Ephesians Part 5

Ephesians 2:11–22 Part 2, we study this in two parts. This section stands at the heart of Paul’s vision for the ekklesia. Having just declared that salvation comes by grace through faith and not through human boasting, Paul now addresses one of the greatest questions facing the first-century community of believers:

How can Jews and Gentiles truly become one people in Messiah without erasing the covenantal story of Israel?

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Welcome to the Messiah in Life podcast, hosted by Bishop Justin D. Elwell of Restoration Fellowship International and Messiah Congregation, recorded at our congregational home in Washington Mills, New York. In this study through Paul's epistle to the Ephesians, we invite you to rediscover the beauty of God's covenant purposes revealed in Messiah Jesus. Together, we will explore the theological and covenantal foundations of Paul's letter. It's called unity, holiness, redemption, and covenant identity for both Jew and Gentile in Messiah. This is more than a theological study. It is an invitation to see the story of Scripture as one unified testimony of the Lord's faithfulness from Israel to the nations, all brought together in Messiah. Thank you for joining us as we seek to live Messiah in everyday life. And now to Bishop Justin.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

But you know, don't lose that identity because it glorifies the Lord that the reconciliation, the peace of Messiah is coming through that culture. Right. And he's bringing the nations together. So this is critical to how do we understand verse 15. So let me read 14 and 15 again, just refresh your memory. So where was that broken down? In his flesh. Everything that would separate us was broken down in Christ, was broken down in our Messiah. Who has made us both one and broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the laws of commandments expressed in ordinances. And these now it's not uh a repudiation of the Torah. He's not dismissing the Torah, but he is explaining that the ordinance that would keep us apart, I'm not going to eat from your plate. I would never eat from your table, because it would be unkosher. Unkosher, right? Um somebody asked me, you know, some time ago, uh, you know, some years ago actually about the kitchen. You know. Is the kitchen kosher? No. It's not. I mean, I could make it kosher, but then you'd have to get past me to bring anything in. So I would have to bring my little blow torch, I'd have to run the ovens at high temperature. We'd have to go through and then blow torch to the ovens. We'd have to blow torch the top of the ovens. We'd have to scrub with hot water the inside of the freezer, we'd have to defrost or defrost the freezer, uh, scrub the refrigerator, scrub the floors, um, pour boiling water over the top of the countertops, and then scrub that, and then repeat that process. And anything that may have potentially cupboards would have to be completely scrubbed. And that would just be to kind of make it acceptable. That thing is hopeless in there. Let me tell you, you know, it's just we we just got to tear that wing of the building off. Um but that would be a separation. That would be a separation. So those things that would ordinarily have divided. Now, it doesn't do away with the practice, but it doesn't make the practice a barrier to joining together. So he's we know that the barriers were real, the barriers in the temple. We've found uh the archaeologists have found the warning. Gentiles cannot pass by this point. You could not go into the precincts uh where the altar was. Um but what was separating Jew and Gentile, again, in Messiah, those barriers have been uh taken care of. They've been uh he's gonna use strong language in a moment. But he's not declaring that the Torah is evil, and that is such, it's a it's an easy conclusion to reach, and it preaches well, but it's simply incorrect. And I'm trying to be polite. So the reading, if we look at that, if we if we look at that conclusion that people quite often use as a preaching point, and we only do it, uh we only examine it in isolation, and we don't consider everything else that Paul has taught and Paul has done, we'll reach a reach a faulty conclusion. And we need to be aware of that. We have to let Scripture interpret Scripture. So uh Paul is addressing particular ordinances as ethnic, covenantal, boundary markers separating Jew and Gentile in the present age. The focus is not the destruction of the Lord's moral will, but the removal of enmity and exclusion. There are some places of worship within the category of messianic that if you are a Jew, you can uh access this part of the synagogue to pray at certain times. If you're not, you can't, you get you you're you have to be in here. Not a wide practice, but it's still a practice of today. Um that would be antithetical to Paul, what Paul is teaching here. So the removal of enmity, of exclusion. You know, I joke around when if I especially if I go to a congregation for the first time, they've never seen or heard me before, and they're seeing, you know, a big guy wearing a kippah up front. And uh I'll, you know, I'll make the joking statement that I've left my uh my moy dicka stuff at home. So I'm not there to do any surgeries on the fly, we might say. Um that's funnier when people understand the references, I guess. I'm not a surgeon if you get what I'm saying. Um but it's you know, it it those type and it's not just Jew to Gentile, it's different ethnicities within the body of Christ that are still have enity. That is still have the enmity that we should not be allowing to uh fester. So the one new man, and this is important, that in today's theology, the one new man is decidedly Gentile. That's it. So every Jewish believer coming to faith must assume a gentile identity. That's just the rules. Comes the rules, sorry. No, of course not. My goodness. But that is how it's interpreted. That is how it's interpreted. So Jews, um, one new man doesn't mean Gentiles become Jews, doesn't mean Jews become Gentiles, doesn't mean the Jewish identity disappears as Gentile identity is assumed. If we see what Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, beautiful uh explanation of this. If you came in uncircumcised, you you are a gentile. But that's not pejorative. People use that pejoratively, as if it is a bad thing. It's not. It glorifies the Lord. But also there was this there was a social practice among Jews who wanted to fit in at the gymnasium. They tried to reverse their circumcision, which quite often resulted in very bad things. Um, this would also be something that Paul would speak strongly against. So at the time of the writing of Ephesians 2.15, um Paul is really assuring Gentile disciples that they truly belong within the household of God. And that's the that's an important phrase, household of God, what we see in verse 19. Fully participants. Full participants. We don't have two categories of membership here at Messiah. We don't. Everyone is a full participant, you're not excluded from anything. You know, if uh little Katie wants a bot mitzvah at 13, we'll call it her the Torah. We're not gonna say, no, it's not for you. Um and there's been people, we've had families that uh one family that we have, um they were in jer, they were in downstate New York, now live, I think, in Montana. They brought all four of their kids here, remember? All their son and three daughters, in order to have uh Bat Mitzvah, Bar Mitzvah and Baat Mitzvah. So, you know, it's a beautiful rite of passage that is uh that we don't exclude from. So Jewish believers remain Jews, Gentile believers remain Gentiles, um in order to honor what the Lord was doing among the nations, among the Jewish people as well, while serving equal or having equal share, equal standing in covenant through Messiah. Let's read. Uh oh, excuse me, I jumped ahead of something. But Paul is portraying here a peaceful unity between Jew and Gentile, enmity set aside, fellowship replacing separation, get to know people. You know, we need to get to know people. Uh, verses 16 through 18. Um, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. Could he use stronger language? The hostility that people would have, the hostility that we would have for each other is dead. Again, we do not have a choice to resurrect it. It's dead. Christ killed it, Messiah killed it. And he came and preached peace to those who were far off, and peace to those who were near. So the reconciliation is both vertical and horizontal. We're reconciled to God, the Father, through the cross, through Messiah. We're reconciled to each other as part of the covenant family of faith. So we are that it's, and that's the, you know, when we love the Lord with all of our heart, soul, and strength, and we love our neighbor as ourselves. I would have a very difficult time, just as you would, uh accepting somebody saying they love the Lord, but they treated their fellow man with contempt, with an abusive way, and so on. How do we demonstrate that we love the Lord? We love those who are made in his image and likeness. So we we have to be mindful of that. So in the case of the peace that we have with the Lord, it's not just vertical, it's horizontal. The peace extends into our brothers and sisters. So Paul's language, you know, again, is it's it's sacrificial here, it's covenantal. Messiah absorbs the hostility that creates the um peace where separation once ruled. How do we come together? How can we lay aside the enmity? Messiah. He has absorbed that anger, he has absorbed that angst, he has absorbed the prejudice, he has absorbed that, he has taken that. And it's only because of him that we can have fellowship. It's only because of him that we would come together. On a beautiful day like today, we should all be out mowing our lawns doing things other than what we're doing. But why do we come together today? Why do we come together at all, Messiah?

unknown 12:35

Fellowship.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

Yeah, fellowship. Well, and if it wasn't Messiah at the heart of the fellowship, it would just be a bar or a restaurant or whatever else. Why do people go to bars? They want fellowship. What brings them together? Alcohol. You know, one God or another will bring you together with like-minded people. So Paul's language, again, it's striking, it's penetrating, but the way that he wrote this is beautiful if you pay attention. For through him, for through who? Messiah. We both have access. Verse 18. We both have access in one spirit, the Holy Spirit, to the Father. So just in chapter, as in chapter one, we had that Trinitarian uh doxology. Here we have uh the statement that is profoundly Trinitarian as well, through Messiah and one spirit to the Father, and importantly, Jews and Gentiles share equal access. This would have been a revolutionary statement. But again, this was part, this idea, this theology was what uh in part put him in prison. This was not something that if he shouted it down the streets of Jerusalem, people would go, Amen, you preach it, brother. They were looking for the stones. What do you mean? That goi over there is not my brother. What do you mean, Paul? So that was revolutionary. So, citizens and members of uh of the household, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens. So, a household, we come together is a household and his household. In his household, there are rules, there are expectations, there are things that we are expected to do, some things that we are not expected to do, or expected not to do, I should say. So, coming together in the household of God, we follow the Father's commands. And we don't make up our own. We were talking about that a little bit in the this morning at the men's group. We're talking about fences and traditions that came along. And those fences, those rules, oh, I should say I said fences, but the commandments of God create boundaries and limitations. They keep each other, we keep each other safe. We honor each other, we love each other, we protect each other, we restore one another when we've damaged the other, and so on. And unfortunately, people have a tendency to view um to view it negatively rather than seeing that this is what safeguards us. It's what safeguards us. We don't have to make it up. We don't have to think about what is appropriate or inappropriate. We protect each other through it. So the house rules. Those house rules. People honor house rules at casinos. People honor house rules at restaurants or whatever else, right? Comes to the household of the Lord. No, we don't honor those things. So again, we we note here that uh Gentiles have not replaced it uh replaced Israel in the Lord's household. That's and that needs a lot more explication than we can do right now. But they're brought into it. That's the important point. That is the assurance that Paul is giving to every believer who comes, every faithful person that comes, is that you have a place here. You have a home here. You are not second class, you are not just tolerated, but you belong. You belong in the household of God. You're a child of the living God, you are protected, cared. There's a covenant promise that is with you. So, the this uh when we think about this, this is what Paul is drawing on is the fulfillment of the prophetic vision that the prophets gave us regarding the nations coming to worship the Lord, coming to faith in the Lord. So the household imagery um reflects this family covenant identity. Who we are as a family. The ecclesia is not just it's not an institution. We were talking a bit about corporation, corporate law this morning. The men's group goes all over the map. We start with a text and we end up in Albuquerque. I don't know how we get there. But we get there. So this morning we were talking about corporate law, and a couple of the guys rightly pointed out, you know, what's this have to do with the church? Well, it's, you know, I deal with it every day. So, but um the body of Messiah is not a corporation in the technical legal sense uh of today. It's family, it's covenant, it's how we relate to each other in Messiah. We don't relate to each other outside of him. And that's one of the things that we're seeing constantly right now is the, especially among leadership and leadership capacities, where people should know better. It's in the news all the time. And it's sad to see that we've stopped relating to each other in a manner that is faithful, that is correct, that honors the dignity of the other, and rather we are acting in many ways no better than the world. What does that mean for him? Do we really genuinely accept the fact that he rose? Or is or is it just a phrase we use? No, because he lives, right? He's alive. So Paul's vision echoes the prophetic hope of the nations, and then builds upon the apostles, uh, the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And this is a very uh Jewish character, we might say. The prophets of Israel, the Jewish apostles of Messiah. Messiah, again, Paul and Paul here echoes that, does not sever believers from Israel's history. Um I said this so many times to people over the years when they're going, you know, them back there, they were doing this. I'm like, what are you talking about? That's your family tree, that's your family book. And what have you done that's any different? You might be, your your sin might be slightly different today, but it's still sin. You know, the dysfunction might be slightly more sophisticated, but it's still dysfunction. Anyway, let me move along before I get on a journey with that. So he establishes firmly, uh he establishes, Paul establishes his audience firmly within that frame of being built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with Messiah himself being the cornerstone, the one through whom or by whom everything is written, everything is measured, everything is lined up. Everything, every one of us as the Lord is, he moves into this temple imagery of we are being built, uh, the whole structure is being built, um, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Messiah Yeshua being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple of the Lord, in the Lord. Each of us, every one of us, are part of that structure that is being built. We're being measured against where the cornerstone is, where Messiah is, we're being built upon the truth that the apostles uh preached, what the prophets spoke of. And each of us depend on the other. I'm not a wall by myself. As big as I am, I'm not a wall unto myself. I am laid up with others. There are those who are beside me, those who are above me, those who are below me. But every single stone in that wall needs the other one. And that's why we are called into a family and not into isolation. Because we need each other and we support each other, and we are there at we have just as much importance in the wall as the person who came a hundred years ago or 500 years ago or a thousand years ago. We're all part of the same structure, Messiah himself being the chief, being the most important. So this is the climax of the passage. The temple was the central symbol, right? We have the tabernacle in the wilderness where the presence of God was the very center of the community. The temple in Jerusalem was the center of the nation. Now, Jerusalem was not the center of the nation. You know, geographically, but it was spiritually. Everything in the entire historical nation depended on Jerusalem. Why does the, you know, why do certain uh commandments no longer apply? Well, there's no temple in Jerusalem. We're not living within the borders of historic Jerusalem. Uh there's no anointed priesthood, and so on and so forth. All of those all of those uh commandments that are important, implicit with the temple, it was the very center of the life. When do we harvest? What do we do with the first fruits of our harvest? Where do we take it? How do we, you know, we can't spiritualize and say, well, now I'm bringing my first fruit. If you bring me a uh a basket of grain, I'm gonna ask you, what do I do with it? I mean, somebody could do something with it, but not this guy. I'm gonna say, you keep the grain, give me the cash. I'm just kidding. Somebody's gonna quote me on that, and it's gonna not go well for me, I guess. But Paul and how does Paul apply this? Again, look at what he has argued thus far, Jews and Gentiles together, as one, he now applies the temple imagery to the unified people of Messiah, Jew and Gentile together as the dwelling place of God. Why? That is the that is the vision of the prophets. And that is an assurance. That is an assurance that is so important to your identity in Messiah, who you are in him. And I was just talking to uh a brother minister the other day, and I I was pointing out when we see pastors, particularly I was talking about pastors, which I find myself doing more often, when we see pastors fall, right, the most uh the the most um common cause of that is that they have forgotten who they are in Messiah.

unknown 24:00

Right?

SPEAKER_01 24:00

John and I have had conversations about that. We forget who we are in him, and then we begin to try to what can we do that will make us feel better about ourselves because we go back into a sin mentality rather than a victorious mentality in Messiah. We forget who we are, right? We can't forget that. We need to continually go to that who we are in him because that is our identity. It's a it's it's the only the only identity we have is in him. So again, it's not replacing Israel's story, but it's building the trajectory of what the prophet spoke of. He's taking us to that, a dwelling place, a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. The Spirit now inhabits the living temple compro uh composed of reconciled people. All of us, not only corporately together, but individually. I don't have more of the Holy Spirit than you do. I know you think it would it would take more to fill this vessel, but I don't have more of the Holy Spirit than you do. And the Lord is dwelling, and it's beautiful when we all come together and worship and praise. I have a very different perspective from where I am. But when I see a room full of people lifting their hands, lifting their voices, lifting their hearts in celebration, and the unity that you hear in the voice and the song, it's it's not something, again, you can describe to someone. It's just it's something that people have to experience. So, how does that happen? Well, the barriers of hostility have to fall. Aren't you glad that when you all come to service, I don't judge you as you come through the door? Look at that one. Oh, Lord. Is this the best you can bring me today? Father in heaven. Glory, what is what's wrong with you people? I do, but I keep it to myself. Confess your sins one to another. I'm gonna get mail for that. But yeah, I get a lot of mail. 99.99% is good mail. So the presence of the Lord now rests among us. So just a couple of reflections and we'll move to questions. Um speaks directly to into a fractured world, right? So it's a message that still applies today. Ethnic division, religious hostility, suspicion, exclusion, covenantal pride. As Paul said, you know, we don't have anything we can boast in except for Messiah. We have no point of boasting. If we're gonna celebrate, let's celebrate him, not ourselves. So Paul does not solve any of the tensions by erasing identity. He doesn't say, you know what will help you all get along if you just forget who you were and don't honor that, you know, don't walk in that. No, he resolves it through reconciliation and Messiah. So, from uh a pastoral perspective, Israel's covenant calling remains significant. Gentiles are graciously brought near. Unity does not require uniformity. Aren't you glad that you don't have to live up to my standard? There's a little bit too much laughter on the side of the room. So aren't you glad that you don't have to have my haircut to be holy? All of us know this is the holy haircut. It is very holy. Hey, it I never have a bad to hair day. I don't get bed head. Glory to God. But you're just happy we don't shave people's heads when they come through. That's why we have such a small membership. There's that one clause. Thou thou must shave thy head. So it doesn't require uniformity. You know, I was I don't know who I was talking about. I was I was talking to somebody who is kind of half half here, here, here in heart, somewhere else still ministering. But they reached out to me about Shabbat and they really wanted to, you know, honor Shabbat in their home as they're trying to make this transition in their life. And of course, they did the very thing that I tell people never to do. They started Googling Shabbat. How do you keep Shabbat at home? And they found a thousand and five things you can't do and fifty-one things you should do that they can't decipher it because it's in Hebrew or Yiddish. I said, please, no, don't do that. Start out by making it special. Making it different, making it distinct. This night, you know what? I might not be able to say all the prayers, but I can put flowers on the table, candles on the table, and there's something different. Why is this night, why is this day different from all other nights and all other days? Start there and then learn. If you want me to come in and teach you the whole kit and caboodle, you're gonna go, please leave. Just leave now. What do you mean we're washing hands? Didn't we just wash hands? What do you mean we're washing hands? Um and that's the beauty of it. One home might say every every bracha that is absolutely correct for a Friday night or Saturday, a Shabbat morning, Saturday afternoon might do Havdalah perfectly. And and and one home might just be resting, studying, praying, fellowshipping. And it's a beautiful, beautiful honoring of the Shabbat of the Lord's Day. So the one new man, or Paul does not demand assimilation. You don't have to come in doing the Justonian version of this. Right? And you're all all God's people said amen. The Justonian edition? This is the Justonian edition. Whatever I do is holy. Okay, Joe. Okay. Love you, Joe. Oh my goodness. Um the One New Man does not destroy Jewish identity. It doesn't destroy Gentile identity, but it creates a reconciled fellowship centered in Messiah. He is the center of this. So this is, of course, deeply relevant for the body today. It's so important for what we are seeing today. Those who are far off are brought near. Those who are separated by hostility have been reconciled together. Those excluded from uh covenant participation now stand within the Lord's household through Messiah. You are part of the house, you're a family, you are a child of the house, you're a servant of the house, you're an heir of the house, and so on. And yet it's not, this unity is not built upon the erasure of Israel, but on the fulfillment of God's promise through Israel's Messiah. So final thought on this. Paul envisions a people reconciled to God, reconciled to each other, and dwelt by the Spirit, and formed together as a holy temple. I will say this: I am incomplete without you, you are incomplete without me. We global are incomplete. Because we're one body, and we are incomplete outside of the Messiah. Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 32:11

Amen. Thank you for studying with us, and until our next episode, may the Lord bless and keep you all in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.