Unified to God and Each Other

We're going to begin today, over the next few weeks, a series on the church. We're going to be looking at not only what is the church, but why did God give us the church. We're going to understand our roles within that church. We're going to be looking at the gifts that the Lord gives the people, the members in His body, and how we live as the church together and so on. So I really hope that it will be an encouraging look at why we are who we are as Christians and why we need this on an ongoing, regular basis.

The reason I want to do that is for the past few months, perhaps you could almost say a couple of years, our church, along with many other churches, have wrestled with the concept of the church. COVID has given a watershed moment for many churches that have led to people staying away from the church. Still today, we have people who haven't returned to our congregation who saw that as a moment that sort of unshackled them from this body, the church. This is such a common phenomenon in the Australian church that a conference I went to just before annual leave, Quintin and I went to in New South Wales, it was called Better Together. And the idea was to talk about the need of the church and why we have been given the church.

So as I was thinking about this, as I was planning a series on the church, hundreds of other churches said, we want to have a conference about this. Let's look at the church and hear what God has to say about it. And at this conference, I picked up a book by a guy called Carl Dienick called Gathered Together. Carl is one of our guys. He's a Christian Reformed pastor.

You may know John O'Deenick, the pastor of Redlands, who's preached here a few times. That's his brother. Carl is a brilliant guy. He's now a lecturer at SMBC, Sydney Missionary and Bible College, and he's written a book on the beauty of living as God's church.

And I encourage you to pick that up if you can. I'm sure it's at Coorong. I'm going to read with you just a part of his introduction on why he wrote a book on the church as a way for us to introduce this idea and this series together. He says that there have been a few warning signs about the health of the church for a long time, but for him, COVID-19 was the watershed moment where a lot of these things just came together and there was this big fracture that happened, and a revelation of our understanding, our lack of understanding about the church has really been revealed. This is what he writes.

Perhaps the biggest warning sign has been the declining number of Christians who go to church each week. I'm not talking about church attendance across the whole population, although that's a huge issue in itself. I'm talking about people who call themselves Christians and think of themselves as belonging to a church, but simply don't show up from week to week. For example, the numbers in Australia in a survey taken before COVID suggests that only 60 to 70 percent of church members attended on any given Sunday. As some have noted, whereas the regulars used to come twice a Sunday, now they come twice a month.

Other Christians seem stuck on a merry-go-round of looking for a church, staying at one church for a few years before moving on to another. Similarly, there are growing numbers of people who are post-church. They claim to be Christians, but they've abandoned commitment to any kind of regular gathering with other Christians, and I'm sure we know of people like that, post-church Christians. Now the reasons for this lack of commitment are many, and this series is not going to be able to deal with all of these reasons. But he mentions a few.

Dissatisfaction with what's being offered on Sundays, lack of relational connection and meaningful friendships, past hurts from other Christians or churches, busyness that squeezes out the time for church, embarrassment about Christianity's declining social status, and the fear of what friends and neighbours might think about the faith. For others, it's a disappointment over the church's lack of evangelistic or social impact. Dienick says, whatever the reason, there are major warning signs for the health of the church. So that is why we need a series on the church. It's a felt reality.

It's a strong decline. Even in a nation that has been seeing a steady decline, we've sort of come to a cliff edge, and church involvement and attendance has taken a nosedive. This morning, we're going to begin this series on the church by looking at the constitution of the church, what has caused the church to exist, to be this one unified body which we say we belong to, even in this local expression of the church. And to get a great understanding of that, we're going to turn to Ephesians 2:11-22.

Ephesians chapter 2, verses 11 to 22. The apostle Paul writes to the church in Ephesus, "Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands. Remember 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. 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 both 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 in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and He might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

And He came and preached peace to you who are far off and peace to those who are near. For through Him, we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 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 in the Lord. In Him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. This is the word of the Lord.

Three concepts for us to hear about this morning on the issue of the church and of us being unified together to God and to one another. The church is unified not only to God, but also to each other. Firstly, we see Paul identify that there is a new people with a new identity.

A new people with a new identity. We see Paul telling the Ephesians that they, who were formerly Gentiles and unbelievers, sat outside of God's plan of redemption. Paul says that the Gentiles were strangers to the covenants of the promise. What do the covenants of the promise refer to? God's promise of salvation. God's covenant of grace with Abraham: I'm going to form you and make you a nation that will be a blessing to the nations, that I will be your God, Abraham, and your people will be my people.

And Paul says here, shockingly to the Gentiles, that they were outside of that promise. Maybe they weren't too shocked by that because it seems that the Jews in the church had been telling them that all along. But verse 12 says that you had no hope and you were without God in the world as Gentiles. But now, verse 13, he says, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. In other words, what Christ has done through sacrifice on the cross, God has turned into a salvation that is universally accessible.

And Paul reminds the Ephesian church of this profound reality. And Paul brilliantly forms his argument in these verses, not as a pure, detached teaching on soteriology. This is not a theology of salvation. Paul is reminding the Ephesians of God's astounding grace to make a statement not on salvation, but on ecclesiology, on a theology of the church. And the point is this, and we read the words just before this.

Remember Ephesians 2:8. You have been saved by grace. That's how Paul has framed this passage. Paul is saying because of God's grace, you and I are a new people. We have a new identity.

When people talk about the church, we should think about us being a new nation. We are a new people created by faith in the gospel. And so when we read the verses of our passage in the context of those wonderful ten verses before it, we see that the church consists of a community who have been brought into an eternal promise that God has made to save a nation, and we are that nation. How we gain access through that, Paul says, amazingly, is simply believing in what Jesus has done, that Jesus has been the gatekeeper into that kingdom. And now Paul makes the point that we are a new people with a new identity, and he does this in order that we will disentangle ourselves from our former identities, from our former nations, from our former peoplehood.

Paul is making the case that we have switched allegiances. As a church, we are a community of unlikely companions, perhaps some of us former enemies. We are a new people with a new identity. And then he moves on to say the reason we can say we are a new people with a new identity is because we are a unique people sharing one life together.

In verses 14 to 18, Paul discusses the issue of how Jewish and Gentile people who have always been at odds with each other have now been commanded not only to coexist in some feel-good, lovey-dovey situation. It's a reality now to see each other as family. It's not simply putting up with one another or sort of grinning and bearing each other. You love each other as family. By having died on the cross, Paul argues, Jesus has abolished, He's broken down the barrier between the moralistic Jews on the one hand and the irreligious Gentiles.

You cannot think of two groups more diametrically opposed: the moralistic Jews and the irreligious Gentiles. And this was accomplished, verse 15, by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two. The two that's mentioned there is a reference again to the Jews and the Gentile designations. In other words, Jesus' death showed that obedience to the law of God wasn't a possibility for either group. The Jews, like Paul, were shocked to realise that Jesus needed to die for them.

The Jews were shocked to realise that Jesus had to save them because they couldn't keep the law well enough. And so a Jew, in the context of this Ephesian letter, had to be reminded that if they delineated themselves from the Gentiles by their focus on keeping the law, they needed to realise that Jesus had to die for them. At the same time, Paul says, Jesus had to die to save the Gentiles because they were even further from God, if that's a possibility. They didn't even know God's law in the first place. This is the equalising line.

Jesus had to die for both in order for either one to be saved. And because Jesus dies for both, there's an end to any friction between cultures that have been built on either moralism or amoralism. Verse 17: He, Jesus, came and preached peace to you who are far off and peace to those who are near. For through Him, we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. Now Paul is making it pretty clear: those who are far off are the Gentiles.

Those who were kind of closer, close but no cigar, the Jews. And Jesus had to preach peace to both. The Jews didn't have it and certainly not the Gentiles. So what Paul is saying is whether you are far from God's people or whether you are near to being God's people, Jesus had to preach a message that would give you individually peace with God.

But now that you have His peace, now that you have His peace, you must have peace with one another. In Christ, God debunks the myth that your cultural heritage really matters. That's what I think is one of the applications here. Whether you are a Jew or a Gentile, the cultural influences that you've had that have elevated you, that have made you think that you are moving closer to the ideal, whatever that ideal is, whether that is God or a philosophy or whatever moves you up the pecking order, whether you are a Jew or a Gentile, far or near, none of what you were really brought you access to God. It is only through Jesus that we have access through the one Spirit to the one Father.

The metaphor that Paul uses then is about this unity into one body, famously Christ's body. The church is a community consisting of people who have purposefully been brought together to share life together. And we not only share our lives together, we share in Christ's life together. And so we are not an aggregate of individuals. We are a single organism.

To the Ephesian church, where there was this social pecking order between Jews and Gentiles, where it was acutely felt, Paul is saying that any of those cultural nuances, rather than biblical imperatives, are useless in saving anyone. You may think of yourself as very close to God by maintaining certain standards that you believe all others should keep. But don't you realise those standards have never brought you any closer to God? What it means for us, what it looks like in reality in the church, is that any hostility in this church, whether that is hostility between charismatics and Presbyterians, extroverts and introverts, South Africans and Aussies, Christ's death has put an end to all the hang-ups. Why?

Well, you might think your hang-ups are godly. But in the end, you might realise that none of our hang-ups bring any of us closer to God. We all desperately need Christ and Christ alone. And we forget that when we start elevating the hang-ups. You are in no position of any moral authority.

You, like me, are beggars telling each other where to find bread. Only God is the one who gives us the bread of life. So Christians, please remember your hang-ups are at best a nice suggestion. So we treat them as nice suggestions. You can share them gently, patiently, but especially if they are not biblical imperatives, they are hang-ups or positive suggestions.

Paul will make the argument in First Corinthians 12 that if one person in the body suffers, all suffer. Can you think how foolish it is then to harbour resentment in the body? We only end up hurting ourselves in the body of Christ. Whatever hurts the hand, hurts the whole body. If I'm the other hand and I hurt this hand, I feel the pain.

If I shoot myself in the foot, I feel the pain. How can a body be hostile against itself and think that it is being healthy? If you think it's clever to destroy your brother, have fun destroying yourself. Whether near to God or far away, you and I need Christ's peace. And the gospel crushes our pride of any moralistic pecking order.

It makes us so humble that we will be willing to put up with differences. It makes us so humble that we are quick to forgive, to seek understanding earnestly, and to strive always towards unity. In Christ, the church is a people that shares a single life together. We are one organism, and there can be no hostility in a body that is healthy. And then Paul finally moves to talk about a kingdom, a family, and a temple.

Having explained that the church is a new people with a new identity and that we are, in us, a community connected intricately with one another, Paul then explodes into three different metaphors for the church, and they are very, very telling. In a few short sentences, we hear that we have become a kingdom, a family, and a temple. 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, 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 in the Lord. In that passage, we find three images of the church, and they give us three slightly different realities.

I don't want to dare say that they move from the larger, broader implication into the point here. We move from further away from God to closer to God in each of those three metaphors. Firstly, Christians have the assurance that we are no longer aliens or strangers to God. Paul says we are, in fact, citizens of His kingdom. You and I don't engage with God on a tourist visa.

There are no restrictions to the benefits we enjoy in having entered His kingdom. Many of us here are migrants. When we moved to Australia from overseas, we couldn't wait to become citizens of Australia, not so much that we felt deeply patriotic; we wanted access to Medicare. I was about to start uni.

I needed HEX to pay for my studies. Becoming a citizen of Australia meant I got free health care, a low interest rate loan for my studies. These are the wonderful privileges we could access by being Australian citizens. And the language of becoming a citizen here is of gaining the benefits of citizenship.

Paul says when you are a Christian, you have the rights and privileges of being God's people. No longer foreigners and aliens, you now have full access to the benefits of existing in God's kingdom. Once you were outcasts, once you were on tourist visas having no legal right to claim anything from God. You had no support. You had no protection. You had no right to claim any help from God.

But now our legal status before God has changed completely. So that even this morning, whether you feel close to God or not as a Christian, if you trust in Jesus Christ, your legal and objective reality states that you have full rights to the kingdom and all the benefits that it entails. You have the security of being protected by a good and righteous king. Secondly, we are given the metaphor of a family. While we have full access to the peace of God's eternal kingdom, we don't simply live on the outskirts of the city.

In Christ, we've moved into the palace of the king Himself. We've become members of God's household, Paul says. Safety and security of a kingdom is one thing, but in Christ, we have the warmth of love in being part of God's household. Now this is perhaps the differentiating line for the Jews and the Gentiles here that Paul is addressing because on the one hand, the Jews understood the kingdom idea very strongly. They believed they were in the kingdom.

They were part of God's kingship. But the truly shocking realisation that Jesus brought to the Jews is to think of God as family, to speak of God as a Father. For most first-century Jews, God was God. And while they could understand being people of His kingdom, to suggest that God is a Father, that sort of intimacy with God was unsettling. And Paul, taking Jesus at His word, argues that we have access to God like a child has with their Father.

And so while we're in the kingdom, even as Gentiles, we've come into the kingdom. We've gone beyond even the Jews in being able to claim God as our Father. He's not a distant and powerful king in whose shadow we live and whom we fear. God is a loving and hospitable Father who leans in to hear us mumble our even most basic prayers. It also means that those sitting around us, well, they are more than citizens in a distant kingdom. They are literally brothers and sisters.

Finally, Paul says that all of us in the church are joined together, not simply as a kingdom or a family, but as a temple of God. The church is the place where God lives today by His Spirit. The gathered people of God is where God lives. If you think being God's family is an intimate picture of God's closeness to us, how about the intimacy of God living in us? In Christ, not only have we got the security of God's kingdom, the love and acceptance of God's household, but now we have the holiness of God's purity in His presence.

Now the rich theology of the Old Testament temple is too deep for us to deal with adequately this morning. But in short, the temple of Israel was the physical representation of God's presence with Israel. For the Jews, God's physical presence in the temple situated in their political capital, Jerusalem, for the Jew, that comforted them because they knew that God knew what was happening to Israel. God was at the heart of their nation. God could see what was happening to them.

God had put His name on Israel, and in a sense, God's glory was tied up with Israel's story. And here, when the church is being called the temple of God, Paul is saying God's glory is tied with us. God's glory is tied with us. That's why the New Testament says that God's glory will be revealed in the church. God's glory will be revealed in the church.

Can you imagine what that means? God's glory is being shown by us. It means that we become vessels through which He displays His power. He is pleased to have His name, therefore, rest on His church. Again, this has all sorts of implications on the theme of unity that Paul is trying to bring about here.

It means that our love for one another, the unity that we show to one another, reflects in some way the glory of God. That is why Jesus will say they will know that you are mine by your love for one another. Or as John says in that first epistle, they will know that you've moved from death into life by how you love one another. It means that God's purposes for this world is being achieved by the church. No other institution, no World Bank, no superpower, not even the United Nations will achieve God's purpose for this world.

It will be His church. With Jesus as the cornerstone, Paul says, built on the teachings of the prophets and the apostles, we become the dwelling place of God. We are the location of God's presence and glory here on earth. And friends, if you truly believe that, if that has really sunk in, is there room for pettiness and pride? If we reflect the glory of God, will we besmirch it with hang-ups, division, a lack of love?

And so this morning, God tells us some of the amazing facets of the church. We are a new people with a new identity. We share one life together, the life of Jesus Christ who's come to preach peace to all of us. And consequently, we have become a kingdom, a family, and the temple of God. And Paul has introduced all of that truth in those first few verses where he says this is all by grace, not by anything that you've brought into the church, not by anything that you can generate in the church.

You are these things by the grace of God through faith, so that not one of us may boast. When we say we belong to God's church, it means we belong to a physical group of people whom we should no longer see as individuals, but as part of our own body. We do it even when it's difficult then to live in this church, even when our sin and our weakness tempts us towards disunity and hostility, because we belong to a brand new people existing for the glory of God Himself. Let's pray. Our Lord, we really need You to unpack not only the truth and the reality of the church, Lord, not simply as a reality that's separated from lived experience, Lord.

We're not interested to understand ecclesiology as a concept alone. We need, Lord Jesus. We need for You to transform us to live as Your church. And so we pray not just for today, we pray for the coming weeks that we will understand what it means for us to be this new man, this one being. And we pray, Lord, that as we learn, as we understand, as we grapple with just the enormous truth, we pray that it won't be so overwhelming that we'll give up.

Give us the hope that not only have You called us to this, You are enabling us to live it. Thank You ultimately, Lord Jesus, that You have called those of us who were far from You. As Peter says, those who were not a people, You have made a people. To those who had received no mercy, You have now shown mercy. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for Your grace in the work that You performed for us on the cross and thereby having brought two into one.

Breaking down the barrier of hostility, You have killed that hostility in us. And so now, Lord, we pray that You will bind us forever towards one another, seen in the expression of our commitment to this individual church, but also, Lord, fully and finally to the true church universally. Thank You, Lord, for the opportunity to stretch our wings in this, to try it, to strive for it, and we pray that You will keep reminding us of this and grow us in maturity on that path. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.