SPEAKER_00: We are continuing our sermon series in Ephesians, made for more, because you were made for more.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps you've wondered, who am I?
SPEAKER_00: Does my life really matter?
SPEAKER_00: And Ephesians offers a powerful answer to that.
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: You were made for more.
SPEAKER_00: More freedom, more purpose, more joy.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to unpack how the gospel reshapes our identity, how it reshapes our relationships, our work, our worship, that you were made for more.
SPEAKER_00: And there's this encouragement for us to live the life that God intended for us to live in light of who we are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In light of this good news that we were made for more.
SPEAKER_00: And in the text that we're looking at today, it'll be Ephesians chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: So if you have your Bibles, you can go ahead and open to that.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 2, we'll start in verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: But we're really unpacking this idea that's in Ephesians 4 as well.
SPEAKER_00: That this is the reason why we came to Ephesians.
SPEAKER_00: That in Ephesians 4 it talks about how God gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, the teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry.
SPEAKER_00: So that we would grow up into every way, in every way, into Christ, who is the head, when each part is working properly, so that it builds itself up in love.
SPEAKER_00: That's Ephesians 4, 11 through 16, with a couple of verses that repeat themselves, pulled out of there, so we can just focus on that.
SPEAKER_00: That God has given distinct gifts to equip the saints for the work of ministry so that we could be built up, so that together we could become more and more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of times in America we say, I am independent, it's all about me.
SPEAKER_00: God says, I saved you into a body, and you're going to be a body part in the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And you don't get to be the head.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the head.
SPEAKER_00: But all of us are becoming more and more like Jesus as we work together, as we're united.
SPEAKER_00: And the text that we're looking at today is especially about this unity, this reconciliation that God allowed us to have, not only with Him, but also with the body, the church.
SPEAKER_00: And so we should be built up in love.
SPEAKER_00: We should be united with Christ the head and with those around us.
SPEAKER_00: There's this vertical aspect and also this horizontal aspect.
SPEAKER_00: I get to be united with, reconciled with people that maybe don't deserve forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe reconciliation is a big ask, a tall ask for certain people, but I get to be reconciled to them because my hope isn't just in myself and my rugged individualism.
SPEAKER_00: It's also in living out the purpose that Jesus has for me.
SPEAKER_00: And as I remain connected to Jesus and his body, I get to be equipped to work properly for him.
SPEAKER_00: I get to be made for more.
SPEAKER_00: As we look at the text today, it's really a lot about our corporate identity, like who you are, and by you I mean y'all, who y'all are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: That y'all together have this corporate identity.
SPEAKER_00: And we're really looking at that, and really y'all, also us, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm part of that too.
SPEAKER_00: Who we get to be in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's making another contrast in this passage, reminding believers of their prior alienation from God and his people, what Christ has done to reconcile them to God and to one another.
SPEAKER_00: Like, why is this text important?
SPEAKER_00: This text will spell out why we partner with like-minded organizations to advance the gospel of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Like we don't root against other churches.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're thinking, man, if we could just get a building, maybe another church will die and they'll just gift us a building.
SPEAKER_00: That'd be cool.
SPEAKER_00: No, we don't root for other churches to die so that we can benefit from that.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: That's not pleasing to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Martin Luther King Jr.
SPEAKER_00: had a famous quote about uh 11 o'clock or high noon being the most segreged, segregated hour of the week.
SPEAKER_00: And this, I think this breaks God's heart that there are black churches and white churches and Hispanic churches when really we should all be the blood-bought church of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That really we should fight for unity that doesn't say you have to look like this to belong here.
SPEAKER_00: And this text is really beautiful because it shows us just that.
SPEAKER_00: Would would Jesus be pleased with our unity?
SPEAKER_00: Like we know that unity in the body is important, not just in race, uh in ideology, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh you could go to a donkey church, you could go to uh elephant church, you could go to uh an apolitical church that doesn't talk about that because they're really focused on striving towards unity uh so that there can be peace and there can be people from both sides of the political aisle worshiping together.
SPEAKER_00: And there's intentionality in every decision that you make in those areas because we we don't want to alienate people that Jesus wants to use us to reach, right?
SPEAKER_00: We talk about how we want to reach every man, woman, and child with the life-changing reality of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And if we want to reach every man, woman, and child, then we need to be intentional with the decisions we make in those areas.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul in 2, 1 through 10 was speaking of the glories of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: He was talking about grace, and then he's gonna shift a little bit to talk about how we're all united together in Christ, both vertically and horizontally, reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: It speaks of reconciliation between humanity and God, reconciliation between Jews and Gentiles, and by extension, reconciliation between men and women from all times, cultures, and races.
SPEAKER_00: So before we jump in, before we read the text for today, uh I want to invite you to pray with me uh for our time together in the Word.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray that you would use this time to shape your church, that you would use this time to make us more like you, make us more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, would you help us to hear from you today?
SPEAKER_00: Uh I don't have anything especially important to say, but I pray that your words would come out of my mouth, that it would be pleasing to you, that you would be glorified, that your kingdom would move forward in power through your church, that we'd be equipped to do the work that you have for us.
SPEAKER_00: We need your help with that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Lord, uh, would you help us?
SPEAKER_00: And I want to invite you, church, now, to pray.
SPEAKER_00: Uh pray for yourself, uh, that you would hear the word, that you'd understand it, that it would make sense.
SPEAKER_00: And also, would you pray for me that I would speak God's word and not mine?
SPEAKER_00: Well, Lord, we love you, and we need you.
SPEAKER_00: Would you use this time to shape us into your image?
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, church, I want to invite you to stand for the reading of God's word at this time.
SPEAKER_00: These aren't my words, these are God's words, so we're standing up in reverence of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Verses eleven through twenty-two of Ephesians chapter two.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that you were at one time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers of the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world, but now, in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in the ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
SPEAKER_00: And he came and preached peace to you who are far off, and peace to those who were near.
SPEAKER_00: For through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks, buddy.
SPEAKER_00: Who we once were, we were alienated, we were separated from God.
SPEAKER_00: If you're note takers, this is your chance to write it down before uh we dig into the verses a little bit more.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Therefore remember that you at one time, the Gentiles in the flesh, the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made by the flesh and hands, remember that you were separated from Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: You were strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God.
SPEAKER_00: We were in a helpless and hopeless place.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: In verse uh 1 through 10, it was talking about how we were dead, how we were separated.
SPEAKER_00: You have no hope on your own.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a dead man, you have no hope on your own.
SPEAKER_00: You need to be resuscitated.
SPEAKER_00: And then in verse 10, he talks about how he created us to be his workmanship, that we were his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
SPEAKER_00: And those good works that each of us are created in Christ beforehand to walk in, those are meant to be walked in in the context of a community, that we need each other, that we're better together, as we work together, as we live near each other, as we celebrate holidays together, as we celebrate life events together, as we uh grieve hard things together.
SPEAKER_00: We were meant to be united in Christ, and we were meant to do life together.
SPEAKER_00: And before Christ, we weren't just dead and separated.
SPEAKER_00: We also, us Gentiles, all of us, unless you're like Jewish uh genealogy, uh you're in the Gentile group, dead, separated from God and Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't you didn't have access to the covenant promises of being blessed to be a blessing before Jesus Christ enlivened you by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, which is what we really hammered in last week, right?
SPEAKER_00: We were separated.
SPEAKER_00: We were Christless, we were foreigners, we were hopeless, we were without God and without hope.
SPEAKER_00: And the importance here is that like as we read a text like this today, it'd be easy for us to say, man, we've got the we've got the monopoly on how to do church right.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not the intent of this passage.
SPEAKER_00: The intent of this passage is we come humbly saying, yeah, we were separated from you, God.
SPEAKER_00: We were absolutely we had no hope.
SPEAKER_00: We were without God, without Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We were strangers and aliens.
SPEAKER_00: And he's reminding them, hey, this is where you came from.
SPEAKER_00: You were alienated before Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's important for us to remember that.
SPEAKER_00: Because as we remember that alienation, alienation, as we remember that separation, it allows us to uh enjoy the grace of God that's been lavished on us.
SPEAKER_00: It allows us to not get prideful or arrogant of like, this is how church is meant to be, right?
SPEAKER_00: But instead we say, no, we're humbly doing our best to follow Jesus in the way that we lead and love this church.
SPEAKER_00: We're humbly doing our best to say, God, where are you working?
SPEAKER_00: How can I join you in your work here in Taylor, Texas?
SPEAKER_00: How can we partner with other churches that are following you humbly, that are preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified?
SPEAKER_00: How can we partner with other like-minded organizations as those who all recognize like we don't have uh the monopoly on how to do this thing right?
SPEAKER_00: We are working humbly, saying, God, we want to honor you in everything that we do, in every decision that we make.
SPEAKER_00: Would you guide us?
SPEAKER_00: And so we remember that separation.
SPEAKER_00: Uh those who are Gentiles called the uncircumcision, uh, by those who were Jews called the circumcision, um, that there's a physical, fleshly difference.
SPEAKER_00: We're not going to get into that today.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you can ask your mom on that one.
SPEAKER_00: Uh they had no access to the Jewish covenants of promise.
SPEAKER_00: They were without Christ, without hope, without God in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Their sin had separated them from Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh what he Paul's doing here is he's saying, hey, remember your identity that before Jesus saved you, you were dead in your sins, you were excluded from being included.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of us have been on the outside looking in.
SPEAKER_00: You were rejected, you didn't belong to that group, you weren't part of the in-crowd.
SPEAKER_00: We were all in that place spiritually before Christ came and set us free.
SPEAKER_00: We were dead in our sins and we were brought to life through Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This uh is important to include because this movement is still at work in our lives every day.
SPEAKER_00: That uh we don't want to come arrogant to this text.
SPEAKER_00: We want to remember that we were dead, we were separated.
SPEAKER_00: And this should lead us to thanksgiving rather than arrogance.
SPEAKER_00: Grace excludes pride and extends itself to others who are in need.
SPEAKER_00: As we remember how helpless we were, we're able to extend that hope to those around us.
SPEAKER_00: Um as a beggar telling other beggars where to find food, right?
SPEAKER_00: Alienation, who we once were.
SPEAKER_00: We were hopeless, separated, but God did something incredible.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, verses 13 through 18, reconciliation, what Jesus Christ has done.
SPEAKER_00: Reconciliation, what Christ has done.
SPEAKER_00: No takers, I'm gonna give you a chance to catch up here.
SPEAKER_00: What Christ has done.
SPEAKER_00: But now in Christ Jesus, you who are once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He himself is our peace.
SPEAKER_00: He made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.
SPEAKER_00: Physically, for the Gentiles and the Jews, there was a wall in the temple.
SPEAKER_00: The Gentiles uh could only come so far into the temple before a dividing wall separated them from those who were Jewish by birth, Jewish ethnically.
SPEAKER_00: They couldn't get any closer.
SPEAKER_00: But those who were uh reverent towards God, who feared God, they would get to that wall and they would just wait right outside of that wall, hoping for the blessing to come on them as well.
SPEAKER_00: The proselytes.
SPEAKER_00: And this is saying, you who were far off, you weren't invited in, you've been brought near.
SPEAKER_00: That dividing wall of hostility that was there, it has been demolished by Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He has broken down any separation from us where it's not like, okay, there's the Jewish Christians and then everybody else.
SPEAKER_00: Like those who God really loves and really chose, and everybody else.
SPEAKER_00: And some of us, I think, we know we're not Jewish, but we still might put ourselves in that category of being like the ones that I'm blessed and highly favored.
SPEAKER_00: God's got extra blessings for me.
SPEAKER_00: And we we think of ourselves as this higher tier of Christian, and there's no room for that in our church.
SPEAKER_00: There's no room for that at Taylor Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: There's not second-class Christians that does not exist.
SPEAKER_00: That's not a category that God has.
SPEAKER_00: We don't get to say, hey, oh, you're you don't really get it.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, buddy.
SPEAKER_00: You're welcome here, but not too close.
SPEAKER_00: We don't stiff arm folks from hearing the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: The ground is level at the foot of the cross, meaning that we all are purchased by the same blood of Jesus that brings us near.
SPEAKER_00: And so we don't have like super Christian versus non-super Christian.
SPEAKER_00: But he has broken down the hostility in his flesh by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in the ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
SPEAKER_00: So if we're like, okay, we are like the real church and uh that other church that um they're not really preaching Jesus, uh, so we're just better than them, we can't have that hostility in us.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is saying, No, I want you to have peace and unity in one body in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He reconciles both to God in one body, killing the hostility.
SPEAKER_00: And he came and preached peace to you who are far off and peace to those who are near.
SPEAKER_00: For through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, Hey, everybody has access to the Father, not because you earned it, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because it's not by works, so that no one may boast, but rather it's by grace through faith in Jesus, who lived the perfect life we could never live, who died the death that we all deserve on the cross, who rose from the dead so that anyone who believed in him would have the right to become a child of God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Are you with me, Church?
SPEAKER_00: That there the ground is level at the foot of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Christ has brought us peace.
SPEAKER_00: Christ has made us one, Christ has preached peace, he has given us all access to God.
SPEAKER_00: Jew and Gentile have become one.
SPEAKER_00: This was especially important in their context because the Jewish Christians thought they were better than the Gentile Christians, and the Gentile Christians had bitterness against the Jewish Christians because ethnically they just butted heads.
SPEAKER_00: It'd be like if there's a another group that maybe you struggle with.
SPEAKER_00: Like I know for some of us there can be racial tensions.
SPEAKER_00: Those exist today.
SPEAKER_00: We're not um ignorant to that.
SPEAKER_00: And so if there's racial tension being real with that and saying, no, there's no place for that in the Church of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: And if there's political tensions, there's no place for that in the Church of Jesus Christ, which means I can worship next to a Democrat and a Republican on either side, and I don't feel weird about it.
SPEAKER_00: Are you with me?
SPEAKER_00: Like I don't feel like, oh well, if only they got it.
SPEAKER_00: I can worship next to a longhorn and an Aggie, and I'm I'm good.
SPEAKER_00: I mean I don't feel weird about it.
SPEAKER_00: I know they're wrong, but I don't feel weird about it, right?
SPEAKER_00: The longhorns.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, just to be really clear.
SPEAKER_00: The longhorns are wrong.
SPEAKER_00: So what's he saying?
SPEAKER_00: He's saying those through Christ, the far-off Gentile, is made near, and both Jew and Gentile are made one.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus destroyed the enmity and abolished the hostility of the law.
SPEAKER_00: How did he do that?
SPEAKER_00: What is he abolishing?
SPEAKER_00: He's abolishing the condemnation for the transgressor.
SPEAKER_00: Like Romans 8:1.
SPEAKER_00: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He abolished the condemnation of the law.
SPEAKER_00: He set us free so that we all come by the same blood of Jesus that gives us access to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: It took the early church a long time to get the difference, get accustomed to the reality that there is no difference.
SPEAKER_00: Some uh religious groups have still not learned the lesson yet.
SPEAKER_00: They're still trying to get Christians back under the law, but Christ is our peace, and He's made peace.
SPEAKER_00: In verses 13 through 16, it talks about how, but in Christ Jesus they've been drawn close, those who are far off.
SPEAKER_00: This wall that prevented the Gentiles from entering has been removed, it's been demolished, it's been broken down, granting Jews and Gentiles equal access to God, so that he could create in himself one new man.
SPEAKER_00: Like in 2 Corinthians, it talks about how we are a new creation created in Christ Jesus, that we've been made new.
SPEAKER_00: The old has passed away and the new has come.
SPEAKER_00: And then corporately, we are one new creation together.
SPEAKER_00: The church, the body of Christ, is God's new creation.
SPEAKER_00: Everything in the old creation is falling apart because of sin, but in it the new creation has unity because of righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: This one new man that it's talking about incorporates Jews and Gentiles into the church.
SPEAKER_00: Heaven's new community is a new race reconciled to God in one body through the cross.
SPEAKER_00: This is why we don't have the reason why we would have racial, ethnic, gender, class divisions in the church is that we haven't fully and properly understood what Jesus did for us on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Christians divided along illegitimate lines don't see themselves as part of one new man.
SPEAKER_00: All barriers based on factors, race, and gender are obliterated by the cross.
SPEAKER_00: This doesn't mean that these distinctions don't exist.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, these are legitimate distinctions that are absorbed into something bigger.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We're united, but we're not uniform.
SPEAKER_00: There's diversity and beauty within the family of Jesus, within the body of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We can embrace our differences with a common commitment to Christ because we're at peace with one another through our peace with God.
SPEAKER_00: We live in the good news of peace.
SPEAKER_00: We have unity in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We're not all the same.
SPEAKER_00: Unity is uniqueness working towards a common goal together.
SPEAKER_00: This is possible because we all have access to the Father through the same Spirit, through the same blood of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So Christian unity can be a spiritual issue.
SPEAKER_00: Where the Spirit is working, there's oneness.
SPEAKER_00: If there's disharmony and division for something illegitimate, often the Spirit is not at work there.
SPEAKER_00: Reconciliation is all about what Jesus has done.
SPEAKER_00: And this is bigger than just Ephesians.
SPEAKER_00: I want us to look briefly at a few other texts that really hammer this same point home.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 5, 8 through 11, I love verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of my favorite verses about what God has done for us.
SPEAKER_00: But God shows his own love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_00: God demonstrated his own love for us, and that while we were his enemies, while we were far off, he died for us.
SPEAKER_00: Since we've all been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from him from the wrath of God?
SPEAKER_00: For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life.
SPEAKER_00: More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: This is Paul again writing to a different group.
SPEAKER_00: He's writing to the Romans here, and he's speaking of the power of reconciliation, that we've been reconciled by Jesus to God and also to one another.
SPEAKER_00: That we, as reconciled people, our work now is to reconcile others to God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus initiated this through his death on the cross, through his burial, through his resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: And we get to continue that work by grace, through faith, through the Spirit working through us.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 5, 17 through 21, if anyone is in Christ, therefore he is a new creation.
SPEAKER_00: The old is passed away.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, the new is come.
SPEAKER_00: All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: That in, that is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore we are God's, we're ambassadors for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: God makes his appeal through us.
SPEAKER_00: We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
SPEAKER_00: For our sake he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_00: I love that last verse.
SPEAKER_00: It's like the gospel, substitutionary atonement, so clear.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to share the gospel and you don't know how, 2 Corinthians 5 21, he who knew no sin became sin, so that in him we might be the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus willingly took our sin upon himself to give us his righteousness so that when God sees us, he doesn't see all the wrongs that we've done.
SPEAKER_00: He sees Jesus' perfect life, his perfection given to us freely through the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And what does that do to us?
SPEAKER_00: Like the gratitude of knowing that we did not deserve it, but we've been brought to life, it does this thing where it causes us to live for Him and not for ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: It causes us to say, Man, I have the best news ever.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not like limited, like the dollars in my bank account.
SPEAKER_00: It's like I can limitlessly share this good news with everybody and anybody, and that's what I want to do.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to share the hope of Jesus with anybody who will listen to me because it's changed my life.
SPEAKER_00: And as his ambassador, as his representative sent to this foreign land to represent him and his kingdom, we should be the most forgiving.
SPEAKER_00: We should be the most quick to reconcile with those who have harmed us.
SPEAKER_00: In healthy and safe ways, we should go out of our ways to invite those far from God into the fold.
SPEAKER_00: We should remind folks of verse 21 that this is how any of us can have hope.
SPEAKER_00: One more through Colossians.
SPEAKER_00: Um Colossians is very similar to Ephesians.
SPEAKER_00: It's like a mini version of Ephesians.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and in this it's very similar to the text we just read, that it says, In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
SPEAKER_00: And you who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he is now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.
SPEAKER_00: Like we belong in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of us have been alienated, we've been pushed out to the outsides, but Jesus has brought us near.
SPEAKER_00: We get to live in his house as members of his family, and at the same time we get to be a house that's going to talk about in just a second, being built up in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The barriers are removed, they're demolished, they're destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: We get to live with God in peace, we get to have access, we get to have nearness and reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: All these emphasize that the barriers between God and us have been removed.
SPEAKER_00: We're joined together.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of times the attitude of the world is, you're different from me, and I resent you for that.
SPEAKER_00: In Christ, we can say, you're different for me, and there's beauty in that.
SPEAKER_00: That we're very different, but yet somebody that can be racially different, uh, ideologically different from me, uh, can have more to more commonalities with me, more similarities to me than my biological family that doesn't yet know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We're united, but we're not uniform.
SPEAKER_00: Unity in Christ does not negate differences, cultural uniqueness, or the value of culture.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus reconciled all things to himself.
SPEAKER_00: He made peace by his blood on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He made us into one body together, even the worst of us, myself included, to present us holy, blameless, without cause for correction in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to be holy, blameless, and above reproach before him.
SPEAKER_00: We've been reconciled.
SPEAKER_00: What else?
SPEAKER_00: Number three, we get to be unified.
SPEAKER_00: This is our last point from the text.
SPEAKER_00: We get to be unified.
SPEAKER_00: Unification, who we have now become.
SPEAKER_00: We're unified in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So then you are no longer strangers, no longer aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.
SPEAKER_00: You get to be brought into the house.
SPEAKER_00: You get to be brought into the fold.
SPEAKER_00: And not just members of the house, but also here's a picture of a temple or a picture of a house where Jesus is the cornerstone, and all of us are being built into that structure with him.
SPEAKER_00: Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: In him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We are citizens of God's kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: We are members of God's family.
SPEAKER_00: We are stones in God's temple, no longer foreigners, no longer strangers, but we're fellow citizens.
SPEAKER_00: Not second class, equal access to God the Father through the finished work of Jesus Christ the Son.
SPEAKER_00: The church is a family.
SPEAKER_00: We get to be members of God's household.
SPEAKER_00: And this picture of unity is a building.
SPEAKER_00: The church is built on the foundation laid by the apostles and the prophets, talking about those who have written for God, who laid a foundation, recording and proclaiming the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And then this building has Jesus Christ Himself as the cornerstone.
SPEAKER_00: And in these days, the cornerstone was more important than the foundation, which is kind of hard for us to wrap our minds around, hard for me to wrap my mind around.
SPEAKER_00: Because the cornerstone would set the pattern for the rest of the building.
SPEAKER_00: And if you didn't have a good cornerstone, your building wouldn't be good.
SPEAKER_00: It wouldn't stand, it would not uh hold up on its own for very long if you didn't have a good cornerstone that would allow everything else to be built from it.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul wrote that Jesus is the cornerstone.
SPEAKER_00: As a building's being constructed, its stones must be placed in alignment with the cornerstone.
SPEAKER_00: So as God's building, we Christians must be in alignment with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Paul wrote the cornerstone was the most crucial part of the foundation of a building.
SPEAKER_00: It was the stone with which the builder squared every other stone, including the other foundation stones.
SPEAKER_00: The cornerstone binds the structure together.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ himself has united Jews and Gentiles in the church.
SPEAKER_00: He's united us, even the least likely of us to be friends.
SPEAKER_00: He's brought us near through the same blood of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: There's only one way for us to be united, and that's Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And if we're not aligned together with Jesus, we're going to be a wobbly structure.
SPEAKER_00: We're not going to be built up properly if we're not each aligning ourselves with Jesus Christ, the cornerstone.
SPEAKER_00: The temple is fitly framed together as the body of Christ so that every part would accomplish the purpose that God has in mind.
SPEAKER_00: We as Christians, we're a corporate group.
SPEAKER_00: It's not like you get to be, oh, here's the building, and then there's just Jesus and me.
SPEAKER_00: That's not a building, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's you and Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And that's cool.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus can be your homeboy, but Jesus also has invited you into his temple, into the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You don't get to just be an amputated limb and say, okay, I got at least I got Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You're not going to have any joy there.
SPEAKER_00: You're not going to have any life there if you're not connected to the rest of the body.
SPEAKER_00: Christians are a corporate group.
SPEAKER_00: We relate to God as individuals, but the focus here is corporate.
SPEAKER_00: When you trust Christ, you belong to his body, to the temple.
SPEAKER_00: You were made to belong to the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And as we present the gospel, this should be part of what we're sharing of saying, hey, you're not just invited to have forgiveness from your sin, and okay, get out of hell free card, here you go.
SPEAKER_00: No, you're invited to belong to the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You're invited to be a part of something greater because you were made for more.
SPEAKER_00: The church is centered on Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Communities can exist for a variety of reasons, but the Christian church exists only because Christ and his purposes.
SPEAKER_00: Christianity is centered on the person and work of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And the church is the people.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about a physical structure, it's not about denominations.
SPEAKER_00: None of those are necessary to have a church.
SPEAKER_00: You guys know that?
SPEAKER_00: The people are the stones that make up this building in which God dwells.
SPEAKER_00: Each of us have to be properly positioned, aligning ourselves with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He is the new temple, he is the church.
SPEAKER_00: And so what does this mean for us, church?
SPEAKER_00: What does this mean?
SPEAKER_00: Unification, identification, this is who we've now become.
SPEAKER_00: What do we do with that?
SPEAKER_00: How do we apply this to our lives?
SPEAKER_00: Like we were previously separated, we've been reconciled, now we're unified with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: As we read this chapter, there should be this rich grace that we start to capture, that we start to feel and experience in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: That through Christ He raised us from the dead, that He seated us on the throne, that He reconciled us and set us into His temple.
SPEAKER_00: That spiritual death, spiritual distance can't separate us from the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: He's not only saved us individually, but He made us part of something greater, His church collectively.
SPEAKER_00: So, church, here's the question: Are you reconciled and united in Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Have you been reconciled to Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Have you been united with his church in Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Have you personally experienced the grace of God?
SPEAKER_00: Are you spiritually dead?
SPEAKER_00: Are you distant from God?
SPEAKER_00: Or have you trusted in Christ and received the eternal life that only he can give?
SPEAKER_00: If you're not sure of that spiritual position, I want to urge you to trust Christ by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Trust him with your life, trust him with your eternity, trust him with your day-to-day.
SPEAKER_00: Surrender yourself to him.
SPEAKER_00: Apart from Christ, we're all hopeless because we've sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: But God, because of the great love with which he loved us, created a way for us to be made new in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He died the death that we deserve.
SPEAKER_00: He lived the life that we could never live.
SPEAKER_00: He rose from the dead so that anyone who believed in him would have the right to become a child of God.
SPEAKER_00: He invites you into that.
SPEAKER_00: Call on Christ, and he will save you.
SPEAKER_00: If you have questions about that, I'll be in the back during the next two worship songs we're about to sing together, and I'd be happy to talk with you about that.
SPEAKER_00: And second, for those of us who have believed in Christ, are you helping others to trust him?
SPEAKER_00: Are you a reconciled reconciler?
SPEAKER_00: Are you united with the body of Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Are you quick to forgive, quick to love, quick to share grace with those who need it?
SPEAKER_00: You've been raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Do you walk in the newness of your life?
SPEAKER_00: Do you share this good news of eternal life with others?
SPEAKER_00: You're no longer at enmity with God, but you get to share the good news of peace with those who are far off, with those who are still fighting.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus died to make reconciliation possible, and you and I get to live this life making reconciliation personal.
SPEAKER_00: He gave us this ministry of reconciliation as part of the good works that we are to walk in together, to be ambassadors of peace.
SPEAKER_00: So let's fight for unity in the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Let's keep the main thing the main thing.