"Chosen" Part 2 - Unity in Christ

Introduction

I want to begin describing 3 people, all from the first century, beyond that, they don’t have much in common.

Simon the Zealot

A Young man who was proud of his own Jewish heritage

Called a “Zealot”

Known for violent revolts against the Roman oppression

Nationalistic Extremists with a passion for Israel

Matthew the Tax Collector

A young man who was attracted to power

Called the “Tax Collector”

Seen as traitors against the Israelite People

Progressive sell outs with a focus on order

Mary Magdalene

A poor woman from the city

Formerly Demon Possessed

Could not have cared less about politics and nations.

All of these are people Chosen to be disciples. Further, Jesus is seen talking to Samaritans (Hated by the Jews), Lepers (Discriminated due to illness) and Children Choosing them all to be apart of his Kingdom

Fast forward 25 years to Ephesus

Wealthy Roman Colony

Big Trade city with all kinds of people

Scholars call this letter the letter to America

Churches with tensions based on Race and Tradition (nothing like us)

Speaking of us, Fast forward 2000 years to today

85% of Americans say our nation is deeply divided over our values

We are divided on why we’re divided

Many are losing hope for the unity of our nation.

Question – It’s clear that this is not good and how it should be. How can a humanity that is so fractured and broken find any sense of unity?

Answer – One thing is certain. That unity must be based on something bigger than us Any unity that is based on ourselves will crumble. I am not here to restore your hope in a unified America, but to give you a hope beyond something as temporary as a nation. Unity has to be bigger than us. The fact is we all have some very important things in common - We have 1 Problem - Sin, 1 Solution - Jesus, and that common story is brings us Unity as a New humanity.

This is all spelled out in Ephesians 2

As you turn, there let me remind you the context

Paul has just described the God we worship and how he chose the Church from before time to be adopted as his family in Christ for the purpose of His glory

He goes on to Pray for the Church by describing God’s glory and All God as done for and through Christ and how he has been glorified and given authority and how the Church should ideal be his Body and the fullness of Him and then he says “And you…”

1. Problem - Sin (vv. 1-3)

English Standard Version Chapter 2

2 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

These verses describe our condition without God

Theologian John Stott identifies 3 categories of this condition - Dead, Enslaved, and Condemned

Dead

The phrase “Dead” here is not merely a figure of speech

The terms Death and Life are so much more complex than just our biological breath

Paul sees life as being in God and only being provided from God

Without God we are already in a state of Death

Sin is brokenness which is destructive,

living outside of God’s design is not merely breaking the rules, but it is living outside of what God defines as life itself

Enslaved

many oppose God for sake of Freedom (“I get to do what I want to do”); they don’t like the idea of having to follow something bigger than themselves

read v. 2 again an notice, apart from God you aren’t free

English Standard Version Chapter 2

2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind

Those who oppose God are not free, they are slaves to the world and to dark spiritual forces and to their impulses

I see this so often with my students that I teach in High School

They don’t want to follow God’s Standards, but they quickly become trapped in the ever-changing standards of culture. The word “course” is literally age - to say that without God, you are enslaved to whatever dominates your time. And that time is always dominated by a lie.

“Following the prince of the power of the air” - Cultural trends and narratives are not innocent human inventions or attempts and making sense of life without God. There is a Spiritual battle and not following God does not leave you free, but leaves you trapped in the forces that are against God

And this spiritual force does not have to work very hard. Without God we are enslaved simply by our own desires

passions of our flesh, slave to what we want. Slave to the animalistic drives that are insatiable and will ultimately leave us unsatisfied and without hope.

To oppose God is not to be free but to be enslaved.

Imagine a rich man buying a European sports car. He intends to drive has fast and recklessly as his impulses desire and wants to be able to go wherever he wants

He soon begins to notice how annoying the speed limits are and how other drivers get in the way, so he says, let’s go off-roading, then I’ll really be free.

It doesn’t turn out well, because freedom is found in design. Following every impulse leads to destruction.

Condemned

Death and Slavery lead to condemnation

v. 3b - “[you] were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind”

In our natural state, without putting our hope in Jesus, we are not just breaking down, but we are the targets of God’s wrath.

God’s world is broken, and justice demands payment.

We love Justice, until we’re the defendants, and without Christ, we stand before a judge without defense.

This runs counter to our cultural myth about humanity

That every one is ultimately good if you dig deep down and you’re free to choose your own path and so on...

Without God We were dead, we are were enslaved, and we were Condemned.

And it’s so easy to see this in other people.

It’s so easy to see how our enemies are dead, enslaved, and condemned.

It’s easy to say Our political opponents are clearly missing the truth and enslaved to their demands and one day will be rooted out

It’s easy to say people outside of what we are used to are dead and enslaved and condemned

It’s easy to see anyone we don’t like as these things, but look at the beginning of the verse.

“You” - Without God, this is you too

No matter your wealth, status, manners, background, reputation, without God you stand Dead, Enslaved, and Condemned.

2. Solution - Savior (vv. 4-10)

English Standard Version Chapter 2

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

God Initiates

But God

Only because he is Full of Mercy

Only because he loved us even when we were dead

Only because he is Good he wrote the story this way

This was his plan from the beginning, not a desperation play, not a last resort. This is the story he wrote from before Creation that He would make us alive with Christ.

Why? For his Glory

God is Glorified

v.7 “So that” the world will see,

not how Great we are, not how worth saving we were, not anything about us

How wonderful he is

God is doing this for His glory. He is the main character of the Scriptures. He is the hero of the story. We are not the Superhero, we’re the damsel in distress.

But we get to share in his reward. He saves us not to hog his glory, but he is glorified in sharing his love with us. We are rewarded by Him and we are His reward. God saves for Himself because he is Good and all of this is by Grace

We share in his glory, we are glorified, not because we are worthy, but because Christ is worthy and we have been raised up with him.

We were chosen because Christ was Chosen, we are alive because Christ defeated death and invites us to live with him and as one in Him and all of this is by Grace.

By Grace

Mentioned twice (important)

Grace is showing us the love we didn’t deserve but God gives anyway

Paul emphasizes that it is not by works with another so that

“So that no one can boast”

No one was closer to salvation than anyone else.

Those without God can do good things, but all that does is gives their prison sell a pillow

But it applies to each of us

It’s so tempting to say that certain actions, or certain ways of life, or certain ways of thinking make one better than someone else

And their may be some benefits to living one way or another, ultimately none of us are any closer or further from God than anyone else without Jesus

The works that we accomplish were God’s plan all along, not anything we did, God saves us not because we were worth saving but because he loves us. Not because he did our best and he did the rest, but because he paid and accomplished it all Christ saved us

This is the Gospel. The Good News. The story that is the Core of Christianity. Believing this is what defines us as Christians. This is the common story that leads us to our result.

The next verse begins with a therefore, meaning, because this story is our story here’s how we should live.

3. Result - Unity (vv. 11-22)

English Standard Version Chapter 2

11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

Firstly, Paul acknowledges division is real and its natural.

Without God, we experience division and separation

This is the result of Sin

Garden of Eden - Perfect Relationship with God and with Each other

Curse of sin - Separation from God and each other

Sin divides us from God and Each other

Paul reminds the Gentiles of this condition

The Gentiles are born outside of God’s Covenant People

They are divided from God’s covenant people

Created a Spiritual Divide

not naturally apart of Gods promises

not entitled to salvation

Created a racial divide

Against Jewish Law to aid a Gentile woman giving birth because doing so would only bring another Gentile to the world

If A Jewish person married a Gentile, the parents would hold a funeral service for that kid

Gentiles were seen as fuel for the fire of hell

Gentiles were alienated from the Covenant people of God by birth and not entitled to the justice that comes in the Day of Salvation

(THAT’S US)

We were not entitled to Salvation

God did not have to allow us into his covenant family

God did not have to extend the Gospel to the Gentiles

We were the Outsiders that were brought in to the covenant, so how dare we ever treat anyone else like they don’t belong.

But here is the Good news

English Standard Version Chapter 2

13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.

In Christ and only in Christ and only by Christ we are invited to be near to God and each other

In Christ Jesus, a racial divide that existed for millenia is healed

Again it is emphasized that is in Christ and Christ alone

Not the morally upright lifestyle of good God-Fearing Gentiles

Not the Judeo-Christian Foundation of a political System

By the Cross and the Cross only are we brought near to God

HE HIMSELF IS OUR PEACE

Unity is not created, it is not earned, it is not anything other than a natural result of pursuing Jesus with everything we have

and If we are not seeing Unity we have to ask ourselves if we’re sure that we’re following Jesus with everything we have.

He tore down the things that separated us

Here he turns his attention to the Jews

He ended the Old Testament Law - No can make themselves closer to God than anyone else through their actions

Only through Christ are we brought near and any lifestyle is a result of salvation not the source of it

He kills the hostility by making us a new people group that is diverse and loving and kind

Unity cannot be found by any set of rules, any style, any branding, or anything other than our pursuit of Jesus as Lord

Our unity is based on Christ and Christ alone

English Standard Version Chapter 2

18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

God has Chosen for himself a people

God is building for himself a kingdom

He builds this kingdom based on the Word of God (apostles and prophets) which all points to Jesus

Jesus is the Focus and what holds it all together

We are to continue that temple

We are to be the dwelling place of God

We have been chosen to be One Church that proclaims the truth of One God

The temple language is so important here

The Gentiles in Ephesus saw many temples every day and people worshipping their gods for their own benefit

The Jews saw their temple as their identity. what divided themselves from the immoral Gentiles

But God is has chosen a New People as a New Temple

The Message of Ephesians c. God’s Temple (Verses 20–22)

The new temple, however, is neither a material building, nor a national shrine, nor has it a localized site. It is a spiritual building (God’s household) and an international community (embracing Gentiles as well as Jews), and it has a worldwide spread (wherever God’s people are to be found). This is where God dwells. He is not tied to holy buildings but to holy people, to his own new society. To them he has pledged himself by a solemn covenant. He lives in them, individually and as a community

Being a temple of Christ includes and expects unity

Christians are to be know by their love (According to John 13)

When the world looks at us they should see a unified people

Accepting differences

Celebrating Unique Designs

The one place where anyone can find community

It should shock the world the diversity and unity that the Church should demonstrate

And when they ask we can explain that we all have the same story

The same Problem - Sin

The same Solution - Jesus

And because of our Savior, we our one Church

It’s how a Zealot, a Tax Collector, and A former prostitute found community

It’s how two groups of people divided for millenia find peace with each other

It’s the basis for which you and I should love each other.

So what do we do with all this?

Maybe, you need to choose to be unified with the Church and join and be apart.

Not going to be easy or perfect

Relationships take work

But this relationship is based on something way bigger than you

Maybe, you need to realize that you did not deserve your salvation

Maybe you were by Society’s standards a decent person

Maybe you were raised as a Christian

Maybe you’ve always known you were a bit closer to God than those others

But you’re not. You are a sinner in desperate need of a Savior just like them, and just like me.

Maybe it’s time to humble yourself and repent for the badge of honor that you gave yourself

Maybe, this is the first time you realized you need salvation

Maybe the first part of the sermon hit a bit too close to home and you know deep down your dead, enslaved, and condemned and you don’t want to stay there

Maybe you realized that you’ve been separated from God and others and you want true relationship that’s based on more than anything we can claim to be.

Maybe its time you go from death to life by acknowledging Jesus as the one who saves you and the one who is Lord

Whatever the Spirit is leading you to do, I encourage you to seek unity based on One Lord

Let’s practice our unity now by responding with one voice in worship.