EPHESIANS 2:11-22 “UNITED WE STAND” Mark Kolbe
INTRODUCTION
Since 1954,
our country’s pledge of allegiance has been, “I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one
nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
However
according to USHistory.org, in 1892, the original author of that pledge had
fashioned the words in a more generic way so that it could be used by any
country in the world. "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for
which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for
all."
Whether a
pledge is made to the United States of America or any other nation, the amount
of unity in the country always fluctuates at a level far lower than what people
desire. You don’t have to be a history
buff to recognize that unity has been a real problem for all nations, all
people, and for all time. That’s why every
election cycle we hear political candidates make claims that they will bring
more unity if they are elected. Some
people become convinced that the promise of unity will come true, and they jump
on board the blissful bandwagon. Given
what we’ve seen in the past and even today, does anyone honestly believe that
people of different nationalities, race, religions, and passions can live in
harmony on this earth?
Attempts at
unity today begin with the assumption that inside, people are generally good enough
to somehow make it work. But ironically,
many seem to strive for this unity by getting rid of the bad people who have
different beliefs then them, and then patting the back of those left and
claiming I’m okay and you’re okay. That
isn’t real unity. What we are going
study today in Ephesians 2:11-22 is.
A couple weeks
ago we learned that the person and work of Jesus Christ was what made unity
possible for all things in heaven and earth. 8b With all wisdom and
understanding, 9 he (God the Father) made known to us the mystery of his will
according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into
effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in
heaven and on earth under Christ (Ephesians 1:8b-10)
In
Ephesians, Paul is writing to a subset of people who became united in Christ –
Gentile Christians in the city of Ephesus. Paul began chapter two by describing the
condition of these people before they accepted Christ. In short, he said they were spiritually dead,
separate from God. Then Paul said that
after they were saved, they were made alive and united with God. Now he is going to describe how expound on that
and tell them what that means going forward.
= = =
11
Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called
“uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done
in the body by human hands)— 12 remember that at that time you were separate
from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the
covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now
in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood
of Christ.
Paul begins
this portion of the chapter by pointing out some things about the Gentiles that
naturally led to division. For one, he
points out that they were geographically separate from Israel since Ephesus was
located in Asia Minor, north of Israel.
Another distinguishing factor between Gentiles and Jews applied to the physical
bodies of the men – Jewish men were circumcised, but Gentiles were not.
On one hand people
in our world makes the claim they can overlook differences in others, but there
are always certain ones that they cannot.
Unity isn’t possible when labels with negative connotations are
intentionally applied to people – in this case the labels were “circumcised” vs
”uncircumcised”. Notice that Paul points
out that circumcision is a traditional, physical process because he is going to
contrast physical distinguishing characteristics with spiritual truth.
Before
becoming Christians, these people were not Jews, not citizens of Israel, not part
of the “covenants of the promise”, without hope and without God. That’s quite an array of things they were
without. On one side of the spectrum,
Paul talks about a difference in their nationality and on the other side of the
spectrum says they were without hope and God.
That’s another way of saying that despite what they may have thought, in
the grand scheme of things they didn’t have much at all.
Some of the
things these Gentiles were excluded from were “covenants of the promise”. That may sound a little vague, so let’s focus
on that for a moment. God made various
covenants in the Old Testament. One,
which was made to Noah, applied to all of mankind when God promised not to
destroy the world with a flood again.
That promise applied to Gentiles, and it was an unconditional promise - its
fulfillment had nothing to do with man’s performance.
Another
covenant was made between God and Moses.
As part of this agreement, God promised physical blessings to Israel if
they obeyed His commandments – the Ten Commandments and the law. That covenant was conditional, and one that
did not apply to the Gentiles.
A third
covenant was the one God made with Abraham - the terms of which were revealed progressively
in Genesis 12, 15, and 17. According to
that covenant, God promised Abraham a large family that would inherit the land
in Canaan (that was the promised land we studied about in Joshua and
Judges). That “family” would end up
being the nation of Israel (the Jews).
Circumcision was used to symbolize this unique covenant with
Israel. So, for Gentiles, that part of
the covenant with Abraham didn’t apply to them.
However, as part of that same covenant, God also said that through the
founding of the Jewish nation of Israel, they would somehow become a blessing
to all humanity. Genesis 12:3
– “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” So that was a part of the Abrahamic
covenant that did apply to the Gentiles.
However, it was something that they really knew nothing about. In fact, the exact details of how this would
occur didn’t become fully revealed until Jesus came to earth and died for the
sins of the world (Galatians 3:7-29).
A fourth
covenant was made between God and David and it involved David becoming the
leader of Israel. In return for David’s
desire to honor God through the building of the temple, God promised to make
David’s name great, and to also raise up a descendant of his, a Messiah whose
kingdom would last forever (2 Samuel 7, Psalm 72). While the Gentiles weren’t part of the nation
of Israel, the faith that they now had in Christ made them part of the kingdom
God was referring to – the kingdom of Christ.
Although all
four of these covenants involved promises, Paul uses the phrase “covenants of
THE PROMISE” here in Ephesians to ensure his readers know that at one time
these Gentiles were ignorant about the promise about the coming of the Messiah
for all mankind.
Promises are
a unique characteristic of humans. No
other living thing makes them. That’s
because people were made in the image of God and God makes promises. Promises cause us to put importance on
something that will occur in the future, and if the promise is of something
good, they give us comfort, encouragement, and motivation. But promises cannot just be made. For
someone to experience the benefits of the promise, one must first hear
the promise, then must trust the one who made the promise. Even when the benefits sound appealing,
trusting can be difficult.
Our grandson
Isaac just turned 5 years old. Like many
kids that age, he is somewhat fearful of the water. The adults in our family want Isaac to overcome
that fear, so that he can not only gain the skills to survive in water, but to experience
the joys that come with being able to jump in it and swim on it. Recently he has gotten much more comfortable
being on top of the water. He will now
sit on an inflatable raft that looks like a dragon. He also really enjoys riding with his dad on
a personal watercraft, also known as a Sea Doo or Jet Ski. However, if Isaac’s body is in the water, he
is very reluctant to allow both of his feet to come of the bottom. Even though he is wearing a life vest, he
hasn’t experienced what it is like to float, because he doesn’t trust that the
life vest will do its job. Even though
I’m right next to him in the water and I’ve promised that I won’t allow him to
be in danger, he still insists that he be able to touch the lake bottom with
his feet, or at least keep a firm grasp on me.
In these
verses, Paul describes the ramifications of lack of knowledge about the promise
of God. People who don’t know about this
promise do not have the opportunity to believe in who Jesus was and what He
accomplished. That’s why Paul says that
at one time they were “without hope and without God”. In other words, there is no greater
promise that one needs to become aware of and trust in. If you want hope, to know God, and have real
unity one must know of and believe in the promise that has come through Jesus.
Ephesians 2:13 - But now in Christ Jesus you who once
were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
These words
are very similar to something Paul wrote in another letter he wrote to Gentile
Christians in Galatia – “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for
all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with
Christ. 28 There
is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and
female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to
Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the
promise. (Galatians 3:26).
Paul’s words
in Ephesians and Galatians, tell us that the work of Jesus (specifically his
death on the cross) takes people from different nations, traditions, times, races,
abilities, and personalities and unites them.
People who may otherwise have very little in common are brought together
under one banner.
14 For he
himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the
barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the
law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one
new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile
both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their
hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to
those who were near.
These verses
reveal how Gentiles and Jews were united together. Religious duties, traditions, and good works
were put aside and reconciliation occurred through Jesus. Both Gentiles and
Jews are now able to come into a relationship with God and therefore into
sincere, deep relationship with each other.
Think about
the kind of unity being offered by the non-Christian philosophies and movements
that exist today. As we’ve noticed, sometimes
we see people touting a kind of bland, milk toast co-existence. But at the same time, we see great division between
people that is being blamed on leaders, skin color, men, media, money,
Christianity, and on and on. Where the
word “tolerance” was once the banner we were to unite under, our fallen world
seems to have quickly moved passed that to a point where they now try to
silence those who don’t agree with their philosophy and in some cases even
forcefully eliminating them. Someday
soon, the anti-Christ will come on the scene and try to unite this world under
himself.
Contrast
what we see in our world with Ephesians 2:14-18. Notice the description of what Jesus has done
and how people benefit from that if they believe in His work. He brought “peace” (between man and God, not
between nations- John 14:27), “made one”, “destroyed the barrier”, made “one
new humanity”, made “one body”, “reconciled”, “put to death hostility”, and
provided “access”. In other words, Jesus
accomplished real unity in a complete, fulfilling way. Unlike the failed attempts at unity by people
of this world, Jesus was able to accomplish it because He took sin head
on. He called sin what it was and did
what it took to defeat it. Only when sin
is dealt with can unity exist.
18 For
through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
In this
verse we see that all three persons of the Trinity are involved in bringing us
into a relationship with God. Their
united relationship and the different roles each one played (or work they did),
enabled us to come into this relationship.
Access to the God the Father occurred by the Father sending His son,
Jesus to die on Cross. It involved the
Son doing the will of the Father (John 6:38). And it involved God the Father
sending the Holy Spirit to teach and remind people about Jesus (John
14:26).
There is a
common phrase that we find several times in Ephesians, “in Christ”. Not only is that phrase used here in
Ephesians, but it is used in the New Testament over 90 times. Let’s talk about what it means to be “in”
something. It is important to understand
because not only does the Bible say we are “in Christ”, but it says Christ is “in
us”. Students of the Bible also know
that Christians are supposed to be “in the Spirit”, but the Holy Spirit is also
in us. Jesus said he was “in the
Father”, but also said, the Father was “in him”. How do we make sense of this “in-ness” that
goes two ways?
This simple,
short word, “in” can be used in various ways.
For example, if I ask, “What’s in this cookie?”, I’m talking about different
ingredients that are physically mixed together to create something else. A
cookie is a mixture of eggs, milk, sugar, butter, and maybe the special
ingredient of nutmeg. While all those
things are in the cookie, each one has been used up at the expense of the
greater good. Even though a cookie has
eggs in it, you cannot throw a cookie on a frying pan in hopes of having eggs
with your bacon. The phrase “in Christ”
is not meant to be used in this way. We aren’t mixed with Jesus in a bowl to
produce something else. We also don’t
jump into the mouth of Jesus and traverse down his esophagus into his
stomach. The same is true, in Galatians
2:20 when Paul said the opposite, that Christ was in him. Lack of distinction about who God is got
Satan, Adam and Eve into trouble. Biblical uses of being “in” are not meant
to be about giving up personality or individuality.
Another way
we use the word “in” regards being part of a group. While a group is a combination of individual
pieces, the individuals still exist. When
I say I live “in Muskegon” I mean that I’m currently living and breathing in
this geographical area and part of a larger community of people. This use of the word “in” is implied
in the phrase “in Christ”. It is when a relationship
exists.
A third way
we use the word “in” is when we are implying that someone will be affected
by something else. For example, if I
said, “you are in trouble”, I’m meaning that your actions have caused you to be
affected by something else. It’s a bad
thing to be “in trouble”. Conversely, if
I said, “you are in good”, I mean that you are going to receive benefit from
something else. The phrase “in Christ” also implies this. A person’s faith in the person and work of
Christ will cause them to be affected by His work.
As I already
mentioned, there are several other examples in the Bible where the word “in” is
used just like it is used to be “in Christ”.
For example, 1 Corinthians 15:22 says that we are “in Adam”. Obviously, we aren’t Adam, he no longer
exists on this earth, but we do.
However, we do have a type of relationship with him in that we are
humans like he was, and we are descendants of him. We were also affected by the sin that Adam committed.
We are
instructed to pray “In the Spirit”.
Believers have a relationship with the Holy Spirit because He indwells
each of us, but we are also relying on the work of the Holy Spirit to help us
pray (Romans 8:26) and to pray about things that are according to God’s will.
In John 14, Jesus
said He was in the Father, and the Father was in Him. Obviously, a Father and son have a
relationship, but each also had a role or work involving the other. The Bible says the Father sent the son to die
on a cross, and that Jesus willingly came to do the Father’s will.
This idea of
relationship and interworking between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit was on
display at the baptism of Jesus. Matthew
3:16-17 - As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water.
Suddenly the heavens were opened and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a
dove and resting on Him. 17And a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased!” This
event symbolized how the three of them were “in” this together.
The Biblical
concept of being “in” another is stated in the context of individuals in a
relationship, who have a common bond, and it includes at least one specific
responsibility, role, or work that that individual has.
Being “in Christ” means we have a relationship with Him that was made
possible by his work of dying on the cross, and by the faith that we put in his
person and work. Our individuality isn’t
lost, but we become part of a collective endeavor where each can be affected by
the other. We are united in this together.
Now Paul is
going to describe this relationship with an illustration. As you read these verses, look for all the
components of individuality, relationship, and roles or work.
19
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens
with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief
cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to
become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built
together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
Paul calls
these Gentile Christians fellow citizens and members of God’s household. He then describes who is in it and how it was
built. The word “household” implies two things – one
is that it contains more than one member and second, that it involves a
“structure”. First Paul uses the word
household to emphasize the relationships that exist within God’s
household. The Gentile Christians have
become part of the household, and Paul names others in the house - Jewish Christians, the apostles and prophets,
God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
While this
household does include literal people, the structure is not made with literal wood,
bricks, and mortar. Paul uses some
figurative images to let us know who was involved in the construction of this
household and how it was built. He says
that the cornerstone of the house is Jesus.
The cornerstone is the primary stone used in the construction of a
building, usually placed at the corner, and it was what everything else in the
house was measured against and aligned with. It was usually one of the largest,
most solid, and most carefully constructed of any in the house. Once the cornerstone was laid, then the
foundation was built in relation to it. Jesus’
role was to pay for our sin. Paul also
says that the subsequent foundation that was attached to this cornerstone
includes the apostles – the original men that worked to start the church based after
responding to the call of Jesus, and the prophets who worked to communicate
God’s word to us. How did the prophets
know what to write? The work of the Holy Spirit – 2 Peter 1:21 - for no
prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy
Spirit spoke from God.
After
providing us a picture of one “large” dwelling that all believers exist in with
God, Paul then describes another “smaller”, more “personal” dwelling.
22 And in
him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by
his Spirit.
An
individual who is part of one great big household with lots of people may be
tempted to think his or her existence is insignificant, or that it’s possible to
do whatever he or she wants without being noticed. Paul tells us that we can’t
hide. Even individual believers in Christ are individual dwellings of God. Each person who trusts Christ as savior is
also like a dwelling because the Holy Spirit lives in him (Romans 12:1, 1
Corinthians 6:20).
So, we are
not only part of a large household, with a lot of people, but each individual
believer is also a household. This
concept reminds me of one of those huge spaceships in the movie Star Wars, in
which smaller individual pod spaceships take off from.
SO WHAT
I need to
figure out my role in this household.
One of the biggest struggles that parents have is getting their kids to take
responsibility around the home and proactively keep it neat. They often assign chores to the kids to help
accomplish that. What you did to get
into the household was you’re your faith in Christ, but now that you are in,
you need to be a worthwhile contributor.
Did you know that when you walked through the door of this household,
the Holy Spirit was standing at the door handing you one or more spiritual
gifts to use? Everyone in God’s
household has a responsibility to make it a good place. Figure out what your role is.
Don’t
hurt people in the house.
Some of the most emotionally and physically damaging things occur in households
around the world. All of us either have
firsthand experience or at least know stories of bad things that have occurred behind
closed doors of our homes. Households are supposed to be a place of love and
refuge. First we need to love Jesus.
Earlier I
referred to John 14. In that chapter, immediately
after Jesus talked about Him being in the Father, the Father being in Him, believers
being in Christ, and Christ being in believers, He says that behavior, or
works, are a key thing involved in this unity or fellowship - 21 The one who
has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and the one who
loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will reveal Myself
to him.”
Second, we
need to love the other people in the house - Complete my joy by being of the
same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind
(Philippians 2:2).
Be a
proper representative of this house.
We have all
witnessed children in grocery aisles misbehaving or screaming
uncontrollably. When that occurs, who
becomes the most embarrassed? Sometimes,
the child’s parents turn red from embarrassment, and sometimes we question the
abilities of the parent. Matthew 5:16 let
your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give
glory to your Father
The house
has eyes. Many who
know me know that I like sweet treats.
The same was true when I was a kid.
I vividly remember what the cookie jar looked like in our house and
where it was. I remember the technique I used so that I could remove the lid
from it without making any noise.
Sometimes I took a cookie without my mother knowing, but other times she
could hear the clink of the top against the cookie jar. There is no sneaking around in the household
of God. God is everywhere present, and all knowing. Every breath you take, every move you make,
God will be watching you.
There is
no leaving this house. This united household of God is not like
being on an episode of “Survivor” where votes are taken to see who gets kicked
out. This house we now live in contains God
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Neither of them will ever get kicked out of the group, nor will there
ever be a mutiny among them. So to, once
we are in, we are in. Jesus said it is
impossible for others to remove us from His presence (John 10:28). Also remember what we learned in Ephesians 1
– “When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy
Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption
of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.”