Sermon Tone Analysis

Questions:

How many were born here in Wichita?

How many were not born in Wichita?

How many of you have lived in another country?

How many of you grew up going to church?

How many of you grew up not going to church?

The church gathered here this morning is a microcosm of what God is going to do in all the world.

The church is in itself an illustration of this wonderful thing.

The ability to take something that is so different, so opposed, so wrong in the world and bring it together make it one, and make it right is God’s work in the world.

There were two obstacles that kept the Gentiles from coming to Christ.

There were two obstacles that kept the nations of the world from coming together as one people in Christ.

First, it was there trespasses and sins which Paul discussed in 2.1-10

First Obstacle: Trespasses and Sins

Trespasses, the debt of their sin was far to great for them to pay

Yet, Christ is rich in mercy and grace and paid that debt for them

Sins, They were far from God - they walked the path of cain, the son of disobedience, away from from the presence of God.

Yet, Christ came to them, brought them close by seating them with Christ in the heavenly places.

Second Obstacle: The Law

Second.

The second obstacle that stood between the gentiles and membership in the covenant people of God was their position, or status, in the economy of God.

Their relationship with the Law of God.

And this second obstacle is what we will address in our passage this morning

The OT Law is one of the most misunderstood topics in all the bible.

Christians constantly struggle to understand the law for what it says, we struggle to interpret the law, we struggle to understand its relationship to grace… if seems so foreign to us.

And, when we think about the law we think about:

Federal, State, and local laws

We think about criminal, civil, contract and tort laws

We take our legal system as our interpretive lens and hope to make sense of the bible.

However, this sort of perspective is really unhelpful, and actually distorts the law of God.

the law was not a rule book that God holds as he waits for you to mess up so he can condemn you.

The law was God’s revelation of himself to his people so they might live as his called out covenant people.

The Law instructed people on how to live faithfully before God.

Not only that, but The law was a preview to the gospel, a foreshadowing of what was to come.

The Law and the gospel are not at all to be seen in opposition to one another.

Rather the Bible speaks of the law as that which prepares us for the gospel.

in the same way

an appetizer is not opposed to the main course

The sign that says, “Wichita 20 miles” is not opposed to the city of Wichita.

the smell or aroma of a turkey in the oven should prepare us for the feast that is to follow.

This is how we should understand the law, it was God’s way of preparing his people for the main course.

If we keep the law, if we follow its instructions we will be ready for the main course, we will be ready for Christ.

not only that, but by following the law the people of God were free, they enjoyed life, they loved the law of God for it was their delight.

The law was never a burden.

David says,

The Law exists in the context of God’s covenant with Israel; covenant, not law-keeping, is the basis of this relationship.

The role of law is to administrate the covenant.

The Law provides instruction for things that ruin relationship with God (e.g., idolatry and injustice).

It also shows what loving God and others looks like

He also says,

Paul talks about the law a touter who leads us to Christ.

The law was like a loving teacher who takes us by the hand and walks us to Jesus.

The law was loved by the people of God, for it was like food for their souls.

And what of the things the law was designed for was to show Israel how to live faithfully before God.

God did not want his people to be like the nations who were trenched in demon worship and wickedness.

For he wanted his people to be holy, to be different than the rest of the nations.

Which is why God established the civil law, so the people of God would know how to live distinct from the rest of the nations.

Which was an expressing of his grace.

Moses praises God for this grace in Deuteronomy 7

Now, he did not separate Israel from the other nations because he hated the other nations, rather he separated Israel so they would be his holy people and in turn would be a light to the nations.

The ultimate goal was for all the nations to be brought in and be part of God’s covenant people.

This goal is made clear all the way back when God called the Abraham

King David likewise knew that God would use Israel to be a light to the nations.

However, for the nations to be saved, they had to join and become part of the Covenant people of God.

The Law exists in the context of God’s covenant with Israel; covenant, not law-keeping, is the basis of this relationship.

The role of law is to administrate the covenant.

The Law provides instruction for things that ruin relationship with God (e.g., idolatry and injustice).

It also shows what loving God and others looks like

They had to forsake everything from their past and conform to the law, and follow God.

And Israel was supposed to help them do this....

But something happened, instead of Israel being a light to the nations, instead of them inviting the nations in, they became arrogant and prideful, and boasted of their relationship with the living God.

They wanted their relationship with God to be exclusive, they wanted to be able lord over the gentiles because they were the true covenant people of God… so they thought.

Jesus rebukes the leaders of the Jewish people for this very thing in

By the time we get to Jesus’ day (and Pauls day) the Jew Gentiles tension in jesus day was intense

It was pure hatred

Worse than

And the anomosity

Jew’s vs. Gentiles

study of the history of the ancient world tells us that none of today’s social distinctions — none of our racial barriers, our narrow nationalisms, our iron curtains — are more exclusive or unrelenting than the separation between Jews and Gentiles in Biblical times.

A study of the history of the ancient world tells us that none of today’s social distinctions — none of our racial barriers, our narrow nationalisms, our iron curtains — are more exclusive or unrelenting than the separation between Jews and Gentiles in Biblical times.

The Jews believed the Gentiles were created to fuel the fires of Hell.

A common motto was, “The best of the serpents crush … the best of the Gentiles kill.”

It was not lawful to aid a Gentile woman in giving birth, for that would bring another heathen into the world.

The Gentiles, even apart from their animosity for Jews, had their own parochial hatreds for anyone not like them.

Plato said that the barbarians (anyone non-Greek) were his enemies by nature.

The Roman Livy confirmed this in his day, saying, “The Greeks wage a truceless war against people of other races, against barbarians.”

And of course this was eminently true of the imperialistic Romans.

The collision of Gentile/Jewish exclusiveness was monumental.

The Gentiles were dogs in Jewish parlance, and the Jews were homicidal enemies of the human race in Gentile terms.

Verse 11 of our text calls this to remembrance: “Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called ‘uncircumcised’ by those who call themselves ‘the circumcision’ (that done in the body by the hands of men) …”

The Jews believed the Gentiles were created to fuel the fires of Hell.

A common motto was, “The best of the serpents crush … the best of the Gentiles kill.”

It was not lawful to aid a Gentile woman in giving birth, for that would bring another heathen into the world.

The Gentiles, even apart from their animosity for Jews, had their own narrow-minded hatreds for anyone not like them.

Plato said that the barbarians (anyone non-Greek) were his enemies by nature.

The Roman historian, Livy, confirmed this in his day, saying, “The Greeks wage a truceless war against people of other races, against barbarians.”

The collision of Gentile/Jewish exclusiveness was monumental.

The Gentiles were dogs in Jewish speech, and the Jews were homicidal enemies of the human race in Gentile terms.

And now these two people, the Jewish people and the gentiles people were to be made one in Christ

So in our passage this morning we will see that the gospel has broken down the walls of hostility, and has taken what was once two people (Jews and Gentiles) and have made them one in Christ.

He has taken what was once hostility and has given them peace.