The Modern (Church) Family - Part A

Right now, no matter what you're going through, dear Christian, you are accepted in heaven. If you have lost your health or you're feeling that loss of health, you are accepted in heaven.

If you are excluded by a circle of friends, so what? You have been accepted in heaven. If you've been cast out by your family, you're accepted in heaven.

God loved us so much that He made a way to bring us into His family. And today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip shares about this unique and diverse family you're a part of as a believer. Now we want to tell you about a resource that will help you take your relationship with God to a new level as you stay rooted in His Word.

2022 is almost here. Plan now for your spiritual menu starting in January. This month, we're offering Skip's daily God book devotional containing strong thoughts for each day of the year.

Here's a sample from January 1st. Martin Luther once said, the Bible is alive. It speaks to me. It has feet.

It runs after me. As you read each day, listen each day and prepare for the greatest adventure of your life. That's an excerpt of the direction found in Skip's daily God book that you'll receive in hard cover when you give $35 or more today to help keep this Bible teaching ministry growing. We'll also include playlist, eight messages by Skip on key songs delivered on CD as our thank you. Here's a sample of the wisdom you'll hear in the playlist series. If you're going to spend energy in life, and we all do, make sure it's about people that you're building up, not just projects that you're building up.

To give and receive this month's resource package, visit connectwithskip.com or call 800-922-1888. Okay, we're in Ephesians chapter two as Skip Heitzig starts today's study. If you know the name John Newton from history, you may not know that he was a racist at one point by his own admission.

And I know that's a very charged word, especially in our present culture. But understand that John Newton was driven by prejudice so much so that he sold West Africans in the human slave trade over a century ago. But he was reading a book at the time, a very famous book called The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A. Kempis. He was convicted, long story short, John Newton gave his life to Christ, totally transformed, stopped doing what he was doing, joined a church, became a clergyman in the church, and wanted to contribute to the family of God by writing songs for the church. He wrote over 300 hymns. The hymn, though, that we associate with his name, John Newton, is a singular song known worldwide, Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound, that saved a wretch like me.

Now that's not just a word he threw in there. That man believed it to be true. I was a wretch, a racist, prejudiced wretch, and God saved me. On his deathbed, John Newton said, my memory is almost gone, but two things I remember. That I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great savior. And when it comes down to it, that's really all you need to remember. You're a great sinner, and Christ is a great savior.

And you bring those two together, and you have a winning combination. He said, I remember that. He said, I remember that.

I'll never forget that. With that in mind, notice the opening words of verse 11 in Ephesians 2, therefore remember. Now you know that prejudice is a part of humanity.

I think at one time every single one of us has engaged in it, said certain things we wish we didn't, but we're all guilty of it. Everywhere in the world throughout history it has been the case. You could go over to Northern Ireland and think about what happened historically between the Catholics and the Protestants.

You could go to the Middle East. There has been an ongoing feud, prejudicial feud, between even Muslims in that part of the world, Shia and Sunni Islam, Islam also in the Middle East between the Arabs and the Israelis, also in Syria between the Kurds and the Druze and the Yazidis, down in Australia between Australians and native Australians, Aborigines. In South Africa they had apartheid. In the United States we had a civil war. In Rwanda there was a tribal feud between the Hutus and the Tutsis which decimated millions of lives. That's prejudice. That's racism.

Now what you need to understand is that the first century in which Paul the Apostle wrote this and other letters was exactly the same. It was a world that was torn by cultural, national, and racial instability. Romans looked down on anybody who wasn't a Roman. Greeks looked down on anybody who didn't speak Greek. In fact, to the Greeks there were only two classes of people on earth, Greeks and barbarians. They coined the term barbarians.

That's because if you didn't speak Greek it sounded like bar bar bar bar bar. That's where the term barbarian came from. The Jews looked down on people who were not Jews.

So that kind of division was very very common. The answer to all of that was the gospel because in the midst of all of that animosity the church was born and in the church were Romans and Greeks and Jews and male and female and slave owners and slaves and and and. In fact Jesus came and it wasn't like well let's celebrate the different cultures. No, let's eliminate the boundaries that separate us and Jesus came to bring a new community.

He said I will build my church. A whole new group. A whole new identity.

And so here we are. Different backgrounds. Different cultures.

Vastly different ideologies. In fact the truth is you couldn't get some of us together in the same room were it not for Jesus Christ. Somebody once said there's lots of different kinds of nuts in the Lord's fruitcake.

So from one nut to another nut welcome to God's fruitcake. In fact there's going to be a song in heaven the lyrics in Revelation 5 the lyrics in Revelation 5 are given to us. They go like this, for you have redeemed us by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

You've done that. Several years ago in the year 2000 I had the privilege of being a part of and speaking at what was called Amsterdam 2000. And in Amsterdam 2000 they got people from all over the world Christian missionaries evangelists Christian workers and it was a nine-day conference 10 287 participants Christian workers from 209 different nations and territories and all I could think about when I was in that large room with all these different people and languages I thought of heaven because we were singing songs everybody knew the melodies too because of the same melody across different cultures and languages but when we started singing Amazing Grace each in their own heart language it was just like okay this is what heaven is going to be like. We are in Ephesians chapter 2 and we're looking at the second half of Ephesians chapter 2 where Paul introduces for us the modern family not like the ancient family not a singular group that God made a covenant with but a covenant that includes everyone every tribe every tongue every nation and so what Paul does is remind them his readers who they were what Jesus did for them and what they have now become this new society and what I want to show you is three great changes that happened to them and and thus three great changes that have happened to us we were out now we're in that's one we were separated now we're integrated that's two and we were foreigners but now we're family that's three and so Paul is sort of saying the same thing but he does it in a few different ways he sort of builds on this theme and unpacks that idea for us the first being we were out but now we're in let's look at it verse 11 therefore remember that you once gentiles I'm going to get to that in just a moment once gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands that at that time you were without Christ being alien and aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world but now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ this is our past life this is our bc experience before Christ for most of us now granted some of you might have a Jewish background some of you may have been orthodox Jews but for the most part I'm looking at a group of non-Jewish people gentile people self-included and so the people at Ephesus were also the Jewish word for us gentiles is goy ever heard that term goy that's a Hebrew word goy is a gentile goyim is the plural Hebrew plural and it literally means the nation so the Jews divided the world up into Judaism and the world the nations goy goyim now according to Paul the apostle being Jewish brought with it some advantages many advantages he lists them in Romans chapter 9 this is what he writes they are the people of Israel they are the people of Israel chosen to be God's special children God revealed his glory to them he made covenants with them and gave his law to them they have the privilege of worshiping him and receiving his wonderful promises their ancestors were great people of God and Christ himself was a Jew as far as his human nature is concerned now that's the list of the advantages a Jewish person has God has given them the scriptures God has given them the patriarchs God has given them the temple worship God gave them the sacrifices thus God gave them the approach to himself God gave them the priesthood God promised to them the Messiah so from a spiritual standpoint they had it all we gentiles on the other hand had nothing we were as Paul describes here without without we were without Christ we are without the covenants we are without God we are without hope but the Jews unfortunately instead of using their position to attract gentiles into God's kingdom which is what God planned all along and told them all along in the Old Testament plain as day they used their exalted position to look down their nose at people who were not like them derogatorily note in verse 11 Paul being a Jewish rabbi would have understood this therefore remember that you once gentiles in the flesh now watch this who are called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision the circumcision refers to Jewish people they use the term uncircumcision as a derogatory divisive term those uncircumcised Philistines you know they're not like us we are insiders they are outsiders and it was a point of pride to them did you know 2,000 years ago and it's written in their records that Jews believed some of them Jews believed that there was one reason God created non-Jews one reason to make hell hotter that's their purpose in their words to kindle or stoke the fires of hell so God just sort of wants to keep the temperature going maybe increase it a little bit so he makes more gentiles throws them in throws them in throws them in that's why God created gentiles strict Jews would not even walk down the street if a gentile were coming the other direction they just take a different route it was not lawful for these Jews to help a gentile woman who was pregnant in her hour of need in delivering a baby they were not allowed to help her because if they did they would be guilty in helping bring another gentile into the world if a Jewish girl got married to a gentile boy oftentimes her family would conduct her funeral the same day to just say she's dead to us she doesn't live she doesn't exist there is a story in one of the rabbinical sources about a gentile woman who came to a famous rabbi rabbi eliezer and she came and she confessed that she was a sinner and that she wanted to live a righteous life and she wanted to be admitted into the Jewish faith and so she came up to rabbi eliezer and said rabbi bring me near bring me near that was the term of let me into Judaism i know that i'm a far off bring me near rabbi eliezer said no you cannot come near and he closed the door on her face so look back at verse 12 because we have a summary statement of the problem our plight says having no hope without God in the world that's as low as you can go having no hope that's as low as you can go having no hope without God in the world historians tell us that at that time in the world the gentile world there was a pervasive cloud of hopelessness that more than ever before people started feeling let down by their gods by their belief systems whether they were Greeks or Romans all of the polytheism they had believed in let them down they felt vulnerable they felt empty and R. Kent Hughes writes the first century was an age of suicide so depression was up suicide was up people felt let down people people felt hopeless and as i started reading this week about the gentile world and this description having no hope without God in the world i thought talk about a contemporary description that sounds so similar to right now and i just don't mean modern world i mean right now the time in which we live before covet 19 hit there was a washington post article from 2019 that said this is right before the virus hit americans are facing a rising tide of despair that was then that was before covet a rising tide of despair the article talked about hopelessness over and over and over again now a year later the la times put this out signs of depression have tripled in the united states since covet 19 having no hope without God in the world that is a description of what is all around us right now i mean think about it how many people do you know that genuinely enjoy life how many people do you know that really love their job you can't even get people back to the job to enjoy it how many people do you know who are still excited about their marriage how many people do you know who live enthusiastic lives having no hope without God in the world that's the description that's being outside but look at verse 13 but now ah there's hope in those two words but now it's like it's like john newton in in the song i once was blind but now i see was lost but now i'm found but now in Christ Jesus you who once were a far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ i remember how it felt when i was in high school and my classmates would stand on the basketball court and pick teams do you remember them doing that i remember how it felt not being picked you know what you mean not being picked you're six five they'd pick you like first no you haven't seen me play they had so i just sort of stand over there and felt really bad as they would pick everybody else even the guy was like this tall it's like okay but i also remember how good it felt when there was like a new kid at school and he picked me first that really felt good i remember how it felt when i would get letters from colleges saying no we're not going to admit you into our college and i remember how good it felt the day that i opened up the letter that said you are welcome in our facility exclusion never feels good inclusion always feels good Paul said you were an outsider but now you're an insider because you're in Christ i've always loved a guy by the name of G. Campbell Morgan century ago expositor of the word in London when G. Campbell Morgan was younger and he was trying out for a church he wanted to be a pastor and he became a great one but at that time he was candidating for a church at that time they had a board of people who would listen to a sermon and grade him and accept or reject him well he didn't make it and he was so despondent that he wired his father so this is the day before computers and and and texting he had to go find a telegraph and wire and you got charged by the word so he gave his dad one word rejected rejected his father immediately wired him back this response rejected on earth accepted in heaven rejected on earth accepted in heaven right now no matter what you are going through dear Christian you are accepted in heaven if you have lost your health or you're feeling that loss of health you are accepted in heaven if you are excluded by a circle of friends so what you have been accepted in heaven if you've been cast out by your family you're accepted in heaven you've been demoted at work accepted in heaven you've been pushed off social media scorned by your friends you are accepted in heaven you are in on the greatest plan ever hatched you're in on it we have sung a song around this joint it's a really good song i am chosen not forsaken i am who you say i am you are for me not against me i am who you say i am who you say i am you need to wake up tomorrow and sing that song you are accepted but now in christ you who were once a far off have been brought near by the blood of christ so that's the first change we were out now we're in here's the second change that has happened we were separated but now we're integrated look at verse 14 for he himself that is jesus christ he himself is our peace who has made both one both mean jew and gentile he's made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation having abolished in his flesh the enmity that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances so as to create in himself one new man from the two thus making peace and that he might reconcile them both to god in one body through the cross thereby putting to death the enmity and he came and preached peace to you who are far off and to those who were near for through him we both have access by one spirit to the father that's Skip Heitziging with a message from the series now streaming right now we want to share about an exciting opportunity you have to take your knowledge of god's word even deeper if you're ready to study god's word beyond going to church and personal bible study you're ready for calvary college take your learning and your life's purpose to the next level with an education in biblical studies registration for the 2022 spring term is open right now classes have an on-site at calvary church albakirky and online classes like biblical counseling a study of the end times and the history and authenticity of the bible plus theological studies in the doctrine of man sin and salvation calvary college partners with veritas international university and calvary chapel university so you can earn an accredited undergraduate or graduate degree or simply increase your knowledge of god and his word your application for the 2022 spring term is available right now classes start january 10th apply today at calvary church college dot com that's calvary church college dot com every day people everywhere are connecting with the clear and solid truth of god's word not just on the radio but online and it's all possible because of your support listen to this note one person sent in thank you for generously providing the whole archive of sermons they have helped me so much and i direct others to them i'm grateful for your contextual verse by verse teaching in a sea of confusion your support means more people around the world can hear god's word and live on his solid foundation visit connectwithskip.com slash donate today to help reach even more listeners like you that's connectwithskip.com slash donate or call 800-922-1888 again that's 800-922-1888 thank you tune in again tomorrow as Skip Heitzigs and shares about the significance of your new standing as part of god's family be sure to join us connect with Skip Heitzigon is a presentation of connection communications connecting you to god's never changing truth in ever-changing times