Well, it's good to be back here. I just wish it was on better circumstances, but it is a joy to be back once again with you once again. If you have your Bibles with you, why don't you turn with me to Ephesians chapter two, Ephesians chapter two. And our sermon text this morning is going to be verses 11 through 19, verses 11 through 19 of Ephesians chapter two. And as I read this text, please be reminded that this is God's holy, inspired, and inerrant word. Please give your attention to the reading of it, Ephesians 2, verses 11 through 19. Therefore remember that at one time, you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands. Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated 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 were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man. in place of the two, so making peace. And might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who are far off and peace to those who are near. For through him, we both have access in one spirit to the Father. So that you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. May God bless the reading of his word. Let us pray together once more. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it lights our feet, it guides our path. We thank you that it tells us of the work of your son, that it strengthens us in faith, that it is powerful and never returns to you void. Father, we ask now that you would send the Holy Spirit to be among us, to open our hearts, to receive what you have for us in your word today. Be with the preaching of your word and may your word accomplish all that you purpose it to do. And we ask this all in Jesus' name, amen. So one look at our society today, and I think we might all be able to agree on one thing. Our society is divided, isn't it? Does anybody still have the courage to go on Facebook anymore? Much in our society perceives that they are alienated from one another, don't they? Many, from the many, they feel alienated, or from the powerful, they feel alienated, or from the common people, they feel alienated, or from any kind of thing. Alienation seems to be what they are screaming about. We are alone. We have no connection here. We're cut off. But what is alienation? It's a disaffection. with what is. It's a sense of feeling forgotten, marginalized, left out, undervalued, or other like feelings, right? And with this particular election cycle, we see this on both sides, don't we? Some in our society feel that one side is oppressive and marginalizes the other to say that they're all racist and sexist and other horrible things and move away from fellowship with them, don't they? Or on the other side, they respond, well, that side is lazy and crazy. People who just need to grow up and they just, and then they move away from fellowship with them. And this has even affected the church. The week after the election, I remember hearing on a podcast, a gentleman from a reformed denomination, after the election say that he was afraid to worship with white people. That is how bad things have got out there today. Young people are leaving the church because they feel that much of what Christianity espouses is nothing more than talking points of a particular political party. And Christ is the equivalent to a certain party platform or government stance. Well, do we as a church have anything to say to those who are disaffected, to those who feel alienated in our society? Do the scriptures give us a remedy for this division? Well, in our passage today, we hear about the alienation many in the early church felt, and we hear about a conflict within the church between two groups, Jews and Gentiles. and how it is the gospel that truly unites all people as one in Christ. And this passage does this first by telling us of the separation that was in place. And then we'll see the division destroyed and finally of the access granted. So let's look at verses 11 through 12 and see the separation in place. Now, the early church was often divided into two factions, as I said before, and then they had slang terms for each other. They had the uncircumcision and the circumcision. In other words, Gentiles and Jews. Now, who were these divisions? The Gentiles would be anyone who was not born a Jew. And the Jews overall wanted nothing to do with Gentiles. So to address this, Paul asked the Gentiles to remember what they were before they came to Christ. And he points out five things in which he wants them to remember. You remember, he points out first that they were without Christ. They were without a savior. They had no sin bearer. They had no forgiveness. They had no fellowship with Christ. They were lost and under the condemnation of their sin, the just condemnation of their sin, And second, they were aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel. This is the kind of language we don't use much today, but in other words, is they had no share in God's people. They had no right to be called God's people. And third, we see that they were strangers from the covenants of promise. You see, the Gentiles, before they believed, they had no promise of salvation. It was to the Jews, God's chosen people, that the covenants of promise were made. And since they were outside of the commonwealth of Israel, they had no share in these covenants and the promises of salvation made to God's people. And so forth, they were also, with no promise of salvation, they were without hope. Now this does not mean they had no hope at all. The Roman empire had much to hope about. They believed that they were the light of progress coming into the world. You ever seen the movie Gladiator? Do you remember when Marcus Aurelius is talking to Maximus and he says, remind me again, why are we here? And he said, the glory of the empire. He goes, oh yes, I remember now. But why are we here? And what was Maximus' response? I've seen much of the world. It is dark. Rome is the light. They truly believe that. They truly believe that. They believed that they were light of progress coming into the dark world. They brought technological innovations, public and civic order, sanitation, health, and so many other things of modern progress. But all they had was an earthly hope. That's it. In Greek religion, the life after death was devoid of any hope. It was the land of the dead, where the wicked and the good alike went. I mean, some might make it to a better place than others, but they had no hope. The afterlife was dark, it was bleak. They had no hope, no true hope of eternal life. That was it. But beloved, in Christ, we have a living hope, don't we? through the resurrection of Christ to an inheritance according to Peter, which is incorruptible, undefiled, and does not fade away, and is kept in heaven for you. Gentiles outside of faith in Christ had no true and lasting hope. They only had an earthly hope that would fade and would perish. And finally, to sum up the condition of the Gentiles, we hear they were without God in the world. And now the word here, and this is interesting, the word here is athios. What does that sound like to you? Atheist. That's what the word means. It's where we get our word. Paul is saying that these people were atheists. Now it strikes our ear a bit odd, doesn't it? Greek religion was not known for being devoid of gods, was it? They had a God for everything. And if they didn't have one, they can just borrow one from another society, throw it on in there and everything was just fine. Recall Paul in Athens, when he was provoked by all the idols of the city, he even saw an altar to the unknown God. He said, I see that you Athens are so religious, so religious in fact, you made an altar over here just to make sure you didn't forget one. But what Paul is saying is that they were without the true God, because you remember what he said, that one you worship without knowing, let me tell you about him. Let me tell you about the God you don't know. They had no living relationship with the living God of the universe. You see, the biblical definition of atheism isn't that a person doesn't know a God. The biblical definition of atheism is that the living God does not know them. That is what it is to be without God. They were without Christ, so strangers to God's promises. And since they had no saving relationship with Christ, they could only expect to hear, on the last day when Christ comes in his glory, depart from me. I never knew you. Perhaps the most dreadful words to read in scripture, isn't it? This plight was serious. How could this be overcome? Beloved, it's good news that the gospel of Jesus Christ overcomes this. And so we see the division destroyed in verses 13 through 16. In Ephesians 2, 4, we heard a conjunction, which are the most precious words in the Bible, but God. But now in Christ Jesus, the Gentiles who are far off from the promises of salvation have been brought near by the blood of Christ because we have in this like precious conjunction, don't we? But now, but now those who are far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Now notice that this verse has two aspects of our salvation. The first is that our salvation is in Christ. Now this speaks of our living and vital union with Christ, where the benefits of Christ are applied to our hearts. We are no longer without God, but we have been indwelt by the God-man, Christ himself, by his spirit. And second, we see that it's by the blood of Christ. where our sins are washed away, where we may all stand clean and forgiven and accepted before the Father by the work of Christ on our behalf. And this is the gospel of Jesus, is it not? All praise for such a salvation that we who are far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. But beloved, this gospel does not just reconcile us to God, but it reconciles us all together as one people. That's what we're gonna see here. Jesus himself, it is emphatic here. Jesus is our peace. Did you hear that? Peace does not come from social manipulation, from better education, from sensitivity training, from economic redistribution or economic whatever. Peace comes in a person. It comes in Christ himself and his work for us. And what his work did on the cross, is create a new humanity. The work of Christ has taken the two, the Jew and the Gentile, and made them one, united under one new humanity, under one new head, Christ Jesus. You see, beloved, all men, Jews and Gentiles, were under the covenantal headship of Adam. We all were under the covenantal headship of Adam. All men stood guilty under Adam's condemnation. We all stood guilty under Adam's condemnation. And we were all subject to his penalty, which is death. But Christ, has by his work paid our debt of sin and united us in him as our new covenant head. So now we all may stand as one people in Christ, no longer in Adam. But more than that, Christ has broken down the dividing wall of separation that stood between Jew and Gentile. Now, what is this wall that he's talking about? Well, first of all, it was an actual physical wall. In the temple in Jerusalem, there was a four and a half foot wall that separated the court of the Gentiles from other parts of the temple. And on it was a sign written in Greek and Latin. And what it said was this, no one from another nation to enter within the fence and enclosure around the temple. And whoever is caught will have himself to blame for his death. Often when I'm out running in Chino Valley, I don't know what it is about Arizona. People move to Arizona to like buy land, put up fences and put signs that say, don't trespass, you'll be shot and all this kind of stuff. Here in the temple, it read, trespassers will be executed. Now, would the Ephesians have known about this wall? It's a fair question to ask, right? Turkey's a long way from Israel. Well, we know they would have. Recall in Acts 21, when Paul was arrested in the temple, what was he accused of? He was accused of bringing Trophimus, the Ephesian, past that wall. But that wall stood also as a symbol of a spiritual reality that divided Jew and Gentile. That reality was the ceremonial law. You see, the law was never designed to exclude other nations from God, but it was to show them the greatness of God, His goodness, His justice, and bring nations to Him, not repel the nations from Him. Recall Deuteronomy 4, 6 through 8, where God declares that when the nations see the law, they should say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has a God so near to it as the Lord our God is near to us whenever we call upon Him? And what great nation is there that has these statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today? They were supposed to see the law of God, not as a barrier, but as glory, and come to the Lord seeking His glory. but the Pharisees even erected another wall. And this wall wasn't even in scripture, but they erected what they called a fence around the law, or as it's called in the scriptures, the traditions of the elders. Now, what is this? This fence allowed Jews almost no contact with Gentiles. What they did, here's the logic. When they went into exile, they got it pretty clear it's because they broke the law. Okay. If that's the case, we're gonna make sure we never break it again. And so what we're gonna do is, okay, if the law says I can only walk five steps, we're gonna make the law say I can only walk three steps. That way we're protected. You understand the logic? If it says I must wash to do this, well, we'll wash to do all these other things too. And we'll make that the law. That way you never actually break what God actually commanded, but we protect it. Sound like solid logic? This fence allowed, like I said, the Jews almost no contact. They had, for instance, these elaborate washing rituals. For instance, it tells us in Mark 7, 4, that when they went into a market, they might have encountered a Gentile. And so they had to wash their hands. They had to wash their pots. They had to wash their dining couches, just in case Gentile dirt got on them or got on their possessions. Imagine what it communicated to a Gentile, knowing that Jews had to wash their couch just in case some of your Gentile dirt got on it. Did we say this division is pretty serious? When Jesus said in Luke 4 that he is fulfilling the words of the prophet Isaiah, he defended his words by giving two examples, didn't he? the healing of Naaman, and the widow of Zarephath, both Gentiles. Jesus' point was that the gospel was to go to the world, not just the possession of one people group. And what was the Jews' response upon hearing this? Were they going, yes and amen, Jesus, let's go do that? No, they sought to throw him off a cliff. That's how much hatred there was between Jew and Gentile. Instead of using the beauty of the law to bring the nations to God, they used it to exclude and push the Gentiles away. But beloved, Christ is the fulfillment of everything that the ceremonial law pointed to. It was He who was the perfect sacrifice that the temple was built to picture. The cleanliness codes pointed to Christ who was the spotless and perfect undefiled Lamb of God. And the pictures of holiness that we have in Christ, we see in the law fulfilled by Christ. And when Christ beloved was placed upon that cross and his flesh was ripped away, so too that dividing wall of which the holiness code pictured was dismantled brick by brick. But the ceremonial law should have showed that even the Jews needed to be reconciled to God, just like the Gentiles. It was not their ceremonial observance of the law that saved the Jew. It was faith in Christ that saved the Jew. Just like us Gentiles. All humanity, Jew and Gentile, was lost in sin. Both needed to be reconciled to God. And the gospel of Christ is the way that made this impossible task accomplished. The two, the Jew and the Gentile have been made one people. And this beloved has massive implications for us in the life of the church. It really does. God has reconciled the fiercest of enemies. God-hating man, lost and dead in their sins, have now been reconciled and have true peace with a holy and perfect God through Christ. How then, beloved, can we not strive to remove the social barriers that we sometimes put up in the church? Some of these barriers prevent us from truly experiencing the joy of being one people. For instance, if someone comes into our fellowship who's of a different political conviction, would we marginalize them in our minds? Or maybe even out loud to them? Do we seek to understand how they see the world, even if we don't agree? Or do in our minds, do we have a sense of superiority, political superiority that I just know they're right and they don't get it. And so we see them as, if you will, the enemy. Does the gospel we preach and the Christianity we teach sound like political talking points? Or does it sound like the gospel that transcends all nation states, all cultural biases, all economic placements? The gospel preached in the scriptures reached all the way to the lowliest of Greek slaves, to the wealthiest of Jewish high priests. That is the gospel presented in scripture. The gospel of Christ unites all people groups into one. And beloved, it is the model to the world how true peace is accomplished. True peace comes not by our societal or cultural achievements, but it comes in the proclamation of the gospel of Christ, who is our peace. So let's look at verses 17 through 19, the access granted. See beloved, this peace is not simply a ceasefire in man's war against God. True peace does not come when the bullets stop flying. North Korea and South Korea have stopped shooting bullets. Is there peace there? No. True peace happens when people are reconciled to one another, doesn't it? And beloved, this is the kind of peace, the true peace that Christ has preached. When this gospel was received and believed, a radical change took place for us. We are granted access to the Father. This word access is used in the text of the day to describe one who had access or audience with a king. That is how this word was used. It was used as someone who was able to gain royal access. And beloved, it is Christ, our mediator, who by his work presents us to the Father. And as he presents us to the Father, we are given two titles that grant us such a right through Christ. The first, is that we are citizens with the saints of the kingdom of heaven. Those are amazing words. We were strangers and aliens. We had no share in God's people and no share in his promise. But by faith in Christ, through Christ and his work, we are granted citizenship into his heavenly kingdom. And that means, beloved, We have the rights of citizenship to the kingdom of heaven. We are under protection of the king. We share in his rule. We share in the benefits that come from his rule. That means no matter where we are, we can call on him, our king, with the rights of a citizen. Now this concept of citizenship would have blown the minds of Paul's readers. In Paul's day, Ephesus had a population of somewhere between 200 and 250,000 people. And just over 1,000 of them were actually citizens. Citizenship in the Greek world was a rare thing, and it had amazing rights. You remember when Paul was arrested, getting ready to whip him? And he said, is this how you treat a Roman citizen? That guard, who probably isn't scared of much, dropped that whip faster than he can think, and his boss come over, did I hear you right? Did you say you were a Roman citizen? Because they knew they were in big trouble if they punished this man without a trial. Because he had rights, didn't he? Because Paul was a Roman citizen, he could petition Caesar himself. And he did so, didn't he? He said, I will take this to Caesar. We'll see what he has to say about this. This is the power of citizenship in the Roman world. It was the ability to be heard by the king himself. But we are more than simply a citizen. We are also members of the household of God. We can approach our king, not as a distant ruler, but as a loving father. Beloved, don't let this become cliche. We are family. We're able to cry out to him by the Spirit, Abba, Father, to him, the ruler and creator of all. But notice, we remain fellow citizens with the saints. All of us, no matter our station in life, no matter our pedigree, no matter any other such thing, has the same rights and access into the kingdom of heaven by faith. But more than that, we are all equal members of the household of God. This means that in the truest sense, by faith and all who professed faith in Christ, are your brothers and your sisters. It is your family that stands beside you in a perfect world, don't they? It is this love that we show to all in faith, whatever a person's race, culture, background, social standing, or any other difference from us. By their profession of Christ, they are your brother and your sister in Christ. Let that concept not become cliche to us, but let it be an ordering principle in our life. In the church, We are family. Let us love one another like family. So in conclusion, the church is more than just a group of people who gather on Sunday with a shared interest. Beloved, the church is a powerful witness to the world of the gospel of Jesus Christ. One commentator said it like this, and I'm just gonna quote him because I couldn't say it better than this. The church is the arena where the results of Christ, where results of Christ's peacemaking are to be seen, the one new person and the one new body. The peace gained at the cost of Christ's death and realized in the church is to be preserved and demonstrated and to be proclaimed by the church to the world. What has been achieved in the church and the overcoming of the major division within humanity in the first century is an anticipation of God's purpose of the still divided cosmos. That major division is the prototype of all divisions. If the church in Ephesians 2 stands for the overcoming of that fundamental division of humanity into either Jew or Gentile, it stands for the overcoming of all divisions caused by tradition, class, color, nation, or groups of nations. Anything less would be a denial of the nature of the church. Recall Ephesians 1 10. that God is reconciling all things in heaven and on earth through the work of Christ. As the church is united in faith and loves one another with the reconciling love that Christ demonstrated on the cross, where he reconciled such hostile enemies, man and God together, creating one new humanity and one new family. Beloved, it is an example to the world how true peace can be obtained. It is obtained in a humanity of all tribes, tongues and nations united in their worship of Christ and with the love of Christ that he has showed them, pouring that love out on others. So let us share with the world the love that Christ has shown us. and let us demonstrate to the world what that love looks like in our midst, that they might see the beauty of the gospel of Christ, that they see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. And then may they, by the word preached in this place, by our witness to them, May the Spirit move in their life and may they seek that reconciliation that only Christ can provide. Beloved, the church is a preview of that great day that we read about in Revelation 5, where all tribes, all nations are gathered around the throne of God and singing his praises for eternity. Beloved, there is no division there. Let us love and serve one another as Christ has loved and served us. And let us long for that day when the suffering of this world will finally be put to rest. While we were in this place, let it be to us an embassy of heaven, a respite from all the dangerous world about. And let us relish in our kingdom, our king, his rule and his reign. and long to see others come under his rule. Amen. Let us pray. Father, we love you. And Father, we love you because as your word says, you loved us first. Father, we were not looking for you. You came for us. You rescued us. from death and destruction, you rescued us from what was rightfully due to us. You're just condemnation and you're just wrath for our sins. And father, he did more than just wipe it away and give a square one and have to do it all over again. No, no, no. You fulfilled your laws, holy demands by your son, living them perfectly and dying the death we deserved. we rejoice in such love. And to make it even more amazing, it's not something we have to earn. It's not how high we can jump through a hoop. Lord, you give us that righteousness by your free grace through faith alone. And Father, we ask that you would fill our hearts fresh with love for you, with love for the gospel, that we would be overcome by the greatness of this gospel, that we can't help but share it with our friends, our family, our neighbors. And Father, may these truths impress upon us the fact that we have been united as one people in Christ. And may we not put any barriers that would be a stumbling for anybody. If they stumble, Lord, may it be over your gospel, over your word, but not from our sin and our lack of love. strengthen us in your love, strengthen us in your word, strengthen us by your spirit, that we may do all things to your glory. And we ask this all in the name of your dear son.