Reconnected to Each Other

Story of when I was a teenager

When I was y’all’s age, I had a group of friends from church. Me and a bunch of guys would get together almost every weekend and hang out. We were always getting into trouble, but we also tried to build each other up. Sure, we would roll our Sunday School teacher’s house, but we’d also get together every Tuesday after school for a bible study.

Story of Big Mike doing the truffle shuffle on the wrong truck

Story of giving Fabio a concussion on a jet ski

Story of scaring JBow in the basement

All of this to say, we had MANY great times together. But, do you know what brought us all together? Church. We went to 4 different schools, one of us was in college, one of us was homeschooled, but we all went to the same church. And many of us served in that church with the worship ministry. The only thing that brought us together was our love for the Lord, and he did the rest.

In fact, this is a theme that we see a lot in scripture. The theme of God bringing people together through Himself. The word that I like to use for this is one called reconciliation. Have any of you ever heard that word before? What about outside of the church? This is a word that a lot of people are talking about right now with the race issues going on. The term “racial reconciliation” is being used a ton. But what does that word mean? And what does it have to do with what we’re looking at this weekend?

This morning I want us to look at verses 12-15, then we’re going to jump to Ephesians, and see what these two passages together have to say about this idea.

English Standard Version Chapter 15

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

Love one another as I have loved you. What this shows us is that Christ has not only loved us enough to die for us, like we learned about last night, but He has then commanded us to love each other in the same way. Just like we talked about last night, how when we have life in Christ we produce fruit- when we find life in Christ, we love each other in the same way that Christ loved us. Why is this? It’s because until we have the love of Christ inside of us, we cannot truly love people. See why I said that without what we talked about last night we couldn’t do what we’re learning about today? Because there’s a process. Love God, love each other. Not only is that the order of importance, it’s also the only order that we can follow, because we can only love because of Him.

Tell story about being a visual learner

This teaching brings to mind for me the idea of reconciliation. Let me give you a little bit of background before we dive into Ephesians 1.

God creates Adam -> Adam sins

God floods the earth -> God makes a covenant with Noah

Noah sins -> we meet Abraham

Abraham is told that he will be the father of many nations -> covenant with Abraham

By this covenant, God chose the people of Abraham to be His people. We’re used to calling them something like the chosen people, or God’s chosen. They are the Jews, or the Israelites. But they were descendants of Abraham. God promised Abraham that it was through His lineage that he would raise up a great multitude, kings, rulers, and ultimately even the Messiah. This was God’s promise to Abraham. Well, if we look at Matthew 1 (which for your sake we aren’t) we will see the lineage of Jesus. Jesus was a descendant of Abraham. That’s why it’s important to look at those lineages, because you learn a lot about the people you think you know. But, as we briefly alluded to last night, Jesus didn’t just die for the Jews, did He? No. He died for all people. We said last night that one of the lessons Jesus was teaching His disciples through these words was that if they (Jewish people) were not producing fruit, He (God) would cast them aside into the fire to prune those who were.

Look at Romans 9:1-8 “I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.”

Not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring.

See, the Jews of Jesus’s day believed that they were the children of God because of their race. Because they were Jews, they were His people, and He was coming for them. That’s made evident in the fact that they expected Him to ride in on a horse, waving a sword, and overthrowing the Roman empire. (Sound familiar?) So what Paul is telling them here is that Jesus didn’t come for the Jews, but rather for all of mankind. God revealed Himself first to the Jew (they rejected Him), then to the Greek (Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”)

Paul was considered the apostle to the Gentiles. I don’t have time to walk you through why that is in our time this morning, but trust me that it’s an amazing story. God, in His sovereignty, by His providence, set Paul on a path of taking the Gospel to the Gentiles. You see, this message wasn’t just for the descendants of Abraham, but rather for all people.

That’s precisely what we see again in Ephesians 1:3-14

Ephesians 1:3–14 ESV

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

And Ephesians 2:1-11

Ephesians 2:1–10 (ESV)

Ephesians 2:1–10 ESV

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

And ultimately where we’re going to spend some time, Ephesians 2:11-22

Ephesians 2:11–22 ESV

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— 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. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 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, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

You see, it is through the cross that believers are brought together. Christ, through the work on the cross, has redeemed ALL of mankind, not just one people group. And more than that, He is drawing all people to Himself. In Revelation, when we see into the throne room of heaven, and we see who all is there, it says that people from every tribe, tongue and nation will be worshipping together. All people. How can this be? Look back to Ephesians 2:14-16

Ephesians 2:14–16 ESV

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 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, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

Through the cross, we are one. While we still have our differences, we also have a shared commonality. God has broken down the barriers between us: race, gender, age, socio-economic standing, educational abilities, all of it. Everything that divides us now takes a back seat to what unites us, and that is that we have been adopted as His sons and daughters.

Let me tell you a little bit about where I’m from, where I came from, and where I am now.

Anniston

Pawpaw Eason and the Klan

Kam

This is possible because we serve a God who desires for us to be reconciled. I tell my students this all the time:

“You don’t have to look very far to see how divided the world is. The church should not look like the world.”

You all have that responsibility. If you have the Spirit inside of you, you will have a desire to be unified to the body.

Lastly, God has established this because we need it. We can’t do this on our own. We need community, for precisely what we’re going to talk about tonight.

Here’s my challenges to you this morning:

Are you prioritizing being connected to the body over being connected to the world?