Looking Forward by Looking Back: The Importance of Remembering
Notes
Transcript
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Welcome & Announcements: Daniel
1. Sunday School - Slated to begin January 9th after a brief training time.
2. Small Groups - Slated to start meeting on January 13th, we will be meeting at Daniel & Lynette's new house (aka Jared & Chrystal's old house).
Call to Worship in Song:
Great Is Thy Faithfulness, Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing
Scripture Reading:
Old Testament Text: Psalm 103:6-14
New Testament Text: 2 Timothy 2:8-13
Testimony Time: Daniel will Introduce the Testimony
Brittany
Offering & Pastoral Prayer: Daniel
Adoration
God of Grace
God of Mercy
Confession
Thanksgiving
Norman & Kaye
Uriah’s Surgery
Supplication
Bob Mallow
Marian Mason
Paul & Vienna Broadwater
The Offering
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.
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.
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.
Prayer
Prayer
The new year allows us to pause and reflect back on this past year as we consider the year to come.
Why is it important to look back?
It is an understatement to say that looking back is important in the Scriptures.
Over and over again, God reminds His people to look back and to “Remember”
Deuteronomy 5:15 (ESV)
15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.
The people were to remember all that God had done.
Every feast that Israel was to partake in was an act of remembering an event that God had done in their midst.
The remembering was intentional and purposeful.
It was to guard them from thinking too highly of themselves.
11 “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today,
Because the danger in this new land is that they would forget where they came from and who brought them there.
17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’
18 You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
The LORD warned the people that if they went into the land and did not remember
In the book of Ephesians, Paul gives one of the most beautiful pictures of what it means to be saved by grace for the believer.
He begins chapter 2 by explaining that you and I were once dead in our trespasses and sins.
He goes on to say that we have been made alive with Christ by His abundant grace and mercy.
And he concludes by saying that believers were saved for good works which God had prepared beforehand in eternity past.
This passage should cause us to wonder at the beauty of the gospel in our lives.
But what he says next is striking.
Ephesians 2:11 (ESV)
11 Therefore remember....
Because of everything I have just said to you, the fact that you were dead, God has made you alive by grace, and He did so for us to walk in good works.
Because of everything I have just said to you, remember.
Remember…
That is striking.
Paul is commanding us to looking back and recall something to mind.
He is not teaching something new to them in what he is commanding them to do.
He is telling them to look back and bring to mind something that I have just told you.
Peter O’Brien
[it] does not mean that they have actually forgotten what they were, only that Paul wants to call these matters to their attention so that they will have a greater understanding and appreciation of the past and the mighty reversal Christ has effected on their behalf.
The privileges which they now enjoy would be appreciated all the more if they reflected carefully upon the spiritual condition from which they had been rescued.
For Paul, he is calling them to reflect carefully upon their former spiritual condition.
The more appropriately they understand where they came from, the more appropriately they will respond.
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—
The Gentiles would have been anyone who was not from Jewish linage.
Basically outside of the fold of the people of Israel.
Which is why Paul says in verse 11 that they are,
Ephesians 2:11 (ESV)
called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—
This is saying that the marker which made the Jewish people distinct, circumcision was never known by the Gentiles.
I want to highlight three main elements of remember, and they are pretty simple.
Past: Who We Were
Present: Who We Are
Future: Who We Will Be
Past: Who We Were
Past: Who We Were
The first distinction which Paul says of the Gentiles former position he says in verse 12.
Ephesians 2:12 (ESV)
12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ...
Christless: Separated from Christ
Christless: Separated from Christ
The reality for the Gentile believer was they were at one time separated from Christ.
Paul wants to remind these now believers about their previous position.
He wants to remind them where they have come from.
He wants to remind them who they used to be in their former manner of life.
And brothers and sisters, we need to do the exact same thing.
We need to remember what our lives were before becoming a Christian.
We need to remember what God has formerly done in our lives, so that we make Him look greater.
Ephesians 2:12 (ESV)
...alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise...
Homeless & Friendless: Sojourner in a Foreign Land
Homeless & Friendless: Sojourner in a Foreign Land
He is reminding these now believers of their former status.
Have you ever wondered....
When I read the Old Testament, what happened to everyone else?
The answer to that question is found in the words alienated and strangers
Anyone who was outside of Israel was estranged from the citizenship of what it meant to be part of the people of God.
Ephesians 2:12 (NIV)
...excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise
Now there was an ability as a sojourner to become part of the covenant people, but that is not what Paul’s point is here.
His point is that they were at one time...
Christless: Separated from Christ
Homeless & Friendless: Sojourner in a Foreign Land
Ephesians 2:12 (ESV)
...and strangers to the covenants of promise
This means that these Gentiles who are now calling on the name of the Lord were at one time foreigners.
They were at one time aliens to covenants that God has made with His people.
His point is this: Remember WHO YOU WERE
Remember from where God has brought you!
Remember your former position with God!
He goes on to give one more descriptor....
Ephesians 2:12 (ESV)
....having no hope and without God in the world.
Hopeless: Stranger without Hope
Hopeless: Stranger without Hope
This last phrase can honestly summarize everything that has been said thus far.
Christless: Separated from Christ
Homeless & Friendless: Sojourner in a Foreign Land
Hopeless: Stranger without Hope
To be without hope is essentially to say, “I am so utterly lost that I have no way of being found again.”
Paul is urging these brothers and sisters to stare deeply at their former position.
He is urging them to looking completely and fully at who they used to be before Christ.
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.
He is urging them to do so, to magnify the next statement he is about to make.
He is seeking to magnify Christ by showing how weak, lonely, and far off these believers once were.
So that they can rejoice in who they are currently!
Present: Who We Are
Present: Who We Are
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
In a beautiful turn of events, Paul reminds these believers that though their past is true, they are “in Christ”
“In Christ”
“In Christ”
This phrase for Paul is so critically important that it is used over 70 times in the New Testament.
The way that he uses it here is important because it essentially describes what this phrase means.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Brought Near to God
Brought Near to God
To be brought near means that they were at one time far off.
It means that these Gentile believers in Ephesus were at one time all of the descriptors used above; Christless, Homeless, Friendless, and Hopeless.
But now, all of those things which were once true of them are true no longer.
They have been brought into the presence of God.
By what means has this happened?
By the Blood of Christ
By the Blood of Christ
Paul says that it is by the blood of Christ that believers are brought into the presence of God.
It is the atoning sacrifice of Christ that believers are made right before God.
That their sin is covered by the blood and by faith they are brought home to God.
What does remembering have anything to do with the future?
Future: Who We Will Be
Future: Who We Will Be
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.
This means that one day we will see God face to face.
Revelation 21:3 (ESV)
“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
But until that day, as the people of God live out their present identity; brought near by the blood of Jesus as fellow citizens and saints.
And remember their past; Christless, Homeless, Friendless, and Hopeless.
They are actually transformed and built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
When we remember all that God has done in our midst and in our lives, we trust God future grace.
When we reflect on who we once were, and remember who we have been changed to be, we trust that God is not finished with us yet.
6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
When we remember, we deepen our trust in God’s future grace.
We expand our hearts to believe and trust God’s promises.
“I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am” - John Newton