A Study In Ephesians: A New Humanity

A Study In Ephesians: New People, A New Humanity. Ephesians 2:11-22

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Así pues, ustedes que son judíos a quien llaman no circuncidados, los judíos que circuncidan al hombre in el cuerpo y así mismo se llaman circuncidados. Recuerden que in other times estaban sin Cristo, separados de la nación de Israel, and no tenían parte in the alianza ni in the promesas de Dios. Vivían in este mundo sin Dios and esperanza. But, unidos a Cristo Jesús por la sangre que Él derramó, ustedes que antes estaban lejos, están cerca. Cristo is nuestra paz. Él hizo de judíos y de no judíos un solo pueblo. Destruyó el muro que los separaba y anuló en su propio cuerpo la enemistad que existía. Puso fin a la ley que consistía en mandatos y reglamentos y en sí mismo creó partes un solo hombre nuevo. Así hizo la paz. Él puso fin en sí mismo a la enemistad que existía entre los dos pueblos y con su muerte en la cruz los reconcilió con Dios, haciendo de ellos un solo cuerpo. Cristo vino a traer buenas nuevas de paz a todos, tanto a ustedes que estaban lejos de Dios como los que estaban cerca. Pues por medio de Cristo, los unos y los otros podemos acercarnos al Padre por un mismo espíritu. Por eso ustedes ya no son extranjeros, ya están, ya no están fuera de su tierra, sino que ahora comparten con el pueblo, los santos, con el pueblo santo, los mismos derechos y son miembros de la familia de Dios. Ustedes son como un edificio levantado sobre los fundamentos que son los apóstoles y los profetas, y Jesucristo mismo es la piedra principal. En Cristo todo el edificio va levantándose en todas y cada una de sus partes hasta llegar a ser en el Señor un templo santo. En él también ustedes se unen todos en sí para llegar a ser un templo en el cual Dios vive por medio de su espíritu. Ephesians 2 from chapter 11 and on. So then remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcised by the by those called the circumcised, which is done in the flesh by human hands. At that time you were without the Messiah, excluded from the citizenships of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of their promise without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you have were far been brought near by the blood of the Messiah, for he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing walls of hostility and his flesh. He made of no effect the laws consistent in commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the from the two, resulting in peace. He did this that he might reconcile both to God and one body through the cross, and put the hostility to that by it. When the Messiah came, he proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access by one spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer for foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household built in one foundation of the apostles and prophets. Built in one foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ, Jesus Himself as the cornerstone, the whole building being put together by Him rose into holy sanctuary in the Lord. You also are being built together for God's dwelling in the spirit.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

Thank you, Juan, for reading the text this morning, both in Spanish and English. It was uh really encouraging. And uh I say this somewhat often around here, but as I look across this room and I see uh what God is doing and how he brings people together from diverse backgrounds, um, I I love that we get a picture of what heaven's gonna be like, uh where we are in this uh throne room, at least in the initial part where we have this big banquet feast with our Savior Jesus, and it's gonna be every tribe, every tongue, every nation, uh, every people group. And so I love that our church reflects the community in which we live. And I'm thankful for for men like Juan. Um, I just have to say this really quickly because Juan has encouraged me so much in my walk with the Lord and even uh my desire to grow in our church family, and that uh Juan was an elder here as part of this church at one point, and we were going through some discussions about uh some of y'all don't know the backstory, but there were actually there was actually a church that was here, and then there was uh Redemption City Church that my wife and some families had planted in our living room uh about seven years ago, and we were having some discussions about coming together as one church from from two. And I I remember sitting in my living room with Juan and a couple of the other leaders at the time, and we were sharing barbecue because that brings unity, right? And uh, as we were eating barbecue together and we were enjoying just telling stories of what God was doing, we got to the point in the conversation where it's like, well, are we gonna do this or not? Are we gonna actually work together? Uh do we feel like God's calling us to do this? And we've been spending a lot of time praying and seeking counsel and wisdom on that. And I remember one, clear as day, he said, Listen, he he asked a simple question. He says, Is this gonna help us reach more people with the gospel? And I said, I hope so. And he's like, I'm in. He said, if it's about Jesus, and if it's about reaching more people with Jesus, let's do it. And if it's not, let's don't. And so that really, even that simple uh defining moment for us in the discussions about that uh really propelled us forward as a church that what we're about here is helping people know and experience Jesus, know and experience God. And I'm so thankful for men like Juan and his wife Margarita. Um, I could brag on them all day, just as brothers and sisters in Christ who are impacting people through simple ways of service and just uh talking about what really, really matters. So, anyway, that being said, thank you so much for for being here today. If you are a guest, this is your first time here. I I just want to simply say thank you for being a guest. Thanks for uh taking a risk. It sounds like it's a pretty big risk this morning because there's wasps flying around. Um so maybe a little bit more of a risky uh adventure this morning. Uh if they get near me, um I'm gonna take my Bible because it's the sword of the spirit. I'm gonna whack them. And so uh I may have to use it for other means this morning. Um feel free to jump up and protect me, JT. Uh but uh I I thought, honestly, I thought uh Adam did a brilliant job protecting his wife as she didn't even miss a beat and sang through the first song as he was killing a wasp on her back. So some of you guys were not here for that part, but way to go, man. I saw it. That's some uh some major bro props there, okay? Um so uh if you are a guest again, I'm gonna be all over the place for a second here. Uh but if you are a guest, we're glad that you're here. And we also have a small gift to say thanks for being our guest. And when you came in today, if you did not get a worship guide, uh if you lift your hand real quick, we actually have a team that would love to give you one of those. There's some ways you can connect in that worship guide. Uh, there's also some notes you can take through the sermon, uh, which we invite you to do that. There's even a reading plan so you can go through the scripture during the week. Um note is if you are new and you want to get more connected, uh, one simple way is there's a QR code on the back of that worship guide. You can actually use your phone. Most phones, if you just take a picture of it, it'll take you to the link. You can fill out that little information there, and uh someone will follow up with you. Or you can just go to the connection point at the back of the room at the end of the service today, and we'd love to connect with you uh there as well. That said, um we are moving along through the book of Ephesians, and for many of you who've been with us, uh I can I've already heard stories of the impact that it's having. Um we are working through a study guide, uh, and we're actually talking about that in our small groups. If you don't have a small group, I I highly recommend you you get invested in a small group, uh, invested in a what we call a life group. Uh that's where we really get to say, are we not just hearing it, but are we are we applying it? Are we growing in it? Are we implementing it into our everyday lives? And so we invite you to do that. If that's something you've never done before, you're a little nervous about that. Again, we're happy to tell you about that, kind of talk to you about how to get connected uh during the week with a smaller group of people that you can pray with, that you can read the word with, that you can uh live on mission with. Uh, we want to make sure that that's happening for all of us here that Call Point Community Church are our home. Um, if I seem a little down today, it's because I'm still mourning yesterday. Um my beloved Longhorns didn't do so well. Uh but it was an interesting picture. Some of y'all don't really care, but that's okay. Um God cares. And so um, but I know that for some of you, if you if you didn't see on TV yesterday, um every time that they had the red they have the Red River Rivalry, uh they it's kind of hard to say that. Uh Red River Rivalry, uh, they will zoom out at some point and they'll show the stadium. And uh I don't have a picture of it this morning, but we had a few people in the room who were actually there yesterday. And what they do is they sell 50% of the tickets, you know, to the Oklahoma fans and 50% of the tickets to uh the Texas fans. And then if you look at the stadium, it's like, you know, this crimson color on one side and burn orange on the other side, and there's this perfect dividing line right in the middle of it, right? And I thought, hey, that's kind of appropriate with our text today. There's a dividing line of hostility that's there.

SPEAKER_00 11:42

And and but here's the deal.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

Here's the deal. As silly as that is, that's that's happening in all of our lives on a regular basis. There's this hostility that's there. There's a dividing line of hostility, and it's not just over which sport team sports team that you support. It's it's over uh a lot of things in our lives that we divide up about. And and we're gonna talk a little bit about that today, um, and specifically want to lean into how is the church supposed to be different? Because remember, the book of Ephesians shows us what the church is supposed to look like. And we're just getting to sort of the horizontal implications of what Paul's been saying up to this point. And at the end of chapter one, Paul he prayed this amazing prayer where he says, I pray that your eyes will be opened, that your minds would be enlightened, that you would understand the hope of your calling, and the uh you would understand the riches of your inheritance. And then the third thing he says is you would understand the immeasurableness of God's power. And then now in chapter two, he's given us uh these practical examples of how God's power is actually displayed. One, the first half of this chapter, verses one through ten, which we covered last week, that God took people who were dead and he made them to brought them to life. And if you're in Christ today, you were once dead, but now you're alive. Um, and so you have life in Christ. You were resurrected, raised with Christ, seated with Christ, which is incredible. Okay? And so God's power is at work in the fact that we were made new and we were made from the people that were dead and on a path to destruction and brought into this new place through the power of God. But also, it's very, very important you remember that our salvation is not just vertical in nature, it's also horizontal in nature. Are you are and I don't know if you understand this. Maybe I think most of us in this room do, but God did not just simply save us to reconcile us to Him, but actually there are horizontal, there are relational implications with other human beings that our salvation puts front and center. And so salvation has a horizontal reality to it, and that's what Paul's talking about today, that the that it's not just the power of God to make us dead people who are now alive in Christ, but actually to make people who are at odds with each other uh unified and friends and at peace with one another, okay? And we're gonna talk about that several different ways. And uh if you're working through the the notes that are in the guide, um, kind of just some of the obvious things that are there, and then we'll kind of tease that out a little bit, all right? The first thing we need to understand, though, is that not only was our relationship with God broken before Christ rescued us, but our relationships with people were broken before Christ rescued us, right? Now, just a little quick history lesson. Go back to the very beginning of the Bible. And in the Bible, you will find when there were only two people, Adam and Eve, that there was a problem that occurred when they chose to rebel against God that has affected us ever since. You could say infected us as well. Because that sin problem is there, and it doesn't just cause a problem with our relationship with God, it causes a relationship problem here. And how that actually played itself out to the very simplistic level when you look at Adam and Eve is that when Eve was there seeing this desirable fruit, she takes it, and by the way, we can't blame blame uh Eve for all this, right? I know we want to sometimes. Where's Adam?

unknown 15:08

Right next to her.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

Right next to her. And and who was given the instruction to begin with? Adam. Adam was given the instruction. He was supposed to lead his wife, and he was being passive, right? There's a whole sermon in that. We won't go there today. See some elbows though. And so that being said, so what happens is Adam doesn't leave, he's passive, and then they do partake of the fruit. And then whenever God comes to them, he comes to them and he says, Where are you? As if he didn't know, right? Where are you? And Adam, of course, says, You know, here we are. And and it's like, What are what are you doing? Well, well, we're we're hiding because we're we're naked and we're ashamed. And of course he says, Who told you you were naked? Which we know that like the enemy obviously speaks this this death into them. Okay, and now they have this shame, they have this guilt, this this fear that's there, right? But then he says, Well, what exactly happened? And of course, in in true fashion, they begin blame shifting, right? Well, you know, the the the fruit you you gave us, God, you know, Adams, the woman you gave us. So he's blame shifting, right? And it there was enmity, there was there was hostility, there was angst, there was issue going on. Okay? So even in the first family, they were dysfunctional. So if you're dysfunctional today in your family, welcome to the club. Because it's always been the case. There's no perfect marriage, there's no perfect family relationships because there is sin in it. And when sin is in it, you're gonna have you're gonna have broken relationships, you're gonna have this, you're gonna have hostility, you're gonna have difficulty there. Relationships are difficult because sin is a part of our life, right? Sin is part of our world. So in the fall, we see that that our relationship with God was broken for sure, but also our relationship with people. And we see this in the world today, right? We see it silly, I said as silly as it is, you know, in our sports uh affinities, our teams that we like to follow. There's there's enmity there. But let's let's even think more deeply, right? There's there's problems politically, and we we really size people up based on what political platform they're standing on, who they follow, what they look at, and then we basically judge them and condemn them and criticize them based on those things politically. That's a one that people are like, well, we don't talk about that, right? Religiously, we criticize and we condemn and we slander people, we gossip about them, and we we have this hostility that's there in our hearts towards people of different religious backgrounds. In this text that we just read or that Juan read for us, it reminds us that the issue that Paul is actually bringing forward is a cultural and racial issue. It's a cultural and racial issue because he's talking about Jew and Gentile, and I think it's important for us to at least understand that for just a second, because the Jews and the Gentiles, uh, they were they were very hateful towards one another. Okay? Specifically, the Jews hated the Gentiles because they were the not they were not chosen. They despised them. Uh so much so, catch this, so much so that there was a saying at that at that particular time in history where if a Jew saw a Gentile woman giving birth, because it was a little different, you didn't just go to the hospital back then, but if the if a Jew saw a gentile woman giving birth, uh the statement was, do not aid her, because if you do, you may be guilty of bringing another Gentile into the world. I mean, that's that's intense, right? That's that's that's hateful. That's that's a it's crazy. Uh the hostility that's used several different times here, that that word literally does mean hatred. Literally speaks of hate in your heart. And so these guys, there was broken relationship with there. Our primary problems with humanity in our world today, one of our primary problems is hate. It's hate for our brother and our sister. Hate that's there. Literally an aggressiveness of meanness. I mean, just call it what it is. What we say, how we feel, what we think about people that are different than us. There is hatred in the heart of humanity. And again, this is not a new problem, right? I already mentioned Adam and Eve, but what about their sons? Cain and Abel. What does it say in the Bible that Cain had hatred in his heart towards his brother because his brother's offering was more acceptable. There's hatred that's there. We see this in the world today. And I want you to note that this hatred is rooted in pride. It's rooted in pride. Um, and it produces division. Now, ultimately, we could say all sin is rooted in pride. And here's why. Because at the center of pride is self, self-worship in particular. And we talked about this a little bit last week that to be a follower of the enemy, to be like under his influence, is to be self-absorbed, to be conceited, okay? To be conceited is the normal human way of life. To think only about myself, to think about how this affects me, to always be asking the question in every conversation, what's in it for me? That's how we work, right? And we see how that produces dangerous um behavioral consequences. Now, the pride at its core, again, produces this idea that somehow, not only is life all about me, but I've got to make myself appear to be something of value, of worth, of significance, right? And so we we build this case in our pride. We have an inflated view of self. We have an inflated view of who we are. And we want people to have an inflated view of us, right? It's why we walk into rooms all the time, and what's in our minds is I wonder what people are thinking about me right now. And we tell our kids and we tell others, hey, listen, they're not thinking about you because they're thinking about themselves. Right? And so it's a room full of people all thinking like, what I would, what are the people thinking about me right now? Because that is the natural human MO. And in our pride, we begin to try to find ways to get a leg up, try to be able to elevate ourselves, to have a platform where we can look down on others, where we can criticize, condemn, we can sort of make declarations about others, we can make these decisions about who they are and how that they are less than us, so that we can at least feel some level of again significance, worth, and value. Do you see how dangerous this is? And do you understand how offensive this is to God? Because it is incredibly offensive to our God who made us, every one of us, who knit us together, who loves us, who is for us as people. And it results in division. And we see this division play out in a lot of ways. It's on a personal level, like even husband and wife, even friends and friends together, people that have friends that can be uh divided. We see how that it can divide us in the workplace, we can see how it divides us in our neighborhoods, or even how neighborhoods are set. Up and what people live in, what parts of the city. Segregation happens when pride is at the center of this belief that somehow we're better than other people. And we have to build this case for ourselves. As I said already, twice in this passage, he uses this word hostility. And it's it's this um what he calls it a wall. And we have walls between us and people when we begin to be prideful, we begin self-absorption. Um pride is all about seeing yourself better than others. And when you begin to become prideful, prejudice is right there with it, right? And you begin to prejudge. And that's why we need to understand that our our primary problem with hate and and that's rooted in this pride, um, which do you understand again what's going on with this Jew and Gentile thing? Um some of us maybe do because you've been around church, you've heard us talk about this, you've heard other somebody else talk about this. But the reason why the Jews were so um they despised these Gentiles is because you know the Jews had the law, they had the Mosaic law going all the way back to Moses in the Old Testament. They had this covenant and they were God's chosen people. And then they had Abraham. They had Abraham's, uh he was he was chosen to be um this father of the great nations, but they kind of missed one part of the covenant that God made with Abraham. One of the parts that the covenant that God made with Abraham was, Abraham, I'm gonna bless you so that what? All the nations of the world will be blessed. They kind of forgot that part of the covenant. And they got locked in on themselves and they began to think, hey, we're awesome. And in fact, in this text, maybe sounds weird to us, but to them was normal, they called themselves the circumcised and the uncircumcised, because the circumcision was an outward uh display of are you one of God's people or not? So the Jews were these circumcised people circumcised on the eighth day, mostly. I mean, it's a weird thing to think about, but that's how they were marked, if you will, for to say they were God's people. That's why Paul, when he's kind of laying out his crazy uh resume of why he was righteous or could be self-righteous, even, he says, I was circumcised on the eighth day. I'm a Jew of all Jews, right? And he had all this stuff, and they had the law and they had the circumcision, and that produces this arrogance, it produces this pride that then results in division again. Same issue. And within that, we understand that racism in particular, maybe you've heard this before, but it's something that I heard one of my African American brothers, a pastor here locally, and we were in a meeting one time and we were praying, and he said, Listen, we don't have a skin problem, we have a sin problem. And when he said that, it broke me. I know the truth of that, but the way he said that and the conviction with which he said that broke my heart and began to weep. And I thought, God, I've got to repent of things in my life that I have let get there and just letting fester, even in my belief that somehow I'm not there, but I still know that in my heart I'm a prideful creature that needs to repent, that needs to continue to be aware of the areas and the ways that I can look down on other people. And it's not just about race, it's all things that we can build up in our heart. And a sin problem because it's a self-problem, it's a self-absorption conceit problem, just like we talked about last week. Now, praise God, there's answers to this, right? But before we get to the answer, I need to remind us that when we seek to find our identity worth in something other than God. So for the Jews, they wanted to find it in this fact that they were these chosen people. These people have been given this promise, this covenant, they've been given this law. It says when we seek to find our identity worth in something other than God, we will try to build our case that we are better than others on the basis of the wrong criteria. We'll try to come up with other ways to make ourselves good enough, to make ourselves better than other people. And for some church people, which some of maybe you call yourself a church person, you're at least here at a church service today, they can even take our morality and build a case for like, why we're such good people and other people aren't. Can I just tell you, and I'm going to come back to this in a minute, but one of the most dangerous things in Christendom is the sin of comparison. Another way that Jerry Bridges in his book on holiness is, he says it's called cultural holiness. It's where we look around and we say, okay, how am I doing compared to other people? Well, at least I'm not as bad as them. And that's how we build our case before God and before others that we actually deserve to be loved and be careful. To do that, you have to jump over the first ten verses from last week's message, right? Who in here deserves salvation? No one. Who in here was as a spiritual corpse pursuing and chasing after God? No one but God. But God. But the mercy and the grace of God. You see, in our lives, when we find our identity and worth in something other than Christ, and we start to use these other criteria, then we will see two things happen consistently. One is that we will use comparison to build our identity and value. So we'll build ourselves up by tearing others down or at least pointing out their faults. You'll find yourself always being very critical in places where you feel insecure. Condemning of others where you feel insecure. Can I just be real honest with you guys? Um, I'm thankful that my parents love Jesus, that they know Jesus. And I want to honor them even in saying those things. But I I feel like that there were some ways that when I look back, I go, man, I think we were really, really condemning of other people in our home at times, and and I I adopted that. And I'm just as guilty at times of criticizing and condemning others when I feel like that they are more valuable than me, or somehow that it makes me less valuable because they're succeeding at something that I want to succeed at. Listen, it's not this is not just a message about racism. This is a message about the human heart condition that wants to degrade people, to demean people, to even try to destroy people for the sake of our own desire to be worth something, to be loved, to be accepted, to be known. Are you with me? And this creeps in in lots of different ways. Creeps in in a lot of different ways. We've got to be very aware, very on guard, and we're gonna talk about how we how we can do that, but we can tend to build ourselves up. The thing, the other thing that happens, and this is a key piece, when we begin to look at the wrong criteria to understand who we are, Paul is addressing this here to the church at Ephesus, we will have misordered identities. We will have misordered priorities too, but we also have misordered identities. Do you know what your primary identity is as someone who has been saved by Jesus? Your primary identity is child of God. It's a son and daughter of God. What happens is when you latch on to your identity that is not that first, then everything gets screwed up because it begins to revolve around that identity. So I I laugh because people in this room will probably, who know me well, know that some of my background uh is is that I have on one side of my family uh some some German Czech background, okay? Now, my German Czech uh roots um have really benefited me greatly because I get to eat some really good German Czech food. And and one of those the foods that I get is kolachis, okay? Now I just need to give a quick lesson for you in the room. All right? Kalachis are not pig in the blankets, okay? And the problem is that when I go to Shipleys, I get angry, alright? And and that's my sin, and I've given that to the Lord, and I'm trying to let go of it. But kolachis are not are not a pig in the blanket, okay? It's not a sausage roll. Um, that's different, okay? And so uh I have a problem, I confess, but if I make my my in that moment, if I make my primary identity, my Czech background, uh then I can get really angry at people because they're they're they're missing the point on the food and they're they're they're misrepresenting my people, right? Because that's not it. It's a fruit-filled pastry thing, then it's really, really yummy. And I'll I'll make you some if you come ask me. I promise. I love them. I love making them this time of year. But the the the silly example is that when we latch on to to things that are not Christ's our primary identity, there will be problems that come that emerge from that, okay? Now, that's a silly one, except for me. But for some of you in this room, you have to be very, very careful that you don't latch on, for example, to a political identity and say that's my primary identity. That has to be subservient to Christ, to being a child of God. You're a child of God, you're representing the family of God first. I am representing the family of God first. If not, then I will run my Christianity through my political identity. Do you see what I'm saying? You have to flip that. You have to flip that. You've got to be very careful. I love being an American. I'm thankful for my country. I am grateful that I get to live in a country where we can sit in a room like this, we can worship Jesus. We can celebrate his goodness, we can freely and openly pray in the public place. And I understand that many of our religious freedoms have been under attack. There's things that are coming, but guys, I've been in countries where you get taken out in the street and beaten if you follow Jesus, where you can't get a job if you follow Jesus. I've been in those places. And here's what I'm saying I'm thankful for what I've got here. I'm praising God for that. But I am not first and foremost an American. I am a son of the Most High God, and I'm part of his kingdom first and his family first. If not, I will run my Christian faith through the American identity rather than my American identity through the Christian faith. This is really, really critical, guys, because we will take postures based on the wrong identity that will actually keep people from coming to Jesus. We'll actually point them away from Christ. And our goal, our ultimate goal is to point people to Jesus, not to our great country, not to our great political platform. Doesn't mean that those things can't be informed, right? None of that. It just means we've got to be very, very careful. And I could give you lots more examples, but just because we're coming into another year of uh election, I understand that like this is gonna be a primary issue. And so please, please, please, can I plead with you? Before you post something on Facebook, forward it, or whatever you do with it, think how does this represent my Father in heaven first? Let that be the primary filter before you post this garbage, or maybe it's something really good. But is this gonna build up the kingdom of God? Is it gonna point us to Christ, or is this gonna point people more to something other than him and get people distracted? I think the enemy revels that the church many times dies on the wrong hill. You ever heard that phrase before? It's like we're fighting a battle on the wrong hill. Like, praise God that he is gracious and merciful and he is disciplining us even sometimes to bring us back to the right place. But, church, we've got to be aware. These Jews, we're believers. Obviously, in Ephesus, he's talking primarily to these Gentiles. And we need to understand that our primary identity, whether we know it or believe it or see it or not, if we're in Christ, I'd hope you know this. I hope you believe it. Our primary identity is again as a son or a daughter of the Most High God. And we need to let that shape the way we live. And by the way, practically, I'm a child of God before I'm a husband. I'm a child of God before I'm a dad. I'm a child of God before I'm a pastor or an elder. And everything has to be run through that lens, through that filter. And it will begin to help me personally seek to represent my father, to walk in the security that I have in that. And I can tell you this, it will produce more peace in relationships. And that's that's one of the things that's an outflow of putting our focus on the right identity first. Doesn't mean those other identities aren't important. I praise God for our Latino brothers and sisters in here. I praise God for our African American brothers and sisters in here. I praise God for my white Caucasian brothers and sisters. We don't know for sure what we are. Okay. But I know this. I praise God ultimately that we are God's children. That we are God's children. So, Christ, he not only made peace with God possible for us, but he made peace with others possible for us. Did you notice verse 16 in the section we read? Powerful, powerful verse right there. Verse 16 says it this way He did this from the two, uh sorry, did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross and put the hostility to death by it. How did God make peace possible for us? How did Christ make peace possible? Well, as Martin Luther King once said, and probably one of his most famous quotes darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that. You know what drives out the hate and the hostility in our hearts? The love of God. The love of God, and specifically the love of God through the person and work of Jesus as displayed on the cross. Did you notice what he said in verse 16? He put to death that hostility through the cross. Now, maybe you need a little bit more help understanding what that means, because that might be a new thought. But do you notice that in the cross something happened that's so profound? If anyone could be prejudiced, if anyone could be condemning and slanderous, and if anyone could look at the human race, or me even, and say, you are not worth my time. It's God. And yet at the cross, I'm reminded that beyond a shadow of a doubt, I am a loved son of God because he gave his very life for me. And it says in the scripture, no one has greater love for anyone than this, that he would lay down his life for his friend. In the cross, Jesus didn't take a posture of hostility, he took a posture of humility. That's crazy. Instead of saying, I'm the king, you're my servants, bow down to me, he came and he served. In fact, Philippians 2 says he steps down out of his heavenly realm, takes on flesh, and walks. And here's the crazy part: in order for him to do that, he actually had to take on the hostility that God has towards our rebellion. We talked about this a little bit last week. That we were enemies, and then it got to verse 4. But God, who is rich in mercy, who is loving, through Christ, he raised us up. See, listen this morning. Christ, he endured the hostility that we deserve as rebellious punks, because we really are as humans. I know some of us still wrestle with our true condition before Christ, but the scripture plainly lays it out. And if we ever lose sight of that, we will become prideful and arrogant and puffed up, and we will be divisive and we will be destructive in our relationships. But it's when we get this clarity around who we are in Christ, that then Paul says, just like he said in the first half of the verse, or first half of the chapter, the second half, when he gets to verse 13, he says, But now in Christ Jesus, you who are far away have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah. By the blood of the Messiah. He washed us clean. He took on his the hostility, the wrath of God, so that we could be forgiven for our racism, for our prejudice, for our arrogance, our self-worship. He took on that hostility in the cross. Instead of an enemy, instead of viewing us like an enemy, which he easily could have done, and he embraces us as brothers and sisters. That's what Christ did. He embraces us as brothers and sisters now. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I don't have time for you to turn there, so don't worry about that. But 2 Corinthians chapter 5 tells us that in Christ we are new creatures, we are new creations. You see, what Jesus did is Jesus made new people. Remember, we said this before? It's not like Jesus just made bad people good people, he makes a whole new race of people. 1 Peter talks about this, and he says, You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a new people, a completely new people who are not living like the world, not living like you were before you came to Christ. You are now part of a new family, you have a new way of thinking, you have a new identity, and in that new identity, we are unified. We are unified under our Father. We are new creations in Christ. And you want to know in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, he says, this is how we got there. Verse 21. God made him who knew no sin to become sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. How do we get to this new identity, this new family, this new community, this new race? That's not one skin color or one cultural background or one bank account amount. We got there through the person and work of Jesus Christ. God made him who knew no sin to become sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. That's how we get there. When we look to Jesus to determine who we are, we will experience greater unity with one another, and we will experience greater power in the Holy Spirit. We will experience greater unity with one another. When we are all looking up at Christ, guess what happens? We're drawn together. You know why? Because when you look at God and you look at Christ first instead of your brothers and sisters, when you stop playing the comparison game and you just start looking at Christ and you say, God, I'm going to get my identity, I'm going to get my worth, I'm going to get my value from you. You stop competing with your brothers and sisters, and you're all looking up, and you're both humbled and you are confident because you understand who you are in Christ. You're humbled because you realize just how messed up we were and how amazing his grace is. You are confident because you realize the gift that he's given you through the person and work of Jesus at the cross. Man, what our country needs is not just more education about racial diversity and how we're different and how we should learn about each other. That's great. But you know what we ultimately need? We need a reconciler. And we have him. His name is Jesus. And when we look at Jesus, we're actually brought together because we see that every single person who has a pulse needs Jesus. They were created by God and for God. And as long as we are living for our own purposes, we are going to continue to divide. Because that's what happens. But when we begin to live for God's purposes, he says we will be unified. Even Jews and Gentiles who are hostile towards each other can be unified in the person of Christ. Now, I've been in environments, you've probably been in environments where you felt like you were an outsider looking in. You've probably experienced moments and times in your life where you felt like, you know, the group of people you're with were really hostile to who you were. First and foremost, I just simply say I'm sorry you had to experience that. But when you experience that, I want you to take moments to remember that was all of us before Christ, spiritually speaking, and in the scope of eternity, at an even greater level, right? Remember what Paul is saying here on the front, and he says, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcised by those who are called the circumcised, which is done in the flesh by human hands. At that time you were without the Messiah, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God. But God. But God. He brought us in to his family. So that when you get to verse 19, he says this so then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household. That's awesome. Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with whom? Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone. When Jesus is at the center of his church, his people will be unified. When someone other than Jesus is at the center of his church, his church will be divided. But when Jesus is at the center and he is, and it's specifically the gospel that we have been made right through Christ, we will be unified. Here's the great thing. He goes on to say, the whole being, building being put together by him, grows into a holy sanctuary in the Lord. You are also being built together for God's dwelling in the Spirit. Now, the rest of the book of Ephesians, we're going to get to actually see what this looks like, okay? So I can't get there today. The rest of the book of Ephesians, from this point forward, this is a point where he's kind of an inflection point of how this thing works out horizontally within the church. But know this that when we are unified, the spirit shows up and breathes life. And you better watch out. You want to know why the church is powerless in the world today? I believe a big reason that the church is powerless is because we are not unified around the person of Jesus. When we get unified around the person of Jesus rather than all those other sub-identities, subservient identities, the Spirit says, I'm going to just wait. Just going to wait. We are quenching the Holy Spirit. We are missing the point. We are actually hurting the cause. But when we put Jesus at the center, his church comes to life because we were built to be a sanctuary. We were built to be embodying the presence of God in the world. Think about that. That's mysterious. But it's awesome. He wants us to be part of his work in the world. And we can't do that without God working in us. Which means we've got to put our eyes on him. We've got to put our focus on him. We need to realize our new identity in him. Listen, God wants us to be a unified people. He did not simply die to restore his relationship with us, but to destroy our relationship with each other. I want you to listen to the words of John as we close out today. John chapter 17. These are actually the words of Jesus' prayer from the high priestly prayer. Just one section of it. Listen to these words. I'm going to read them slowly, and I want you to think about them. They're on the screen above me, but I want you to sit and think about these words. Jesus' prayer for us. I pray not only for these, that's his disciples, but also for those who believe in me through their message. That's us. Because we're here today because we believe the message of Jesus, or at least I know a number of you do. May they all be one as you, Father, are in me, and I am in you. May they also be one in us. So what? So that the world may believe you sent me. I have given them the glory you have given me. May they be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they be made completely one, so the world may know you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. That's what Jesus prayed for us. One. Unity. When you look across this room, when you interact with people, do you feel one with them? One of the most powerful experiences I've had was in China. And I had the gift of getting to go and work with some brothers there who are leading Chinese churches. And I don't know if you know this or not. Maybe you do, maybe you don't. It's hard to be a Christian in China. A legit Christian. There's a form of Christianity there that you can do because they basically, as a government, have taken the Bible and edited it. And they said, well, you can use this Bible. It's the edited version, and they take the stuff out that they don't like. But if you want to be a legit follower of Jesus and you want to give your life to Jesus, it's very, very difficult. And we were in this apartment in Shenzhen, which is in the southern part of China, and we were packed in this little space for a week together. And it blew my mind because, first off, these guys like sun up to sundown, they're ready to study the Bible. I was like, this is not the same in America. But these guys were like, they were like just hungry to just love the Lord, to study the Bible. And there was a language barrier. Not one of them spoke English. Not one. Our translator and our primary trainer, equipper there, he spoke English. The rest of them didn't. And but I remember one of the evenings we were there, uh, these guys busted out into song. And they were singing in Chinese. And let me just tell you, they could not sing very well. It was pretty, it was pretty rough. Like they would definitely not be on the worship team at their church. Um it was rough. But as they began to sing, my heart began to just lift. Like I began to, I had no idea in Chinese what they were singing. And their melodies were kind of mixed because I think they were all trying to sing it, but they were struggling to all get on the same. But there was the spirit of unity that came into that place, into that room. And I remember these Chinese brothers just lifting their hearts to Jesus, tears flowing down their faces. Even as I know that many of them would leave that room, go back to their houses, be tracked by the government. Some of them, you know, not sure if they'll if they'll make it through a day because they're leading the church there. And I just thought, this is unity. This is beautiful. I feel so unified with these brothers, I don't even know what they're saying. But the spirit is drawing us together. And I just wanted to hug each one of them and just say, I love you. And they were looking, they were like, I love you. You know, in the Chinese, I don't know how that came out. But I just remember this crazy unity that was in that, and it was the Spirit of God. And I I know you don't need to go to that kind of environment to experience that kind of unity. Listen, like we can be unified as a church, but we're gonna need to put our eyes on Jesus. We're gonna have to remember that all of us were dead in our trespasses and sins, but God. But God. We were once were foreigners, we were once we're excluded, but now we've been brought in. But God. And we have unity. We have brothers and sisters in Christ. May we be a unified church. Let me pray for us this morning. Father, I thank you so much for my brothers and sisters in this room of all ages, of all stages of life, of all backgrounds. And I'm just humbled that I get to be a part of their family. I also just want to confess right now before this congregation, before this group of people, that I'm a prideful person and I need your help to root out the prejudice in my heart. God, I just want to confess that there are moments where I feel like I need to be better than other people, and I even think that I'm better than other people. And that is sin. It's wrong. There's times where I think I'm better than my wife, I'm better than my kids, I'm better than the poor people that I see on the side of the road, the homeless. God, I feel like that my natural humanness. It just makes, it leads me. I fall into this trap of the flesh that elevates myself to an ungodly place. And I just confess that this morning. I'm asking you to help me to repent and to fix my eyes on you. To remember those words, but God, with fresh eyes this morning. With fresh eyes. God, I'm praying that Point Community Church would be a place where we celebrate the diversity, but ultimately the unity in the diversity. That we would celebrate our life in you, Jesus, more than these other sub-identities that we have. I pray for every person in this room this morning to just sense your presence because we know that your Holy Spirit, that's what draws us. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father who's over all and through all, one Spirit who fills us and draws us together. And as we finish this book of Ephesians over this semester, I'm praying that we'd be drawn together in unity around you, Jesus. We'd be people of love, people of forgiveness, people of great humility, people who are on your mission. Thank you, Father, for loving us. This morning, church family, as we close out our time, we want to worship our Father together. We want to celebrate Him. We want to sing. If you want to sing, I encourage you to embrace the lyrics we're about to sing. If you need prayer, I want to encourage you to pray. Maybe grab someone to pray with you. Or if you want some prayer, there'll be a team at the back that could pray with you and pray for you. But let's pray for each other. Let's pray that God would root out the prejudice in our heart, the pride in our heart. That we would walk in humility. We would walk in gratitude for the grace has been given to us. Maybe if you're honest with yourself, there's some things in your heart that are ugly. Some things that are really ugly. And the Holy Spirit's put his finger on it this morning, where you've taken an identity that's not your primary one and you've made it the focus. And God's saying, no, that needs to come up underneath Christ this morning. If that's where you are, I would just pray you take the time to deal with that. The church ought to be the most unified place, and yet for many, you probably have heard this. Many times Sunday mornings is the most segregated hour of the week or a few hours of the week. That's terrible. I'm not saying we don't need different expressions of the church, but where's the unity of the church? We've got to get back our eyes on Jesus. We want to fulfill the prayer that He has for us, that we would be one so that the world would know that He was sent as the Savior. You can also take communion this morning, which I think is a great act, a great opportunity to remember the unity we have in Christ. It's his body that was broken, his blood that was shed. And so there's five tables around the room. They're there each week. We don't want you to do that lightly. If you're not a Christ follower, if you're not a Jesus follower, we'd say don't even take communion. But if you are a Christ follower, you take communion and you remember Christ's body broken for you, his blood shed for you. You don't receive it through taking it, but you remember it. You remember it. And what's great is I already alluded to this before. One day we're going to take that with Jesus, and every tribe, every tongue, every nation, we're all going to be together in unity because of Christ's work on the cross. It's a beautiful thought. Celebrate, reflect on that, think about that. As we look forward to that day, we're going to be together with Jesus. And no more of this garbage where we try to say, well, yeah, they're valuable, they're not. I'm more valuable than it's dead in Christ. So let's thank him for that today. Let's just respond however you feel led, and then we'll close out our time together.