Humanity 2.0
Notes
Transcript
# Humanity 2.0 (Ephesians 2:11-22)
> I don't know about you
>
> but one of the encouraging things that has come out of the Pandemic
>
> Has been the way people have worked together.
>
> I mean if you'd have told me 3 months ago that
>
> Apple and Google would be be developing software
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> TOGETHER!
>
> I'd have laughed you out of the room. And yet they are.
>
> And it is not just in technology...
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> Whether it lasts, who knows?
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> But it is enough to make you think lasting peace
>
> between people might be possible...
**PAUSE**
> But what if it were? What if peace wasn't just a pipedream?
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> What if people all different classes, races and nationalities
>
> really could live together in peace?
>
> Forgiving and being forgiven?
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> Isn't that something you'd want to be a part of?
In Eph 2:11-22 Paul tells us that this kind of peace is possible.
All we need to do is remember three things:
1. Remeber what we were (v11-12)
2. Remember what Jesus has done (v13-18)
3. Remember what we are now (v19-22)
{Repeat}
## Remember What we Were
**Illustration:** Forget the past - move on
- We don't like thinking about bad things in Past
- Paul tells us to remmeber the past.
- not actions, but state
Paul directs this entire section to gentiles.
A gentile is essential a non-jewish person,
which I imagine covers nearly everyone listening this morning.
Jews and non-Jews did not get on in Paul's day,
and we know from letters like Romans
that there were tensions between Jews and non-Jews in the church too.
But paul is deeply concerned that the conflict on both sides comes to an end.
And the first step on that road to peace
is for his non-Jewish readers to remmeber
the dire situation they were in
before Jesus arrived on the scene.
Paul lists problems they faced in v12, let's look at them briefly:
_First, we were seperate from, or without, Christ_
in other words, they were dead in our transgressions and sins
as we saw last week in Eph 2;1-10.
But, until like the Jews,
they were also not expecting God's rescuer, the messiah, either.
This brings us to _number two, they were not part of God's people._
It was to Israel that the promises about the messiah was given.
It was with Israel that God had partnered in an unbreakible promise called a covenant.
It was Israel to whom God revealed himself
through the Old Testament prophets.
If someone from the surrounding nations wanted in on the actions,
they had to become Jewish.
And that meant male circumcision, food laws, and purity codes.
_Finally,_ Paul says they were without hope and without God.
Paul's not saying that they were all hopelessly depressed atheists.
He is saying that
with no way of accessing saving knowledge of the one true God
his gentile readers had no solid and secure hope to stake their lives on.
They only had the certainty of God's justice in hell forever.
At this point you might be thinking,
"As fascinating as this is, Liam, what does it have to do with me?"
But don't you see?
This doesn't simply describe non-Jewish people in Paul's day
it describes us as well
It describes our situation days before we first believed the gospel.
IT describes every non-christian in our family,
friendship group, town, nation and world
Before we trusted in Jesus we were,
as one writer puts it,
> "Christless, stateless, friendless, hopeless, and godless...
>
> "alienated from God and the people of God."
Paul is not saying all this to make us feel bad.
No, he has a very practical purpose.
Remember what we were before we Jesus rescued us
helps keep us humble.
It reminds us of what we heard last week in Ephesians 2:8 that,
> It is by grace we have been saved, through faith - and this is not of ourselves, it is a gift from God - not by works, so that no one can boast.
Remembering what we were before we first trusted in Jesus keeps us humble
and prevents us from thinking there is anything special about ourselves
or our tribe that makes us more worthy of God's grace than anyone else.
But rather keeps us focused on what Jesus has done.
Dependant on what jesus has done
creates in us a desire to share what Jesus has done
with anyone who needs him.
## Remember What Jesus Has Done
This brings us neatly to the second thing we need to remember.
**Illustration:** The Berlin Wall
- _Key facts:_
- Built 13 August 1961
- 66 miles long
- 3.6 meters high
- represented the phsyical, policitcal and ideological division between East and West germany
- Wall collapsed in 9th Nov 1989, conflict was ened once and for all.
Before Jesus,
the relationship between Jews and non-Jews bewteen Jews and gentiles
Was like the relationship between East and West Germany.
marked conflict and division.
Let me expalin
Twice in v14-15 Paul refers to conflict between the two Jews and Gentiles,
Twice he talks about how Jews and non-jews now united in Christ.
And three times he talks about the peace that now exists between them.
Saying that Jesus 'our peace' (v14)
that Jesus is making between them (v15),
And finlaly that Jesus came preaching peace
to those who were far away (Gentiles)
and those who were near (Jews) (v16)
But this end to conflict not just between Jews and Gentiles
it applies to all people in the church.
Whether Jew or gentile, old or young, white, blank, liberal or conservative.
When people become part of the church,
Jesus puts an end to old conflicts, division, rivials and grudges
once and for all time.
Is that amazing? Isn't that extraordinary?
How on earth did Jesus manage to do something
that humans have failed to do thousands or years?
* * *
The simple answer is that Jesus did it through the cross.
But to full appraicte the beauty of it
we have to trace Paul's thoughts through v14-16.
Paul begins by explaining how Jesus
> "destoryed... the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulartions." (v14-15)
The commandments Paul is refering to is not the whole law
but the laws the governed how Jews we to act in relation to other nations.
The Laws that Jesus death ultimately set aside
are the laws around cirumcision, the food code,
and clean vs. unclean people and activities.
The laws that said you are not like us,
And unless you become like us,
you cannot have what we have!
With these things set aside, Paul's tell us
in second half of v15 that Jesus was then able
to make peace between the these two warring factions
by making the two one.
This is important,
Paul doesn't say that he make Jews into gentiles or vice versa, but
> "his purpose was to create in himself one new man (or mankind out of the two {groups}"
With the regulartions that divide them gone,
Jew and gentile ceased to exist in any meaningful
way as both were united under the title 'Christian'
Jesus creates this new humanity by
dealing with both groups sins in the same way
through his death on the cross.
And as a sign that true and lasting peace
really has been achieved bewteen then and God
Both recieve the same Holy Spirit
and through that Holy Spirit unriscted access to the same Father.
* * *
In Jesus, God is creating humanity 2.0,
a new human race free from racism, sexism, class-conflict,
age conlfict, nationalism, and political rivialry.
A new humanity free from gossip, lies, power struggles, injustice and hate.
A people who welcome all and offers all
the chance to hear about the transforming power of the gospel
without cultural hoop jumping.
A community not seeking to make others like them,
but a community inviting others to join them in becoming more like Jesus.
Man! Wouldn't you want to be part of community like that?
Sadly History shows us that Christian church has not always done this well.
BUt that is still the kind of community the Holy SPirit is to create.
It is the kind of community he wants to create here at Ashford Cong,
In the lives of orindary Christians like you and me.
It not just want we should be,
its what we can be.
## 3. Remember What we Are Now
Finally Paul tells us to remember what we are now!
**Illustration:** What does the bible say about the temple?
- Not just Solomon's temple
- Gen 1 = a story about a temple
- Jesus = a temple
- The new creation is a temple (Rev 21:5)
But what about in mean time?
Jesus has returned to heaven and the New Creation is yet to come...
Does that mean God no longer needs a temple?
Yes and no. Take a look at v19-22
and I'll explain what I mean.
Paul kicks off verse 19 will 'Consequently'
reminding
These things in v19-22 are only true _of us_
because in Jesus has done something _For us_ in v13-18
The first this paul says is that we are now
"Fellow citizen's with God's people"
and "members of God's household"
This is incredible stuff.
It is like Paul is saying,
> "look it is simple really, guys,
>
> "you were nobodies to God, but Jesus became a nobody too
>
> "So that through him you could become a someobody to God"
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> "More than somebodies citizen! Family!
Think about it like this.
> Paul is saying that no matter what is says on your passport
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> my true nationallity is 'Christian'
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> Because I am first of all a citizen of God's Kingdom
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> With Jesus as our king.
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> All though my family name might be 'Maguire'
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> My true family name is 'Christian'
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> becuase I've been adopted into God's great family
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> And Jesus is our big brother.
This is an amazing reversal of fortunes
But Paul's notice done there,
We're not only God's people and family,
we are also God's temple.
Did you catch that, this is really important.
God's temple is not a ruin in Jerusalem
or that brick building on Clarendon Road.
It is us, the people, Christians, you and me
we living bricks that Christ is bring together to
and building into a spiritual temple
A place where God is delighted to come and rest
and display his glory to the world
through the work of the Holy Spirit among us.
A spiritual temple in which v20 says is
> "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus is the chief cornerstone."
In the ancient world,
the cornerstone was not only the first major part of building to be laid,
it was also the most important,
it supported the walls and kept the whole thing level.
Remove the cornerstone and the whole building everntually comes crashing down.
So we might be God's people, God's family, and God's temple,
But not becuase of who we are or what we have done,
but as a result of What Jesus has done for us.
He is the cornerstone, the most important brick
He alone keeps his church united and together
in every increasing peace and unity.
Until this sipiritual building is complete when jesus
returns to make all things new.
But take Jesus out the picture
the temple collapses,
the people are divided,
and the family is broken up.
so anytime we are divided as a church,
or refuse to give up grudges or forgive us,
Anytime we look down on other christians becuase of their
background or grasp of english or parenting choices
it is a clear sign that either as churches or individuals we've taken our eyes of of Jesus,
WE've taken out the cornerstone and looking to insert something else in Jesus place.
Let's do better than that.
By the power of the Holy Spirit,
let's seek God to make us better than that.
## Conclusion
Eailer I asked you,
if true peace and harmony were possible would you want to be apart of it?
Well as we've seen in Eph 2:11-22 it is possible.
We were with out God and without hope,
alienated from God and the people of God,
But through Jesus death and resurrection God has destoryed
the the barriers that divide us,
so that through Jesus he might create a new and better people,
A new humanity who would be God's true people,
his true family, and his true temple!
A peopl who live at peace with one another
as the God of peace makes his home among them.
This is God's plan for Humanity 2.0
Are you up for that?
Becuase I am, and I hope you are too.
Let's pray.