When people visit your church, do they leave feeling like they've just had a tiny glimpse of heaven?
Well, they should, and we'll learn why to day on Truth for Life weekend as we begin a study in the book of Ephesians. Alastair Begg is examining the Apostle Paul's exhortation to the early Church and to believers to day to remember We're in chapter two.
Well, you will notice, I think, that verse eleven and verse twelve. contain the call to remember to remember. It seems fitting that we should be responding to Paul's exhortation to remember On A weekend when, by dint of the memorial celebrations, remembrance is on our minds. People have thought throughout the years that Perhaps this would be the war to end all wars. And yet it wasn't.
And it would be one thing this morning if we could look back, as it were, and say, it must have been a very difficult time in which to live when people were. At war with one another, and yet we know that this morning there are all kinds of wars and difficulties that are part and parcel of our world. There's virtually no place that we can turn without being confronted by strife and by bloodshed. by the reality of oppression and of injustice. and we realize that our world is in amazing need of repair.
And Paul, in writing this letter to the Ephesians, is writing into a world that was. just as broken as ours. And so he writes this letter, and he makes it clear in chapter one. that the purpose of God, the mystery of God's will, as he puts it, which has had hints all the way through the Old Testament. has now, he says, in the fulness of time, Being made absolutely clear in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In fact, he says the purpose of God, a mysterious purpose to us from our perspective, from all of eternity, was not actually in creation Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. But the ultimate purpose of God was the Lord Jesus Christ in the story of the gospel. That it was in Christ that He was going to unite all things in heaven and on earth in the person of Jesus.
So perhaps you've had the idea that somehow or another God had a plan A and it went wrong, and so he had to quickly come up with something else. That would be to misread the Bible and to misunderstand it. No, God's purpose always was in Jesus. And it is in Jesus that the fragmentation And the fracturing of our world is actually addressed. And what Paul is saying in Ephesians, in particular as we're about to see in the second half of chapter 2, is that God's purpose for his people is that his people, United in Christ.
In the community of their friendships with one another. Should be something of a microcosm that shows to the world what God will ultimately achieve in a new heaven and in a new earth. And he has pointed out in the first part of chapter 2 that it is by grace, through faith, that we have been reconciled to God. And now he's going on to say, having come to him, if you like, individually, as you now live in him corporately, one of the evidences of God's eternal purpose. is to be seen in the absence of hu hostility.
in the presence of harmony in the breaking down of the barriers and the building of bridges, bridges which are over all kinds of troubled waters. And at the heart of the Bible story, as our good friend Christopher Ash has pointed out to us. At the heart of the Bible story is the church, not least of all the local church, because church with a big C has to find its expression in some tangible way, and that is in local churches, and we are a local church. The local church contains within itself The seeds Or if you like, the DNA. of a remade world.
Contains in itself the seeds or the DNA of a remade world.
Now we'll come back to this as we close, but in case I forget to come back, let me just say it now. And that is that the world is supposed to be able to come in. Cleveland is supposed to be able to come amongst us. In all kinds of contexts, whether it is at the VBC, whether it is in a life group in someone's home, whether it is in one of the services here, the society is supposed to be able to come in and say, oh, so this is an indication, not a perfect manifestation, but this is an indication of what God has planned from all of eternity to do. And somehow or another, they're all in there together.
Why? All of the normal fragmentation, all of the normal evidences of a fractured world. The seeds of the remade world Are present in the community of faith. That is what Paul is pointing out. And that it is God's purpose from all of eternity to unite everything under Christ.
Now, given that he's writing in the first century, and he's writing to these people in Ephesus. One of the first areas in which that needs to become apparent is in the division that exists between the Jew and the Gentile. How are you going to tell the world that God has planned to unite all things in His Son? If you folks are going to keep calling each other names. If you're going to sit at separate sides of the church.
If you're going to show up late for events because you don't want to talk to one another. That's the issue that he's dealing with. It's an issue which, as you read the Acts of the Apostles, is clearly there, and understandably so. That's the first thing I need you to note: that this division he is addressing is a division between Jew and Gentile.
So when you look at this, therefore remember that at one time, you Gentiles in the flesh. In other words, Paul is not saying, I am writing this, myself and my companions are writing this to you, the Ephesians. In this instance, he's saying, I am addressing you as Gentiles. I write to you as a Jew who has been made new by Jesus.
Now, let me remind you Gentile folks who are reading this letter, or to whom this letter is being read. that these things were characteristic of you. And a big barrier of hostility existed.
Now William Barclay, whose commentaries are pretty good usually on historical stuff, has a quote that I want to give to you in order to drive this home, because we're a long way away from this both geographically and historically. The barrier, he writes, between Jew and Gentile was absolute. If a Jew married a Gentile, the funeral of that Jew was carried out. Such contact with the Gentile was the equivalent of death. Even to go to a Gentile house rendered a Jew unclean.
It was not even lawful to render help to a Gentile woman in childbirth, for that would be to bring another Gentile into the world. That is the world out of which the Jew came. Quite a staggering thought. That is the extent of the division between the Jew and the Gentile in first century Ephesus. And when we understand that, then we realize what a drama it is.
for that world, then to say, How come you guys get along? How is it that you actually are worshiping together? Who or what has brought about this change? Does it have something to do with Jesus of Nazareth?
Well, yes, it does.
Well That's enough on that. That's the first thing that we need, the first line of approach. We need to realize that the division that he's addressing here is a real division, is a significant division, and they were calling each other names. Jew and Gentile.
Now secondly, notice the condition of the unconverted Gentile. What is the condition of the unconverted Gentile?
Well, he starts verse 12 again. Remember. Remember, you Gentiles in the flesh. At that time, at that time, in other words, before God broke into their lives and showed them their need of Jesus, they were, there's five things, we'll just point them out briefly. Number one, separated from Christ.
When you read the opening of the Gospels, particularly Luke, You remember, for example, Simeon, who was waiting for the consolation of Israel? Why, it's an interesting phrase, isn't it? It's sort of matched by Anna, who was in the temple day and night. And she was waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. Interesting phrases.
Well what are you looking for?
Well, there is a Messiah who is coming. There is a Christ who is coming. I'm here waiting for him. And then the amazing moment when Simeon takes the child Jesus in his arms and he says, Lord, you can let your servant depart in peace, for my eyes have now seen the salvation. Paul, when he is charged before the Roman authorities by the Jews who were antagonistic towards him, who were saying this man has opposed our Judaism, this man has disrupted everything, he then says to Festus and to Agrippa, listen, that's not true.
The reason I am up here on a charge is because the things that I have been saying are directly related to, quotes, the hope of Israel. And what is that hope of Israel? It is that the Messiah who will come. is the very Messiah of God. And that was a Jewish expectation.
But it wasn't a Gentile expectation. It wasn't a Gentile hope. Remember, he says, you were separated from Christ, you had none of us. You weren't looking for any of that. None.
Secondly, you were alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel. They neither had the badge of the covenant, nor did they enjoy the blessings of the covenant. Because those blessings were blessings of belonging. And they didn't belong. You didn't belong in here.
You had no part in this. Separated? Alienated. Thirdly, And he just really builds on this, doesn't he? Strangers to the covenants.
of promise. In other words, they had no Knowledge of and no right to The promise is That God had made. to his people. I will make you a people. I will bring you into this land.
I will bring you out of bondage and so on. And Paul's writing and he says, you know, you Gentiles who are reading this letter. You had no access to any of this. Fourthly, You had no hope. Having no hope.
What does that mean, that they didn't have anything to look forward to at all? No, not ultimately. But the Jew was always going somewhere. The Jew is a pilgrim. The Jew's sense of history Always had a destination in view.
If you'd said to them, Where are you going? They say, We're going to the promised land. Where do you want to go? I want to go back to Jerusalem. But the Gentiles had none of that.
For them, history was heading nowhere. Faced with the futility of death, their existence was essentially meaningless. having no hope. And fifthly, Without God, in the world. Without God in the world.
You say, well, God was in the world, so why were they without God?
Well, the things that God had made clear to them by way of creation and by way of conscience. They had suppressed. They turn their backs on those things. And on turning their back on the living God as he's made himself known. They didn't believe nothing.
They started to believe everything. They believed all kinds of things. They created all kinds of gods, gods that suited their fancy, gods that would apparently do as they asked. The same remains true today. If we reject God's revelation of Himself in Scripture.
If we suppress the truth of God. Then we will find that we are very quickly taken up with superstition. and with novelty. We will find that we have in ourselves, as Calvin said, you know, the heart of man is an idol factory. That we have within ourselves an immense capacity for creating gods.
of our own.
So the 21st century Western culture. Rejects God by way of revelation. turns his back on his commands and his guidelines for living. doesn't find itself isolated and Atheistic. No.
Surrounded by all kinds of notions and superstitions and ideas.
Well, you say this is very interesting historically, but what does it possibly have to do with me? That's my third and final point. Number one, that we would notice that the division is between Jew and Gentile. Number two, that we would understand that Paul is describing there The condition. of the unconverted Gentile, heathen.
F noi. And then, number three, that we would realize that in describing the unconverted Gentile. He's giving to each of us a description of our pre Christian condition.
So you're here today and you believe in Jesus and you love Jesus and you are a follower of Jesus. This tells you what you were like before you became a follower of Jesus. Before your eyes were opened to the truth, before your heart was softened. Before you and I came to believe in Jesus. Before that, What were our lives?
Well, we've seen it in part in the first 10 verses, haven't we? We were dead, we were disobedient, we were enslaved. And we have in Christ been made alive, we've been raised up with Jesus, we've been seated with Him.
Now Paul says, I want to remind you again. Let me remind you. Here is what you are. That's why we need to be reminded. Of the grace of God.
That's why verse 11 follows verse 10. That's why it follows verses 8, 9, and 10. Because he's been saying to them that the reality into which you have been brought had nothing at all to do with your background, had nothing at all to do with your behavior, had nothing at all to do with the fact that you looked like an interesting prospect for God to include in his company. Because remember, he is making, he says down in verse 15. He is making one new man in place of the two.
One new man in place of the Jew. What is he saying? That there is a whole new community that God is making that comprises converted Jews and converted Gentiles. And it is not that the Jew seeks to be Jewish or the Gentile tries to become Jewish or they create some kind of quasi-relationship, but that together they both are united in the person and work of Jesus, and that it is his grace that has made this possible. A song that we never sing here contains the lines: How helpless.
and hopeless We sinners had been. If he never had loved us, Till cleansed from our sin.
Okay? How helpless and hopeless we as sinners would have been. if He never had loved us until cleansed from our sin. That's such a vital distinction, isn't it? Because it was God commends his love towards us in this, says Paul, in that While we were yet sinners, Christ.
Died for us.
So, religion in all of its forms essentially offers to people a kind of moral lecture. If you will try and stop this and start that, you can probably put yourself in a position where God may finally include you in his group. The Gospel says the absolute reverse. Says that God in Christ is reconciling the world to Himself, and that when this dawns upon us, we come to receive the reconciliation, the redemption which has been accomplished, then applied to our lives. And we realize then this is all of grace.
All of God's goodness. It's important, I think, to recognize the fact that here in verse 11, you come to the first imperative. that Paul uses. is thirty-three verses of indicatives and then an imperative. Making the point.
That he has not been providing a moral lecture. He has not been giving to the Ephesians good advice about what they can do to make themselves acceptable to God. He has been giving to the Ephesians the good news of what Christ has accomplished to bring them into a relationship. With God. And the good news is that having put us in that position with himself, he now puts us in a relationship with one another.
And the reason that we need to remember. is to prevent us from re-raising many of the barriers of hostility. You see, local churches are really good at subdivision. Really good at saying, well, I'm in the, and you're in the, and I'm the, so on, and so on.
So he says, you need to remember that this is what you folks were. In other words, When a church, when a local church. Starts to act as if it never was this, as if somehow or another it is a community of the respectable, it is a society of the people who have never done anything wrong, never done anything bad, then it lies through its teeth and it makes it virtually very, very difficult for anybody who knows himself, who knows herself to be in need of this kind of restoration and reconciliation to come forward and say, This is what I am. And you can then say, well, I can tell you that this is what I was. But look what Jesus has done.
That's the point that he's making. And it's a vital point. If the epitaph had been written before Jesus, then it would have read on the tombstone. Separated, alienated, helpless, hopeless? But in Christ, it now reads reconciled, united.
And seize it. And Paul is going to go on, and we'll come back to this in our following study. He's going to go on and make it clear. that God is putting together a completely new creation. A spiritual temple.
And the local church In Ephesus there, in its gathered communities, should be one of the places In Ephesus, where the deepest divisions are seen to be dealt with in Christ. And By deduction? Parkside has a local congregation. In the greater Area of Cleveland. is supposed to be in some measure One of the places in which the deepest divisions are dealt with.
In Christ. Those divisions cannot be dealt with by social engineering. Those divisions are not ultimately dealt with. by human exhortation. The only way those divisions are dealt with is when the grace of God is preached.
It's understood. It's believed And it's applied to every area of life. We may not yet be Revelation 7, the company that no one can number. We're clearly not. That is out in front of us, but it doesn't stop us from being prayerfully and purposefully and energetically committed to heading.
in that direction. And one final word. Perhaps You're here today. and all this what you wear. Uh there's no you're still in the where.
Because you have never you've never reckoned with Christ. And you actually have a deep-seated longing for a repaired world. I get that. I really understand that. You're saying Why can't we live together?
How will this be brought about? And the answer is in learning From Jesus. Not In the lowest common denominator, Forsaking all our convictions. to agree on nothing. But to heed The call of Jesus.
Particularly this call. Come to me. All you who are weary and heavy laden. And I will give you rest. Take.
My yoke upon you. And learn. of me. For I am gentle. and lowly in heart.
And you will find what you're looking for. which is rest for your soul. Come. Take. Learn.
Find Oh. You're listening to Truth for Life Weekend. That is Alastair Begg urging Christ's followers to build bridges, not barriers. If we're going to remember who we were before we were converted, and what God has done and promised, we need to be diligent to study our Bibles. Maybe the busyness of the holidays has left you distracted, keeping you from your daily Bible reading.
If that's the case, let me suggest a way to get back on track. We have a book we're recommending that is a step-by-step guide to establishing or re-establishing the daily routine of learning from God's Word. It's called The Quiet Time Kickstart. Six weeks to a healthy Bible habit. This book lays out a simple and doable schedule of daily Bible study and prayer.
It begins by taking you through a brief section of Scripture. You're encouraged to pray, read the passage, and then reflect on the Scriptures by answering a few brief questions. Find out more about the Quiet Time Kickstart when you visit our website at truthforlife.org. I'm Bob Lepine. Thanks for studying the Bible with us this weekend.
Next weekend, we'll learn about three little words that will impact your identity, your security, and your mentality. I hope you'll join us. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Mm-hmm. Where the Learning is for Living.
