06-Ephesians: “But Now: Two Words That Bring Us Home.” | Ephesians 2:11-13

Well, last week we ended with two of the most explosive words that you're going to find in this letter. But God, we saw that we were dead, that we were in lock step with the enemy, where we're children of wrath by our very nature, and then mercy stepped in, love stepped in, grace stepped in, and Jesus made us alive. He raised us up. He seated us by his side, not by works, but by grace through faith. We became his workmanship, created for good works that he prepared beforehand.

And that is where chapter 2 opens. Very vertical between us and with God, the dead made alive. But Paul is not finished as we continue into chapter 2 because the gospel is never just about the vertical. What God does in the individual, he does in the body. And so Paul pivots.

He turns from what we were before him to what we were to each other. He turns from the grave, turns us from the grave that we came out of to the family that we have been brought into. And he does it with a single word, remember. This morning, Paul wants us to look back, not to wallow, but to worship, not to revisit our shame, but to magnify the blood that has brought us near. And so we jump into Ephesians chapter 2 starting in verse 11 where we read, "Therefore remember that you once Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, made in the flesh by hands." So I like to remind us that this word therefore I like to remind us what this word therefore is therefore.

Yeah. We remember that therefore points us to the implication of what had just been said. Everything that had been said up to this point, this is the reason why that was here. And so I'm going to remind us this. We're going to jump back into uh chapter 2 verse4 and we're going to read forward.

But God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in trespasses made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved through faith. and raised us up together and made us sick together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So what are we supposed to gather from this? We need to remember. But here this our our understanding from the English doesn't quite do the job that is needed in this moment. This is not a one-time remembering.

This is Paul saying, "Keep remembering this truth." Never forget. Every single day of every single moment, keep on remembering. But never forget what? Well, in light of everything that we've just said, we were once dead. But because of God's great mercy, we've been made alive through through faith in Christ.

Not because of anything that we have done, but solely because of what he has done. We need to continue remembering that we were once Gentiles in the flesh. Now, I admit there could be some biological Jews in the room, but by and large, most of us are going to be Gentiles, that is non-Jews that are in this place. And we were told that we were Gentiles in the flesh. And because of our flesh, previously where we're were not part of God's chosen people.

Now, right off the bat, some of you are like, "What does that even mean? What do you mean we weren't part of God's chosen people?" And that's a huge part of what we need to understand today. Because our faith and belief in Christ has fundamentally changed our relationship with God. Right? Previously, we were not descended from the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Right? Jews. Jews very much tie themselves back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, right? They don't have they didn't have the family trees like we necessarily do. They certainly don't have, hey, send it into ancestry.com and then find out everything about your your forefathers, but they kept meticulous record of where they came from.

So, for example, if we look at Matthew chapter 1, I don't expect you to read this whole thing, but this gives you an idea of where Jesus came from. Like this massive list of people all the way back to Abraham. Jesus could tie his physical personage right through his human parents all the way back to the person of Abraham. If you look in Luke chapter 3, the same thing is largely believed. This is Mary's gene genealogy going all the way back again to Abraham.

Jesus had this connection through his lineage all the way back to Abraham. And that all started with this covenant that God had made with Abraham, right? And if you don't know who Abraham is, you might know this. Father Abraham had many sons, right? And we all want to do a right arm and start doing the thing.

Maybe someday we'll do that. I know somebody's going to ask me, Kesha is probably going to ask me at some point, hey, can we actually do the emotions? Not today. But we need to understand that at one point God chose this man named Abraham and said, "I'm going to do an amazing thing through you." If we go back to Genesis 17, right? This is the first book in the Bible.

And we read this specifically, God speaking this to Abraham. And people are like, why Abraham? Because, right, sometimes the answer is because because God said he had to choose someone. He chose Abraham. And this is what he says.

I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make nations of you and kings shall come from you. Now, just to put this in perspective, this guy is old. He's like 80 years old, 75, 80 years old when he's receiving this promise. And to this point has not had children. And God is saying, "I'm going to make you through your wife Sarah.

I'm going to make you this great nation. Kings are going to come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you and their generations, for an everlasting covenant to be God to you, and your descendants after you. Also, I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession. I will be their God." And and God said to Abraham, "As for you, you shall keep my covenant and you and your descendants after you throughout the generations.

This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your descendants and after you that every male child among you shall be circumcised. Now, just so you know, this is going to become important as we continue on. We don't have to get into a lot of description here. Parents, if you want to explain this to your children later, you can explain that to them if they don't already know. But this is God's sign of this covenant to the Jewish people. and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin.

And it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. So we are Gentiles in the flesh. We're told once we were not children of God's promise because we're not children of Abraham. We don't come from Abraham's lineage. If we well if we don't we're not physically Jews.

We were not heirs of that same promise of what's being spoken of here in the flesh. This in the flesh is very purposeful. Paul is setting up a separation between flesh and faith. Now, what had Paul just said a couple verses ago? For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. So what we're being told is we were once called the uncircumcised. We were once called the uncircumcised by those who were called the circumcision. So we were called and Paul's talking about this with his audience who is a Greek audience. They're not part of the Jewish faith.

They don't hail from the line of Abraham. And saying like saying that the Jews were saying like, "Hey, you guys are uncircumcised." As though this was a problem, right? You're not shown a good no sign. Anybody here ever been told by someone, well, you're not a Christian because you don't whatever it is. You don't keep whatever list of rules they happen to do.

One of the things I'm just going to I'm going to be self-deprecating at this point because I'm sure some of you have probably asked this question before. Why does pastor not wear a suit? Well, why does the Bible not tell me I have to wear a suit? You see what I'm saying, right? A lot of the things that many of you have been told show you to not be a believer in Christ are things that are the words of man.

And the thing that we need to understand here, because this one's like even more dicey, because God does give this sign of circumcision as being a sign of the covenant. But notice nowhere in there does it say this is a sign that you're saved. You don't see that there. It's not there. And that's very purposeful.

And it's important for us to understand as we're moving forward because here would be the thing that at least the junior highers I work with would say to these circumcised people. So you're telling me all I got to do is go get circumcised and now I'll be a child of Abraham and I'll get all of the covenant promises. Are you seeing the flawed logic in that? That if all I have to do is go get circumcised and suddenly I get all of God's blessing and all of God's promises. I mean, sure, it's painful for a period of time, but how easy is that?

Well, what's being missed here is that this sign of the covenant is not a sign of salvation. That's not what it is. It's a sign of these covenants. But there's more to it than this. Because there's something about Abraham that the Jewish people like to forget.

And honestly, we so often forget as well. Is there's this thing that actually leads to salvation that has nothing to do with outward works of the flesh. And it's this thing called faith. It's this thing called faith. You see, Abraham was circumcised after he believed.

And that's the thing that we so often forget. So this is chapter 17. We go all the way back to chapter 15. God is saying like, look, I'm going to do all of this stuff. It's like a prelude to to the promises of 17.

He's like saying, hey, I'm going to make your descendants as as as numerous as the stars in the sky. And God tells Abraham this. And the thing that's important for us to understand is what happens next. We are told that Abraham believed Abraham believed. He believed what God promised.

He believed what God said. And the implication of what comes next transforms everything because it says and he that is God counted that credited that belief to him as righteousness. You're like righteousness pastor. This is this big big word. What does that even mean?

He said look you believed in me. I am telling the world. I'm telling all of the rest of time here in the word of God, I am saying that belief is enough for me to say that you Abraham are right with me regardless of works. Again, going back to Ephesians 2:8-9, regardless of that, our belief, that faith that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, that belief that we have in God for his promises comes solely because we have believed in him. Amen.

We believed. We had faith in the Lord. Now, unfortunately, by the time of Jesus and his and through the ministry of Paul, the Jews had largely lost this plot. And you're like, "Well, how do you know that, Chris? How do you know that?" Because of a very two very simple words.

Crucify him. Because it would be easy for us to blame the religious leaders and say, "Hey, the religious leaders, they didn't get it. They totally lost what Father Abraham was saying. They totally lost Genesis 15:6." And yet the masses, the crowds crying out, "Crucify him!" The Messiah that they had waited for, they had long waited for to be the one to come to rescue them, they cried out, "Crucify him!" They did not believe in him. What they had turned to is what so many of us struggle with is that for us to be right with God.

We have to do all number of works. We can't possibly be right with God by just believing. That's too easy. Those of you that believe in God, is it easy? Some days, yes.

Some days, no. I'm just going to be honest with you. When things are really easy, it's easy. When things are often hard, well, it can be really hard. And you see this with the humanity that's represented in the word of God itself.

His very prophets questioning what's going on. Elijah is a perfect example of this. He's got this huge high high on Mount Carmel. Then next thing you know, he's super low low. I'm the only one.

Woe is me. All of this stuff. And how many of us have been there? And yet it's not about how we perform. It's not about our highs.

It's not about our lows. It's about him. And it's about the belief that we have in him. So rather than doubling down on the works of the flesh, what we need to do is we need to continue to focusing on the faith that is the true key. And I want to draw our attention to Romans chapter 4 because Paul's going to talk about this uh in more depth.

It says, "What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified," okay, real quick, that's one of those medium big words that we talk about. Justified has a super easy example. It just means declared, right? So if Abraham was declared right before God by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. What Paul is saying here, simple translation, he's like, look, you've got two paths that you can choose. You can choose to believe in God and understand he takes care of everything or you can choose to work for it.

You can, but you need to understand everything. Every single thing that you work is counted as debt. You're like, "Wait a second. Imagine if every time you tried to pay off your house or your credit card or your car payment or whatever it is, they just continue to add to the amount." You're like, "I'm sorry, that doesn't make sense, does it?" And that's exactly what Paul's talking about here. Because every work that we do is tainted by sin.

Isaiah says that everything that we do is but filthy rags. There's nothing that we of ourselves can offer to God that is worth him and is worthy of him. So if you're trying to work your way to God, it ain't happening because you're just piling more and more debt. Not of works. Again, now anyone should boast.

This is the thing that we need to understand. If Abraham could be justified by his works, he has something to boast about. But not rather we need to understand that righteousness, that is being right with God, comes through belief. It comes through faith. Now, you might be asking, why does this matter?

Didn't we already talk about this last week? And the simple answer is, well, we did. Yes. But Paul's not done in chapter 4 of Romans. And he's going to make an amazing observation about Abraham that directly speaks to the circumcision uncircumcision in uh situation.

This verse 5 Romans 4. But to him who does not work but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. So you may be thinking like, wait a second, that seems to be saying that like Abraham, that we can believe in him, which is code for Jesus, and that that belief can be accounted for righteousness in the same way that it was with Abraham. And if that's what you're thinking, I'd say yes. That's exactly what Paul is saying.

Paul also uses again that word justifies. Again, we are when we believe, we are declared right before God. This is the one who believes in Jesus is declared right with God because of their belief in Jesus. We are not declared right because of our works. Paul continues in Romans 4, just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes.

Okay, this is another one of those like medium big words that just means credited, right? God credited righteousness. God credited rightness with him apart from works. Paul continues with a citation from King David from Psalm 32 that reads, "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute," there's that word impute again, shall not credit sin.

Then Paul asks the next obvious question. Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only or upon the uncircumcised? So does it only come upon the Jew or upon the Gentile also, which is everyone else? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. Now notice that David didn't say, just to be clear, everyone, these blessings are only for those who have been circumcised.

David doesn't say that. He doesn't say that it's the blessings are only for those who have descended from Abraham. Now, what ends up coming next is an incredible observation by Paul. It it's a great testimony as to why we need to be reading our Bibles. You see, if righteousness came through works, in this case, through the work of being circumcised, you'd expect Abraham would have been circumcised when he was declared righteous.

A lot of you hear me often talk about making observations and reading scripture a lot so you start seeing the things that are obviously there because it's obviously there. Abraham believes in Genesis 15. It's credited to him. It's accounted to him as righteousness. He's not circumcised until two chapters later in Genesis 17.

That's not the circumcision that resulted in him being declared righteous. But also look at what Paul continues to reveal in Romans 4. How then was it accounted while he was circumcised or uncircumcised? Well, not while he was circumcised, but while uncircumcised. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they're uncircumcised. that the righteousness might be imputed, credited to them also.

And the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised. Now notice what Paul just said about the father Abraham. He was not circumcised. This would have been like an absolute coup for the Jews to realize. It would have been very humbling for them because they literally came after Jewish Christians would come after Gentile Christians and tell them, "You need to follow the totality of the Jewish law in order to be a real Christian." Some of you are like, "Wait, I've heard things like that.

You want to be a good Christian, you have to do all of these things. This is all the stuff. You want to be right with God, you got to do all of these things. This is what's required. We call it here at sunrise Jesus plus because what it does is it communicates Jesus isn't enough for salvation.

You need Jesus plus all of these other things. Anybody here understand what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? Try not to look anybody in particular. But I know a lot of you come from churches where that was the thing.

There was basically like a secondary rule book of things that you had to do in order to be saved. And if you didn't believe in Jesus and do all of these things, you you very well might not be saved. Paul is speaking against this. We continue on in in Romans 4:16. Therefore, it is of faith that it might be according to grace so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.

So whereas there was a group who claimed connection to Abraham through the flesh, there's another group who has connection to Abraham through faith. The faith of Abraham. Salvation does not again come through Jesus plus something else. Circumcision comes through that faith in the Lord Jesus. I I want us to read this uh from Romans 2.

Paul jumps in with the Romans really early on trying to help them understand. In case you don't know, the Romans were not Jews. This was another gentile group of people. These are people who who are come from pagan religions and so forth in the Roman Empire. And and Paul wants them to understand that the connection that they have to Abraham.

He says this in chapter 2. He says, "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor in nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly. And circumcision is not is that of the heart in the spirit, not of the letter, whose praise is not from men, but from God." Are you understanding what Paul is saying here? When we have faith and belief in our Lord and God, we are his people and we share in the covenants of his people. Family, this would be extraordinary in this day.

This is one of those things that would have freaked a bunch of people out. But this is what God is saying. Again, it's not of these works of the flesh that are making you mine. It is this belief that you have in me. And it's this circumcision of your heart.

And you might remember from a few weeks ago, the heart was the seat of the very person. Everything that we are, heart, soul, mind, strength, everything that we are, the circumcision that happens inside ourselves because of that belief. Now, as we transition into verse 12 in Ephesians 2, Paul reminds his audience of where they had come from. He says that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and the strangers of the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. That is that is before Christ was in your life, we're told that we were these aliens.

We were separated from God. We were separated from the commonwealth of Israel. Now, I'll be honest. When I first read Commonwealth, I was like, that sounds like old Englishy. And I actually found out we currently have four Commonwealths in the United States.

They're represented on this map right here. So the the whole idea of this of the Commonwealth, at least back in revolutionary times, is it it was saying like we're not beholden to any central government. This was the idea that was behind here. This is a little bit different than what Paul's group uh would have understood this. What they understood it was I'm a citizen of this thing.

In this case for the Ephesians, they were Roman citizens. For us, we would unel understand ourselves to be we are Americans. We are citizens of the United States of America. And we carry that with ourselves. It would communicate certain things to ourselves.

And for for Paul's uh audience in this Greco Roman world, this word politia, it was almost like their passport, if you will. uh if you didn't have it, you had no rights. You had no protection. You had no leverage. Especially if you were a Roman citizen, it carried special weight. We actually see this demonstrated in Acts 22 with the Apostle Paul where we read, "And they listened to him and tell this word, and then they raised up their voices and said, "Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he is not fit to live." This is Paul.

He's in Jerusalem. The crowds are turning against him. And they cried out. They tore off their clothes. They threw dust into the air.

The commander ordered him to be brought back to the barracks and said that he should be examined under scourging, which is a severe beating, so that he might know why they shouted so against him. You got to love that. Hey, let's beat him so we can find out why they were yelling at him because obviously it's his fault. And as they bound him with thongs, cables, guys, it's it's different. Paul said to the centurions, "Who stood by?

Is it lawful for you scourge a man who is a Roman citizen and unconddemned? And when the centurion heard that, he went and told the commander, saying, "Take care what you do, for this man is a Roman." Then the commander came and said to him, "Tell me, are you a Roman?" And he said, "Yes." And the commander answered, "With a large sum, I obtained this citizenship." And Paul said, "But I was born a citizen." Now, this part right here is incredibly important for us to understand. The Jews, they were born into Jews. Those of us who believe, we are ushered into the family. We are adopted into the family because of a large sum.

And it's not one that we paid. It's that large sum that Jesus paid on the cross. Amen. And then we're told immediately those who are about to examine him withdrew from him. And the commander was also afraid. he found out when he found out that he was a Roman and because he had bound him.

Right? So this this idea that Paul in that moment was able to claim his citizenship as a citizen of Rome and that afforded him certain uh certain benefits and for those of us who have been ushered into the kingdom of God that comes with a connection to the covenant promises. So whereas once we were strangers, aliens from God and his promises, we are now but now there's that but now in Christ Jesus. You who once were afraid far who were far off had been brought near by the blood of Christ. We are now in Christ.

We were once far off. We have now been brought near. And we have been had that happen not because of anything of ourselves but because of the blood of Christ which is the literal payment for our citizenship. Right? This is that thing just like with this commander.

We are here because of a very large sum that has been paid for us. Now you may be wondering at this point so what about the Jews? How do they fit into all of this? I mean, they crucified Jesus after all. They rejected their Messiah.

Do they just get to be part of the commonwealth because they were born into it as God's chosen people? Don't they have to confess and believe in Jesus? Or do they merely get to enter into God's eternity because of their bloodline? Is God's economy really split? I I don't know if you've ever thought about that, but I've had been asked that question a number of times.

Well, the answer to these questions to answer these questions, we we have to realize a profound and sobering truth. Just because you have the blueprints to a building doesn't mean the building exists and you're walking in it. You might be thinking, "What?" Right? If I walked up to each and every one of you and said, "Here's a a set of blueprints for a $5 million house. Go forth.

Be fruitful. Enjoy. Does that make the house exist? You see, the Jews were given the blueprint. They knew what to expect.

And yet they blew it. They had received all manner of promise and they blew it. They cried out again, "Crucify him." So historically, the Jewish people were given the covenants, the promises, and the law. The roots of our faith family is Jewish. The Gentiles, non-Jews, the overwhelming number of us by birth, once stood outside the house, not a citizen, not an heir to the covenants, but the gate was never bolted shut.

There was always room inside. There's an there's some examples of this. See, a lot of times people will say, well, the Old Testament was completely replaced by the New Testament. That's not true. They complement one another.

God's plan is exampled throughout the totality of the Bible. And this is what I mean. Many of you know the book of Ruth. Ruth was not a Jew. She was a Moabitis.

Rahab the Canaanite also came into God's family. Non bowed to the God of Israel. And then we also have examples of this group called the God-fearers. Gentiles who had been come in and accepted Judaism and began to believe in the one true God. The way in was always open.

It was always through the same way. And it was not by birth. It was not by lawkeeping. It was not by trying harder. And we already saw it expressed and explained all the way back in Genesis 15.

The salvation, our salvation, our opportunity to be present with our God has always been by God's grace through faith. It has always been that way all the way back in the beginning in the book of Genesis. So the eternal commonwealth has only ever had one door and that door is a person. That door is the Lord Jesus who himself said, "I am the door. If anyone enters me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture." Jesus also says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the father except through me." Jew and Gentile, the God-fearers of old, the believer of today, all enter through the door through the exact same blood. The cross did not invent the way. It accomplished it. And it did not make the covenants meaningless. It paid in full for everything those covenants ever promised.

So, as we close this morning, let's look back at the road we've walked this morning that we need to remember and we need to keep remembering. We once were far far off. We were Gentiles in the flesh, outside the covenants, no hope and without God in the world. We saw the religious crowd that trusted their bloodlines and their efforts and they missed the very Messiah that they were waiting for. But then we saw that father Abraham, he believed and it was counted to him as righteousness before he ever did anything before he ever made any work.

Faith never flesh. And then those two words, but now but now in Christ Jesus, we who are far off have been brought near by the blood. The blood is the price of our citizenship in God's eternity. And there has only ever been one door and that door is a person. That door is the Lord Jesus Christ.

So what should we do in response family? Well, maybe we remember daily who we are and what the blood has bought us. May we lay down whatever Jesus plus something else we have in our lives. And my guess is, and I'm going to try not to look at anybody in particular, that's probably more prevalent in this room than you might think. So, I would encourage each and every one of us this week to ask ourselves, Lord, am I am I thinking that you're not enough?

Literally frame it that way. Lord, am I thinking am I living as though you're not enough? And if that's the case, confess that to him and lay it down and confess that he is enough, that he is more than enough, that he will always be enough. But then also this week, point one person to the door because the way has never changed. No matter who that person is, all of us have someone in our life who need to know the name of Jesus.

Because a lot of those people you're going to run into are going to tell you the very same thing and say, "But I'm not good enough. I've not done good enough. I I I don't know that I can ever do good enough. And help them to understand that Jesus has already made us enough. Not because of anything we've done other than believing that he has and that he did.

We may have once been far off, but Christ, but in Christ, we are home. Now, let's go like we've been brought near. Would you join me in prayer? Father God, thank you again for this morning and thank you for the truth of this word. And Lord, sometimes it's hard for us to to hear these words and and just realize that it's true because we some sometimes we can be so self-aware about the mess ups that we still do, how how we can still dishonor you on a regular basis.

And Lord, that can take our eyes off of you. That can take our eyes off of what it is that you've done. But may we all remember today that you died for those that you accomplished those things. And and rather than beating ourselves up, Lord, may we confess to you, lay these things at your feet and walk this day in each successive day with you. Not apart from you, but with you.

Lord, you've not left let us alone, left us alone to do this on our own, but you've given us the opportunity to walk with you. You've given us your spirit, Lord, to walk with us. You tell us that we can walk in the spirit, Lord. We don't have to do it in our own strength because you make all those things possible. You You tell us that we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength.

And Lord, may each and every one of us live more that way this week and in the weeks to come. We pray in Jesus name.