No More Division

We are continuing to work our way through Ephesians this morning, so go ahead and turn over to 2:11 as we get started today.

As you’re turning over there, let me remind you of where we have been so far.

We said that the first three chapters of Ephesians are going to lay out some incredible truths, while the last three chapters are going to give us some incredibly practical ways to live out what we have seen up to that point.

We began in chapter 1 seeing that God has blessed us with some amazing blessings through what Jesus has done.

We saw the key idea of the book early on. In 1:10, we learned that God is bringing everything together in Christ.

Remember, when sin entered the world, it separated us from God along with the angels who chose to rebel. Even creation itself was thrown off balance and cursed by the impact of sin.

However, God is making all that right again through Jesus. He never lost control, but through Jesus, he is actively pushing back the effects of sin.

Those blessings in Christ led Paul to pray for God to help us see all that it means to be in him. We learned through his prayer that we cannot understand our position in Christ, our hope, or his strength without God showing them to us.

Last week, we saw just how powerfully God has worked to save us.

For each person God has saved, God has brought them spiritually back to life as a gift of his grace. We didn’t earn our salvation, but God saved us so we could honor him.

This week, we turn to a concept that is a little more challenging for us to grasp fully.

However, for the church at Ephesus, this was a game changer.

I am praying that as we look at it together this morning, God will give us all a clear sense of just how powerful these realities are and fill us with an even greater sense of just how amazing our salvation is.

In chapters 2:11-3:13, Paul explains a concept that no one in history fully understood until somewhere in the middle of Acts.

Here’s the reality that we are going to unpack that would have been so revolutionary: Jesus removed the dividing line between Jews and the rest of the world.

You see, the Bible often talks about two different groups: Jews, who were the physical descendants of Abraham, and Gentiles, who were all the other nations of the world.

Since God called Abraham to himself and made a special promise to him, there had been a division between his descendants, the Jews, and the rest of the world.

In Jesus, however, that distinction was completely erased.

We stand on almost 2000 years of church history, so this doesn’t surprise us like it would have shocked people in Paul’s day.

Let’s read what God has to say to us through Paul here in Ephesians 2:11-22.

For us to understand how incredible this is, We are going to have to take a step back and learn a little bit about this distinction.

For the church at Ephesus, they had just begun to understand this.

We are going to divide our study this morning into two sections: before Jesus came and after Jesus came.

At the end, we are going to pull it all together with some application points.

Stay with me, because if you aren’t into history, there might be some dry patches here. However, these are things you and I need to understand, and they have some serious implications for today.

First, let’s look at how people related to God...

1) Before Jesus.

Go back up to verses 11-12.

The church at Ephesus was made up primarily of people who were Gentiles, or non-Jews.

In case you aren’t familiar with exactly what all this is talking about, let’s talk about what that distinction was like.

In , we are introduced to a man named Abraham. In , God makes him a promise:

Genesis 12:1–3 CSB

The Lord said to Abram: Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

genesis 12:1-3

God promised to bless Abraham and his descendants in a unique way, and he promised that all the nations of the world would be blessed through him, which is a key idea we will come back to.

As we have already said, Abrahams descendants are the Jews, and the rest of the world is referred to as “Gentiles”.

The Jews were given the sign of circumcision as a physical symbol of the covenant, or promise, God made with them.

The Gentiles didn’t have that same promise, so they didn’t have the same symbol, which is what Paul is referring to in verse 11.

Interestingly, Paul points out that this was an outward symbol and wasn’t a sure sign of a person’s relationship to God.

In verse 12, he outlines several ways that we, as Gentiles, were at a disadvantage.

As you look at these, though, let’s make one thing clear: Gentiles and Jews could both be saved before Jesus.

Before Jesus, a person could be saved by trusting in the promise God made to send the Messiah, or the Christ.

That promise was at the core of what God said to Abraham in and that he would clarify more and more throughout history: he was going to send someone who would be a physical descendant of Abraham, and that someone would rescue the world.

Jesus is the fulfillment of that promise, which is what we have seen in our key idea for the series. He is the Messiah, or the Christ, who was promised to Israel for 1000 years before this.

The Gentiles didn’t have that promise. They were caught up in worshiping all kinds of false gods, hoping they would get deliverance by serving them. They didn’t know the promise that God was sending a Messiah to save the world, so they were “without Christ.”

Not only that, we were also not a part of God’s special people.

God’s promise to Abraham set up a nation unlike any in history.

John MacArthur explains it this way:

“God had made His chosen people into a theocracy, a nation of whom He Himself was King and Lord. He gave that nation His special blessing, protection, and love. He gave them his covenants, His law, His priesthood, His sacrifices, His promises, and His guidance...” (John MacArthur, Ephesians)

No other nation in the world had these blessings, so we, as Gentiles, didn’t have any of that.

Because of that, Paul could say that we were without hope and without God in the world.

Although we could be saved if we would put our faith and trust in the one true God, we wouldn’t because of the way Gentiles lived pagan lives, separate from Christ.

That’s where we were.

We could be saved, but we likely wouldn’t be.

We were on the outside, without hope, without the one true God.

For the Jews in those days, most of them would have been completely happy with that.

God called his people to be missionaries to the rest of the world, but instead, they allowed the blessings God showed them to make them proud.

They developed a severe hatred for Gentiles and didn’t have any desire for them to know the one true God.

Instead of generously giving away what God had given them spiritually, they hoarded it and looked down on the outside.

Perhaps the clearest picture of this in our day is the way America operated before the civil rights movement.

Although we still have a long way to go in the area of racial reconciliation, the bl

However, in Christ, everything changed.

To see that, let’s look at where we are...

2) After Jesus.

Pick back up in verse 13...

We were far away from God, yet in Christ, what did God do? He brought us near!

We saw that last week, didn’t we? How we were spiritually dead and God made us alive, removing the separation from us?

Verse 14 says that brings us peace!

Through Jesus’ sacrifice, we have peace with God.

Not only that, though, Paul is specifically highlighting the peace between the Jews and the Gentiles.

Jesus took down that dividing wall between us and the Jews!

Look at verse 15...

One of the key divisions between Jews and Gentiles was that Gentiles weren’t allowed to go past a certain point in the temple.

They could be saved, and they could worship, but they were always on the outside.

Now, all those ceremonies, all those rituals, and all those divisions were removed because Jesus had fulfilled all those promises.

We are one body in Christ now, fully and completely united.

Not only that, but check out the promise of verse 18...we also have complete access to the Father, just like any Jew could ever hope to have.

Do you understand how amazing that it? You can right now talk directly to the God of the universe.

You can’t walk up to any other dignitary or leader in the world and have an immediate audience. Yet through Jesus, you and I have immediate access into God’s presence:

Hebrews 4:14–16 CSB

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens—Jesus the Son of God—let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.

Hebrews 4:14 CSB

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens—Jesus the Son of God—let us hold fast to our confession.

,

You can walk up to God’s throne boldly and ask his help, and you can do that even though you aren’t physically descended from Abraham!

Jump down to verses 19-22.

We were excluded, and now we citizens of God’s kingdom.

We were foreigners, and now we are family.

In the Old Testament, God chose to manifest his presence on earth in a unique way in the temple in Jerusalem.

Like we said a minute ago, we couldn’t go all the way into that temple because we were Gentiles. Even Jews couldn’t normally go into the holiest parts of it.

Now, what does he say? You aren’t just allowed to go into the temple, you are a part the temple!

Every believer in Christ is a part of the temple where God lives now!

You and I didn’t deserve that, and throughout history up to this point, no one really understood that.

Yet, by the grace of God, you and I have the full rights available to God’s people!

In chapter 3, Paul explains that this mystery, the idea that Jews and Gentiles were both fully a part of God’s kingdom, was the key concept behind his ministry.

Look at how he sums it up in verse 3:3-7.

Why did God do this? Why would God save all people of the earth who will respond to him in faith?

Look at verse 9-11 - This takes us back to what we saw last week: God saved you so we would display his goodness, mercy, and grace, even to the angels themselves.

Our salvation isn’t for us, although it is amazing that we get the benefits of being a part of the kingdom of God.

So, you are a Gentile who was separated from God, with no hope, no promise, no Christ.

Now, Jesus has torn all that down by dying in our place, taking our sin upon himself, and we are now a part of the kingdom and family of God.

So what?

Let’s try to make a few application points here:

Peace is only found in Christ, so turn to him.

Live like you are a part of his kingdom and family. You have access to God the Father; act like it.

Part of acting like it means you will not tolerate any kind of division or divisiveness over anything but Christ. There is absolutely zero place for any kind of racism in the heart of those who know Jesus. Jesus has torn down any distinction. Now the only distinction that matters is between those who have been saved and those who haven’t.

Everyone in all the world deserves the chance to hear that they can be a part of God’s kingdom and family. Who are you going to tell? Where do you need to go to tell them?