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­­­­LSB  Ephesians 2:11-22

11 Therefore, remember that formerly you—the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands— 12 remember that you were at that time without Christ, alienated from the citizenship 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 formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups one and broke down the dividing wall of the partition 15 by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might create the two into one new man, making peace, 16 and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having in Himself put to death the enmity. 17 And He came and preached the good news of peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; 18 for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, 21 in whom the whole building, being joined together, is growing into a holy sanctuary in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

Part of our fallen human condition, exacerbated by sin and by the powers of the air that Paul spoke of earlier, is tribalism.  We separate into tribes.  Groups.  Gangs.  Ideologies.  Isms.  Identities.  Brands.

God instituted marriage and family before the fall, in the garden, for our thriving.  And if there were no sin in the world, tribes are the natural growth of families.

God made a chosen, select, nation from one man's offspring.  Abraham had Isaac, and Isaac had Jacob, and Jacob had 12 sons who became the patriarchs of the nation of Israel.  The 12 tribes of Israel.  And as you read through the old testament, under God, those 12 tribes considered themselves brothers.  They had a common identity.  A common goal.

In fact there's such a thing as jewish DNA.  The jews are still distinct in the world as an ethnic people group even today.  

So there's nothing wrong with families and tribes, until God exits and sin enters, and then comes animosity and hatred.  And we have myriad ways to hate each other.  Sin introduced pride and self.  Me first and foremost, you if you're of some help and benefit to me, and then us against them.  

Diversity, equity, and inclusion, DEI, is a huge topic every single day in all of our sundry and various news feeds.  We can't seem to help ourselves, we gravitate to folks who look like us and think like us.  

Here are just a handful of things we divvy up over.  Skin color.  Gender.  Ethnicity.  Sexual preference, or perhaps we might clarify that to the sinfulness of unlawful sexual preferences according to this book.  

You'll notice I didn't mention race.  We are all part of the human race.  The Bible doesn't divvy people up over the word race.  But it does recognize different ethnicities within the human race.  One ethnic group hates another ethnic group.

But biblically, you can't find people grouping up, tribing up and having wars over melanin levels in skin color.  That's a whole new problem we invented by capturing and enslaving ethnic groups with darker skin than their captors.  It's real, but it's not defined as a category in and of itself in the Bible.

I'm going to shock you all.  I'm not against DEI.  This book, and in fact this very section of Ephesians 2 is a mandate for DEI.  That's what Paul totally mandates and expects in writing this paragraph that we just read.  Diversity, Equity, Inclusion.  It's a biblical mandate.  With one teensy caveat.

It's completely impossible for sinners to make it happen.  So impossible that it's the most difficult challenge Paul faced . . . with born again, Holy Spirit regenerated, Spirit filled, godly christians.  If we struggle with it with all of those supernatural sources of help, then for the world, it's hopeless.  

Ludicrous.  In the world, it's a joke.  It ain't gonna happen people, and when sinful people try to legislate DEI it fails.  Sinners can't get it done.  They can legislate and try to help oppressed peoples get a little fairer shake, but it just becomes a pendulum that swings back and forth.  It's like a ballon filled with water.  You poke it in on one side it bulges on the other.

The court of appeals just heard a case against reverse discrimination where groups give taxpayer money to a select group of people distinguished from everyone else by melanin levels in skin color.  People lacking melanin need not apply.

There will never be equity and inclusion for diverse peoples because we are all born into a sinful world and our first interest as soon as we figure out where the milk comes from and that screaming satisfies our want, is me.  I'm 71 and I hate to admit it, but in my fallen flesh, nothing much has changed.

So we tribe up in groups that can benefit number one.  We unionize, fraternalize, and otherwise form groups of people who look like us and think like us for the benefit of . . . us.

If you study history and anthropology, you'll be studying one group slaughtering another group from the fall in the garden, until today.  It's what we do.

Now, in this passage in Ephesians, Paul has described something completely new to this world.  God, in His Son, Jesus, by His Spirit, has called a group of people out of this world.

He has called them out, forgiven their sins, given them a new spirit, quickened their dead spirit to new life, in conjunction with His Holy Spirit who now dwells with us and in us, and has made us a new creation completely apart from all of the fraternities and identities of our previous life in our sinful flesh.  

Separated and made new.  In Christ.  With one huge caveat.  He has given us all of the benefits, some are ours to possess and enjoy now, and some are waiting for us, securely kept for us, for our future life in the next world.

But meanwhile, we're smack dab in the old world, surrounded by all the old connections and problems, and we still have our old nature inside us fighting with our new nature.  We're a new creation in Christ, and that's our new identity, but the old stuff didn't just disappear magically.  Our old man, our old self, doesn't just evaporate.  I've got lots of baggage from my old nature still fighting to please old number one.

Yet, God in His magnificent and glorious wisdom, did that, left us in this fallen world, so that we would glorify Him in the old enemy territory, by telling others of our new life, of the forgiveness freely given to us, and of the joy we now have in knowing God.

That's what has happened in Ephesians 1:1 - 2:10.  Paul had elevated us in the wealth that is ours, in Christ, future and present.  He's laid it out.  That's the foundation for what comes next.  Shocking news folks!  

People who used to be your enemies, who hated you and persecuted you and oppressed you and maybe even tried to murder you and your tribe, would've liked to cleanse the earth of you and your tribe, who have now become christians, new creations in Christ, are no longer your enemies, they're your brothers and fellow heirs.  X2

That's a complete conundrum!  Somebody who I feared and hated last week is my brother this week??!!  That's asking a lot!  Huge trust issues.  

That's like, a palestinian who stormed into your city and cut up little babies last week, becomes a christian, and you need to love him . . . this week??

That's exactly what Paul is talking about.  Totally.  And he has lived it.  He was on the road to Damascus, after killing christians in one town, on his way to kill more, in the next town, and God stopped him in his tracks and saved him.  Consider the case of a fellow named Ananias.  In Acts 9.  He gets a direct word from God.  

 “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” 11 And the Lord said to him, “Rise up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul,

Ananias was cowering with a little group of christians in Damascus, hiding out in some little corner basement because they had heard Saul of Tarsus was coming.  The guy who kills christians and throws the survivors in prison is coming to town.  Get out of sight.  Let's lay low and hope he goes away quickly.

And then the Lord answers your prayers with , “Rise up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul,

There must be some mistake Lord.  That's the guy we've been praying for protection from!  You've got to be kidding me.  The last place on earth I want to go to is the house of Judas on Straight street where Saul of Tarsus is at!!  We're trying to avoid him!  Why would I seek him out??!

inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, 12 and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight.” 13 But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to Your saints at Jerusalem. 14 And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; 16 for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name.” 17 So Ananias departed and entered the house. And he laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord sent me—that is Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming—so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he rose up and was baptized; 19 and he took food and was strengthened.

Saul is literally your worst enemy one day and you baptise him the next day.  You walk up to the very guy who was coming to town to eliminate you from the earth, and the first word out of your mouth is . . . Brother

That's the transformative power of Jesus.  He transforms our old vetted longstanding enemies and calls them out of this world, even as He called us out, and those enemies become our brothers.

That's what we have here in Ephesians 2.  And it's a deep seated long standing hatred.  Jews and gentiles.  The jews hated the gentiles, and likewise, back at ya.  

But that wasn't God's original design and intent.  God chose the jews, He made them a nation from Abraham, and He chose them to be His own nation in order for Him to reveal Himself, through their prophets and kings, to the whole world.  The purpose for the nation of Israel, the jews, was to be a nation of priests who bring God to the whole world.

God's intent was that the jews would take Him to the rest of the world.  But instead, we get Jonah.  Remember Jonah, the prophet.

God sends him to warn Ninevah that because of all their evil God's going to destroy them in 40 days.  And Jonah climbs on a boat going as far away from Ninevah as he can get.  Why?  Because Jonah hates the gentiles at Ninevah.  Hates them.  Nothing will please Jonah more than to turn on Fox News and see a smoking hole where Ninevah used to be.  He would count the days waiting for that to happen with glee.  But to go and warn them is untenable to Jonah.  So he gets on a ship headed for Iceland.  

Actually, Tarshish was on the coast of what is now Spain, near the rock of Gibralter.  Literally the farthest possible port in the known world at that time.

So, for sake of time, we'll skip over the whale incident and pick up the story in Ninevah where old Jonah finally goes, under duress, and preaches God's wrath and imminent judgement to the gentiles there, and they repented.  Wholesale.   And God relented of destroying them.

So, Jonah's worst nightmare.  God relents from destroying them.  I'll read Jonah's reaction to you.  It's very telling if we want to understand the jewish mindset, which by the way, had only gotten more hateful, if that was possible.

3:10 Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, so God relented concerning the evil which He had spoken He would bring upon them. And He did not bring it upon them. 4:1 But this was a great evil to Jonah, and he became angry. 2 And he prayed to Yahweh and said, “Ah! O Yahweh, was not this my word to myself while I was still in my own land?
(I knew this would happen!!!)  Therefore I went ahead to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning evil. 3 So now, O Yahweh, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.” 4 And Yahweh said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?”

So that's the kind of hatred we're dealing with.  And the jews hated Jonah for his betrayal and letting God be kind to Ninevah.  His prophecy is forgotten.  Not mentioned anywhere else because the jews considered blessing to Ninevah a betrayal.  They blamed Jonah for God's relenting.  You should've stayed inside the fish Jonah.  Better than saved Ninevites.

Do you recall what the pharisee's said about Jesus.  John 7:52 Investigate and you will see that no prophet arises from Galilee.  And yet, Jonah's home was only about 3 miles from Nazareth.  I could walk there, even at my age.  

They so hated the gentiles that they dismissed Jonah as even being a prophet.  That's what Paul is dealing with.  Anyone who would bring the grace of God to gentile people groups is an enemy of Israel.  Hatred.

11 Therefore, remember that formerly you—the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands—

Those words were epithets of that time and place thrown at each other by rival hatred groups.  Not unlike the word that has done so much harm in our land.  Nigger.  Same idea.  Uncircumcised was an epithet that jews would throw out at gentiles.  It meant you were less than scum.  Rejected by God.  Outside.

We have an example of that epithet in use by no less than King David, although he wasn't king yet.When he went out to see what Goliath was all about.  Everyone's cowering because of this giant philistine, Goliath.  And David takes some provisions out to his brothers, he was the little runt kid that didn't get to go with the warriors.  The water boy.  And David shows up and he see's goliath and he says;

“What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”  1 Sam 17:26

To call someone uncircumcised if you were a jew, was to demean him to being nothing.  Paul concedes the argument.

To be uncircumcised was to be out.  You were outside the chosen.  Outside, removed from the umbrella of blessing of being chosen by God.  Far away from God's blessing.  We'll see all of those terms.

But Paul tips his hand a little bit in vs. 11.  Speaking of the nation  of Israel, Paul calls them " the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands—
 
Here Paul alludes to something Moses said to Israel, indeed, God, through Moses, said to Israel.  God was looking for circumcised hearts.  Listen to Deuteronomy 10:12 - 17

12 “So now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God ask from you, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the commandments of Yahweh and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good? 14 Behold, to Yahweh your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it. 15 Yet on your fathers did Yahweh set His affection to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day. 16 So circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer. 17 For Yahweh your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the fearsome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe.

The nation of Israel didn't want God.  They had no heart love for God.  They wanted the jewish identity.  The law of Moses.  The ceremony.  The religion.  The national exclusion.  The jewishness.  The traditions of the elders.  They didn't want God.

I have a friend who believes in Jesus.  Believes everything about Jesus.  Hopes Jesus will keep him out of hell.  But he doesn't want Jesus.  He's hoping for the fire insurance but, no love for Jesus.

Israel loved being Israel, but they had moved far far away from God.  Their hearts were not circumcised.  So Paul calls them the "so-called circumcision".  Actually, we'll learn from Paul that regenerated christians of any ethnicity anywhere are the "true circumcision".  So much for the epithet.

Paul's dealing with jews and gentiles here, so the jewish perspective is our working model but we're really talking about something much larger here.

12 remember that you were at that time without Christ, alienated from the citizenship of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

"Uncircumcised!"  It was a demeaning epithet, but it was based in reality.  The gentiles were in a hopeless lost state.  I mean the jews didn't have much more going for them, they had God, but He was furious with them for the most part, but at least God had chosen them to be the nation that His revelation would flow from.  The covenants of promise came through the dead nation.

Gentiles were by comparison aliens, strangers, having no hope, without God in the world.  Hopelessly removed from their Creator.  Hopelessly excluded from God.

And since the jews had no love for God, the result was that no olive branch of peace with God would be coming from the dead jewish nation.  Jesus told the Jews;  Matt. 23

13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. 15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.

So the gentiles were doubly far off.  Doubly removed.  Because the nation that was supposed to be priests of God offering a way of peace, a way of hope, an olive branch that peace with God is promised for all nations, was bringing hell instead of heaven.

So Paul says, their single word epithet that excluded you from their God was actually true.  In times past.  You were hopelessly far removed from God.

12 remember that you were at that time without Christ, alienated from the citizenship of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

vs. 13  BUT NOW

Do you see a pattern with Paul.  Is there an echo in the room.  Earlier in chapter 2, he did the same thing.

1 And you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom we all also formerly conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy

Vs. 11 Therefore, remember that formerly you—the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands— 12 remember that you were at that time without Christ, alienated from the citizenship of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus

Paul would have made an excellent photographer.  He knows how to paint a dark background in order to have this huge bright contrast for his subject.

You were formerly dead, but now in Christ Jesus you're alive!  You were formerly hopelessly removed far far away from God, but now in Christ Jesus you're on the inside!

13 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

The jews are nothing.  The gentiles are nothing.  Both groups were equally far removed from God.  Even though the hope of forgiveness came down through the jewish nation, they were hopelessly far removed from their own promises.

Just as hopeless as the gentiles.  Very few jews loved God and simply asked for forgiveness based on the promise of a sin bearer.  Some did.  They did have the advantage of the scriptures being given through them.  But most of them were just as far from God and just as hopelessly lost as the gentiles.  

Paul's great mission, having been sent to the gentiles, and with his great heart of love for his own brethren who were lost, was to bring jews and gentiles, together, to Christ.  He never gave up hope for his own people.  He longed for their salvation, and for the blending of jews and gentiles together in Jesus.

The blood of Jesus was the single entry point to peace and friendship through forgiveness to both groups.  Jesus is the great equalizer.  John 6: 14
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me.

No one gets to God, except through Jesus.  Jews don't have any claim on God, except through Jesus.  Gentiles don't have any claim on God, except through Jesus.  Both groups are equally dead without Jesus.  Both groups can only know God, in Jesus.  Both groups must have their sins eliminated the same exact way.  Jesus.

Jesus is the great equalizer.  He's the common door that anyone who seeks life must enter through.  Therefore, in theory, it should be a simple thing for jews in Christ to embrace gentiles, in Christ.  Right?  Easy peasy, right?

Since you became a christian, is there any left over bad habit that just won't seem to go away.  You know very well and embrace the positional truth that old things are past, all things are new.  You're a new creation.  In Christ.  But practically, some old things really die hard.  Amen?

I mean, it would have been excellent if the saved jews immediately understood and embraced the truth that they were just as lost, just as nothing as far as a relationship with God, as their gentile brothers.  Both came through the same door.  Both were just as needful of a Saviour.  

Did it happen that way?  Nope.  Nope.  About eight days in, after pentecost, everyone together as a single person, In Christ, and guess what . . . the Helenistic jews complained that they were getting shorted by the Jerusalem jews.  

I mean, no gentiles involved, and the jews with more greek in their background who didn't grow up in Jerusalem are getting left out by the other Jews, who are the real jews, right, the Judean jews.  

They didn't even need gentiles to have a faction.  One group getting more than the other group.  Both jews!  Just two different kinds of jews from two different places and you've already got trouble.  

Beloved, we've got a lot of baggage left over, don't we.  Our hearts soar with positional truth, and then we get slammed back to earth with practical truth.

Well we didn't get very far in our passage this morning, did we.  And that's OK.  When you first read through that section with me this morning, did you say to yourself, oh dear, this is tedious.

I'm thrilled with what the Spirit has shown us about ourselves already in this section.  This is tremendous.  But I want to spend maybe 5 more minutes bringing what we've learned so far home to us today.  Because we have tremendous problems in the church today.  The wider church.

So let me begin with an example.  Identification is everything these days in our culture.  Everybody has to create an identity.  A brand.  Otherwise, I guess, you just aren't.  Gotta create my identity on facebook or something.

As an example just to get you on the same page.  High School.  Been a while for me, but when my kids were at THS there were four identities that stood out.  Stoners.  Cowboys.  Jocks and cheerleaders, the popular kids, and of course you always have nerds.  Stoners cowboys jocks and nerds.  If you're a stoner you go hang out in the shadows with the other stoners.  Cowboys are cowboys, they don't need anybody else.  Jocks never change.  They all hang out together and be popular.  And nerds find other nerds.  And so it goes.

That's a microcosm of adulthood.  What's your identity.  Conservative.  Liberal.  Stock market tycoon.  Drunk at the bar.  Redneck.  Country.  Rancher. Who do you identify with?  

My daughter was designing the graphics for a brand called garage whiskey.  She's a graphic designer.  Well this particular brand was aiming at hip car culture hot rod and biker identity people.  And she mentioned that I had a roadster and they were having this big show gig in Portland and so the folks said, you should have your dad bring the roadster.

Trouble is, I'm about a million miles removed from Billy Gibbons.  Uber cool long beard, guitars, rock n roll, hot rods.  That's the brand.  That's the identity.  Cool.  Laid back.  Long gray beards.  Biker people with roadsters.

That's an identity and there are millions more.  Well, that's come into the church.  The church is ripe with identities.  Black church.  Cool church.  Liberal church.  Young church.  Gay church.  Woke church.

Satan's having a heyday getting christians to group up in different woke identities inside christianity and then exclude people who aren't with it.  

There are so called "Black" churches where I would not be welcome.  They would brand me a racist before they knew anything about  me, because I'm melanin challenged.  Not welcome, outsider.  Go find a redneck church.

We'll revisit this next week as we work through this passage.  But I'll close with this thought;

If you can't say, I'm not a _____________ (fill in the blank with whatever your previous identity and brand was, and say, I'm not that) anymore, I'm a christian, then, we've got a problem Houston.