Foreigner to Family

2 March 2014 PM – Ephesians 2:11-22 – Eph 14 – Scott Childs

Introduction

When we moved to PNG in August 1984, we were foreigners in a strange land. We only knew one missionary family, everyone else was unknown to us. We were ignorant of the language. The heat was uncomfortable. The smells were strange. The sights were unreal to our thinking. Truly, we were foreigners.

This evening we are going to see that before a person trusts Christ for salvation, he too is a foreigner to the things of God. However, when he becomes a Christian, he ceases to be a foreigner and becomes part of God’s family.

Transition

As Paul wrote to the Ephesians (and us), he reviews three steps that take a person from being spiritual foreigner to knowing he is part of God’s family.

1st Step: They Must See Their Rejection (11-12)

  1. They were without circumcision (11)
    1. Circumcision was a physical procedure that God required of His people to set them apart from the world.
    2. Circumcision was also a fleshly identification of a Jew. Those without circumcision were called Gentiles. Jesus told the Samaritan woman that salvation was of the Jews.
      John 4:22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.

      1. God provided salvation through the Messiah of the Jewish nation.
      2. Circumcision did not make them holy, but it did identify them as a Jew.
      3. What God really wants is heart circumcision. Heart circumcision is when sin is cut out of the heart.
        Deuteronomy 10:16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.
        Romans 2:29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
    3. Before coming to Christ, we were all uncircumcised Gentiles in the heart.
  2. They were without Christ (12)
    1. They were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. In other words they were “shut out from fellowship of the citizenship of Israel.”
    2. They were strangers from the covenants of promise. God made several covenants with the Jews which promised, among other things, a Messiah. The Ephesian Gentiles were strangers or foreigners and not recipients of God’s promises.
    3. They had no hope. They had no joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation.
    4. They were without God in the world. They have no one to whom they can turn for help.
    5. Findlay states, To be without God in the world is to be in the wilderness, without a guide; on a stormy ocean, without harbour or pilot; … to be hungry without bread, and weary without rest, … It is to be an orphaned child, wandering in an empty, ruined house.
    6. Before a person can come to Christ, he must see his desperate condition and great need. He is shut out from citizenship, foreigners to God’s promises, without hope and without God.

2nd Step: They Must Receive God’s Reconciliation (13-18)

  1. Paul identified the provider of reconciliation
    1. Though they were far from God, Christ Jesus brought them near by His blood (13).
      1. The blood of Christ paid sin’s debt.
        Romans 5:9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
      2. It is also Christ’s blood that cleans Christians.
        1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
    2. Christ also gave them peace (14). He did this by uniting them with Jewish believers. He broke down the dividing wall of the hedge. Jews considered Gentiles to be unclean. They were on the other side of the wall. Jesus destroyed that wall.
    3. Christ abolished or made powerless the enmity or hostility between the Jew and the Gentile (15). He removed their reason to be enemies.
  2. B.     Paul identified the purpose of reconciliation
    1. It was so that He might make both Jew and Gentile one new creation in Christ (15 b). The (subjunctive) might, reminds us that this new creation depends on the sinner’s repentant faith in Christ.
      2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
    2. The purpose was also that He might reconcile both unto God in one body (16). Again he uses the subjunctive possibility.
      1. He is able to offer reconciliation because He paid for it on His cross.
      2. On His cross He killed the hostility between Jew and Gentile and between sinner and God.
        Colossians 1:20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
  3. C.     Paul identified the peace of reconciliation
    1. 1.      Having come, Christ preached or announced peace (17).
      1. This peace is to the Gentiles who were afar off.
      2. It is also to the Jews who were near. Being near, they knew more about God, but they still need God’s reconciliation through faith in Christ’s blood.
    2. Through Christ, both Jew and Gentile now have access or entrance to the Father by the Holy Spirit.
      According to Cleon Rogers, the word was used of a solemn, unhindered approach to a deity and of access to a king’s presence.
    3. After seeing our desperate condition and great need, we must believe that Christ provided reconciliation and receive it by faith in Christ. This will unite us to God and other saints and to give us peace.

3rd Step: They Must Believe Their Reception (19-22)

  1. They were received as citizens and family
    1. Because of reconciliation, God said they are now citizens with the saints.
      1. They are no longer strangers and foreigners.
        1. The word “strangers” is the word we found in verse 12 that refers to a foreigner.
        2. The word “foreigners” is a word that more specifically refers to an alien resident – one who lives in a land as a resident but not a citizen.
      2. They are now truly citizens of salvation and heaven with the saints.
    2. Because of reconciliation, God said they are now members of His family. They are no longer children of the devil (John 8:44).
  2. They were built upon the same foundation
    1. Christ is the foundation for all Christians: Jew/Gentile. This is what the apostles and prophets preached.
    2. In Christ, every believer is a “stone” of the holy temple of the Lord.
      1. Each is being joined closely together (21).
      2. Each is being built together into a dwelling place of God (22).
      3. As God, by the Holy Spirit, is doing a work in individual believers. He is joining them together to form His holy temple. Each local church is a type of His holy temple. God has given us local churches as a type that we can see, join, and minister through, so we can better understand what He is doing for us in heaven.

Conclusion

As a sinner, you were once rejected, but if Christ has saved you, He reconciled you to Him and gave you peace. He also received you as a citizen and member of His family. If you are not a church member, God wants you to be as He established this type of His temple.

Song: His Way with Thee – 367