Breaking Down the Barrier, Part 1

Before the New Covenant of God was established through the promised Messiah, the world consisted of two people groups, those who were Jews and those who were Gentiles. But when Jesus conquered death and rose again, he tore down the dividing wall and reconciled both Jew and Gentile into one new man. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll guides us through a passage in Ephesians chapter 2 where we're given details on this pivotal moment in world history. It's the quintessential peace accord.

Chuck titled today's message, Breaking Down the Barrier. The book of Ephesians makes it clear that we were once dead in our sins, but God has made us alive through the sacrifice of his Son, Jesus Christ. The good news in this is that we now don't have to live our lives without Christ and without hope. The sacrifice of Jesus brought peace between God and people by breaking down the barrier between us. The sacrifice of Jesus also reconciled Jews and Gentiles.

It's a very important point. That built us into one body so that we can worship God together in his Son and by the Holy Spirit. This profound doctrine is called reconciliation, and the basis for it is found in the second chapter of Ephesians verses 11 to 16. So that's the place I want you to open your Bibles right now. Ephesians chapter 2, and I'll begin my reading at verse 11. Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision which is performed in the flesh by human hands, remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in his flesh the enmity, which is the law of commandments, contained in ordinances, so that in himself he might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross by it having put to death the enmity. You're listening to Insight for Living.

To search the Scriptures with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scriptures Studies by going to insightworld.org slash studies. And now the message titled Breaking Down the Barrier. Our Father, we bow in gratitude to you for who you are and for what you mean to us, not just a song to sing, not just a service to attend, but Lord, the object of our worship, the subject of our praise, the purpose of our living, the reason to go on, the strength in our weakness, the comfort in our sorrows, the great I am.

Not I was, not someday I will be, but the ever present now in a world that is lonely in the in-between eras of time. We thank you for filling in the spaces with your person, with the work of Christ, with the joy that comes in walking with God. This is your work. It isn't ours. This is your church.

It isn't its members. This is your day to be praised. So it's to you we give our gifts. It's to you we express our gratitude in these tangible ways.

It's you we love. To you we sing hallelujah to the Lamb who was slain and has been raised and is seated and will come again. Until then, Lord, reign as King in our hearts as you change us to be more like your Son in whose great name we pray. And God's people said, Amen. Great events have a way of cementing themselves in our minds.

Have you noticed that? Travel back with me through a few years of time and see if you don't agree that you can remember where you were and what you were doing when this happened. A few of you will remember this, December 7, 1941.

Well, I've got the attention of about one-tenth of my audience now. I was seven years old, and we were as a family on our way to a little bay cottage down in South Texas. Just a little below Palacios, my dad was driving us in a new 1941 Ford.

Three kids were in the back seat, mom and dad in the front seat. We had the radio on, and suddenly our car pulled over. I didn't understand that much about what had happened, but I remember my dad's words like they were said last week.

We cannot go on vacation if our country is at war. We turned around. We went back to my hometown. Within a matter of months, we had moved to Houston, where my father was involved in the whole process of being a part of the patriotism that marked our country back in an era many of us will never forget. Well, maybe that left you in the past, so let me go to a day in November 1963 in the city of Dallas. You may not have been in Dallas at the time, but you know exactly where you were, and you know what you were doing when you got the news that the president of our country had been assassinated. Down the streets of Dallas, you remember clearly how you felt, what went on at the time in your mind. If that's not clear, maybe I can take you to, well, it was a Sunday night in 1969 when our astronaut for the first time walked on the moon.

Now you're coming along. A few more of you are smiling, saying, now you're getting closer to my era. I remember that we stopped worship services early that evening so we could get home in time to watch that scratchy black and white television set as we saw the astronaut take that first great step for mankind. And I remember with tears streaming down my face in the early 70s when they televised the first coming home of the prisoners of war from Vietnam. I don't think I was ever the same after watching that, maybe one of the most moving moments televised in American history.

Well, if you're a sports fan, I can take you to the winter, deep in the winter of 1980, when a little scraggly Olympic American hockey team had the audacity to whip those Russians there on the ice. And I remember how great it was when that goalie wrapped himself in American flag and skated out. We were all jumping around our own like we were right there playing that game. It was a great moment. I remember how we felt. I remember what we said.

I also remember a speech by Ronald Reagan, our president, at this particular era in mind when he said, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. You remember seeing that? If not at the moment later, has it been televised in documentaries since then? And they did.

They did. And every list I've seen that's come out since the turn of the millennium, listing the 100 most important events, every one has included the day the wall came tumbling down. Berlin was open, not just Berlin, but all of those who lived behind what Churchill originally called the Iron Curtain. What a difference it made and is still making as the country of Russia struggles to find its way in a land that's no longer captured in the grip of the KGB.

Now learning how to be a capitalistic country as they fight for survival. We have friends who live there who tell tragic stories of that which has transpired since we celebrated the falling of the wall, and we Americans thought this would solve it all, but it hasn't. Well, I will tell you that had we lived in the first century and had we come to know Christ remarkably through the presentation of someone's message of the gospel to us, we would be celebrating another wall that fell down. It was clearly the most significant wall that has ever been erected in the history of time. It was a wall of religious, political, ideological, and yes, racial barrier. It was a wall that we Gentiles and we Jews would never have dreamed would come down. In fact, it didn't literally come down in the temple until finally the temple was destroyed in AD 70 as a result of Titus invading Jerusalem and destroying the temple so that no stone was on another.

But that wall, though it didn't fall literally in the temple, I will tell you it fell in God's timetable. Most of us aren't Jewish. None of us lived in the first century, so this sounds like theory, something a preacher would get excited over rather than normal people. When we hear about something like this, we think, well, you know, big deal.

Believe me, big deal. Had you been a Gentile living in the first century, you would have been known to the Jews as a dog. In fact, it was believed by many of them that if you aided in the delivery of a Gentile baby, you only introduced another heathen who would provide fuel for the fires of hell to this world. We're talking prejudice. If a Jew married a Jew, then you celebrated till the end of the day and sometime till the end of the week. If a Jew married a Gentile, you had a funeral. You and I can hardly imagine the line of separation between those born Jew and those uncircumcised Gentiles. Prejudice ran deep. In fact, it still does.

Why? The Jews are God's people. To the Jew was given the law of Moses. From the Jews came the great prophets who declared the truth of that law. For the Jews were rules and regulations that set them apart from many of the diseases and plagues that would sweep a country almost off the map. The Jews were protected and they were precious in God's sight. With the Jew was God's protection and blessing and therefore the Jew never forgot it, never failed to teach that to his children. You don't go into a Gentile home any more than you dare touch a corpse.

Don't go there. The rules, the established rules were there. There was not only a wall of separation, there was a double wall. A wall between Gentile and Jew and a wall between God and Gentile. Why do you think Jonah made such a stink when God said, I want you to go to Nineveh and preach the message I give you? Why, Jonah didn't want to go to those Ninevites.

It's a city full of Gentiles. So he took off for Tarshish, which is sort of like going to Berlin by way of Honolulu. You don't get there that way. Jonah didn't want to go there, even though that great missionary message was go and declare my message to them. He finally went. First amphibious landing ever recorded in scripture.

He went, but he didn't have his heart in it. Now all of this sets us up for this magnificent section of scripture in the heart of Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians. You're still reading it, aren't you? Anybody who has to search for Ephesians has stopped reading it. You've got to go back.

Stay at it every week. Read the letter to the Ephesians or you'll miss out. If you remember reading as we have been through this first part of chapter 2, you'll remember the importance of the words, but God.

You were dead, verse 1 chapter 2, but God, verse 4 chapter 2, he set us apart unto himself. He made us alive in Christ. And we are, verse 10, his poetry in motion. We are his artistry on display. We are God's poiema, God's workmanship.

But Paul isn't through. He wants to go to another contrast, and this one is not between the living and the dead. This one is between the Gentile and the Jew. He wants to clarify what has been accomplished by Christ at Calvary. It wasn't just another death of just another good man. It was the line of demarcation where the wall came tumbling down.

In fact, if you read the text correctly, in other places you'll see that the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom. It was as if God said, come on in. Come on in to where you have been held back.

Come on in. The Jews didn't believe it then. The Jews don't believe it now. If you question that, travel to Israel. And watch them as they curl their lips when you speak of Palestinians or any of the Gentiles. You see, they've never believed the message. Paul is telling us, members of the church, now the church of the 21st century, get rid of the prejudice. Let it go. Don't go there. There is no separation between Jew and Greek, bond or free, male or female, in the church, in the family. We are one in Christ Jesus. And this is one of the few places where the ground stays level. Let me give you a simplified outline.

That's the only kind I know and that's the only kind I remember, so why not? Where we were, verses 11 and 12, what Jesus did, 13 and 14. Why we're grateful, 15 and 16.

I mean, how elementary can you get? Where we were, that's the past. That's alienation. What Jesus did, 13 and 14, that's destruction, the destruction of the wall. Why we're grateful, that's reconciliation.

15 and 16. I love this letter. Therefore, remember. Verse 12, remember. He's looking back. The New King James Version says, remember, at that time, he's looking back. The New Living Version renders this, don't forget, in those days. So understand everyone, we're looking back before the cross. If you like to draw little symbols in your Bible, I sometimes do that.

Draw a cross, put an arrow going back and put verses 11 and 12. This is the way we were. This is how life once was.

And it's not a pretty picture. We were alienated B.C. We were alienated from God. Remember you Gentiles, you who were called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision. Jews had a way of saying that that sounded sarcastic. We admire David and his courageous stand against Goliath, and we should. But you remember a line when he looked out across the Valley of Elah and he saw this giant on the other side parading back and forth mocking the armies of Israel. And he said, who is this uncircumcised Philistine? He didn't have to say that.

He was a Jew. We have pet words that we use for people we're prejudiced against. Oh, nowadays we're a little more cautious in using them, but we've got them. We weren't born with them. We were taught them.

We've learned them. Prejudice is a learned sin. Paul is writing, back in former days, you Gentiles who were the uncircumcised, you remember verse 12, five things.

I want to give you five words that describe life B.C., OK? First of all, you were at that time separate from Christ. We were Christ-less.

Put that down. We were Christ-less. Gentiles in the first century had no thought of the Messiah.

He was the Jews' hope. They had no Messiah. They had no claim on a coming anointed one. We were Christ-less.

Right next to the word state-less, you were excluded from the commonwealth of Israel. We were not only aliens from Messiah, we were aliens from God's nation. Israel was a theocracy, not a democracy. Theos reigned over Israel. God was their Lord. Not for the Gentiles. Try to find any hope in the history of Gentiles related to the God, the creator of man.

You won't find it. We were excluded from that state. We had no part in the French or franchise in that nation. Third, we were friend-less.

See the word strangers? We were excluded from the commonwealth and we were strangers from the covenants. God had bound himself unconditionally to the blessing of Israel. In fact, through you, other nations will be blessed.

Because of their treatment of you, other nations will be cursed. I swear by my name I make a covenant with you people, beginning with Abraham and from then on to this day. Gentiles were friend-less. We had no part in the covenant. Had we lived in that day, those would be strange words to us.

We were outside that bond. There was no relationship with the covenant-making God. We had no God. We had gods. We were pagan to the core. Not monotheistic, polytheistic, or perhaps atheistic.

The fourth word is hopeless. Now we're coming closer to home. We were aliens to a meaningful future. Aliens to the Messiah? Christ-less. Aliens to God's nation? Stateless. Aliens to the covenant? Friend-less.

Aliens to a meaningful future? Hopeless. Did you know the first century was an era of numerous suicides? Tacitus, one of their writers, states that a man killed himself out of indignation that he had been born. That was reason enough to take one's life. I mean, the Gentiles' history was going nowhere, fast.

The Jews had a future and a hope no different today. Social Darwinist Herbert Spencer of the previous generation wrote, My own feeling respecting the ultimate mystery, meaning death, is such that I cannot even try to think of it without some feeling of terror so that I habitually shun the thought. Spencer isn't alone. Very few friends of yours without Christ find delight in talking about death. Psychologists tell us that's the last place people want to see themselves inside a coffin. It's the most frightening thought a person without Christ and without hope could ever entertain.

I'm going to be there? It's called hope-less and God-less. See the end of verse 12? Without God. Aliens to the Creator.

What a lineup. Aliens to Messiah? Christ-less. Aliens to the covenant? Aliens to God's nation?

Stateless. Aliens to the covenant? Friendless. Aliens to any kind of meaningful future? Hopeless. Aliens to the Creator? God himself. God-less. If you want a classic illustration today of that, travel abroad. Go to a country that has never worshiped the living God and has erected its idols, its shrines.

Stand back and watch the ceremony. It is heartbreaking. The shrines are dirty. The rituals are empty. The prayers are futile. The actions are repetitious. Your heart as a heart of a child of God will break as you watch idolaters trying to gain relief from their idols, hoping to assuage their anger with their gifts or their incense or their sacrifices, and they never get the peace that comes from the instant they would know in coming to Christ. God-less.

But you really don't have to go overseas. Just remember your own past. Chuck Swindoll titled today's message, Breaking Down the Barrier, and there's much more teaching ahead here on Insight for Living. To learn more about Pastor Chuck Swindoll and this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org.

Today's program features just one slice of a much larger series. It's a verse-by-verse study in Paul's letter to the Ephesians Chuck has titled, Becoming a People of Grace. And to complement your study in this New Testament book, you'll want to order a copy of Chuck's commentary on Ephesians. As you'd expect from Chuck, the commentary is laid out in a format that's practical, easy to read, and filled with opportunities to apply what you've learned to everyday life. Plus, this particular volume comes with Chuck's commentary on Galatians as well. It's called Swindoll's Living Insights Commentary on Galatians and Ephesians. To purchase this 300-page hardbound commentary right now, go to insight.org slash store, or call us. If you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888. And then just before we sign off and the weekend begins, all of us at Insight for Living would like you to know that we're praying this study in Ephesians will inspire you to become God's agent of grace in a world that's craving to feel a touch of His kindness.

2020 will go down in history as a year filled with uncertainty, fear, and even disrespect. Because Jesus has torn the curtain and in doing so broken all barriers, it's all the more reason to become a people of grace. In that spirit, we are inviting you to join us in taking God's message of grace all across the country and even around the world through Vision 195. To give a one-time donation today, call us. If you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888. Or discover one of the best ways to maximize your giving by becoming a monthly companion. By giving a donation every month, you'll have 12 times the impact over the course of one year.

To become a monthly companion, go to insight.org slash monthly companion. Join us again Monday when Chuck Swindoll's study, Becoming a People of Grace, continues, right here on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Breaking Down the Barrier, was copyrighted in 2000, 2001, and 2009. And the sound recording was copyrighted in 2009 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.