No Longer Outsiders — Ephesians 2:11–22 | Season 2, Episode 5

Have you ever felt like an outsider? Like you didn't quite belong, weren't quite included, didn't quite make the cut?

That's exactly where the Gentiles stood — and Paul wants to make sure they never forget how far they've come.

In this episode of the Set Free Stay Free Bible study podcast, host Matt Dawson continues the Season 2 Ephesians Bible study with chapter 2, verses 11–22. Paul draws another sweeping contrast: once you were strangers, foreigners, excluded from the covenant promises of God, living without hope in the world. But now — through the blood of Christ — you've been brought near. The wall of hostility has been torn down. And two groups that were deeply, historically hostile toward one another have been made into one new people.

That's not a small thing. That's a miracle.

Using the SOAP method (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer), Matt unpacks why Jewish and Gentile hostility was so deeply rooted, what it cost Christ to end it, and what it means that we are now the temple — the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, carefully joined together with Christ as the cornerstone. The application lands somewhere practical: we're still building that temple, one person at a time, as we share the hope of Christ with those who are still on the outside.

This Ephesians Bible study is for anyone who has forgotten how far grace actually brought them.

In this episode:

• What it meant for Gentiles to be called "outsiders" in the ancient world
• The deep historical hostility between Jews and Gentiles — and why it mattered
• How Christ ended that hostility by ending the law's dividing power
• What it means that we are now God's temple and dwelling place
• The cornerstone illustration — and how the whole building depends on Christ
• A closing prayer for sharing the good news with those still far away

📖 Passage: Ephesians 2:11–22 (New Living Translation)

🔍 Keywords: Ephesians Bible study, Bible study podcast, SOAP method Bible study, Christian Bible study, Scripture-first Bible study, Set Free Stay Free, Matt Dawson, walking through the Bible, Christian discipleship podcast

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome to the Set Free Stay Free Bible Study Podcast. I'm your host, Matt Dawson, and this is episode five of season two, where we are looking at the book of Ephesians. I don't know if this white shirt goes with the whole uh, you know, the white uh on white set here. So we're we'll see how that goes in the future. But uh it's what I'm wearing today. You're just gonna have to look, it's just gonna be a whiteout party for for the next little bit. Let me start uh with this question, okay? Have you ever felt like an outsider? Okay, have you ever felt like you didn't really belong, that you were excluded for any reason at all? It's not a great feeling, right? Like it's not a great feeling. And honestly, I think churches and Christians still kind of do this today, even though it's kind of strange. We're gonna read uh in Ephesians 2 why that's really a weird thing to continue to do, but that it's really a strange feeling to feel like there's something we can't do. Paul's gonna remind the church in Ephesus that uh at one time we were all outsiders, especially the Gentiles. And so we're gonna dive into the passage today. If you don't have your Bible with you, I'm gonna hopefully uh I'll put it a little bit on the screen. It's not easy to see, but I hope you have your own Bible. We walk through the soap framework, scripture, observation, application, prayer. And if you don't have any idea how to walk through that or you wanna dive into this a little bit more, I have a free resource for you. I'd love for you to download it. You can click the link in the description or DM me, and I'll get you that resource for you free. The soap, and it gives you some additional scriptures to uh read along with as well as you begin to learn uh to soap uh through scripture. I want to pick up in chapter two. We started in episode four, chapter two, and I want us to pick up in verse 11. Okay, we're gonna maybe only stop once uh today, but this is where he starts off, and I think he uses the exact words we just talked about. In verse 11, he says this don't forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called uncircumcised heathens by the Jews who were proud of their circumcision, even though it only affected their bodies and not really their hearts. I added the word really, by the way. All right, not really the hearts. In those days, you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises that God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. This echoes a little bit of what we read last episode in terms of the earlier part of chapter two. Verse 13. But now you have been unified with Christ Jesus, right? Once you were far away from God, but now you've been brought near to him through the blood of Christ. For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people, when in his own with his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by be creating in himself one new people from the two groups. So together now, as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility towards each other was put to death. Let me just pause here just to give a little context. We read last week about in the last episode about the nature of being saved by grace, and that again, all of us, we were once dead, now but God in his grace brings us life. He's going to continue to do that in here. And I don't know if you saw that. The contrast now is outsiders to those who were quote unquote insiders, right? Talking about the Jewish people versus the Gentile people. And I love that he uses that thing, but now you were, you are united with Christ. So he's like, you were outsiders, but now you're united. So you were on the outside, now there's unity. He says, once you were far away, but now you've been brought near. And then I want you to understand when he talks about this concept of bringing together one people, the Jew and Gentile, man, this is this was so hard for Jewish believers to accept. This was so hard for the Jewish people alone, because that you know, they're they're sitting on 4,000 years of their history, of their of their understanding of the law and the prophets, and saying, and we weren't supposed, like this was for your people. There was a promise for your people. And now they're being told through the work of Christ and through the Messiah who has come that they're they're opening this door, that now the Gentiles get to be a part of this. And again, he says, he did it by ending, right, the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He he changed what it looked like in order to please God. He changed what it looked like in order to come to Him and receive grace, was going to be through Christ, not through their law, not through their trying to obey the law, which again didn't really work. He says, We're creating one new people from two groups of people. He still understands, I have to identify that there are two really distinct groups of people here, but but I'm creating a new people. I'm creating a new person because of uh of being raised with Christ, but there's now a new people all unified under that, the work of Christ. And I love that he has to say this twice that he he broke down the wall of hostility. And at the end he says, our hostility towards each other was put to death. I think, I think we underestimate just just that word and what that really, really meant. There's a great story when Peter uh was told by Jesus, had to be told by Jesus in a dream, to go and visit this Roman um centurion or this Roman, uh, this Roman uh person. He says, I want you to go see him and I want you to bring him the gospel. This is this is not a Jew. And Paul shows up, and I mean he he answers the call and he, I'm sorry, it's not Paul. I said it wrong. Peter, right? Peter, Peter shows up and does exactly what Jesus told him to do in the dream, but he even says it at the front door. He says, It is illegal for me to enter your home. Like there's there, there's he was just not beating around the bush. Like, this is a problem. This is a problem for the Jewish people that I would even be called to bring you this message. And God was already doing a work in Cornelius' house. So it's like Peter basically was just again just following up and saying, Do you understand what you've seen? Do you understand what God has revealed to you? Let me tell you the good news. And the Holy Spirit falls and he baptizes Cornelius and his whole family, and they all come to Christ. It's this beautiful, crazy story. But but could you imagine starting it off with, hey, we're not supposed to, we're not supposed to talk like this. I'm not supposed to enter your home. The hostility between the Jewish people and the Gentiles, which was everyone else, by the way, everyone else. And now Paul is echoing what he probably was, again, he was already teaching it in his years as a missionary in Ephesus himself, but now he's writing this letter as a reminder. Remember, remember, guys, this this extraordinary thing where two hostile towards each other groups. Because of the work of Christ, he had to end that hostility, which means he had to take away what the Jews thought they were building their lives on, the law and its and its rules. Again, this is why we looked at the first season of this podcast was in the book of Galatians. And the Judaizers there had a real problem with you not being circumcised, right? Not doing the main one of the main things that makes you a part of the covenant family of God. And they're like, Yeah, you're Gentiles, but if you just get circumcised, I mean, yeah, you believe in Jesus, but if you just get circumcised, and here Paul's kind of addressing it again with this new church and this new group and saying, Look, it ain't about circumcision. Like they were so proud of it, even though it just affected their bodies, didn't actually change anything about their hearts. And he says, But now these two groups, because of what Christ has done, he's creating a new people which is going to involve both the Jew and the Gentile. So just I don't want us to underestimate the power of that. And what that might have still been, you know, with old grandparents, you know, that were in the houses, kind of like, I'm all about this new Jesus, but I don't like the way I feel about you know these other people getting involved or being a part of this. Now I gotta be open and okay with Jewish people. Again, there was hostility there. He says, But we have to put this um to death. He says Jesus himself put this to death. Let me go back and pick up uh in verse 17 and read to the end uh of the chapter. He says, He said, He brought this good news of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near. But all of us have come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us. Again, so it's all gonna come back to Christ. Both people who are near and far come the same way. Love this is verse 19. Now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens, along with all of God's holy people, you are members of God's family. Together we are his house built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, and the cornerstone is Christ Jesus Himself. We are carefully joined together in Him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. Through Him, you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by His Spirit. This is a concept that Gentiles and Jews would have probably struggled with because both of their sort of historical religious views had temples by which they went to worship. Now, the Jewish people had the Jewish temple, and it was sacrificial systems and all the things going on with the Jewish people, and Jesus taught at these temples. Paul has had to travel through all these new Gentile worlds, and they have a lot of temples built to this pantheon of God, so to speak. Matter of fact, remember, Ephesus was Artemis, the goddess Artemis. And I'm just telling you, from historical perspective, the stuff they did in the temples to worship is not stuff that we would ever consider to be actual temple worship, but that's what they did because that's what they felt in their weird, sicked, perverse, win, sinful ways. That's what that was in terms of worshiping those people. Now he's basically helping paint a picture. Remember, he talked earlier about we're we're now the body of Christ and Christ is the head. So he's going to use some language about us being the body of Christ. Now he's giving the example of, but we're now we're now building a sort of a new temple. But as he will say in other letters to churches, he's like, but you are the temple because you have this Holy Spirit. But he's actually giving a broader picture of we have the foundation of this new temple, this new dwelling, if you will, based on the prophets, right? Based on the prophets and the apostles are the foundation. And now the cornerstone who is Christ. So everything is built off of the cornerstone. It would have been a language they would have understood in terms of building a building. You need the cornerstone set so that you can carefully piece your pieces and make sure the home is square. And so it's like, okay, well, that's what Christ has done. It's all about him. And it's he set the pace on the stage for these two groups to come together. And he says, and now we're all being brought together. The Jews and the Gentiles are being carefully, he says, joined together in Christ to now be the holy temple of the Lord. And so understand it's not a physical building. He's again talking about the people of God are now sort of building this temple together, even though they themselves, it says the dwelling is where the Spirit lives, that's where he lives in us. And so we are now, as he says, I think it's in uh Romans, he says, we are now that the church in Corinth, he says, we are now the temple of God. And so understand, this is this is an interesting way to end chapter two, right? He's continuing on from those from early part of chapter one or start of chapter two, continues on about grace, we're saved. It's not a gift. Hey, you are once outsiders. He's going to continue to do the contrast. You're outsiders, but now you're close. You were far away, but now he draws you close because of what Christ has done. He's ended this hostility, not just creating a new life in you, but because of this new life in you, we're actually these two groups that were hostile to one another are now going to be one and unified because of Christ. And we are going to be the new dwelling place, right? The church, the body of Christ, the kingdom of God. Use any language you feel comfortable with, but we are now the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit because He had resides in His people. So I think this is a hard one, I think, in terms of application, because this is a great deal of context and a great deal of understanding that can come from this. But I think we continue down the path of how do we apply this to us? It was written to them, but how do we apply it to us? Well, we are still building that temple with every single person that we share the hope of Christ with, with every person who comes to faith in Jesus. We're all Gentiles now. It's like we're still coming the same way. We're coming through the person of Christ. And there's this dwelling, there's this place, and not just our inheritance and our citizenship with Christ. We're we're now coming together as a building, as a unified body. And so sometimes you'll hear pastors or Christian people talk about the kingdom of God and start talking about the people of God or the Capital C church, right? The Capital C church is the is the people of God united together. And it is a beautiful thing. And I would encourage all of you, if you're not a part of a really good church, you need to. You need to be a part of a great church that really amplifies and uplifts the unity that comes in the multiple churches and the people of God in a city and in a county and in a state, because this is, we are the dwelling, right? We are we are all being carefully placed there with our faith in Christ, to Christ being the cornerstone who said everything, and we are now his temple. Now, again, this is gonna play itself out in the future episodes as we continue on in this study of uh of Ephesians. It's gonna play itself out in terms of, well, now how do we live because of that? Like now we live a little bit differently because we are the temple and we're the we're where the Holy Spirit dwells. But I think today we'll just end with this prayer of God, you're continuing to build this temple. How can we be a part of being a part of bringing people to faith in you, helping them understand that it's all because of what you've done that you you end hostilities? Early on, I remember early in chapter two, he said we all were hostile to God. We were all disobedient and hostile to God. And it's because of the work of Christ that ends those hostilities and brings us all to Him through the one grace and work of Christ. So let's pray that as we apply this, that we would understand our role in that. Our role not in being the temple, but also bringing others and sharing this good news with them as well. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much. I'm so grateful for just this letter that we can learn from this letter to the church in Ephesus. And God, maybe we don't have the uh the hostilities between Gentiles and Jews and our current culture, but we certainly, we certainly still experience people who are hostile to you. Um and we are we rejoice and when you break down those hostilities because of the work of your son, and people surrender their life to you and they come to you. God, may we, as being a part of your your dwelling, this new dwelling place that you are creating. We don't need to create a new temple, but God, we need to invite people into the bigger picture, into the kingdom, and understand that they have a part now. They're being carefully placed as part of this continual building upon the foundations of the prophets and the apostles. We're all a part of the kingdom. We're all a part of the capital C church, if you will, of your son Christ, who is the head of the church, who's the head of this new life, this new body. And we pray that God you would help us apply that. Whatever opportunities come today. We hope that apply that to our lives where we live, learn, work, and play. And we pray all of this in your name, Jesus. Amen. Thank you guys so much. I can't wait to dive into chapter three as we continue uh in episode six. Um in this don't forget to engage with us, like this, rate and review this, and we look forward to seeing you next time.