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You're listening to audio from Faith Church Indy.  This fall we're studying the book of Ephesians,  learning about the new life that we find in Christ.  Now here's the teaching. just heard the reading of God's Word. closed your Bible since that's over, but that you'll open it again or keep it open, page 1160 if you've lost your place already. We're going to work through this text from back to front as we see the Church of Jesus Christ pictured in verse 21 as a holy temple in the Lord. It's speaking of the church  as a community of believers in Jesus Christ pictured  in,  as it says in verse 22, in Him,  Jesus, you are also being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. A holy temple  is a dwelling place for God.  Backing up into verse 20, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,  Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone. Verse 21, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. A beautiful towering structure  used as an analogy for the church. Have you noticed what's going on in downtown Indianapolis lately, in the last year? The skyline is changing. On Georgia Street, between the Convention Center and Gainbridge Field House, the Cygniya by Hilton Hotel is going up 38 stories, topping out at 441 feet. It will be the fourth tallest building in Indianapolis. oh behind Salesforce tower 701 feet, one America tower 533 feet, Regents tower 504 feet. Big enough to change the skyline. Big, impressive. It takes an incredibly deep foundation, precise engineering. Each piece of building material has its place, steel, concrete, glass, all kinds of stuff I know nothing about.  carefully put together  massive machines,  skilled workers,  but...  Have you been down there? It's a mess. They've torn up beautiful Georgia Street. You know, we had it fixed so nicely when we were hosting the Super Bowl and a wonderful place to be. Now it's all messed up. They've dug this big hole in the ground. There are piles of material all over the place. It's noisy. It's dirty. It takes a uh long, long time. When will this thing finally be finished? Delays are normal, we know that, but it's so hard to see progress day to day. But it keeps going up. And it will be finished, we trust, maybe in about a year from now. So it is with the Church of Jesus Christ. It's even messier. It takes longer,  2,000 years so far. It seems to have many setbacks. Yet the promise  of Jesus  to Peter  passed on to us is still true.  I will build my church and the gates of Hades,  not gates of hell, it's gates of Hades, which I understand to mean the powers of death, shall not prevail against it. It's going to happen. It is happening. So that's where our text takes us, a glorious future of a completed church or temple, not a literal building, but the united people and family of God. It's about what it means to be  one people  united in Christ from every tribe and language and people and nation.  That's the way it's described in the book of Revelation. transformed into one church, the body and bride of Christ. But how do we get there? Thus far in Ephesians, we've been introduced to the riches of God's grace, primarily focusing on individual salvation and the blessings that come to us because of our relationship with Christ, what it means to be in Christ. Blessed be, chapter one, verse three, if you want to glance back to it, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us  with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. That introduces then a long list. of which is included, chosen to be holy, predestined for adoption, redeemed, forgiven, sealed with the Spirit, a glorious inheritance. That's the way Paul Starks' letter reminding us that we who are in Christ  are the richest people in the world by far. But then chapter two  backs up into what they were before and what we were before we were in Christ. Verse one, you were, and he doesn't soften it at all. He says you were dead. You were dead in your sins.  Verse three, were by nature children of wrath, hell deserving and hell bound. So how did we transition from being completely helpless, hellbound sinners into the riches of God's glorious inheritance as sons and daughters of God? Chapter 2, 4 to 6 explains, but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions, sins, trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you've been Saved. Verse seven speaks of the immeasurable riches of His grace. Verses eight and nine, I memorized 58 years ago when I as a 16 year old in 1967 went to the  Billy Graham Christian Life and Witness Crest trying to learn how to share my faith. And I memorized this, for by grace you've been saved through faith and that's not of yourselves, it's not your doing,  it's the gift of God, not  of works, lest anyone should brag about it. My friends, there's more grace per square inch in the letter to the Ephesians than any other of Paul's writings or any other book of the Bible. Being transformed by God's grace,  verses nine and 10 then explains that while salvation does not come by good works,  yet the saving grace of God in Christ Jesus is for good works.  It produces good works in the world  and much of Ephesians is the application of what those good works will look like in daily life. That's to come growing in Christ, worship, personal morality, attitudes, relationships, including marriage, children, work relationships. It goes on and on, it gets very personal and then closes with addressing the issue of spiritual warfare. But now, having established the basis for individual salvation in the middle of chapter two, there's a shift in focus. The gospel is not just about getting individuals right with God. It's about bringing people from every part of the world every language and culture every people group every heritage  even  crossing the divide between Jews and Gentiles  to bring  all people groups into  One family called the church the body of Christ a holy temple in the Lord a dwelling place for God by the Spirit now Western Christians We have a hard time with this. We're so individualistic and it's getting more so it seems like.  We  like to focus on  salvation in  individual terms, what God has done for me. And God has done a lot for me and a lot for you. That's already spelled out in the first chapter and a half. But God's saving grace is much broader, not less than the individual, but more than the individual.  to the church, it includes God's work to unite all things in him, chapter one, verse 10, and to create in himself  one new man  in place  of the two. Jews and Gentiles  in the same church? Wouldn't it be better if we just kind of stayed apart from each other? No. Yes, we're in the same church. the gathering of God's people from all over the world into one body. But it starts,  all these barriers, it starts  by breaking down the wall between Jew and Gentile and a whole lot of other man-made barriers,  ungodly barriers  to fellowship and community so that we become  one people united in Christ. Why is this so hard? We just naturally put up barriers between us based on Jews, Gentiles.  In fact, this was emphasized in church planning over the last 50 years, what they called the homogeneous unit principle. It's better to try this church with,  or start a church with people of the same age and same economic category and same background. They'll  come together a lot better that way. That may be true in terms of planning, but it's wicked in terms of seeing the church as we just get the right kind of people that are like us in order to start a church. Jew Gentile, black, white, brown, rich, poor, educated, uneducated, male, female, young, old, Republican, Democrat, traditional, contemporary, classical, pop, rap, country, jazz, the list goes on and on and on.  Anything we can find  to make us  better than the other  and thus unable to have fellowship with each other. So here's where we're going today. We'll look at the problem of Jew-Gentile exclusiveness, then the solution. These two will really just kind of blend together as that's the way they come through in the text. And then finally, we'll look at some implications of it all. So the problem is spelled out beginning in verses 11 and 12. It's a common theme in the New Testament. The first challenge was to get Peter on board and the other apostles to get over their Gentile aversion. What aversion do you have that you need to get past and leave behind? Now if they were paying attention, they would have known  that the entire Old Testament  is not about Jewish exclusiveness, but that the promises to Abraham and Israel are to be a blessing to all people. Just reading Isaiah recently, uh always a rich experience, where God says in Isaiah 49, 6, it's too small a thing, too small a thing to restore  the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I've kept. Yeah, he's going to do that, but that's too small. God says, have a bigger vision than that.  I will also make you  Israel a light for the Gentiles  that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. Don't diminish the role of Israel. Salvation is of the Jews, Paul says. It comes through.  The promise is given to Abraham. and continuing throughout the Old Testament, but it set a light for the Gentiles that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. God says over and over again in the Old Testament that Gentiles are to be included, that he had Gentiles in mind and all peoples when he called Abraham. Peter, the other apostles, they were a little slow, but they got the message. Eventually Paul, the most exclusive of  all, got the message. and became the apostle to the Gentiles. He was transformed when he got this, preaching the gospel, starting churches all over the Roman Empire. But the Gentile Jewish problem continued to fester and had to be addressed. So Paul now  speaks, writes to Gentiles in Ephesus. Jews and Gentiles are together, but he's really speaking to Gentiles now  to remind them of God's grace, not only in saving them too as individuals,  but including them  in the one  family of God. You see, it wasn't just Jews who had exclusive attitudes. exclusionary attitudes and looked down on Gentiles, Gentiles did the same thing. We're pretty equal when it comes to sin.  Gentiles have been conditioned to look down on Jews  and accuse them of being atheists  because they rejected the Roman Greek pantheon of gods. So here's the problem. Verse 11, therefore remember,  that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision. By the way, they're calling each other names here. They're casting slurs on each other by the language they use. Remember verse 12 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. It's just kind of a... Another way of describing what he says in verse one, you were dead in your trespasses and sins. Then for the solution, Paul uses the same contrasting before and after language, verses one and four, you were dead but now made alive. Verse 11, therefore remember that at one time, verse 12, remember that at that time you were verse 13, but now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by. the blood of Christ. And this is not just individual salvation. It is inclusion  in the family of God, Jew and Gentile,  one people united in Christ. Now that's revolutionary for these people. What about us? And the lines we draw, the barriers  we build. You see, there was what Paul describes in verse 14, the dividing wall of hostility between Jews and Gentiles, and that's figurative language, but it refers to a literal reality. a literal application  in Jerusalem in the temple in which there were various uh circles of restriction. The holiest place comes right out of the Old Testament was of course the most restricted. Only the high priest could go into the  holiest place at that one time of year on the day of atonement. And then there was the court of the priest that only male uh males from the tribe of Levi, the Levites.  Only they could serve as priests  and enter. There was the court of Israel where any male Jew could go. There was the court of women, which was as far as any female Jew could go.  And all of these areas were essentially on the same level, but you're getting further and further and further from the center.  But further out and further steps  below  was the court of the Gentiles  and it was literally  a barrier, a dividing  wall. We've got to keep the Gentiles  out.  In 1871, an inscription was unearthed that said this,  no foreigner may enter within the barricade which surrounds the sanctuary and enclosure. Anyone who's caught doing so will have himself to blame for his ensuing death. When Paul was arrested in Jerusalem, this was the accusation. Remember that Acts series? You realize the last one fourth of the Acts series is rooted to this very issue. The problems that Paul had that led to chapters 21 through 28 of the book of Acts is instigated by this accusation that Paul took a Gentile across the barrier into the temple. He was arrested, endured several hearings on those charges, efforts were made to ambush and kill him in his travels, an appeal to Rome, a sea voyage to Rome, a storm, a shipwreck, finally a rival in Rome. all this because Paul was accused of taking a Greek, Trofimus,  from Ephesus,  where he's writing this letter now, taking  him into  the temple area, crossing the barrier, violating the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile. But now Paul is saying straightforwardly, this wall of separation. By the way, Paul didn't do that. He was very respectful of Jewish guidelines. He's now saying that this wall of separation is no longer valid. Verses 13 and 14, but now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ for he himself is our peace who has made us one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. It is broken down by the gospel, by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, even illustrated. as Christ died by the  tearing of the  veil that covered the area of the holiest place, as access was opened into the presence of God through Christ and into the one family of God in Christ. No longer the distinction between Jew and Gentile. Verse 14, for he himself is our peace, who has made us both  one. One people. United in Christ. What makes us  one people united in Christ is not your parents, not your nationality, not your education, not your age, not your sex,  not your skin tone, not your status in society, not your wealth, not your party affiliation. The list goes on and on and we have to continually address what are the barriers  of separation.  and exclusion that we're clinging to today. Paul put it this way to the Galatians, in Christ Jesus, that's always the condition, in Christ Jesus, you were all children of God through faith. There's neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you were all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3, 27 and 29, a passage often abused for other purposes, but here's the point. that he's making right here in Ephesians, that he emphasizes in Galatians. Jesus is always the condition of inclusion if you receive Him or exclusion if you reject His saving grace. Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. What then are the implications of this  breaking down of the dividing wall of hostility, the uniting of Jews and Gentiles into the one family of God? The  blessings and benefits  Flow together here  I've pulled out three specifics you can probably find several more by narrowing it down into  points sub points Etc but  I'll just mention three categories a new community first a new community or a new humanity See how verse 14 flows into verse 15 for he himself is our peace  Who has made us both into 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 on himself one new man in place of the two, thus making peace." It's a lot here, but the result of this  is  one  new man, or as the NIV says, I like it little better, a new humanity.  One of the big issues that came to a head in Acts 15, and  again as Paul addressed it to the Galatians, is does a Gentile have to convert to  Judaism  on the way to becoming a Christian? The answer is clearly no. God was making a new community that verse 15 says involved not Gentiles becoming Jews,  but shockingly  abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances. Now be careful with this. The law  is abolished in that it is fulfilled in Jesus and no longer separates Jews and Gentiles. But that doesn't mean the moral law no longer applies. The Ten Commandments  still apply and should be memorized by everyone. Your kids and grandkids downstairs in catechism class, they're memorizing among other things the Ten Commandments. and you ought to ask him to  tell you what they are. Then maybe you can memorize them too. If you haven't memorized them, it's time to memorize them. If you've forgotten them, it's time to memorize them. The application of the Ten Commandments is still vital. But the rituals, the sacrifices, the festivals of the Old Testament  are no longer applicable and certainly no longer binding because they've been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Read the book of Hebrews. where it unpacks that in detail. As in Galatians 3 29, there's neither June or Gentile for you're all one in Christ Jesus. So in terms of family membership, the only thing that matters  is are you in Christ Jesus or not in Christ Jesus. Number two, we have our citizenship in the one family of God. The problem for Gentiles included as it says in verse 12 alienated. from the Commonwealth of Israel or as the NIV has it excluded  from citizenship in Israel. There is a new citizenship that has  zero to do with your current national citizenship or heritage. Verse 19, so then  you are no longer strangers and aliens,  but you are fellow citizens with the saints. and members of the household of God, or as Paul wrote to the Philippians, but our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing to do with national origin. The only condition is being  in Christ. And to make this clear, there's not two people of God,  Israel and the church.  I don't know all that God has for national Israel. It's an amazing phenomenon what's happened  as the Jews have been scattered and abused and tried to be annihilated on so many times and then yet survived as God brought them back to the land.  So the whole complexity is there, they're still being worked out. I don't know all that God has for national Israel. I believe many will come to Christ as time draws close.  But they, along with everyone else, regardless of nationality, have the invitation to come to Christ in faith. And then along with everyone else,   Um, They can come and be a part of the family of God, but there's only ultimately one family of God, only one people of God, those who are in Christ. And that brings us back to where we started in the temple analogy as thirdly, united in the church, the temple of God, verses 20 and 21, built on the foundation of the apostles  and prophets. Apostles  were those primarily the first disciples of Jesus who came to be apostles and Paul was added to that. They were  witnesses  of the resurrected Christ. Paul in an unusual way, but they were witnesses of the resurrected Christ. There's a thing now very popular across the country, large churches of buying into this,  the new apostolic Reformation in which they are now identifying their leaders as apostles.  And therefore they can bring  new light that we don't have access to by reading our Bibles. They can bring new light into what God has for us. Don't buy that. That is false.  And as you get to know some of those apostles and see what they're saying, read what they're writing, you realize  that they are departing from Scripture. on so many points. Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together  grows into a holy temple of the Lord.  In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. When I was  very small, I'm guessing four five years old, it's a  long time ago, I remember in  our little  central Baptist church out in the country by Santa Fe Lake in Kansas, the choir in this very small little church, I don't know if it held 80 to 100 people total, if it was packed full. But they had a choir, maybe,  I don't know, maybe five, 10 people. I don't know how many were in the choir. But when I was very small, they got away from this, but when I was very small, they would start the service with the choir singing, the Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence.  Let all the earth keep silence before him. Keep silence. Keep silence before Him. Those words come out of Habakkuk 2 verse 20. And they bring to my mind at least a heavenly scene of God on the throne surrounded by angels more than a little scary. I picture Isaiah's experience in Isaiah 6 where he is terrified at what he sees as he realizes the holiness of God and His sinfulness. Woe is me, I've seen the Lord. But Paul gives a different image here. The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord is in his holy temple. And the holy temple, my friends, is the church.  Yes, the Holy Spirit indwells each believer individually so that our bodies, each one of us is believers, is called a temple of the Holy Spirit in which God dwells. But here... It is not that individual piece. It's all of us together who were indwelt by the Holy Spirit in the temple of God, which is his church, the body of Christ, a holy  temple to the Lord  in him.  You, and it's you plural, not just you as an individual in him, you plural  are also being built together into a dwelling place of God. by the Spirit. Next time you're downtown, ah some of you are there every day,  next time you're down, if you haven't been for a while, I've not been in six months since the Gospel Coalition Conference when I saw that mess on Georgia Street  and then this towering structure going up. I want to see it again, the insignia by Hilton.  Impressive,  mind-blowing in the size. There are taller ones in Indy and a lot taller ones in Chicago and New York, but those are very short even compared to Dubai. A half mile, more than a half mile tall. But even as impressive as that is,  even the Dubai Tower does not begin to compare with what God is building,  the Church of Jesus Christ,  one people, united in Christ. from all the peoples of the world, the temple of God.  O God, for your plan from eternity past. working through promises you gave to Israel, fulfilled in the incarnation,  life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, looking again to His coming. You're building your church.  You're building this temple. You're allowing us to be a part of it. Thank you, O God. May we rejoice in it as we are partners  in seeing it built for your kingdom, for your glory. We pray in Christ's name.  Amen. Thank you for engaging with our community by checking out this podcast.  If you would like more information about our church and ministry, you can find us at faithchurchindie.com.