“Our Father’s Big House”
Ephesians 2:11-3:6

Introduction

This is our third sermon in an extended series through the entire book of Ephesians.  We are specifically pulling out of Ephesians truths that address our main topic of study which is, “How do we become a missional congregation in everything we do?”


The Church as God’s “New Humanity”

Most of us here this morning, especially those of us who white, middle class whether lower, middle, or upper middle class, do not really know what it is like to be the recipient of prejudice and racism.  Indeed, it’s quite possible that some of you who have grown up in the Midwest may have had very little exposure to those of other races and ethnic groups at all; so some may be almost clueless about the unimaginable humiliation and abuse that many have to go through as victims of racism.  In case you don’t know this, Dubuque is a racist city.  

My wife Kelly had a conversation when we first moved to Dubuque with a African-American woman who her and her husband were professionals and affluent, who were moving out of Dubuque because they just could no longer tolerate the animosity they felt in this town.

I meet weekly with a group of pastors for prayer and encouragement, and one is an African-American, who tells me stories like going to the grocery store and as he hands the clerk his credit card, she assumed he was handing her a food stamp card…or stories of how the police in this town automatically are suspicious when they see a minority teen walking around in an area of town that isn’t considered the “bad area” of Dubuque.  

Brothers and sisters, such racism and prejudice have no place whatsoever in the Church of Jesus Christ or in the heart of a Christian!  

The racism and prejudice addressed in our study passage is primarily centered around two large groups: Jewish and non-Jewish called Gentiles.  We do not classify people according to these categories anymore, so it’s hard for us to relate to the depth of prejudice that existed when Paul wrote these words.

We can look at the animosity that still exists between many of the Jews and the Palestinians in Israel now and begin to get a taste of this level of prejudice; a prejudice by the way that exists on both sides toward the other side.  

When Paul wrote this letter to the Ephesians, the nation of Israel as a whole, not necessarily every Jewish person, had allowed the Jewish faith to degenerate into a very racist religion that held Jewish males to be superior to Jewish women and children, and all Jews to be superior to every Gentile.  

So much so that they divided up their temple, which was the center of their faith and worship, into separate areas so that only the high priest could go into the holist of areas, the priest into the next holiest of areas, the men into the next holiest, then a separate place for women, children, and those with infirmities and handicaps, and then at last a large court outside for Gentiles.

Could you imagine if we divided up our church facilities like this?  I think we still do in many ways!   We have churches who only allow women to do certain ministries. We separate out of families by age groups. And in the very place that should demonstrate to the world that racial reconciliation and unity among the diversity of all people groups, classes, and handicaps can actually work, the Church of Jesus Christ, the Church, more often than not, instead demonstrates the same horrific level of prejudiced as outside the Church.  For example, we have very few multiracial churches in America.  

So back to our study passage:  Paul is writing to a mostly non-Jewish, Gentile that is, congregation.   Perhaps they were becoming a bit prejudiced toward the Jews, perhaps slipping into what the Christian Church has been shamefully guilty of through the ages of blaming the Jews for Christ’s death, or looking down on them for their rejection of Christ as the Messiah.  

And the apostle Paul is declaring, there is no place in a Christian’s heart or in the Church for any ill feelings toward the Jews.  In fact, Paul goes on to say, you Gentiles, that would be you and I, need to always remember that before Christ came along to establish the New Covenant, we were the “Uncircumcised,” that is , we were not considered by God to be His chosen, set apart people.

Our passage describes us as being “separate from Christ,” “excluded from citizenship with God’s people,” “foreigners to God’s covenantal promises,” “without hope,” and “without God!” In other words, we were in the worst possible state of condemnation, objects of God’s wrath!

Now God had marked out His people under the Old Covenant by giving them the seal of circumcision and God’s Law which called the people to a counter-cultural lifestyle as those set apart for holiness in living a life before the face of God.  

God’s Law was never meant to create a wall to keep out the Gentiles from coming into a saving relationship with God, but to keep the Israelites from becoming compromised and conformed to the sinful ways of the Gentiles.

It’s like the so-called separation between Church and State in our country.  The intent of our founding fathers was not to keep religion out of the state, but the state out of religion.

But Israel, being a nation of sinful people, like you and I, turned the Law into an object of pride that excluded all non-Jews from entering into a relationship with God.   And so it was, this misuse of the Law, not the Law itself, made the Law into what our study passage calls, a “barrier,” a “dividing wall of hostility” between Jew and Gentile.

Furthermore, if we read this passage in light of the whole New Testament, we discover that the Old Testament Law had become a barrier between all humans, Jew and Gentile, between us and God because no one is able to obey God’s Holy Law with the perfection that God requires.  So that the Law became a “dividing wall of hostility” between all humanity and God!

Woe is us!  Who will rescue of from such a state of standing condemned before a holy and vengeful God?  We know who: Verse 13 declares, “now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For Christ himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility!”   Praise God!

So Christ came and tore down the walls of prejudice between Jew and Gentile, and between all of us and God!  Christ did this by the taking on Himself on the cross of shame and pain all our prejudice, all our hatred, and all our failure to obey God’s Holy Law!  

Christ did not physically break down the walls in the Jewish temple that separated Jew from Gentile, woman from men. But He did break down the real walls of separation, the misuse of the Law with all its rules, regulations, and pride, and began to create a whole new temple, a brand new house of God, called the Church, wherein men and woman, adult and child, people from every tribe, tongue, and nation, social class, every disability are embraced as equals and worship together in unity!
    
The thrusts of this passage is in verse 15 where we discover that in creating the Church of Jesus Christ, our triune God is up to something brand new.  This phrase, “New Humanity” is not new in time, but new as in never before existed. The Church was and is God’s intent for humanity all along.  The nation of Israel as God’s chosen people alone was just a temporary administration of God’s plan.

The Church is a brand new creation in which Jews do not become Gentile nor do Gentiles become Jews, but we all become something so much bigger, grander, and eternal, we become what Paul calls God’s “New humanity.”  

This new humanity is like a race of super beings made up of people from every nation who will reign and rule with Christ forever as co-heirs and co-rulers of God’s eternal kingdom! How’s that for a purpose in life and eternal destiny!  And that is what you are in Christ!

Paul goes on to reveal in our study passage in verse 19 and following,, we went from being those “without hope, without God, excluded from the covenant,” to being “fellow citizens with God’s people,” “members of God’s household,” and the most powerful image of all that Paul uses to describe the Church, a “holy temple in which God lives by His Spirit!


The Church as God’s Holy Temple

Let’s back out of this study for a minute and place what we are learning in the context of the bigger picture pf what this all means for us today.  We are studying together what it means to be an effective, fruitful, kingdom-advancing, Biblical, missional congregation.  Our current state is this: this congregation has a 117 year heritage of fruitful kingdom ministry.  However, for many reasons, all of which we’ll discuss in our town meeting next week, this congregation over the last 17 years has experienced a steady loss of effectiveness in making new, devoted followers of Christ, and with that a steady loss of membership.

So we are now in a season of renewal and redevelopment to reclaim a more Biblically faithful purpose in all we do.  One critical aspect of this renewal is to re-learn and then reclaim a solidly Biblical understanding of what the Church is called to be and do.  These are the images, the purposes, with which we must evaluate how we are doing in terms of our effectiveness for God’s kingdom.  

So far, in our journey through Joshua, Colossians, and Ephesians, we have discovered that the Church is called to be:
 - An Army that claims all the land and people that God has declared to belong to Him
 - The chosen people of God elected to live and proclaim the gospel, to tell the story of Jesus Christ so that all may hear and be embraced by God’s saving grace
 - The Bride of Christ wherein we dwell in intimate, abiding, loving relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
 - The Family of God wherein we are declared to be the already-holy, dearly loved, adopted children of God who provide a place of unconditional acceptance, nurturing love, and being-enjoyed belonging to all
 - The Kingdom of God that demonstrates to the world and our immediate neighborhood a prophetic yet alluring counter-cultural lifestyle, and a taste of the coming Kingdom’s power that heals, saves, delivers and transforms lives and social structures

So, how are we doing saints of God at Third Presbyterian Church in fulfilling these callings?

And now we are given still another powerful definition of what the Church, and therefore each local congregation including ours, is called to be: A temple of God’s presence!

So what all is included in being God’s temple of the Holy Spirit?

In one important sense, this image of being the temple of God’s presence describes what will be true of us as the people of God for all eternity. Of all the races of beings that God has created and will create, it appears that only the human race, especially in its glorified state, will be bearers of the Holy Spirit.  There is no sense in the Bible that says the angels are temple of God’s Spirit.  Humans are uniquely designed to be containers of the Holy Spirit which then accounts for our destiny of being co-rulers with Christ.

But this calling to be God’s Holy temple is also a reality right now for the global Church and therefore for each local church.  

As the temple of God’s presence through the Holy Spirit, this local congregation called Third Church should be marked by:
 - Fervent Prayer:  Christ declared, “My House shall be called a house of prayer!”
 - Anointed Worship: While under the New Covenant worship was released from being bound to the temple, we discover in places like Acts and Hebrews 10 that God still calls us to gather together as God’s people in celebratory worship where God’s presence is encountered to save, comfort, and transform.
 - Transparent Fellowship:  God’s temple is the place where we stand completely exposed before God in all our sin and sorrow, and yet still are embraced as God’s holy and dearly loved child.  We must likewise enter into such transparent relationships with one another to experience total life transformation.
 - Radical Obedience:  The temple is the place where the Torah, God’s Word is proclaimed so that the people of God are shaped individually and corporately by God’s Story so that they lived countercultural lives of purifying hope, risky faith, and sacrificial love

When we become a house of prayer, a people of the Word, and a place of unified, anointed worship, we then become a place of God’s glory and presence. Throughout the Scriptures, when God’s people sought God’s face in repentance, sincerity, and unity with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength, God’s Shekinah Glory would fall upon the temple.  It was this manifest glory of God that demonstrated to the surrounding nations that God was awesome and alive in the midst of His chosen people.

Of all the things we could be known for as a local congregation, there in none more important, more powerful, or more Biblical than to be known throughout Dubuque as the place where God’s presence dwells in a manner that saves, heals, comforts, delivers, and reconciles!

As we become more a place of prayer, worship, and the Word, we will experience more of:
 - God’s Saving Presence:  God’s temple is the place where the worshipers came to make sacrifices for their sins.   To be a Biblical congregation, we must be a place where those who enter our fellowship discover God’s forgiving grace
 - God’s Healing Presence: When Christ was on the earth, we read in Matthew 21, that he went into the temple and cleared out of those misusing the temple in a way that exploited the poor and turned worship into a business. Christ then made the temple a house of prayer, and then the temple became a place of power where in Mt 21:14 we read, “The blind and the lame came to Him and He healed them!”  
 - God’s Welcoming Presence: Christ welcoming the blind and the lame into the temple was scandalous!  They were looked down upon as unholy outcast in the prejudiced Jewish worship system of that time. Not only did Christ welcome them, He healed them!  You see all are welcome in God’s big house!  Indeed, God’ house is especially for those who normally are considered the outcasts, the neglected the disenfranchised.  
   If we look around this room this morning, we are a mostly all alike.  If we are to become a more Biblical, missional congregation, we must become a place that not just says they are welcoming to all, but a people that intentionally go out and reach those who are most needy and neglected, and become a place where all people regardless of race, class, disability, or how high the yuk factor of his or her sin feels warmly welcome in our midst!
 - God’s Empowering Presence:  We also read that when Christ walked the earth, He continually went into the temple to teach.  God’s temple is a place where the people of God are equipped and empowered for ministry. We do not yet know the details of what we will become as to structure and types of missional outreach we will launch.  But we do know this, whatever we do must fulfill the calling of the Church found in Eph 4:12 that all be done, “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.”  

As we become more a temple of God’s presence and glory, we will begin to experience more of the radical transformation of ourselves that should mark the people of God, but even more importantly, we will begin to see the lives of those who have not yet been embraced by the gospel have their lives radically changed by Jesus Christ!