So Then...

Ephesians 2:11-22 • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

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Introduction

Emmet Till was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. During summer vacation in August 1955, he was visiting relatives near Money, in the Mississippi Delta region. He spoke to 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, the white married proprietor of a small grocery store there. Although what happened at the store is a matter of dispute, Till was accused of flirting with or whistling at Bryant. Several nights after the incident in the store, Bryant's husband Roy and his half-brother J.W. Milam were armed when they went to Till's great-uncle's house and abducted the boy. They took him away and beat and mutilated him before shooting him in the head and sinking his body in the Tallahatchie River. Three days later, Till's body was discovered and retrieved from the river. Till's body was returned to Chicago where his mother insisted on a public funeral service with an open casket. "The open-coffin funeral held by Mamie Till Bradley exposed the world to more than her son Emmett Till's bloated, mutilated body. Her decision focused attention not only on U.S. racism and the barbarism of lynching but also on the limitations and vulnerabilities of American democracy"

It is interesting how the Bible’s message so magnificently connects to modern issues. How is that possible? Because sin is common to mankind throughout every generation. There is nothing new under the sun! Things just take a different shape from one decade to the next.

We have racial issues, prejudice and hatred now. We sometimes act as though it is a new phenomenon. They have always been with mankind. But, our issues pale in comparison to that found between the jews and gentiles of Paul’s day.

Jews looked upon the gentiles with contempt (the feeling that a person or a thing is beneath consideration, worthless, or deserving scorn.) They did so because they thought of the Gentiles as pagans or heathen.

So intense was the Jewish contempt for the Gentile that it was not even lawful for a Jew to assist a Gentile woman in her hour of childbirth. The marriage of a Jew to a Gentile was looked upon as the equivalent of death, and the death rites of the Jewish boy or girl entering such a union were immediately carried out. Even to enter a Gentile house made a Jew ceremonially unclean. Vaughan, C. (2002). Ephesians (p. 58). Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press.

The uncircumcised nature of the gentiles was the mark of their paganism…it was a symbol of their irreligious nature.

The Jews on the other hand proudly referred to themselves as the circumcision. . They might have been marked in their body as religious but in their heart they were far from God.

The Jews had a circumcision made in the flesh by hands…what they needed was a circumcision of the heart…faith in the work of Jesus on the cross so they might be dead to sin and alive in Christ.

But the Gentiles were in a bad spot before Christ…At one time...

Without Christ — They had no connection to the Messiah. They had no expectation of a Savior and didn’t even know the existence of one to come.

Excluded from the citizenship of Israel — They were not a part of the people of God at all. They were outside of the circle of those who worshipped Him.

Foreigners to the covenants of promise — The reference is to the covenants (agreements) pertaining to the promise of the Messiah. The plural is used to indicate that the one covenant, originally made with Abraham, was often renewed with, and reaffirmed for, his descendants (cf. Rom. 9:4). The word for “strangers” carries the idea of being foreign to a thing, having no share in it. Vaughan, C. (2002). Ephesians (p. 59). Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press.

Had no hope — They had no desire or expectation of anything beyond the grave. Their world was full of despair and melancholy.

Without God in the world — They had gods…they had plenty of idols but they had no knowledge of or saving relationship with the one true God.

But Now...

Now things are different. This change has taken place on account of the blood of Christ. Jew and Gentile alike have been brought together to God through the blood of Jesus Christ. And because of this unity in Christ, the two groups, Gentile and Jew, have been brought together as well.

It is fascinating how hard men and women work for unity on this earth apart from Christ. Most of the things proposed are actually good. The government integrates the military, schools and public businesses. Red lining, Jim Crow laws and the like are struck down. Affirmative action, and end to racial profiling and equal housing acts are passed. We could go on and on…

But at the end of the day we must ask the question, “Have these laws genuinely brought unity to our nation?” Do the various races love, respect and consider one another equal because of the laws passed by our government? Obviously the answer is no…so why?

Laws may encourage a man or woman from acting upon their wicked desires but they will never do anything about the desires themselves.

But a heart brought to the cross, covered by the blood and changed in Christ…now this is a different story. This is what happened to the Jews and Gentiles who came to faith in Christ during the first century. The change wasn’t cosmetic but real. The love, unity and brotherhood was genuine. Jew and Gentile experienced true reconciliation in Christ.

Together, Jew and Gentile now have peace with God and that peace with God necessarily leads to peace between men who know Christ. The two were made one. There was and is a genuine oneness among Jewish and Gentile Christians.

In effect, the Gentile and Jewish races became one race…the heavenly race! God has removed the wall of separation…all that was a source of hostility between us is broken down.

Jesus literally put all hostility to death when He died on the cross.

Jesus made between between us and God…AND…peace between each of us one to another.

We are now a part of the Israel of God, the family of faith and a part of the house of God.

Conclusion

Look at our world. Look at our nation. Look at what divides us as a people. Economics, religion, world view, race, preferences…we could go on and on. Ten million years from now how much will any of that matter to any one of us?

All of mankind is going to end up in one of two places: heaven or hell. Everyone in heaven will be united in the family of God. Everyone in hell will be united in their separation from Him.

Unity is really only found in Christ or in sin. All of mankind is unified by one of these two powers at work in humanity. All of mankind is divided into the spiritually dead and the spiritually alive.

So who on this earth holds the keys to the unity everyone says they seek? The church of Jesus Christ. We are the ones with the words of life. We are the ones with the Holy Spirit. We are the ones with the commission to tell others the words of life by the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us.

But what do we do?

Everything begins with prayer. What did Jesus tell the early church to do after He ascended? Go into Jerusalem and pray. We see them praying when Pentecost happened. Why pray? Because it was futile for them to attempt to share the message of Jesus without the power of the Holy Spirit upon them to do so.

Why did Jesus go out early in the morning and pray? Because His mission was to do the will of the Father and He needed time with the Father to know what that looked like.

We are God’s workmanship, filled with the Holy Spirit but do we need any less time with God, any less enduement with power, any less direction from on high that the early disciples and Jesus???

So why don’t we pray? Why is the smallest meetings in the church always the prayer meetings? Why do we struggle to spend even one hour with Christ a day? I’ll tell you why…because the devil, demons and spiritual forces of darkness work harder to keep you from prayer than anything else you might do! They know the power of prayer and will do anything to keep you and I from it.

Look at what God did through the early church and disciples when they prayed! The world was turned completely upside down. Paul started churches all over the world, led thousands to faith in Christ…what was the keynote of every epistle he wrote…His prayers.

No man is bigger than his prayer life. No one can do anything apart from God…and our country is being torn apart by spiritual forces of darkness because the church has stopped praying, working in the power of the Spirit and offering the lost the words of life.

Daniel Nash (1775-1831) served as Charles Finney’s personnel intercessor. He was key to the revival that followed Finney’s ministry. We can all look at the life of Daniel Nash and see an example of how important prayer is to see the kingdom of God revealed. From “Daniel Nash: Prevailing Prince of Prayer” When God would direct where a meeting was to be held, Father Nash would slip quietly into town and seek to get two or three people to enter into a covenant of prayer with him. Sometimes he had with him a man of similar prayer ministry, Abel Clary. Together they would begin to pray fervently for God to move in the community.

One record of such is told by Leonard Ravenhill: “I met an old lady who told me a story about Charles Finney that has challenged me over the years. Finney went to Bolton to minister, but before he began, two men knocked on the door of her humble cottage, wanting lodging. The poor woman looked amazed, for she had no extra accommodations. Finally, for about twenty-five cents a week, the two men, none other than Fathers Nash and Clary, rented a dark and damp cellar for the period of the Finney meetings (at least two weeks), and there in that self-chosen cell, those prayer partners battled the forces of darkness.”

Another record tells: “On one occasion when I got to town to start a revival a lady contacted me who ran a boarding house. She said, ‘Brother Finney, do you know a Father Nash? He and two other men have been at my boarding house for the last three days, but they haven’t eaten a bite of food. I opened the door and peeped in at them because I could hear them groaning, and I saw them down on their faces. They have been this way for three days, lying prostrate on the floor and groaning. I thought something awful must have happened to them. I was afraid to go in and I didn’t know what to do. Would you please come see about them?’ “‘No, it isn’t necessary,’ Finney replied. ‘They just have a spirit of travail in prayer.'”

So Then...

Will YOU personally commit to pray?

Will WE corporately commit to pray?

When people would walk through the Metropolitan Tabernacle (as New Park Street Church became known), Spurgeon would take them to a basement prayer room where people were always on their knees interceding for the church. Then the pastor would declare, “Here is the powerhouse of this church. ”

Will WE lead our community of believers in Christ to pray?

Hell fears the prayers of the people of God. Satan fears the prayers of the saints. The world changes when the people of God pray. Singing, preaching, door knocking, benevolence ministries…all good but nothing moves heaven and earth nor rocks the foundations of hell like the faith filled prayers of God’s people.

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