiding in another room was those rollerblades because even though we had messed up…My parents forgave us…and when we saw those rollerbladed we were excited and we cried

Not because we got what we wanted…Because we knew we were forgiven and we didn’t deserve it

That christmas we got something much better than rollerblades…We were not christians, we didn’t go to church…But my parents gave us the gospel in a powerful way

Ephesians 2:8–9 NIV

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.

My brother and I just knew that by our actions we did not deserve to get this present.

My parents let us know….

But they showed us grace…So parents just as you need to let your kids feel the weight of their sin, you also need to show them the power of grace and forgiveness!

Salvation is God’s gift, never our achievement.

Then I love what Paul says next

Ephesians 2:10 NIV

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Listen to what NT Wright has to say about this verse…When I read this it just struck me down!

“This isn’t about individual moral achievement but about the church functioning as a visible, shocking demonstration of new creation to a watching world.”

-NT Wright

So being God’s handiwork…is not some individual moral achievement…Look what I can do…

We like to use this verse individually and I will tell you it applies individually.

But Paul is actually saying this to the corporate church

WE are God’s handiwork

See the church is to be this shocking demonstration of new creation

The church is to be a shocking demonstration of forgiveness

The church is to be a shocking demonstration of kindness and God’s grace to a hurting world

It’s because we know we don’t deserve the rollerblades

We know we don’t deserve the grace and forgiveness and the love….

I think what Paul is really doing here is hanging on the prayer of Jesus

John 17:20–23 NIV

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

See in our redeemed community the unity that we share is a witness to the world…

Our unity in Jesus is a witness to the world

Jesus knew our unity would reveal a God who is united in trinity!

Jesus knew this redeemed community is his mission!

So let’s keep going because the whole of these 10 verses preach to us that we were once dead in our sins but we were redeemed by Jesus not for our own glorification or so that we can brag

but for the church to be able to function as a shocking demonstration of God’s love and forgiveness to the rest of the world

And the way this is seen is in unity…Paul will demonstrate this

Ephesians 2:11–22 NIV

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. 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. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 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.

Ephesians 2 is just one of the greatest articulations of what Jesus dying on the cross means for us in a corporate way.

First it means that we have grace though Jesus and we already covered that but second it means

It means that Jesus is making a new humanity…out of the old one…

The picture that came into my mind is of Genesis when God says, for Adam there was no suitable helper found for him. God caused adam to fall into a deep sleep and then he took the rib..>And in ancient hebrew there is not a word for rib. What God did was talk the half of Adam and he made Eve. and then he united them again as one flesh…

Except for this time it was Jesus life that was laid down so that these two groups who were hostile to each other can become one

That the old ways of the Jews being superior because God spoke to them and gave them the law are no longer ]

But you know what?

That is what god intended from the beginning.

God had always intended to make a nation of priests to show the rest of the world who he was

I don’t think God ever intended for his people to gate keep his law..>he expected and desired a missionary people.

This is Paul’s central theology here.

That there are two groups in the world. There are the Jews, the one whom Yahweh made his covenant with…and there is everyone else…And to Jews in this time, everyone else they called “gentiles” Gentiles is essentially an untranslated world…”Ethne” It just means the nations.

That through the cross these two people groups can now come near to God and that these two people groups can shed their old humanity and pick up a new humanity

This has always been God’s plan for his people

let’s just look at the old testament for a second:

Genesis 12:3 NIV

I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

God is starting the Israelites though Abraham…And in the initial promise to Abraham…

God is blessing Abraham to be a blessing to ALL PEOPLES on earth

WHO does ALL peoples include? ALL

It includes everyone

This is God’s plan from the beginning…

And remember at this point in Genesis 12, God is leading Abraham out of sinful Babel…He is in essence saying, I am going to make a new creation people

Ok more of the story of the Bible

God’s people become enslaved in Egypt, Moses leads them out of slavery and the Jewish people now find themselves at the mountain of God …and at the mountain of God is where they will get the 10 commandments…

and God tells Moses to tell the people this

Exodus 19:6 NIV

you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”

What do priests do?

They mediate a relationship with God

They help people with forgiveness

They help people to follow God

So this whole nation are to be priests

Then there is Psalm 47…

And oh man you can do a whole history on this because Psalm 47 is attributed to the “sons of Korah” that is the same Korah that rebelled against Moses in the wilderness and the earth opened up and swallowed him up

But there was a priestly line of Korah that did not die out and that God redeemed and used in an amazing way…And one way was to help write the bible

Psalm 47:9 NIV

The nobles of the nations assemble as the people of the God of Abraham, for the kings of the earth belong to God; he is greatly exalted.

So this Psalm is like…Look the nobles of the nations assemble…As do the people of the God of Abraham.

The kings of the earth belong to God

It is this reminder…Hey Israel don’t forget God loves the gentiles too!

You are called to be priests to the kings of the earth

And then this will culminate in Isaiah 56

Isaiah 56:6–8 NIV

And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant— these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” The Sovereign Lord declares— he who gathers the exiles of Israel: “I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered.”

All this to say

The entire Bible preaches that God’s plan though Jesus all along has been unity

Through the cross, Jesus creates one new humanity

I mean you can hear Jesus quoting this verse in your head right? That foreigners will come to the temple..>And God’s house, his temple will be a house of prayer for all nations

This is what Paul has in his mind when he is writing Ephesians 2: 14-18

Ephesians 2:14–18 NIV

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.

The cross does so much more than forgiveness, although it does that too!

The cross tears down that which divides us

The cross makes unity supernatural by making us one in Jesus

There is a church in the mount of Olives in Israel that you can still go today called Pater Noster. It is really amazing to visit, I have been there It means “our Father” in Latin. It has the Lord’s Prayer in 190 languages.

It is a reminder that Jesus is uniting the world in himself…

Paul’s central claim is hey Jew…Hey gentile…You are now part of one new humanity

Guys, Our world is always searching for a false unity…But we think its really it

Every human system fails

We try to unite in it and find unity in it but eventually it fails

See what Paul is talking about is redeemed people living in redeemed community. 

Why is this so revolutionary?

Every form of Community built on human standards eventually fails….

Think about it.  Let’s just take the last 100 years as an example..

Communism crumbled under its own weight (A human way to devise community) 

Fascism fell under its own brutality

Social democracies, have risen and fallen

Totalitarian dictatorships…North Korea…Starving its own people

Monarchies…There is less and less influence there

Socialism can’t handle the weight of caring for all of its people

capitalism doesn’t unify people

are all ways to devise and organize community

See all of these systems to devise community eventually fail.  They are subject to corruption and evil

But what is Paul saying?  What God is actually doing is developing a new humanity….which will form in new communities, in which he will dwell in

Jesus death put to death the hostility between any groups

In Jesus’ death on the cross the hostility of tribalism

Our world right now is set up to divide republicans and democrats…Our news is just so bought into that idea…

We all buy into it…I mean when you vote and you don’t know a person the second thing you look at is political party right? I’m not saying thats wrong but it just points out our own capacity to divide

In American culture we build dividing walls of hostility

But remember….You are God’s handiwork! You are to be a shocking demonstration of the new humanity of Jesus here at the church…You are to be a shocking demonstration of Unity…You are to be a shocking demonstration of the prince of peace….for all people!

Yes if your a republican you can still disagree with Democrats and if your a democrat you can still disagree with republicans but if you have said yes to Jesus you have to remember that is a dividing wall of hostility in your life…It can’t be your main identity

And it can easily become a stumbling block to someone else believing in Jesus

Your identity now and your neighbors identity now is a child of God

Paul will end Chapter two telling the church…The old systems of the world have passed away and you are a new house of God

Ephesians 2:19–22 NIV

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 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.

We are being built together into God’s dwelling.

I mean if that’s true….How much divisiveness still lives in us that needs to be submitted to the Lord?

I think sometimes we look at the cross from just one perspective and that is the forgiveness of sins.

And that matters

That is still true

But

What if we took hostility in the church as seriously as Jesus did when he died to destroy it?

Let that question sit with us for a moment

Because it is possible to believe that Jesus died for our sins and still make excuses for the hostility we carry toward other people.

We can ask God for mercy on Sunday and spend the week deciding who doesn’t deserve ours.

But remember those rollerblades.

My brother and I knew we hadn’t earned that gift. We knew what we had done. And when my parents gave it to us anyway, what overwhelmed us was knowing we were forgiven.

Friends, we know what it is to receive something we could never earn.

We were dead in our sins. God made us alive with Christ.

We were far away. Jesus brought us near.

We were strangers. He brought us into his household.

And every person who belongs to Jesus came into this family by that same grace.

So what happens when someone in this family votes differently than you?

Or comes from a different culture? Or sees a disputable issue differently?

Before you decide how to respond, remember who they are.

That is someone Jesus loves. Someone Jesus died for. Someone you will approach the Father alongside, through the same Spirit.

You can disagree with them and still love them deeply and treat them with respect

You can speak truth and still treat them with dignity.

If your identity is in Jesus first you have to refuse to allow all the other stuff the world makes to divide us into camps

That is what a new humanity begins to look like.

And imagine what our neighbors would see if that became the way we lived here at River’s Edge.

People who are not defined and ruled by the “isms” of this world

A people who are not Red or Blue

But a people who are defended by the grace of Jesus

A People whose love for one another needs an explanation—and that explanation is Jesus.

Paul says God is building us together into a dwelling for his Spirit. Think about that: the person you are tempted to dismiss is someone God may be joining you to as he builds his house.

So this morning, there is an invitation for every one of us.

Maybe you have never trusted Jesus. You know the weight of your sin, and you have been trying to make yourself good enough to come to God.

You can come to him today. Turn from your sin and put your trust in Jesus, who died and rose again. Receive his forgiveness. Receive the life you cannot give yourself. There is a place for you in his family. It is a free gift to you straight from the cross

And if you already follow Jesus, bring your relationships before him.

Whose name comes to mind when we talk about hostility?

Where have you allowed a political label, an old argument, or a personal preference to become permission to stop loving someone?

What would obedience look like this week?

Maybe you need to apologize. Maybe you need to stop repeating a story. Maybe you need to listen to someone you have already made up your mind about. Maybe you need to welcome someone you have kept at a distance.

Take a moment and ask Jesus: “What needs to change in me so that your peace can be seen among us?”

Jesus has brought us near. Now let’s live together as his people.

Let’s pray.