Reconciliation Beyond Imagination

Maybe what comes into your mind is a more personal division: someone who you see as so polar opposite in their viewpoints and opinions that you could never possibly have unity with them...

Maybe it’s someone who has hurt you… Or someone who has hurt others you love...

Maybe it’s someone who SHOULD be close to you… a one-time best-friend... a spouse… a brother or sister in Christ…

But there’s just something between you that seems like it could never come down.

We live in a fallen, broken world where sin and suffering can cause divisions that seem insurmountable...

Maybe it seems impossible for some of those groups or people to ever be brought together…

And in the flesh it is…

But today we are going to see that there is a “reconciliation beyond imagination” that is uniquely available to the people of God in the church of Jesus Christ.

Today, as we study Ephesians 2, we are going to see how Jesus reconciled two of the most aggressively opposed people groups imaginable… and brought them into new relationship with one another and to God so they became one new body.

Here’s our big idea for the day:

Big Idea: Demonstrate the supernatural reconciliation that Christ provides between his people and God.

We are finishing out Ephesians 2 today...

And throughout chapters 1-3, The Apostle Paul is building a doctrinal foundation of who the church is so that in chapters 4-6, he can build off of that foundation and give us a right understanding of what the church does.

In chapter 1, Paul establishes that God has LAVISHED every spiritual blessing on those whom he has united to Christ through faith…

And he has blessed them… ultimately… as an act of GRACE… which means that he gets all the credit and praise.

And because of this common experience of his gracious blessing, they have been brought together in Christ.

They get to pursue knowing him through faith, love, and hope… together.

And based on that fact, Paul begins praying for them that they would know and understand all of the fullness of glory that God is bringing to himself through his church.

His deepest prayer is that these believers would “get it”… that they would UNDERSTAND just how incredible it is that they get to be the CHURCH… the BODY of the One who has been given authority over all things...

That’s my deepest prayer for our church as we study this letter.

That we would pursue the unimaginable vision of God for his church so that he would receive much glory.

Or simply put, that we would “get it.” That we would “get” just how awesome it is to be part of the church of Jesus Christ.

So as we entered into chapter 2 (which we began studying last week in verses 1-10) Paul describes how each individual believer is incorporated into the church...

That every single one of us were DEAD apart from Christ’s gracious work… but THROUGH his gracious work, we are made ALIVE in Christ and assembled around God’s heavenly throne… seated in the heavenly places... as his MASTERPIECE…

and that by his grace he has created us FOR GOOD WORKS that we should walk in them.

Now we also acknowledged last week that we are God’s masterpiece TOGETHER...

Each one of us is like one brushstroke of the Master Painter.

Each one of us is like one perfectly designed sprocket in a beautiful grandfather clock...

Each one of us is like a single word in a perfectly crafted poem.

We are each personally saved and recreated in Christ… but we are saved and recreated as parts in a whole.

So today as we get into 2:11-22, we are going to see this “parts of a whole” them even more clearly...

This section is about our incorporation into the church from a national/global perspective.

How do the NATIONS… the GENTILES… come into a salvation that belonged to the nation of Israel?

How do we relate to the people of God as they were defined under the Old Covenant?

This section is about the idea that we don’t just receive a new INDIVIDUAL identity when we come to Christ… we receive a new CORPORATE identity with Christ’s people.

We are no longer primarily Gentile... or American... or Republican or Democrat… or any other corporate identity you would assign to yourself...

We are primarily IN CHRIST… together as part of his body.

So last week was incorporation into the church from an individual perspective… this week from a CORPORATE perspective… and then NEXT WEEK… in 3:1-13, we will look at that incorporation into the church from a cosmic/heavenly perspective.

Let’s read Eph. 2:11-22.

Today, from this passage, we want to look at:

Three Keys to Supernatural Reconciliation

And the first is this:

1) Humble Remembrance: We were at irreconcilable odds with God and his people. (2:11-12)

Notice how Paul begins this section… look at v. 11: “Therefore [because we are Christ’s workmanship, saved by grace through faith FOR good works… THEREFORE] remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh...

He’s worked his way through the gospel for the believer in the first 11 verses… now based on that understanding, he’s taking them back again to their pre-converted state and looking at the gospel from another layer: this corporate identity layer.

To do this, he addresses a specific subset within the church: those who were once Gentiles...

…that is, they are people who were not naturally born into the nation of Israel, those who were God’s chosen people according to the Old Testament covenants.

Now, we know that the Ephesian church in particular had a LOT of Gentiles in it because after Paul had preached the gospel there for a while, Acts 19 tells us the idol manufacturers in the city were angry with the church because they were stealing all their business...

So GENTILES had left idol worship in masses because they had turned to worship Jesus Christ and become part of his church.

But, especially in the first century, there was a lot of confusion and even conflict about how Gentiles should now relate to God’s people... because Israel and the Gentiles were naturally opposed to one another.

Israel viewed the Gentiles as unclean because of their ceremonial law… and the Gentiles have always tried to oppress Israel as a relatively small and weak nation.

So when they were brought into the church through the gospel, they carried some of these perspectives and conflicts with them.

Those who were Jews by birth would ask, “Don’t Gentiles need to be circumcised and start observing the Old Testament law now that they are following our Messiah?”

“Aren’t Gentiles second-rate Christians because they are not born into ‘God’s chosen nation?’”

At the same time, the Gentiles might think, “Well maybe WE are more favored in the church because Israel had largely rejected their Messiah and their view of the law had not produced the righteousness of God!”

And so Paul wants the Gentile believers in this church to REMEMBER who they once were… the corporate identity that once defined them.

They were at ONCE at odds with God AND with God’s people...

FIRST, they needed to humbly remember that they were once at Odds with God's People…

That’s is where Paul starts in v. 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—”

Notice…: this is about what they CALLED each other. This is about their perspectives according to VISIBLE, FLESH-DRIVEN signs.

The Jews looked at Gentiles and said, “look at that uncircumcised sinner… God would never accept them and I should not either.”

To CALL a group “the uncircumcision” was to draw attention to the fact that they lacked the external ordinance or SIGN of God’s covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob… the covenant sign of circumcision.

At the same time, Gentiles called the Jews “the circumcision” in a negative way as well…

The Roman view of circumcision was that it was a handicap… a sign of weakness in the body...

Which is generally how the outside world viewed Israel anyway.

And this very physical sign was a major point of contention in the early church.

Should Gentiles be circumcised to become part of the people of God?

Should Jews be viewed as weak because of their circumcision?

Their corporate identity was all about what they could SEE and DO in the flesh that set them apart from others… rather than who they were in their heart.

These symbols of national identity and family heritage could easily become more important to them than their allegiance to Christ… and so Paul says remember who that those things ONCE defined you.

We talked about this last week that we need to get that word “once” into our vocabulary.

We need to remember what ONCE defined us, but not longer defines us.

But here’s the thing: the external sign of circumcision was the LEAST of the Gentiles problem… their lack of an external sign of the covenant only pointed to the fact that they also lacked an INTERNAL relationship with God.

They were not only at odds with other people… they were...

“At odds with God himself...”

Look again at verse 12… Remember at that time that you were separated from CHRIST...

We have to understand that even though they didn’t always understand what it meant, Israel really WAS God’s chosen people… and through them, God really HAD promised to send the Messiah… the CHRIST… the Promised, Anointed, Savior-King.

And if you were not part of Israel, then you were separated from the hope of a Christ… a Messiah… the King of Israel and the restorer of all things.

He was the one who was promised to sit on David’s throne… what should that have to do with Romans?

You didn’t even know to EXPECT a Christ.

At least that was the perspective before Christ actually came.

But not only that, the Gentiles really were alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel...

God had promised a specific nation a specific blessing of a specific a LAND… where God would dwell with his people in a TEMPLE…

Because God’s manifest presence was physically located in Israel, there was actual distance between the nations and God.

But not only that, the Gentiles were strangers to the covenants of promise...

The Covenants of promise are the promises of relationship that God made to Abraham and his offspring, to Israel at Sinai, to David, and then the promise of a New Covenant where God would write his law on the hearts of Israel.

And Gentiles were strangers to all of that… they were completely unaware of the fact that God had a particular plan and promise...

Israel would even celebrate this fact in Psalm 147,

“He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his rules. Praise the Lord!” (Psalm 147:20, ESV)

The Gentiles had a real problem before Christ… the fact that they were NOT part of God’s people meant that they were...

Without hope and without God in the world.

They were darkened in their understanding… trapped by the futility of their minds...

They could not attain the purpose for which they were created... death was a hopeless unknown...

Now here’s why this is so important to us: Is anyone here a natural born, practicing Jew?

I highly doubt it.

Which means that everything that Paul writes to these Gentiles was true of us.

We don’t often think about the Jew/Gentile distinction because those conflicts were mostly resolved (at least within the church) a long time ago...

But this is real when we look at the scope of redemption history.

And even more this description is the state of every person who does not have a gospel witness even today…

Yes, they are dead in their sin like Paul said at the beginning of chapter 2… but they are also hopelessly isolated from understanding that way to God.

They are stuck in their disordered, divided, and futile corporate identities.

And all of these truths about Gentiles former state acted like a massive wedge the size of Mt. Everest to drive the Gentiles, Jews, and God further and further apart from one another.

There appeared to be this irreconcilable division.

So Paul tells the Gentile believers to “REMEMBER that irreconcilable division.”... Why?

Why do they need to remember something so damaging?

Why call attention to the source of division? I thought we were going for reconciliation… why are we focusing on the divisions?

And I believe the reason was to produce humility in them.

Yes, the Jews had some fault of own for their own arrogance of thinking they were favored above the Gentiles… and for misunderstanding how their law pointed to Christ… and how they were to be a light to the nations...

In fact, Paul gives the Jews their own dose of humility in his letter to the Romans...

But the Gentiles also needed to remember that it was God’s GRACE that they even had ACCESS to any of these things.

And remembering where they came from was meant to keep them humble.

It’s kind of like making sure we remember our nation’s history of slavery when talking about racial reconciliation in America.

We’d like to forget it… but remembering it can help us approach one another in humility.

It’s kind of like remembering Germany’s history of the holocaust against the Jews…

They’d like to pretend it never happened… but that is just providing the opportunity for it to happen again because pride creeps in all too easily and makes us forget who we are and where we’ve been.

Apply: But Humility is a prerequisite for reconciliation.

We cannot be reconciled to others if we think we are superior… if we think that we are ALL RIGHT… and they must be ALL WRONG...

If we think we DESERVE to be in God’s good graces and they don’t...

Or that we somehow EARNED our way into relationship with God by some external conformity…

No, we need humility… and humility comes, at least in part, from honest remembrance.

We remember what it took for us to be restored to God...

We remember how we were unlovable and undeserving, but God saved us while we were still dead in our trespasses.

We remember that we had no place in God’s people.

And then we begin to think, “Where we would be without God’s grace???”

And we begin to EXPECT that there will be some major differences between us and others in the church that we will NEED to work through...

We begin to EXPECT that there are going to be some rough edges that we all need smoothed off...

And that people will probably let us down, because we all have this remaining sin… but grace is given to empower growth.

There is no reconciliation if there is no grace. And there is no grace if there is no humility.

Humble remembrance paves the way for God to do this massive work to bring hostile, ignorant unbelievers into relationship with himself and each other through the gospel… that’s how he creates the church.

And that’s the work that Paul describes in verses 13-18.

Look at v. 13 - (Read Eph 2:13-18 )

In order to demonstrate supernatural reconciliation, we need Humble Remembrance… secondly we need:

2) Heart-level Redefinition: Christ reconciled us by his blood to God and his people.(2:13-18)

If we ONLY HAVE humble remembrance of who we once were… but we don’t understand how we have been redefined in Christ… then we will STILL lack the power to demonstrate the reconciliation God accomplishes for his people.

So Paul says in v. 13 - But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Paul summarizes all that he said about the Gentiles before with these two words: “far off.”

The chasm could not have been wider. The separation and animosity between Gentiles, Israel, and God could not have been greater.

But now you have been brought near…

Not only is there NOT a cavernous gap between us and God and his people… there’s not even a crack in the sidewalk.

How could such an expanse be closed? Paul makes it sound so simple… he says it so quickly...

And it is SIMPLE… but it was not EASY… nor was it CHEAP… it was COSTLY.

Gentiles have been brought near… by the blood of Christ.

Now when we read those words, “by the blood of Christ,” our minds immediately go to his work on the cross when his blood was spilled…

But I believe Paul has something more broad than that in mind… because he TALKS about the cross of Christ later after saying a few other things about his life...

And so I believe that “by his blood” refers to ALL of his incarnation… CHRIST brought us near by coming near to us… by taking on human flesh and blood.

I believe that “By his blood” refers to ALL of the work of Christ that he performed while in flesh and blood…

…the fact that it required the incarnation of God the Son for us to be brought near to God and his people.

And the phrases that follow… INCLUDING the crucifixion... further define HOW he worked in his incarnation… HOW he brought us near “by his blood...”

The first work of his incarnation is in Verse 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”

Paul is referring to the unique PERSONHOOD of Christ as the perfect God-Man.

That identity of “God in human flesh” uniquely positions him to restore peace between God and men.

He IS our peace. He IS the one who closed the gap between us and God by coming TO us… taking on the likeness of sinful flesh… removing the separation that once existed.

When Jesus was born in this flesh, the angels announced, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14, ESV)

Jesus came to personally mediate peace between us and God… and between us and others who found favor in his sight.

PEACE is the restoration of the right relationship of things.

Peace is things being put back in proper order… the relationships between people and God, people and each other, people and themselves, and people and creation.

In our sin, we build walls between us...

Racial walls, status walls, ideological walls, walls of unforgiveness...

There can be no dividing wall of hostility in the church because Christ came to tear it down.

God tore down the walls that stood between us and him… he showed that we ALL come to him THROUGH CHRIST… and therefore we are all in the same boat.

We all come needing the same grace… and Jesus freely gives it so that we can too.

Jesus redefines our hearts through his personhood… and because he came in flesh and blood, he both fulfilled the law and abolished it.

Paul says in v. 15 - “[he tore down the dividing wall of hostility in this flesh] 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,”

Now Jesus himself said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17, ESV)

So we need to understand that Jesus did not abolish the law in the sense that he did away with the moral requirements of God… he abolished the expression of that law in ordinances...

All that disagreement about circumcision and non-circumcision...

All of the ritual cleansings and animal sacrifices… are done away with in Jesus because HE provided the ultimate cleansing… HE was the ultimate sacrifice… HE was the one who would circumcise our hearts.

He provided something deeper for his people than external expressions of religion… he provided heart-level redefinition.

And that redefinition came ultimately through the cross and resurrection...

Look at v. 16 - “[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.”

Jesus took the flesh and blood of his incarnation and had it CRUCIFIED on a cross.

THAT is how he both fulfilled the law and abolished the ordinances...

But don’t forget how Paul described Christ’s work on the cross earlier in chapter 2… it wasn’t just Jesus dying on the cross...

Spiritually speaking, It was also those who put their faith in Christ Jesus...

Because we are IN CHRIST… we were IN HIM in his crucifixion… our old identity under the dominion of sin died with him…

And because we were in him in his death, we are also in him in his resurrection.

He killed the hostility between us and Israel by literally crucifying the former flesh-driven distinctions that defined us and made us hostile to one another.

And he gave us new lives with a new common identity: we are IN CHRIST.

But he didn’t stop there… he made sure to get the word out...

Look at verse 17 - Eph 2:17 “And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.”

Jesus redefined our hearts through his preaching of peace.

But WHEN did he do this? If we are following the gospel storyline, he lived, he died, he rose… and then he preached to Gentiles???

I don’t remember reading THAT in any of the gospels?

When did Jesus come and preach to the Gentiles in Ephesus and the surrounding region?

He came and he preached THROUGH the missionaries and preachers that went to those places.

That’s awesome.

(There was a great article that Keith Martin sent me this week by Sam Allberry from the Gospel Coalition… I’d recommend going to read it.)

When messengers of Jesus preach the good news of the gospel of peace to the nations, JESUS is preaching.

You need to understand that right now, as I proclaim this good news to you, JESUS is preaching.

No, I’m not saying that I’m Jesus...

And I’m not saying that my own words equal God’s…

But I am saying that HE is the one… and the ONLY one… who will bring about heart-level redefinition to your life as the result of his word being preached this morning.

HE is the one preaching THROUGH me anything that is right and good and true and redefining for your life.

The Second Helvitic Confession, said this, “The preaching of the word of God is the word of God.”

Insofar as the preacher accurately and faithfully proclaims the truth of God’s word, then God himself is speaking.

Jesus is preaching through preachers.

And people are hearing and the faithful are receiving.

And the message being preached is PEACE.

Reconciliation.

The restoration of the right order of things between people and one another… and between people and God.

And notice: it is peace to those who are far off AND those who are near...

Gentiles and Jews alike need the same message of PEACE.

Because even though Gentiles were at a disadvantage of being FAR AWAY from the people and promises and presences of God, Israel had SQUANDERED all of those privileges in their sin.

THEY were not able to be faithful to God on their own… they needed the message of peace...

And they needed the Holy Spirit.

Look at v. 18 - “For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.”

Remember in chapter 1:13 - “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,” (Ephesians 1:13, ESV)

It’s the HOLY SPIRIT who is our all-access pass to the Father.

We get the full meet and greet backstage privilege to come to KNOW God… Jew and Gentile alike… because we have both been saved through the same gospel...

Jews and Gentiles have BOTH experienced a heart level redefinition of their identity: we are not defined by external differences… we are defined by union to the person and work of Christ.

Here’s Paul’s point: The work of reconciliation ONLY comes through embracing the person of Christ by faith and so coming into union with him.

The world would say, “Pick a side… make one side out to look utterly good… and the other side utterly villainous… and then get everyone onto the same side...”

The world would say that we will find peace when we put pressure on everyone to think just like us.

Or if we can get everyone to compromise and find some halfway point between our differences...

But true Peace is not found in me making you conform to my image of perfection or me conforming to your image of perfection...

It’s about us TOGETHER being conformed to the image of Christ.

Peace is not about 50/50 compromise.

It’s about 100/100 going all in on Christ… it’s about each of us being REDEFINED by Jesus.

It’s about us TOGETHER trusting that the blood of Jesus is the ONLY way to right relationship with God… and the ONLY hope for true and abiding peace…

Peace… reconciliation... is found when we embrace our common identity in him by faith.

Have you embraced him?

Then you have everything you need to be reconciled to God and to others.

Jesus has not only made reconciliation POSSIBLE… he has made reconciliation REAL.

Look at the RESULTS of Christ’s work in v. 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, 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.”

In order for us to demonstrate supernatural reconciliation, we need humble remembrance, heart-level redefinition, and finally we need:

3) Holistic Reorientation: God reconciled us to himself so that we would be his people together. (2:19-22)

We need to actually BELIEVE that Jesus HAS ACCOMPLISHED this work of reconciliation… and that he actually intends for us to live in the good of that reconciliation.

We must come to understand our new corporate identity in Christ so that we can demonstrate it to the world.

In this section, Paul gives us four pictures of the church that help us envision the type of reconciliation God has provided for his church… we must ORIENT our whole lives around this new corporate identity:

1) We are Parts of a New Body

This one actually comes up earlier in verse 15-16… we are created in Jesus as ONE NEW MAN… we are reconciled IN ONE BODY...

Because of our common reconciliation to God in Christ, we are reconciled together as parts of the same body.

The image of the body is going to come up even more clearly in Ephesians 4, and Paul especially likes to use this image when talking about Spiritual gifts.

God equips his body through the various gifts of each PART of the body… and it requires each part working effectively for the body to grow into the maturity of Christ.

We are body PARTS… not body accessories...

Some people treat the church like they are just an accessory like a purse or a belt or a wallet… helpful, but not as necessary as your hand or your foot.

The picture of the church as a body emphasizes that we are needed… and we need others in the church.

I can’t say to you, “I don’t need you…” you can’t say to me “I don’t need you...”

If we are in Christ, then he has DESIGNED it so that we NEED each other… like a hand needs a foot to get to where it needs to go...

He has ordained that there is work that he wants to do in us that will ONLY be done THROUGH other members of his body.

But the body only gives us one angle of the reconciliation God wants to accomplish in his church… we are also..

2) Part of a New Kingdom

Paul says in v. 19 that we are “fellow citizens with the saints.”

Remember that at one time you were… alienated from the commonwealth of Israel.

We were ALIENS… not like little green martians… but like those who lacked the rights and privileges of God’s country.

But now we are citizens… We are under new authority.

We have been delivered from the Kingdom of Darkness and transferred to the Kingdom of the Beloved Son.

He determines our direction… he endows us with his kingdom blessings and privileges.

But we are not merely part of a new kingdom… like peasants who have no chance of ever having an audience with the king...

No, we are citizens who are also members of the royal household.

3) We are part of his Family

In v. 19 Paul says we are members of the household of God.

We say it a lot here… I’ll start it, you finish it… “The church isn’t just LIKE a family… it IS a family.”

Our reconciliation with God makes us genuinely his children… and children of the same Father are called “brothers and sisters.”

That’s why it is frequent to read the word “brothers” in the New Testament letters and Acts… it wasn’t just a cultural nicety… it was how they truly viewed one another.

If the picture of body emphasizes we are all needed… and the picture of citizenship that we are under common authority… then the picture of family emphasizes that we are reconciled in God’s love.

The reconciliation that Christ’s provides… and the bond that he creates… is stronger than the bond of blood… because his bond of love is eternal.

Jesus said, “Who are my mother and my brothers and sisters? Is it not those who do the will of my Father?”

In other words, he’s saying, “Those who follow God… the people of God… the CHURCH... is our truest family.”

And in Lancaster County Culture where blood family is highly valued, it’s important to realize that this idea is going to take some radical reorientation of our thinking.

I’m not saying that we should NOT value blood family… but we must be careful to put those relationships in right perspective with our SPIRITUAL family in Christ.

Our church family is to play a unique role in our lives in helping us follow Jesus… and we should treat them like family…

Not just like acquaintances with whom we casually interact…

Not just like co-workers with whom we get a job done...

Not just like fellow citizens with whom we share a national heritage...

No… like FAMILY… people to whom we have a DEEP, PERSONAL connection...

People whom we are responsible for… and devoted to.

Because it is among this SPIRITUAL family that God is making his dwelling place...

We are part of his body… his kingdom… his family… and finally...

4) We are part of his Temple

Look at v. 20-22 “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.”

This last picture of a temple is all about the worship of God… seeking his presence and his glory as our highest delight and aspiration.

It’s true that the Bible describes each one of our bodies as a temple of the Holy Spirit… but it then emphasizes that those Spirit-indwelt bodies are built together as a dwelling place… a holy temple in the Lord.

That happens as we are built upon a common foundation of the teaching of Christ as he was proclaimed by the apostles and prophets.

For us, the apostles and prophets message is captured in the Bible, the New Testament that is founded on the Old Testament...

But the cornerstone of the apostles and prophets… and of the whole structure of the church… is Jesus Christ himself.

He is the stone that the builders of Israel rejected.

He is the stone that the Gentiles had no access to.

And he is the stone that sets the rest of the structure of the church in place so that we can be a dwelling place for God.

God shows himself in a particular way in the togetherness… the unity... of his redeemed people who make up Christ’s church.

THIS is the work that the Spirit is doing in the church.

The question is: Will we reorient our entire lives to this reality?

Will we live out these pictures that are true of us because of Christ.

Will we act like the body of Christ actually NEEDS us and WE NEED THE BODY… that we have a PART TO PLAY like a hand or foot… or will we be content to “go to church” like we are just an accessory… or they are an accessory to us?

Will we submit to Christ as his citizens… accepting his authority and enjoying his rule and reign?

Will we extend the love of Christ to one another as his family… recognizing that in Christ full forgiveness and full relationship is available and necessary?

Will we seek his presence and his glory as his temple? Will we WORSHIP him together as his people?

Jesus Christ is the only hope for true reconciliation… and his church is the expression of it… let’s demonstrate the hope of that reconciliation to a world who desperately needs it!

Adore:

Father, I praise you for ____________ (description of his saving work) to bring us peace.

Align:

Reorient my ____________ (desires, schedule, priorities, etc.) so that I would more fully demonstrate the work you are doing in your church.

Ask/Acknowledge:

Pray for any reconciliation that you know of that needs to happen in Christ’s church. Pray for humble remembrance, heart-level redefinition, and holistic reorientation between God’s people.