Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

In August 2009, Amanda and I were flying from California to our home in Maryland for the last time, I had just accepted a position at Trinity Baptist Church in Livermore, and we’d be packing up our 2 dogs in 2 cars and moving cross country.

My head was spinning and wondering if we made the right choice.

Amanda was sleeping on the plane…I know shocker…and I came across a passage that was so comforting and for the most part I never questioned again whether we made the right choice.

Amanda and I were leaving houses and brothers and mothers, the Ravens…we were leaving family.

And I took that as a promise that God would give us all of those things and more.

And today, we have so much more than we could ever have imagined.

We have a church family.

God has fulfilled those words twice over.

In Livermore and now in Vallejo.

And what do we have that makes us family?

We have Jesus!

Turn with me in your Bibles to Ephesians 2:19-22

Transition to the Text: This passage begins with the words “So then.”

“So then” is an important phrase in the Bible.

It’s one of those phrases that reminds us that we can’t pick and choose passages we like.

It reminds us that each and every passage is part of a bigger chapter, book and the whole Bible.

So what does this “so then” point to? vs. 11-18.

The Ephesian church was made up of gentiles who were thinking that perhaps the fact that they weren’t born jewish means that they are second class citizens in the kingdom of God.

There is still a lot of jewish people holding on to that “favored nation” status.

Paul writes to encourage them that even Jewish people are only in the kingdom of God if they are in Christ.

vs. 13 is key:

Paul reminds us that it is not who you are or what you’ve done, but who Jesus is and what He’s done.

No one is excluded from the kingdom of God based on the family they were born into.

People are excluded from the kingdom of God, even if they were born Jewish, if they are not brought near by the blood of Christ.

With that being said, let’s read:

Transition to the Big Idea: This passage is about how God takes people from ever tongue tribe and nation with nothing in common and makes them family.

How does He do that?

Simple: This is the gospel.

The good news of what Jesus did for us.

Big Idea: The Gospel creates a spiritual Family.

Transition to the Points: Over the last few weeks we have been talking about family.

And some of you probably already understand that family is more than those you are related to.

Sometimes you have people closer than a brother or a sister.

For some that might be your unit in the military.

For others that might be a close working environment.

But what I’d like to ask is, for all of us here, could the church be a spiritual family that could be closer than the church?

Main Point #1 - We were all once strangers.

Explanation: Up until this time in the Bible, the family of God was entirely based around the nation of Israel.

You want to come near to God, you come by the blood of bulls and goats through the sacrificial system.

That’s the only way.

And the only way to do that was to become a jew.

And for guys that was through circumcision.

Not a small decision.

But now, with what Jesus did on the cross, paying for the sins, not just of the jews but the sins of the whole world, this opened the door to many being a part of the kingdom of God.

Now on day 1, people came in from all walks of life.

Many nations, many languages, skin colors, men, women, slaves, freedmen, citizens of Rome and jewish people.

And they were strangers that day.

But not for long.

Because the truth is that they will be tempted to think, I don’t fit in here.

I don’t belong.

I’m not jewish.

I have nothing in common with these people who don’t necessarily look like me, act like me, sound like me or think the way that I do about spiritual things.

Paul’s encouragement is one of confidence.

Be confident that you belong in the kingdom of God.

I have heard stories of people immigrating to the US and when they receive their US citizenship, it’s like they are born again.

In the kingdom of God, you must be let go of the old life and embrace a new life chasing after Jesus.

You are no longer strangers and aliens.

You are full citizens and saints in the kingdom of God.

Live in that.

But what we have to understand is that no one is born a citizen of the kingdom of God.

It only happens when at some point in your life your respond to the gospel, repent of your sin and embrace the payment for your sin that Jesus made at the cross.

Now there are those who believe that a saint is some canonized by the church after their death.

But biblically, if you have embraced Jesus as your savior and Lord, you are a saint.

Illustration: I remember the first day of high school.

It didn’t matter if we knew each other in middle school.

We were all strangers that day.

Let’s face it, you can know your teenager on a Monday and be a stranger by Tuesday.

But that first day is awkward and weird.

Who am I? And what group or family will I be a part of for the next 4 years.

But it is so much better to walk in confidence than in fear and trepidation.

Those high schoolers can smell fear and pounce.

Application: Even today, we are tempted not fully accept that we are accepted by God.

We tend to feel like we still need to earn it especially if we’ve lived a life that we know was not pleasing to God.

And showing up to church, we are tempted to feel like we have to have it all together and know all the answers.

You don’t!

You are welcome to come as you are because your standing before God is based on what Jesus did for you on the cross.

At the same time, those of us who are already in need to be reminded that we were all once strangers and aliens and that even our citizenship in the kingdom of God is based on what Jesus did on the cross.

We ought not to be arrogant towards new believers.

Also, we ought not put any stumbling blocks before people coming to Jesus.

The church should be a place where strangers don’t just become friends but they become family, because that’s what Jesus made us.

Main Point #2 - Jesus made us family.

Illustration: Now if we want to take that illustration about showing up to high school for the first time a little further, what typically helps you to belong?

A group. and those groups are around band, sports teams, shared interests.

And no matter what anyone outside of those groups think about you, you have that group as friends.

And as hard has high school can be, it’s so much easier to make it through when you aren’t doing it alone.

So what shared interest do people in the church have in common?

We have Jesus!

Explanation: Paul has already brought this up in 11-18 and talked about the fact that it is Jesus who connects us based on the cross.

But from second half of vs 19 through 20, Paul tells us long after the fact why we can still believe in Jesus:

The Bible.

We are citizens and saints and members of the household of God…built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.

Prophets refer to those who wrote the OT and the Apostles wrote the NT.

The Bible has become our constitution in this kingdom.

Now Jesus is the cornerstone.

A cornerstone is the most important stone in a building that sets the alignment of the entire building.

If that cornerstone is off, the building will be off.

This is why it is so important that we understand who Jesus is and what He did.

If our understanding of Jesus is off, our entire faith will be off.

So we have to understand that all of the Bible points to Jesus.