A Dwelling for God (Ephesians 2:11-22)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.680 --> 00:00:11.429 My brothers and sisters. Let's turn to Ephesians chapter two. Now I'm going 2 00:00:11.509 --> 00:00:15.390 to read where we left off last time, beginning in verse eleven, and 3 00:00:16.350 --> 00:00:20.670 read to the end of the chapter. So Ephesians two eleven through verse twenty 4 00:00:20.710 --> 00:00:30.019 two. This is the word of the Lord. Let's hear it with faith. 5 00:00:33.020 --> 00:00:37.689 Therefore, remember that at one time, you gentiles in the flesh called 6 00:00:38.009 --> 00:00:42.770 the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh 7 00:00:42.810 --> 00:00:50.000 by hands. Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated 8 00:00:50.079 --> 00:00:55.079 from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no 9 00:00:55.359 --> 00:01:00.159 hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, 10 00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:04.349 you who were once far off, have been brought near by the blood of 11 00:01:04.430 --> 00:01:10.709 Christ, for he himself is our peace, who has made us both one 12 00:01:10.829 --> 00:01:15.069 and has broken down, in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing 13 00:01:15.109 --> 00:01:21.980 the Law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one 14 00:01:22.140 --> 00:01:27.219 new man in place of the two, so making peace and might reconcile us 15 00:01:27.500 --> 00:01:33.530 both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 16 00:01:34.569 --> 00:01:38.849 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to 17 00:01:38.930 --> 00:01:42.409 those who were near, for through him we have access in one spirit to 18 00:01:42.489 --> 00:01:49.079 the father. So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but 19 00:01:49.239 --> 00:01:53.719 you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 00:01:55.480 --> 00:02:00.120 built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Christ, Jesus himself being 21 00:02:00.200 --> 00:02:05.750 the cornerstone in whom the whole structure, being knit joined together, grows into 22 00:02:05.790 --> 00:02:08.750 a Holy Temple in the Lord. In Him, you also are being built 23 00:02:08.750 --> 00:02:15.900 together into a dwelling place for God, by the Spirit Amen, he may 24 00:02:15.939 --> 00:02:36.969 be seated. In order to understand this passage, you have to understand a 25 00:02:37.050 --> 00:02:42.969 few things about the context in which the Ephesians were living. It's not a 26 00:02:43.050 --> 00:02:49.039 dry or boring context. It's exciting life. It fits in within the redemptive 27 00:02:49.120 --> 00:02:54.240 history of the world's really important things, and it helps she'd understand who the 28 00:02:54.319 --> 00:02:59.430 Ephesians are in the place that they're in so that we can think about who 29 00:02:59.509 --> 00:03:02.710 we are in the place that we're in. Just a few things to mention. 30 00:03:02.870 --> 00:03:09.590 The most important one is that these ephesian Christians were not Jews. That's 31 00:03:09.629 --> 00:03:15.819 what this whole passage is about that. These not Jews, these gentiles, 32 00:03:15.939 --> 00:03:22.860 and he describes them in various ways, have been brought into this very special 33 00:03:23.099 --> 00:03:30.889 community of people. To understand the significance of that, think about your bibles. 34 00:03:31.930 --> 00:03:38.090 Think about however, since the very beginning chapters of just genesis, God 35 00:03:38.289 --> 00:03:45.439 had been setting aside a family for himself, eventually centered particularly and grounded in 36 00:03:45.520 --> 00:03:51.719 Abraham and his children, a family which would grow and grow and become very 37 00:03:51.759 --> 00:03:57.430 numerous, but was very much a family with sons and daughters, people divided 38 00:03:57.550 --> 00:04:03.550 up and to clans and tribes, households. If you've ever wondered what is 39 00:04:03.789 --> 00:04:08.830 some of the purposes are one of the purposes of the genealogies of the Bible. 40 00:04:08.909 --> 00:04:13.620 It's to emphasize that point. You have to belong, you have to 41 00:04:13.740 --> 00:04:17.379 belong to this family. It matters very much who you what, if you 42 00:04:17.579 --> 00:04:25.730 came from Abraham or if you have not. This is emphasized throughout the Old 43 00:04:25.810 --> 00:04:30.129 Testament in many, many ways, some of them Paul brings up here, 44 00:04:30.250 --> 00:04:36.930 and he's so. He speaking to these Ephesians, these people, these non 45 00:04:38.089 --> 00:04:43.199 Jews, who are part of the Roman Empire, and he's addressing them in 46 00:04:43.319 --> 00:04:49.120 this unusual way. Notice how he begins, remember that at one time you 47 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:57.750 gentiles in the flesh called the UNCIRCUMCISION, by what is called the circumcision, 48 00:04:57.790 --> 00:05:00.670 right. So He's saying this was your name, this is how you were 49 00:05:00.790 --> 00:05:06.899 known by the Jews, the Jews who were marked by this sign, by 50 00:05:08.019 --> 00:05:11.540 circumcision, a sign that had been given to them by God. These people 51 00:05:11.699 --> 00:05:15.379 knew you in this way. We all have various identities, ways in which 52 00:05:15.379 --> 00:05:20.019 people recognize us and refer to us, some Nice, some not so nice, 53 00:05:20.689 --> 00:05:25.970 some more neutral, someome less neutral. But the gentiles, one of 54 00:05:26.009 --> 00:05:32.170 the ways that they were referred to is the UNCIRCUMCISION. You Uncircumcised, Philistine, 55 00:05:32.250 --> 00:05:38.439 right, a sort of angry a thing that a Jew might say when 56 00:05:38.480 --> 00:05:44.160 when going to battle. These they were marked as people that did not belong, 57 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:48.000 and is those who did not belong to God's special family, as we 58 00:05:48.120 --> 00:05:53.470 thought about this morning. Meant that those were people who were outside of God's 59 00:05:53.790 --> 00:05:59.310 special family, outside the promises, outside the Covenant and these kinds of things. 60 00:06:00.829 --> 00:06:08.220 How else does Paul describe these gentiles, these non Jewish people? Well, 61 00:06:08.300 --> 00:06:13.699 he says that they were alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel. He talks 62 00:06:13.740 --> 00:06:18.649 about it not only in terms of family, but in terms of politics or 63 00:06:18.730 --> 00:06:26.050 a city. Right, you did not have citizenship the Commonwealth. That's a 64 00:06:26.129 --> 00:06:30.370 political term, the Commonwealth of Israel. You were alienated from it. You 65 00:06:30.449 --> 00:06:36.680 were strangers to the covenant of Promise. In verse nineteen he talks about that 66 00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:41.920 again and talks about in the transition. So then you are no longer strangers 67 00:06:41.959 --> 00:06:46.439 and aliens but now fellows, citizens with the saints and members of the household. 68 00:06:46.910 --> 00:06:53.430 For a long time the promise of the Covenant had been the promise that 69 00:06:53.470 --> 00:06:57.870 God had made with the Covenant of it with Abraham, was a covenant that 70 00:06:57.990 --> 00:07:00.740 included promises for the gentiles. He says to Abraham, you will be the 71 00:07:00.860 --> 00:07:04.860 father of many nations. From you the it to the ends of the Earth. 72 00:07:05.139 --> 00:07:09.980 The peoples of the earth will be blessed. But there's a way in 73 00:07:10.060 --> 00:07:14.579 which they were always separated, always far off, and though we see hints 74 00:07:14.660 --> 00:07:19.970 and aspects of people coming in, of people belonging and and enjoying that salvation 75 00:07:20.170 --> 00:07:25.689 that was belonged to the Jews, it was always a separate kind of thing. 76 00:07:25.850 --> 00:07:31.279 It was a unique thing, special cases. But when the spirit of 77 00:07:31.399 --> 00:07:38.839 the Lord came at Pentecost and fell down upon the apostles and these prophets, 78 00:07:39.560 --> 00:07:43.600 who then spoke this gospel to all the nations. And as this word was 79 00:07:43.720 --> 00:07:50.350 going out, something new was happening, something in history was changing. Something 80 00:07:50.430 --> 00:07:57.509 that for thousands of years had been the same, year after year, century 81 00:07:57.550 --> 00:08:03.819 after century, Millennia after Millennia, was now changing. God was doing something 82 00:08:03.980 --> 00:08:11.100 new, and he was not just he was throwing open the doors, even 83 00:08:11.259 --> 00:08:18.689 sending people out to the gentiles, not just one Jonah, one prophet here 84 00:08:18.810 --> 00:08:24.410 at this one time, but many people, and not just going to these 85 00:08:24.410 --> 00:08:30.079 places, but establishing churches here and here, and here and here, all 86 00:08:30.199 --> 00:08:37.200 throughout Asia minor and in Ephesus as well. It's important to remind ourselves of 87 00:08:37.320 --> 00:08:43.710 these facts, because we are just like these Ephesians, two thousand years after 88 00:08:43.870 --> 00:08:48.549 the Gospel started going out in this way. I think sometimes we become kind 89 00:08:48.590 --> 00:08:52.669 of used to this fact as gentiles, least I think most of us here, 90 00:08:52.070 --> 00:08:56.460 Non Jews, we get sort of used to the fact that, Oh 91 00:08:56.460 --> 00:09:00.059 yeah, of course we're here. Maybe we even think from time to time 92 00:09:00.179 --> 00:09:05.179 that this is really a non Jewish kind of thing that were involved in. 93 00:09:05.779 --> 00:09:13.370 That's not true. That's not true, Paul says, and a Romans Chapter 94 00:09:13.490 --> 00:09:16.769 One, that the Gospel is the power of God and to salvation for all 95 00:09:16.809 --> 00:09:22.090 who believe, first to the Jew and then to the Greek. Throughout history, 96 00:09:22.250 --> 00:09:26.720 even in the sending forth of the Gospel. That's what the apostles first 97 00:09:26.759 --> 00:09:31.240 did as they went into the synagogues. They talked with the Jews, they 98 00:09:31.320 --> 00:09:35.600 convinced the Jews, they called them to faith and repentance in Jesus himself, 99 00:09:35.679 --> 00:09:43.070 a Jewish man, himself the son of David, himself a child of Abraham, 100 00:09:43.789 --> 00:09:48.470 who was the mediator of this new covenant, a better covenant, something 101 00:09:48.549 --> 00:09:56.779 that had been anticipated and was now coming into fulfillment. The New Testament church 102 00:09:56.980 --> 00:10:01.659 isn't a plan B, it's the same plan that always was. God's grace 103 00:10:01.779 --> 00:10:09.090 being extended through these promises is not sort of restarting or something happening anew. 104 00:10:09.570 --> 00:10:15.009 It is flowering up into full bloom, a seed that began even back in 105 00:10:15.250 --> 00:10:20.370 Genesis, a three fifteen, when God promised, made that promise to eve 106 00:10:20.529 --> 00:10:24.919 and to Adam the sun would come and crush the head of a serpent. 107 00:10:24.799 --> 00:10:30.279 He was now here and through this son, the even the very son of 108 00:10:30.399 --> 00:10:35.120 God and also the son of man, he was here to do his work 109 00:10:35.200 --> 00:10:39.870 and had done his work, and now something new was happening, the fulfillment 110 00:10:39.029 --> 00:10:43.070 of all of these things, and the gentiles were being brought in. You 111 00:10:43.669 --> 00:10:50.580 were being brought in. The fact that we are here at Church largely filled 112 00:10:50.659 --> 00:10:56.940 with gentile believers should make your jaw drop, should make you wonder at the 113 00:10:56.059 --> 00:11:05.850 graciousness of God that I belong to. This is a wonderful thing and that's 114 00:11:05.889 --> 00:11:09.769 how Paul is speaking to hear, he's speaking to us when he talks about 115 00:11:09.769 --> 00:11:15.330 these things. He says to the effusions, you were the UNCIRCUMCISION and you 116 00:11:15.409 --> 00:11:22.919 were aliens and strangers to the Covenant, the covenants of promise. That was 117 00:11:22.919 --> 00:11:26.879 a big deal. Why? Because of the next thing he says, having 118 00:11:26.360 --> 00:11:33.389 no hope and without God in this world. Many of us have the Ben 119 00:11:33.549 --> 00:11:39.110 the fit of having had Christian parents. Some of you that's not the case. 120 00:11:39.509 --> 00:11:43.309 You're the very first Christian in your family, in your family history and 121 00:11:43.389 --> 00:11:50.379 your family line, the very first gentile called out of the nations and from 122 00:11:50.419 --> 00:11:54.259 your clan, in your tribe and your people, as far as you know 123 00:11:54.419 --> 00:12:00.700 anyway, to come into the Lord Jesus and belong now to Israel. Some 124 00:12:00.860 --> 00:12:07.490 of US can't think to a time when our family wasn't Christian, wasn't trusting 125 00:12:07.570 --> 00:12:11.370 in the Lord Jesus in one way or another. But all of us, 126 00:12:11.490 --> 00:12:16.480 gentiles, all of us, when we go back far enough, what will 127 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:22.480 you find? You will not find God fearing Jews, people that have belonged 128 00:12:22.559 --> 00:12:26.559 to the Covenant Promises. You will find that your and my ancestors were people 129 00:12:26.759 --> 00:12:33.750 out in the woods worshiping trees and rocks and calling this animal a God and 130 00:12:33.870 --> 00:12:39.669 that son of God and fearing the things of this world and bound by evil 131 00:12:39.789 --> 00:12:48.940 and demonic forces and and all the rest, without hope, without God in 132 00:12:48.059 --> 00:12:56.580 this world. That's who we are. This is our family. Until it 133 00:12:56.740 --> 00:13:05.769 wasn't until that word, that transition in verse thirteen, but now, in 134 00:13:05.889 --> 00:13:07.929 Christ Jesus, you, who are once far off, have been brought in 135 00:13:09.049 --> 00:13:16.039 Near. I want to move to the second part of my sermon by talking 136 00:13:16.080 --> 00:13:22.120 to you about what are the benefits that we receive? One are the Ben 137 00:13:22.159 --> 00:13:26.309 at some of the benefits that Paul mentions here and being brought into the covenants 138 00:13:26.350 --> 00:13:33.269 of promise and being brought into being brought near by the blood of Christ. 139 00:13:35.990 --> 00:13:39.870 Well, start with the one that connects us with what we were thinking about 140 00:13:39.909 --> 00:13:43.019 this morning. I'm going to mention three so you know what to be prepared 141 00:13:43.100 --> 00:13:48.620 for. Starts with. Let's start with the temple. What does he say 142 00:13:50.539 --> 00:13:54.820 here at the end? He says that we, who are no longer this 143 00:13:54.899 --> 00:13:58.610 is verse, Nineteen, Strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens and saints, 144 00:13:58.769 --> 00:14:03.009 the members of the household of God, built on the foundation. Now this 145 00:14:03.090 --> 00:14:07.169 is building language right, built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, 146 00:14:07.730 --> 00:14:13.120 Christ, Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure, Jew and 147 00:14:13.279 --> 00:14:20.000 gentile, being joined together, grows into a what a Holy Temple in the 148 00:14:20.159 --> 00:14:26.070 Lord in him, you are also being built together into a dwelling place for 149 00:14:26.190 --> 00:14:31.309 God by the whole Holy Spirit. So, for those of you who aren't 150 00:14:31.309 --> 00:14:35.549 with us this morning, that's fine, but I want to just draw your 151 00:14:35.590 --> 00:14:41.019 attention to this language that we have. We considered earlier. What is the 152 00:14:41.139 --> 00:14:46.019 temple? What is its place in this world? It is the dwelling place 153 00:14:46.139 --> 00:14:52.059 of God. It's where he reveals himself in these saving ways. He allows 154 00:14:52.139 --> 00:14:56.769 us to draw close through a mediator, through shed blood. But the Old 155 00:14:56.929 --> 00:15:03.450 Testament temple is no longer because it is flowered forth, it is given way 156 00:15:03.610 --> 00:15:09.279 to something new. And what is it? It's you. The Old Testament 157 00:15:09.399 --> 00:15:15.240 temple is now flowered forth, is fully bloomed into this great temple which no 158 00:15:15.440 --> 00:15:22.549 longer has a inscription on the wall which says gentiles, keep out and if 159 00:15:22.590 --> 00:15:28.110 you come in and you die, it's your own fault. But instead of 160 00:15:28.470 --> 00:15:35.299 dividing us, brings us all in and not only brings us into the temple 161 00:15:35.580 --> 00:15:46.659 complex but says you are the temple, you are the dwelling place of God. 162 00:15:46.860 --> 00:15:52.169 How close does God want to get to us? How close does he 163 00:15:52.370 --> 00:16:00.690 come to us in his saving power and revelation? That close? Close enough 164 00:16:00.850 --> 00:16:06.759 that he can say that we gentiles, along with our brother and sister Jews 165 00:16:06.840 --> 00:16:11.120 who are believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, that Together, through one faith, 166 00:16:11.279 --> 00:16:17.360 one baptism, one mediator, one shed blood, are being brought into 167 00:16:17.639 --> 00:16:30.950 one dwelling place for God. You are a dwelling place for God. The 168 00:16:30.070 --> 00:16:34.820 Holy Spirit is doing this work. This would have been, I think, 169 00:16:34.860 --> 00:16:42.539 particularly meaningful to the EPHESIAN Christians. The temple to Artemis, which we have 170 00:16:42.659 --> 00:16:48.289 mentioned a few times as we've been going through this book, was categorized by 171 00:16:48.370 --> 00:16:55.610 the ancients themselves as one of the seven wonders of the world, seven places 172 00:16:55.769 --> 00:16:57.929 you got to put on your bucket list if you could travel a whole world, 173 00:16:59.649 --> 00:17:08.519 the temple in Ephesus. You have got to see the it was a 174 00:17:08.680 --> 00:17:12.279 it was a magnificent place, it was a beautiful place. It was one 175 00:17:12.319 --> 00:17:17.869 of the largest buildings in the ancient world, probably about four times larger than 176 00:17:17.910 --> 00:17:22.150 the Parthenon and Athens, if you've seen pictures of that, a huge that. 177 00:17:22.309 --> 00:17:25.910 You don't get to be one of the seven wonders of the world without 178 00:17:26.269 --> 00:17:30.740 standing out right. And it was not only important in sort of its size 179 00:17:30.819 --> 00:17:36.180 and its placement, but you know, in other ways it was important as 180 00:17:36.299 --> 00:17:41.619 well too. It was the center of this city, it was their cultural 181 00:17:41.819 --> 00:17:45.809 life, it was their identity, politics, economy. That we see this 182 00:17:45.930 --> 00:17:51.170 in the pages of scripture itself. You wouldn't Paul is an ephesus. The 183 00:17:51.650 --> 00:17:57.049 EPHESIAN idol makers, a Silversmith in particular, get very upset that Paul is 184 00:17:57.210 --> 00:18:03.160 preaching against these false gods and talking about one true God. They stand up 185 00:18:03.200 --> 00:18:07.039 they say, Hey, this Guy Paul, he's going to ruin all your 186 00:18:07.119 --> 00:18:12.109 business, he is going to destroy our economy. Do you not realize that 187 00:18:12.190 --> 00:18:17.190 all of us are bound up, wound up and intertwined in this temple. 188 00:18:18.710 --> 00:18:22.750 Imagine, you know, there are some cities like this, usually not large 189 00:18:22.869 --> 00:18:29.460 ones, but sometimes where the holy economy is tied up in one particular thing, 190 00:18:30.819 --> 00:18:33.619 maybe not every single point of it, but largely so. You know, 191 00:18:33.700 --> 00:18:37.299 we've seen this in various places where an automaker goes out of business or 192 00:18:37.339 --> 00:18:41.450 a steel mill closes and the whole town sort of falls apart. It's kind 193 00:18:41.490 --> 00:18:45.690 of the argument that's being made there in Ephesus. He's saying, if we 194 00:18:47.009 --> 00:18:52.690 have live this temple stop functioning, we're all going to be in for it. 195 00:18:52.289 --> 00:18:56.200 We're going to lose our jobs, poverty, etcetera, etc. And 196 00:18:56.240 --> 00:18:59.200 they're angry at Paul, really angry. You'll have to go read about that. 197 00:18:59.359 --> 00:19:03.559 And Acts. There's crowds, a riot, almost an insurrection. It's 198 00:19:03.559 --> 00:19:07.039 a big, big deal. The point is that the temple that I'm trying 199 00:19:07.039 --> 00:19:11.710 to make right now, the temple, was central to these Ephesian Christians, 200 00:19:11.910 --> 00:19:18.349 not to them personally, but their life as Ephesians. This was part of 201 00:19:18.390 --> 00:19:21.390 their identity. This is how they've grown up. Their fathers, their mothers, 202 00:19:21.430 --> 00:19:23.819 their aunts, their uncle's, they were all somehow, in some way 203 00:19:23.980 --> 00:19:32.859 connected to this place. As Christians, increasingly disconnected, finding ways to disassociate 204 00:19:33.099 --> 00:19:37.019 themselves from the old ways, from following after the old Gods, from now 205 00:19:37.220 --> 00:19:41.930 worshiping the one true living God, not in temples made with hands, but 206 00:19:42.009 --> 00:19:45.890 now. When you think about that in their context, imagine what it would 207 00:19:45.890 --> 00:19:51.769 mean to somebody who every day is walking by and aware and sensitive to this, 208 00:19:52.490 --> 00:19:59.200 this place and where. Paul says, don't worry about it. You 209 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:07.029 are the temple, you are the place in which the one true living God 210 00:20:07.230 --> 00:20:12.589 dwells. That's what you have in Christ. Isn't that an amazing thing? 211 00:20:14.349 --> 00:20:17.349 It's not a thing to pray is him for that we don't have to go 212 00:20:17.509 --> 00:20:22.259 to some manmade thing and serve manmade God's but that God has come to us 213 00:20:22.819 --> 00:20:30.619 and changed us so that we can serve him. He's building us up into 214 00:20:30.660 --> 00:20:37.569 a temple far greater than the temple of Artemis. If it's impressive that it 215 00:20:37.730 --> 00:20:41.690 was four times larger than the Parthenon and Athens, let it be impressive to 216 00:20:41.730 --> 00:20:45.930 you of what we read in revelation this morning, that the Temple of God 217 00:20:45.490 --> 00:20:53.880 is a cosmic Temple that will fill the heavens and the earth and it belongs 218 00:20:53.920 --> 00:21:02.920 to you. In some ways. It is you and US together in one 219 00:21:03.039 --> 00:21:07.269 body, one temple. The second thing I want to mention a benefit of 220 00:21:07.390 --> 00:21:11.509 us being brought into God's presence and brought into his family, as this, 221 00:21:12.109 --> 00:21:18.460 this point about citizenship that he makes in Verse Nineteen. You're no longer strangers 222 00:21:18.500 --> 00:21:26.259 and aliens, but fellows, citizens, fellow citizens. A citizenship is still 223 00:21:26.259 --> 00:21:29.259 a very meaningful category in our world. Indeed, it's playing out in our 224 00:21:29.259 --> 00:21:33.250 newspapers every day. Questions about what does citizenship mean? What does it mean 225 00:21:33.529 --> 00:21:37.490 to belong and to not belong? In our country in particular, how do 226 00:21:37.569 --> 00:21:41.769 we enforce that? What does that mean? How do we categorize as people? 227 00:21:42.769 --> 00:21:48.200 Same was true in Rome. Their citizenship was different in some ways, 228 00:21:48.319 --> 00:21:52.160 but it was similar in this that it marked differences, marked who belonged and 229 00:21:52.279 --> 00:21:57.880 who didn't, and right you would have and rights that you wouldn't. Things 230 00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:03.390 that belong to those who were Roman citizens were things like a right to vote, 231 00:22:03.430 --> 00:22:08.589 right to stand for office, make contracts, certain kinds of tax immunity, 232 00:22:08.910 --> 00:22:15.740 I'm freedom to marry certain kinds of people, access to the court system 233 00:22:15.859 --> 00:22:21.579 in better ways than was allowed at non citizens. More justice, better justice, 234 00:22:21.700 --> 00:22:25.740 more equitable justice if you are a citizen. These are the kinds of 235 00:22:25.859 --> 00:22:30.690 things that you got, as well as limitations in punishment. You couldn't be 236 00:22:30.849 --> 00:22:33.369 whipped, you couldn't be tortured if you were not a citizen. However, 237 00:22:34.490 --> 00:22:40.009 these things did not belong to you. And the interesting thing to know about 238 00:22:40.009 --> 00:22:45.279 Ephesus is that not many people were citizens. In the second century. It's 239 00:22:45.319 --> 00:22:52.759 estimated that about well, there's one inscription that we have that this sort of 240 00:22:52.880 --> 00:22:56.640 praise to I forget who it was, but praised to this man for inviting 241 00:22:56.880 --> 00:23:03.109 all one thousand and twenty four of the citizens of Ephesus to party, big 242 00:23:03.269 --> 00:23:10.470 party. A thousand and twenty four citizens. At that time. There were 243 00:23:10.630 --> 00:23:17.140 about two hundred and Fiftyzero people in Ephesus. So we talked about the one 244 00:23:17.220 --> 00:23:26.140 percent. It's about four percent of the population had Roman citizenship. Nah, 245 00:23:26.299 --> 00:23:30.009 very few people were citizens. Right, you would probably know who all of 246 00:23:30.170 --> 00:23:33.650 them were if you lived in Ephesus. Right, you would know who was 247 00:23:33.809 --> 00:23:37.410 and who wasn't. Now, that's in the second century. Like what likely 248 00:23:37.569 --> 00:23:41.759 this was even smaller, maybe about by half. In the first century the 249 00:23:41.920 --> 00:23:47.240 population about a hundred twenty five thousand. That's like a big Yuma, for 250 00:23:47.359 --> 00:23:52.599 example, or a small temp not a huge you know, not a big 251 00:23:52.680 --> 00:23:56.670 metropolis like we often have in various American cities, but a sizeable place. 252 00:23:59.069 --> 00:24:06.509 But a very small portion of people had these rights. The rest were resident 253 00:24:06.589 --> 00:24:11.900 aliens, people that were living in the city had a certain kind of rights 254 00:24:11.339 --> 00:24:17.299 to a certain extent, but very limited. You might even be generations living 255 00:24:17.339 --> 00:24:22.539 in a place you might call ephesis home, have lived there for generation after 256 00:24:22.619 --> 00:24:26.609 generation and still not have this kind of citizenship. There would still be a 257 00:24:26.730 --> 00:24:34.569 separation in your your Roman identity, all the more so for aliens. People 258 00:24:34.690 --> 00:24:38.920 that weren't just didn't belong there, but we're passing through. For them, 259 00:24:40.960 --> 00:24:44.680 your rights were very much tied to just probably how good you were with the 260 00:24:44.759 --> 00:24:48.519 gift of Gab. How could you were it influencing people and making friends? 261 00:24:48.680 --> 00:24:55.390 That is about it. You would be your your protections, your safety, 262 00:24:55.630 --> 00:24:59.869 your ability to get anything done would be tied to the people that were there 263 00:24:59.990 --> 00:25:07.579 and the Roman citizens that that held that place there. The similar things were 264 00:25:07.660 --> 00:25:15.579 true when Israel belonged, not as aliens in Rome or resident aliens in Rome, 265 00:25:15.339 --> 00:25:22.410 but belonged and had sovereignty over their own place, when they ruled their 266 00:25:22.450 --> 00:25:26.410 own country and had sovereignty of it, there were these kinds of distinctions as 267 00:25:26.490 --> 00:25:30.569 well. Gentiles would pass through from time to time, there would be people 268 00:25:30.650 --> 00:25:33.970 that would live in the land but not really belong and there were again various 269 00:25:33.970 --> 00:25:40.920 kinds of rights and and and rights that you wouldn't have as a non citizen. 270 00:25:41.480 --> 00:25:45.599 Well, with that kind of context, the context that the EPHESIANS would 271 00:25:45.599 --> 00:25:51.710 have understood, is what it means to be a citizen. Very very small 272 00:25:51.950 --> 00:25:56.509 percentage of people with very, very important rights. Now, Paul says to 273 00:25:56.630 --> 00:26:04.140 them, your citizens no longer strangers, no longer aliens to the to, 274 00:26:04.700 --> 00:26:11.700 to God's people, the Commonwealth of Israel, but you now belong. You 275 00:26:11.819 --> 00:26:15.779 have all the rights that every other child of Abraham has. Now this, 276 00:26:15.900 --> 00:26:19.210 of course, didn't affect their Roman citizenship at all. In fact, it 277 00:26:19.369 --> 00:26:23.890 may have made it worse to be identified as a Christian. But who really 278 00:26:23.930 --> 00:26:27.970 cares when, ultimately, your hope is not in the, you know, 279 00:26:29.130 --> 00:26:32.730 artem is temple up the street, but in the great cosmic temple that God 280 00:26:32.809 --> 00:26:36.759 is going to reveal on the last day? When your hope is not in 281 00:26:37.400 --> 00:26:41.559 this Caesar or the next, but in Jesus Christ, the Ruler of Heaven 282 00:26:41.559 --> 00:26:47.910 and earth, who is the true God and Savior of all people. When 283 00:26:47.950 --> 00:26:52.470 your hope is in him, there's only one kind of citizenship that you really 284 00:26:52.589 --> 00:26:56.630 want, there's only one kind of citizenship that you should hold on to and 285 00:26:56.750 --> 00:27:00.589 be willing to renounce all others for the sake of this one, and that 286 00:27:00.789 --> 00:27:04.700 is to belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, to belong to Israel, to 287 00:27:04.819 --> 00:27:10.660 belong to that people, because that is where God is making his blessings known, 288 00:27:10.980 --> 00:27:14.980 and that is what he says to US gentiles. He says it's yours 289 00:27:15.769 --> 00:27:19.849 that one too. And if that wasn't enough, we'll mention a third one, 290 00:27:21.529 --> 00:27:25.049 and that's not only do we belong now to the temple, the dwelling 291 00:27:25.130 --> 00:27:32.119 place of God, not only do we belong as citizens of fellow citizens in 292 00:27:32.200 --> 00:27:36.759 the Commonwealth of Israel, but now we are also saints, or, I'm 293 00:27:36.799 --> 00:27:42.400 sorry, we are now also members of the household of God and the Ephesian 294 00:27:42.480 --> 00:27:47.390 world, households were big. They had a lots of different people. There 295 00:27:47.470 --> 00:27:53.150 would be distant relative slaves, freedmen, various kinds of servants. Households can 296 00:27:53.150 --> 00:27:59.740 be quite large. But notice what he says here at particularly in connection with 297 00:28:00.019 --> 00:28:04.460 what we read in effusions chapter one. We are not when we belong to 298 00:28:04.619 --> 00:28:10.019 God's people, we're not merely members of his household. You remember that. 299 00:28:11.299 --> 00:28:15.970 What are we? which kind of member of the household are we? He 300 00:28:15.089 --> 00:28:25.329 says children, yes, sons in particular, coairs with Christ. You're not 301 00:28:25.490 --> 00:28:29.640 just outside the house, a neighbor happening to stop by. You're not just 302 00:28:29.799 --> 00:28:34.559 a slave in the house or or a guest of the house. He takes 303 00:28:34.759 --> 00:28:41.589 gentiles and through faith, the same faith that Abraham exercised when he put his 304 00:28:41.829 --> 00:28:45.869 faith in the Covenant Promises, you are elevated all the way up to the 305 00:28:47.109 --> 00:28:55.779 top to belong as an inheritor, to be a coare of the inheritance, 306 00:28:56.140 --> 00:29:00.859 of of the estate, so to speak. You're not even just one of 307 00:29:00.980 --> 00:29:07.220 the many children. And somewhere along the pecking order you are elevated to the 308 00:29:07.500 --> 00:29:15.009 point of inheritance with the son of God himself, Jesus Christ. That's what 309 00:29:15.130 --> 00:29:25.440 it means to belong to Jesus. That's how important we have become. All 310 00:29:25.480 --> 00:29:30.759 finished by asking you to this simple question. What's the foundation for all of 311 00:29:30.920 --> 00:29:37.950 this? By what means are. What ground have we been elevated to such 312 00:29:37.950 --> 00:29:44.910 a high place? Is it because we were of noble birth or important people 313 00:29:45.230 --> 00:29:52.430 or wealthy, or able to speak well or fast in our minds or anything 314 00:29:52.509 --> 00:29:57.900 like that? No. Why was it because of the sheer love of God 315 00:30:00.299 --> 00:30:03.420 that, as we read in a Fusians one before the foundations of the world, 316 00:30:03.539 --> 00:30:07.730 he set his love upon us and he chose us to be adopted, 317 00:30:08.730 --> 00:30:15.970 to be brought in? We should marvel at the wonderful grace of God. 318 00:30:18.849 --> 00:30:22.319 The foundation of all of this is Christ himself, as we've read through up 319 00:30:22.400 --> 00:30:30.240 this chapter. It is by his blood that peace has happened. In the 320 00:30:30.319 --> 00:30:36.150 Old Testament, the Canaanites, those on the borders of Israel, were those 321 00:30:36.230 --> 00:30:44.190 to be pushed out and eliminated, killed in warfare, crushed, destroyed, 322 00:30:44.589 --> 00:30:49.099 put to death. That was our place, people to be destroyed by the 323 00:30:49.140 --> 00:30:56.220 judgment and wrath of God, by God's people, that hostility between us and 324 00:30:56.460 --> 00:31:00.700 God. We were the Goliaths, we were the Philistines, we were the 325 00:31:00.819 --> 00:31:07.690 people constantly encroaching upon the Lord and his anointed son and his anointed people, 326 00:31:07.690 --> 00:31:11.769 trying to break apart their bonds. But now we are people who have been 327 00:31:11.809 --> 00:31:17.970 brought into the family, brought into the nation, brought into this household, 328 00:31:18.720 --> 00:31:25.839 brought into the temple itself. This is a great wonder indeed, and it's 329 00:31:25.920 --> 00:31:30.400 happened because Christ shed his blood, as Paul says, that we might have 330 00:31:32.160 --> 00:31:38.470 peace. Verse Fourteen, he himself is our peace. By shedding his blood, 331 00:31:40.670 --> 00:31:45.190 he forgave our sins. By shedding his blood, he opened up the 332 00:31:45.390 --> 00:31:52.700 doors and he is, as Paul says, the cornerstone of the temple. 333 00:31:52.980 --> 00:32:00.180 We're not out here in covenant old PC sort of cobbling together some new tower 334 00:32:00.299 --> 00:32:05.529 of Babel, the stone and that stone, trying to pull it all together 335 00:32:05.609 --> 00:32:09.289 and raise something up great for the Lord or for some God of our imagination. 336 00:32:10.609 --> 00:32:15.799 We are being built by the spirit of God. That's what he says. 337 00:32:16.720 --> 00:32:21.480 We are being built by the spirit of God up into this living temple 338 00:32:21.759 --> 00:32:25.400 and the found not only is the work or God himself, but the foundation 339 00:32:25.720 --> 00:32:31.430 is God himself, Jesus Christ, as the cornerstone. Kids, the cornerstone 340 00:32:31.509 --> 00:32:35.829 is the one that you put right at the bottom. It's the thing that 341 00:32:35.950 --> 00:32:38.789 helps you to have those straight lines so that at the end you end up 342 00:32:38.789 --> 00:32:43.190 with a cube, like we talked about this morning. It's the thing that 343 00:32:43.390 --> 00:32:46.940 gives you the ability to keep things square, to keep things true, to 344 00:32:47.140 --> 00:32:53.660 keep things Orthodox, to keep things right, to keep things centered in God, 345 00:32:54.660 --> 00:32:59.890 to think keep things reliant always on our savior, and nowhere else. 346 00:33:00.690 --> 00:33:04.970 He is the cornerstone, and him, with the Apostles and the prophets, 347 00:33:05.009 --> 00:33:07.970 of the foundation, will we have as the word of God, now here 348 00:33:08.650 --> 00:33:14.759 before us. The temple is then built up, and this is how the 349 00:33:14.799 --> 00:33:16.759 work of God is done. He says the US in his word. The 350 00:33:16.920 --> 00:33:23.920 word goes fourth into the world and Jew both Jews and gentiles, are called 351 00:33:24.000 --> 00:33:30.990 in. The temple is built up, we are brought close with God, 352 00:33:31.029 --> 00:33:38.630 we receive all the benefits of sons and the and God is praised. It's 353 00:33:38.670 --> 00:33:46.180 simple, it's wonderful, it's life changing. What do you rely on? 354 00:33:46.299 --> 00:33:52.140 Your citizenship for this world? If you if it came down to it and 355 00:33:52.259 --> 00:33:54.420 you had to prove it, what would you do? What would it all 356 00:33:54.500 --> 00:34:01.890 come down to? Piece of paper, birth certificate, database somewhere? What 357 00:34:02.089 --> 00:34:07.610 is your citizenship in the Kingdom of God? Rely on the blood of Christ, 358 00:34:08.690 --> 00:34:13.840 the promise of God. How much more reliable is that? How much 359 00:34:13.840 --> 00:34:21.360 more sure is that? Trust in him trust in no other put your hope 360 00:34:21.719 --> 00:34:24.750 in no other place, not in the kingdoms of this world, not in 361 00:34:24.829 --> 00:34:31.030 any other mediator or antichrist that would come and present himself to you. Trust 362 00:34:31.349 --> 00:34:37.630 only in this one, and all that he has earned for you will be 363 00:34:37.710 --> 00:34:42.019 given to you, and indeed already has. Let's give him praise.