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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.

We began looking at this text last Sunday and it's an incredibly important statement concerning the unity, the oneness, of the body of Christ, made up of millions of individuals all over the globe from every tribe and ethnicity and worldview background possible.

Jesus is calling a remnant of peoples, out of this world, from every tribe and ethnicity from all of the nations of the world, to belong to Him. And we are all wildly different. And we all come with baggage clinging to us from our former lives, our former ideologies, and yes, our former discriminations.

Old hatreds run deep and die hard. Distrust happens instantly and is almost impossible to displace. Trust takes a long time to establish and is fragile.

Think about the situation in Israel as an example for our thoughts. In 1948 when the UN established Israel as a sovereign nation, at that time, it was also offered to Palestine to have a border and also be a sovereign nation. A so-called 2 state solution, although that language came much later.

The palestinians said no, the only possible solution is to eliminate the jews from the earth. Total annihilation is the only solution. And that doctrine has never changed. The palestinians attacked Israel with the purpose of total destruction and removal of the state of Israel in 1948, 1967, 1973, continuous resistance and attack and wars, and finally the attack last October.

Their goal is stated crystal clear. No two state solution will change anything. Total destruction of Israel and removal of Jews is the only solution for them. And yet with all of that history, literally the whole world, including our government as we speak, is pressing Israel to cease and desist their efforts at security against their enemies. Cease fire and create a 2 state solution.

It's an impossible problem with the best possible solution being the temporary measures Israel is undertaking to create security for both peoples. What Israel has undertaken is actually the best possible scenario in an impossible conflict.

Nothing new here folks. This has been happening in that land since God gave it to the sons of Israel. Pretty much continuous wars and bloodshed for 5000 years.

So what happens with all of that history when God calls a palestinian out of this world to be His adopted son and fellow heir with Jesus, and a few miles away God calls a jew out of that world to be His adopted son and fellow heir with Jesus, and those two people live within a very short physical distance from each other.

Mind boggling baggage that both men bring into this new life. We talked at length about that last week. What I just described is not so far removed from the situation Paul is addressing in Ephesians 2.

And Paul has focused on a single situation for his discussion, jews and gentiles, but the underlying truth here enfolds every single possible division between any two people.

The church of Jesus Christ, made up of truly regenerated christians, and I'm talking genuine believers who have been quickened from death to life, and who have a relationship with Jesus through the indwelling Holy Spirit, those folks, no matter what their previous ideologies and background history, we all have a mandate to embrace each other as brothers.

Conceptually it doesn't seem so difficult, but out on the ground, reality can rear it's ugly head.

Before we unpack our verses this morning, I think it will be helpful to consider one or more of the parables Jesus taught picturing the church age we are part of. First of all, the parable of the tares.

You'll recall that in the field of good seed, when the plants came up, it turned out to be a mixture of true and false.

Mt. 13:24 He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. 26 But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. 27 The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ 28 And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’ 29 But he said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

So we've got a mandate to have unity, with people who are from diametrically polar opposite ideologies and backgrounds and ethnicities, and now we add to the mix that in any group that calls itself "christian" there's going to be a mixture of genuine believers along side of look alike pretenders.

That magnifies the challenge, doesn't it. Same idea in the parable of the sower;

Mt. 13:3b “Behold, the sower went out to sow; 4 and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 And others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. 6 But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. 7 And others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. 8 And others fell on the good soil and were yielding a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. 9 He who has ears, let him hear.”

Four possibilities. The first seed never germinated at all. But then we've got seed that begins to grow and is either too shallow soil so it gets burned up by the sun, or a second problem, weeds choke out the plant. Either way we've got the appearance of christian brothers in the field with us, who won't be there a year from now.

A mandate for unity, but all of these other problems, tares, look-alike false brothers, shallow belief non commited people who burst on the scene with a lot of enthusiastic energy and then poof, they're gone, and people who can't overcome the choking concerns of this world, all in the room at the same time, with all the baggage we bring, even if we're the fruit bearing seeds, and that's a lot to overcome to achieve a mandated unity.

As we read through the book of Acts, we see this idea begin to unfold. And then most of the letters that we get our doctrine of the church from, like the one we're studying, were written to try to solve all the problems I just described earlier, in the name of unity.

Paul worked on unity his entire life as an apostle. In Galatians we have the account of Peter's visit and then his hypocritical double standard when the jews from Jerusalem arrived, and Paul had to call him out on it.

We have the account where the whole church holds a 'council' at Jerusalem in Acts 15 to nail down this question of jewishness required in order to become a christian.

Then we have the record in the letter to the Corinthians of them dividing the church up into four denominations right at the very beginning; I'll read that account, because it's a model for us of what not to do. A model of disunity that we eventually lost;

1 Cor. 1:10 Now I exhort you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. 11 For I have been informed concerning you, my brothers, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. 12 Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.” 13 Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

1 Cor 3:1b And I, brothers, was not able to speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to fleshly men, as to infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are still not able, 3 for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? 4 For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not mere men?

Denominationalism right at the beginning of the church. Paul nipped it in the bud, but we have it today. And honestly, some dis-unity is often necessary because as the church gravitates farther from the simple gospel and more and more into the world's culture, we have to come away from error.

We're called to unity here, in one sense, and then you flip that coin over and read, 2 Cor. 6:17 Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,” says the Lord. “AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN, And I will welcome you.

Sometimes unity becomes impossible. In the news just this week is the story about a huge old line denomination, the United Methodist Church which has strayed so far away from a literal belief in the inerrancy and authority of scripture, that a division became the only viable solution.

Some of the believers because of conscience had to abandon ship and remove themselves. So unity is the goal until it's no longer possible to have fellowship because of sin that stubbornly won't be removed.

Now Paul, as we've said before, is approaching this problem from a narrower perspective although all of the arguments apply to every form of disconnect between christians. But Paul is addressing the deep seated dis-unity of jewish people from gentile people.

To a jew, a gentile is just a lower born person who is completely outside the care and blessing of God. Jews said God made gentiles for no other purpose than to fuel the fires of hell. They are dirty and if you touch them you become unclean and have to go do a bunch of ritual cleansing to get rid of the cooties.

Same thing if you go into a gentile house. Everything in there probably touched something dead, so when you come out of a gentile house you head for the ritual cleansings and washings to get the gentile washed off of you.

In the temple in Jerusalem there was a partition between the big outer court of the gentiles and the inner sanctum where jewish men could be. And another partition that only the priests could enter. And yet another partition into the holy of holies where God was at and where the high priest entered just one time per year. Partition, partition, partition.

Keeping the gentile filth far far away from God. According to Josephus, the partition between the court of the gentiles and the inner court where jewish men who had done their cleansings could be had a sign that read something like; "Any uncircumcised Gentile Who Enters beyond this partition will have only himself to blame for his ensuing death."

What do you think the reaction among the jews was when news comes back to Jerusalem that Paul is up north making converts to Jesus out of gentiles. Paul is a traitor to their exclusivity. An enemy of judaism.

Even christian jews who had believed in Jesus can't shed the idea of jewish exclusive access to God. Why, even if God were to save gentiles, they'd have to go through the normal procedures of a gentile proselyte becoming a jew, and even then, they could never go beyond the court of the gentiles.

So for jewish thinkers, if God were to extend christianity to gentiles, they'd have to be jews first. Good proselytes to judaism who embrace all of Moses law. All of the ceremonies and ritual washings and circumcision. Become a full jewish proselyte first and then become a jewish convert to christianity. That's the only way that makes any sense to the jews.

And yet God had broken down those barriers years before when He gave Peter the vision of the unclean animals and creeping things. From Acts 10:

9 And on the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. 10 But he became hungry and was desiring to eat. And while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance 11 and saw heaven opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, 12 and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the sky. 13 And a voice came to him, “Rise up, Peter, slaughter and eat!” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything defiled and unclean.” 15 Again a voice came to him a second time, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider defiled.” 16 And this happened three times and immediately the object was taken up into heaven.

“What God has cleansed, no longer consider defiled.” God has opened up a direct path for gentiles to have access. All of the old partitions are gone. Remember also, that when Jesus died, at the crucifixion, when He breathed His last and He died on that cross, at that moment an earthquake happened and also at that moment, the curtain of partition between the Holy of Holies was rent in two.

The death of Jesus, and the resulting removing of sins from God's elect opened up a direct access to Him. A direct path to God, through the cross, no jewish ceremonial access required. Direct access.

Now, with that background, lets walk through the rest of our Ephesians 2 passage and it should be fairly easy to put all of the pieces together of what Paul is declaring to us about unity between believers.

We all come to Jesus the same way. We all have equal status before God, in Jesus. No priesthood. No ceremonies. No classes. No hierarchy. No levels. No holy smoke. No gibberish. No bobbing up and down uttering nonsense. No trances.

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

We were so far off, so far removed from access to God that just being near us could cause our uncleanness to somehow jump the gap to the privileged jew.

When jews needed to go north in Israel, up to the galilee, for business or whatever reason, the short route was directly north through Samaria. Jews would go the long way around, all the way down to the Jordan river and north along the river to the sea of galilee avoiding Samaria.

They didn't want Samaritan dust on their garments. That's the idea of far off. We were far far removed from God. An impossible distance removed, where jews thought themselves to be God's chosen sons.

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

Paul sets the record straight. One thing causes us to be hopelessly removed from God. Sin. Sin. The jews had missed the whole point. God is Holy. We are sinners. Jew and gentile alike, we all have the same leprosy. We have the same disease. Sin. And sin must be removed in order for God to come close.

We are brought near by the blood of Christ. Shed in our place. His blood, His death, paid the price of our sins. Gentiles are brought near by the shed blood and substitutionary death in our place, of Christ. Jews are brought near by the shed blood and substitutionary death in their place, of Christ.

Sin was what we all had in common. Sin separated both jew and gentile from God. Jesus blood brought jew and gentile sinners near. Equally. It wasn't 20 miles removed for jews and 100 miles removed for gentiles. Sin is sin. Jesus blood, in our place, was the great equalizer.

Equally effective for jews and gentiles alike. That was always God's plan, always God's intent. The jews were simply God's vehicle to bring redemption to the nations. They needed the same redemption as we do.

Listen to Paul's argument for this doctrine of equality of anyone approaching God.

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.

Walls, walls, walls. Walls between jews and gentiles. Walls between gentiles and God. And walls which the jews had completely missed the point, of distance between jews and God. Sin removed everyone from His presence.

The word enmity that appears in those verses is not the enmity between jews and gentiles, it's the enmity between any sinner of any nationality and God. Sin removes. Sin is the wall between God's image bearers and God.

Every sinner regardless of nationality, ethnicity, religion, jew, gentile no matter, every sinner is in a war that separates them from God

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,

Do you see it clearly there in vs. 15. Paul defines the cause of the enmity, the division, the exclusion and removal of every living soul from God. The enmity, is the law of commandments contained in ordinances.

God's law shows us our rebellion. Gods ordinances show us the rebellion in our hearts. The commandments and ordinances are the gold standard that no one can reach. God removes sin from His presence, and as a result, all of us, jew and gentile alike, are far removed from God.

But the blood of Christ, which is the reference to His actual death, draining the blood out also drains out the life. The blood of Jesus made both groups one because both groups gained entrance into God's presence by that same sin atoning blood. We were both equally helpless in our sins. Both equally far removed. Both groups are reconciled to God exactly the same way.

He didn't die once for jews and die again for gentiles. He died one time for all sinners. So the walls between jews and gentiles are removed. Circumcision and ceremonial religion did nothing to reconcile jews. We both gain access exactly the same way. Jesus atonement for our sins by dieing in our place. It's the same for jews as it is for gentiles.

15b . . . 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.

Jews and gentiles come together in peace because Jesus purchased both with His blood and removed them from the old fallen world to be joined together in one body, one new man.

So lets pause right here and fast forward to Christ's body, 2024. I am told, by some who claim to be christians, that because of the melanin level in my white skin, I can never be brother with black christians because I have no control over and probably don't even realize that I am an oppressor and racist, and that blackness makes those christians in a unique and separate group of oppression that I can never even understand. I'm the problem and there can never be equity between us. There's no undoing of what my white forefathers did in previous centuries. That's just one of many divisions in the modern church.

Beloved, I'm just re-stating the problem as best I can. This is real.

But my question is; how is their stated complaint any different than the stand-off between jewish christians and gentile christians that Paul is stating the case here for a mandated unity?

Take melanin out of the equation. You've got jewish christians who were oppressed and constrained for centuries by the surrounding gentiles, who are now christians, and those jews are a real brotherhood who have former sins and oppressions from other people groups, who are gentiles, going back centuries, and Paul says;

Get over yourselves. You are simply former jews, now christians, that's your new identity. And former gentiles, now christians, that's their new identity. And Christ's blood didn't pay any more to purchase them than it did to purchase you.

We come out of the old life and leave it behind. We are new creations. Purchased out of the world by blood. Don't bring your past life into the new reality of being IN Christ.

Whatever your old identity was, it's left behind. We've got christians that want to hang on to their former blackness, their former oppressions, all their former anger from mistreatment, they want to bring all of that baggage along with them into a new life in Christ.

We've got christians, so called, who want to bring their previous gay identity with them into the church. I'm proud that I was gay because that's my identity and I have to come dancing into the church with my rainbow flag because that's who I am.

Really? You're a new creation in Christ but you need to bring all the old baggage along. Your new identity of IN Christ isn't enough. Gotta cling to the old baggage too?

Paul says: 8 But now you also, lay them all aside: wrath, anger, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you put off the old man with its evil practices, 10 and have put on the new man who is being renewed to a full knowledge according to the image of the One who created him— 11 a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, and freeman, but Christ is all and in all. Col. 3:8 - 11

No distinctions from the old life allowed. This is pretty simple stuff. And, oh by the way, we can add 1 Cor. 7 to the list here and add men and women. God doesn't allow enmity between genders either.

We are one new man being renewed to the full image of Christ. All the old baggage which were our old identities, is left behind. We have a single identifying identity now. The image of Christ. No black Christs. No gay Christs. No woman Christs.

Col. 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, is manifested, then you also will be manifested with Him in glory.

When Christ who is our . . . what? life. Our identity. Our identity is that we are little images of Christ. Period. If you've got to drag all the other stuff into that identity and make it some kind of combination package of old identities that were part of the world you were supposedly called out of, I've got real problems with the validity of your claim.

I have very little room in my theology for gay christians who want to hang onto their gayness. Or angry black christians who want to be exclusive unto their own group.

I do have room for baby christians trying to span that gap. Trying to figure out how this all works. Trying to grow up to the stature of the image of Christ. I've got lots of room and lots of patience and love for anyone who is struggling to leave all the old stuff behind and press on to being like Jesus.

But if you want to hold onto old things and identify yourself as some special group of christian apart, I've got little patience, and I have to believe the man who wrote these paragraphs in this book did either.

He was working hard to bury the old things and bring all of the diversity of their previous lives into one inclusive body. Jews, greeks, barbarians, men, women, slave, free, all combined as one new man made into the image of Christ.

He is our identity. He is our brand. He makes us distinct. Set apart from the old world. Now we are salt in the old world. We are light in a dark room. We are distinctly different. We are christians. Little christs.

If you can't say, I'm not a _____________ anymore, I'm a christian, then, we've got a problem Houston.

Well, I didn't intend for this section to become a 3 part series but it looks like that will be necessary, and I welcome another chance to visit these great truths together. If God permits it, we'll enjoy verses 17 - 22 together next week.

Let's close our thoughts this morning together by considering Paul's great statement to the Galatians about our new identity IN Christ;

Gal. 2:20a. Just the first sentence this morning; 20 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

Could we not amplify that to help our understanding and say; 20 I (the old me, the old identity from before) have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I (old version of me) who live, but Christ lives in me.

Christ living in me, is the new me. People look at me, and hopefully, we all fall short, but the goal is they would look at me, or you, or anyone else in this new elect separated body of believers, and see Christ.

Our distinction and separation from this culture, this fallen world is that we are being made into little Christs. That's what the world should see. We left our old identities behind in the old fallen sinful hateful world, and we put on Christ, like a garment. He is our new identity. And beloved, every person who does that has sweet easy fellowship with every other person who has done that.