Slide 1
By name and by need. 

Slide 2
Who knows what you are facing right now?

Slide 3
The distance that protects us from being hurt can also keep us from being helped.

Slide 4
Ephesians 2
– First half (1-10) says salvation brings dead people to life.
– Second half (11-22) says salvation brings divided people together. 

Slide 5
Grace gives us a new life, and grace also gives us a new people.

Slide 6
Ephesians 2:11-22
11 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— 12 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. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 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, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 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, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Slide 7
Jesus brings outsiders near  (11-13)

Slide 8
Five descriptions of alienation:
– Separated from Christ
– Alienated from the commonwealth of Israel
– Strangers to the covenants of promise
– No hope
– Without God in the world (atheoi)

Slide 9
Covenants / Promise

Slide 10
Verse 13:  But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 

Slide 11
Remembering how Jesus welcomed us changes how we should welcome others.

Slide 12
Jesus tears down the walls between us (14-18)

Slide 13
Verse 14: For he himself (Jesus) is our peace.

Slide 14
Peace is not a condition. Peace is found in Jesus himself.

Slide 15
We don’t become “both one”  by agreeing on everything. We are unified in Christ. 

Slide 16
Verse 14: For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility

Slide 17
Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian, describes a stone barrier outside the Temple that was three cubits high (roughly four and a half feet) with notices that read:  “no foreigner should go within that sanctuary.”

Slide 18
Ephesians 3:1
For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles

Slide 19
Acts 21:28-33
“Men of Israel, help! This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law and this place. Moreover, he even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.” 29 For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. 30 Then all the city was stirred up, and the people ran together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut. 31 And as they were seeking to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. 32 He at once took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. And when they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. 33 Then the tribune came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains.

Slide 20
“thereby killing the hostility”

Slide 21
The cross reconciles us to God and makes us family with one another.

Slide 22
Jesus turns strangers into family (19-22)

Slide 23
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

Slide 24
Verse 22: In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Slide 25
The people once kept outside are now part of the temple.

Slide 26
What is one specific step I can take towards living like family with other believers?

We’ve been in a family series called Family Matters, and

At the heart of it is the idea that God

Invented the family. And so one week we talked about marriage and God invented marriage, and one week we talked about parenting. And I know that as we talk about family, one of the challenges is that some of us, we come from a background and you might say, “Well, I come from a background that does not look the way

That God

Designed it. There was a lot of

Hurt, there was a

Lot of pain.” And that’s true

Also of today’s topic.

Today, we’re gonna talk about the church family and being connected in the community of God. And I know when you

Introduce that topic,

The challenge is that we have all kinds of different backgrounds. And so maybe you come into the room today and you’ve got some church work. Maybe you have had an experience

With church

That was not so

Great.

And still, even if you fall in that category,

I would tell you that God’s

Designed for you is

To be

Plugged in to

A

Church family. God

Did that,

Not accidentally, but intentionally because we are wired in such a way that

We should gather together to worship God, but also gather together

To find deep-rooted community and biblical family. But that’s

Hard. Why is that hard? Because there’s a part of us that we want to

Belong, but there’s

This

Awkwardness before

We

Belong where we’re not really quite sure

What to do with that.

It reminds me, maybe you’ve had this

Experience all

The way back in middle school or

High school where you

Walked into the lunchroom and maybe it was your first day at school and you didn’t know anybody. And you’re standing there.

I- if you

Were like me, the, the

Cafeteria that I had you went through, you got the little tray,

You had your little milk and your square pizza and you walked out and you’re looking around the room and you’re trying to figure out where

Do I

Belong? And if you don’t have an answer to that question, it feels uncomfortable. It

Feels awkward.

I, I remember when I was in college, I was dating, , my girlfriend there, now wife, Lauren and I were dating and she had a family reunion. Now, I, I knew her immediate family really well by that point, but I had never met the

Rest of

The family. And so me as a college

Boyfriend

Shows

Up to

The family reunion. And of course you don’t know anybody and you’re just kind of trying to be nice and smile and put on a good front for, for my now wife and make sure that they know, “Hey, I’m, I’m a pretty good guy.” And then there’s this moment where they say,

“All right, everybody gather together. We’re gonna

Take the family

Photo.” And if you’re a,

A family reunion and you’re not part of the family, like you’re just standing there. And in my mind, all, all in, in a nanosecond,

Here’s what processes.

I think if I am in this photo

And it doesn’t work out, I have

Ruined this photo for the next 20 years.

Like,

Like 20 years from now they’re gonna be looking at a family photo,

They’re gonna say, “Who’s that guy?” And like, “Oh, he’s the

Ex-Boyfriend.”

And,

And then I’m thinking, if I’m standing here and everybody gathers

Together, but I don’t

Walk in and be a part of the family photo, they’re gonna look at me and they’re gonna be like, “He’s not that

Serious.”

And so like there’s

This pressure of do I belong? Do I don’t belong? And

So this was the solution I said, I said, “Here, why don’t I take the photo?” And I figured that was the easiest solution. But, but maybe you’ve been in a situation where, where you had that same kind of painting. Do I belong or do I not belong? And one of the hearts that we have at Cherry Hills, our goal for you is that we don’t just gather together to worship, although we think that’s really important. We think that the Bible commands us as believers to gather together in worship. The, the next step from that would be that we gather together and have community. A phrase that we try and say a lot is that we want to know each other by name and by need. And, and to know someone by name, that takes some effort. Like the first time you meet somebody, you shake their hand and, and you, they tell you their name.

Then the second time, maybe you still feel like, okay, hey, remind me your name. Third time, it’s starting to get iffy, but, but you can still probably third time say, “Hey, I’m so sorry. Remind me your name.” But by the fourth time, like you just, if you don’t know their name then, like you have to pretend like you know that person’s name. Now it’s, “Hey, you, hey buddy, hey friend, great to see you there.” Why? Be- because knowing someone’s name has value to it and when we don’t know their name and we know that we should know their name, we feel uncomfortable and awkward. So it takes intentional effort to know someone and to remember their name and for them to know your name, but it takes even more effort to know someone by need. If someone was to ask, what is the biggest need in your life, would somebody have the answer to that?

Ha- have you gotten to know someone well enough where they would know that? Well, like, like just ask yourself this question right now. Who knows what you are facing right now in this moment? ‘Cause I guarantee you, every single one of us, we have some type of a challenge, some type of a difficulty, some type of an issue that we are facing. Who in the body of Christ, what other believer who loves Jesus knows exactly what it is you are facing? See, oftentimes we, we have a hard time letting people in that close because it feels slightly uncomfortable, feels slightly awkward. It also feels a little bit vulnerable. Like if I, if I let you into my life, I’m being vulnerable to your opinions and your perspectives and maybe your judgment. And so sometimes we, because we don’t want to be vulnerable, we create distance.

And here’s the thing, the distance that protects us from being hurt, it can also keep us from being helped. And God’s design inside the family is that there’s this step of vulnerability where I get to know people where we can care for one another in a way that we do life together chasing after Jesus. If you’ve got a Bible, turn with me to Ephesians chapter two. Ephesians chapter two, it’ll be in the app, it’ll be on the screen. , We are gonna look at the second half of the chapter. , Paul writes the book of Ephesians and in the first half of the chapter, it’s, it’s this really famous part of

The book of

Ephesians where it’s all about

Salvation, that, that he tells us that

Salvation brings dead people

Back to life, that there’s these, these

Beautiful images of dead bringing back, bringing, bringing brought back to life in Jesus. There’s

This,

This imagery, , where

It, it’s trying to tell us,

“Hey, it’s nothing that you accomplished. It’s nothing that you did.”

One

Of the most profound things that Paul writes in all of his letters

Is he says that it’s by grace that

You’ve been saved, not by work so that no one may

Boast. So the first half is about

Salvation and Jesus’ salvation making us right with

God. But the

Second half is also

About salvation, but a

Different angle of it, that

Salvation

Brings divided

People together. So if you’ve got a Bible, ,

Look with me in Ephesians

Chapter two,

Starting in verse 11. And here’s

The idea

That we’re gonna unpack, that

Grace

Gives us new life.

We, we often talk about that part, but it also,

The end is grace

Also gives us

A new people.

Ephesians chapter two

Starting in verse 11. It says,

“Therefore, based off of those first

10 verses,

Based off of our old

Self being dead, now we have new life in Jesus. We have salvation not because of what we have done, but because he

Is what

He has done. Therefore,

Because of all that,

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.” Now pause for a moment. , You,

You had

At this moment, you’ve got,

, the Jews that are

The covenant people of God, and then you’ve got Gentiles. , Most of us in this room, we would fall

Into that

Category, myself included, into the Gentile category.

And so

We are not Jewish. And so there was this symbol of the covenant which was circumcision. So they’d use this term for people

That were Jewish, part of

The covenant and people that were not Gentiles, that the circumcised and the uncircumcised and who he’s writing

To is the

Gentiles. And he’s saying, “Hey, you’re

Outside the covenant. You, you’re part of the

Uncircumcised.” Verse

12, he

Says, “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

Were once 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 two, so making peace and might reconcile

Us both to God

And one body

Through the cross, thereby

Killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace

To you who were far

Off and peace to those who were near.” He’s saying, “Preach to the

People far off the Gentiles.” Also, he preached peace to those

Who are near who still needed Jesus, the

Jews. Verse

18, “For through him, we both have access to one spirit to the

Father, so

Then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you

Are fellow

Citizens with 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 are also being built together into a dwelling place

For God by the spirit.” So a lot of texts, and

Really simply inside this text,

You have three core ideas. That the first core

Idea in the first few

Verses is this idea that Jesus

Brings outsiders near,

That,

That the Gentiles who were

Far

Away from God, he said, Paul is saying that Jesus brings those

Outsiders

Near to

God. And he lists these

Distinct ways that they

Were far off. He gives five

Descriptions of this alienation.

The first is that they’re

Separated from Christ.

The second is that

They’re alienated from the commonwealth of

Israel. They’re also

Strangers to

The

Covenants of promise, plural covenants of promise, promise singular. He tells them you had no hope.

He also says that you are without

God in the world. An interesting side note in the Greek, ,

The, the word that he uses there is Atheo.

Atheo means without God in the world.

Atheo

Did not in the first century, , mean that they didn’t believe in God. They all

Believed

In some type of a God. It just means that they were

Without God. That word Atheo

In Greek is

Where we get the word atheist for

In, in English. So being without God.

So, so he’s,

He’s painting this really bad picture.

Hey,

You’ve got no hope. You’re far from God. You’re alienated. You’re

Way away.

And inside of that, he

Talks about the covenants

Of promise. Now, in Greek, the

Covenants he uses is plural.

He’s saying that there’s multiple covenants, but promise he uses is singular. In the Old Testament, God makes multiple covenants with individuals. He makes a coven- covenant with Noah. He makes a co-

Covenant with

Abraham. He makes a covenant with King David.

So he has these individual

Covenants, but

All of those

Covenants have one singular promise. The singular promise is pointing ahead to Jesus,

That Jesus, that the

Covenant in the Old Testament, the covenants are pointing to the promise in the Old Testament that through the nation of Israel,

That

All of mankind would be saved,

That

Through the nation of Israel,

That God would

Redeem mankind back to himself. And who is coming through the nation of Israel?

Jesus. That Jesus was

The promise of

All of those

Covenants. And now, now here’s something that, that’s

Crazy

That Paul’s saying. He’s saying that they

As Gentiles were

Welcomed into that promise, that the promise wasn’t exclusive just for the nation of Israel, but the promise of Jesus,

Salvation

Through him is for

All people. Look, look what

It says in verse 13. He

Says,” But

Now, in Christ

Jesus, you who

Once were far

Off

Have been brought near

By the blood of Christ.

“If You think of what is a testimony, , sometimes we misunderstand that word testimony. People say,” Hey, tell me your testimony. “And We think of a testimony as, as just

A personal story.

Well, let me tell you my story. , My testimony is I was born in 1984 in Houston, Texas, and mom and dad. And then we just go through our

Whole life story.

And, and that’s beautiful and wonderful, but that is not a testimony. A testimony very simply

Is

Here’s my life before

Jesus, but

Now

Because of Jesus,

Here’s my life because

Of Jesus. That’s

A testimony. It, it’s not the rest of my story, although you’re welcome to weave that into it, but a

True

Testimony is simply,

Here’s who I was, far

Away from God, but now because

Of Jesus, here is who

I am. This profound idea that we were all, every one of us, we’re far

Off away

From God, but

Because of Jesus, he is who brought

Us near. So,

So the, the first idea, the core idea that the rest of this chapter is built off of,

When it talks about uniting the family of God

Together, it’s all hinges,

The foundation is this idea that we didn’t bring ourselves near to God. It’s not because of what I’ve done or wh- what I’ve

Accomplished. It’s what Jesus did

On the cross. And for all of us, remembering how Jesus welcomed us should change how we welcome others. Like my testimony, but now because of Jesus,

Should

Help me have

Empathy, have grace for people

Around me. Why?

Because I,

I, I didn’t accomplish anything as part of my salvation. I couldn’t accom – I was incapable of saving myself, but Jesus on the cross saves me. And so

Because of that grace,

That unmerited favor

By God, that the way that I approach people who are far

Away from God should

Be filled with grace. I, I should

Recognize, hey, if not for Jesus, I could be in the exact same situation that you are in. That’s why a

Church, it,

It shouldn’t feel like a country club. It shouldn’t just be, well, hey, we

Gathered together and we’re awesome

And we’re the best. No, it should be a

Hospital

For sinners and broken people.

The, the, the

Claim of the church is not, hey, you need to fix

Yourself, get your life put back

Together, and then you’re welcome inside a church. No. The claim of the church should

Be, you are

Welcome. We want you to come in.

That we were

Once in that same place that you

Are however far

Away from you, you,

You are currently are from God.

We’ve been there, we’ve experienced that. And we’re not great because of

What we have done. We are great because of Jesus. So

Come into this place,

Let

Us introduce you to

Jesus

And Jesus

Is

Who changes

Lives. And so

The foundation of everything is built

Off of the grace that I

Recognize. It’s not me, it’s him. And so then the second main idea of the passage is

That Jesus tears

Down the walls between us. He,

He

Tears down the walls between

Us. That’s still true

Today, right now in our church,

That we have lots of

Different things that we naturally try and throw up as

Dividing walls.

I mean, there’s, there’s this natural human instinct that we have

To,

To surround ourself with people

That are like us. I, I want to feel comfortable

And I feel most comfortable if I’m around people that think like me and act like me and look like me and vote like me. And so that’s what we just naturally gravitate

Towards. But the, the, the shadow side of that, the

Really unhealthy side of that is that’s

Also what causes us

To become hateful

And

Racist and judgemental towards

People that don’t

Look like me or don’t act like me or don’t v- vote

Like me. And so inside the body of Christ,

It’s saying that all those things get tore down because there’s one thing that’s more important than all of those things and that is

Jesus. Look at what, what verse

14 says. Verse

14 says, “For he

Himself, Jesus

Is

Our peace.” There’s something profound there because when we

Think of

Peace, that’s not how we think of peace. We think of peace as, well, there’s no conflict. We’re gonna get along. We’re not gonna fight with each other.

But biblical peace

Is found in Jesus himself.

Biblical peace,

It means even when there’s all kinds of turmoil,

Jesus is

My peace.

Jesus is at

The center. Even in the midst of conflict,

Jesus is

The answer. ,

You look at the world right

Now. I mean, there’s always conflict and war and fighting and Jesus is the answer to those things. It, it sounds overly simplified, but, but can I just tell you that anywhere in the world where there’s conflict or war,

If both sides

Bend the knee to Jesus and find their peace in Jesus, it gets

Resolved. It gets solved. It gets answered that Jesus,

As simple as it sounds, Jesus

Is

The answer.

So, so Paul writes about this idea of, of how we, the, these two

Different groups become both one. I, I want us to understand that we don’t become both one by agreeing on everything. Instead, we are unified in Christ. The idea

Is that, okay, I have to

Take anything that, that I have that’s slightly different from you and we just need to become the same person and everything about us, we need to look the same and, and, and our ideas and concepts need to all be the same. Th’s not what he’s saying. He’s saying different people with different backgrounds. That’s what was

So radical about the

First century church,

That you had different races, different cultures, different

Socioeconomic groups, all kinds of variety.

Other people

Were looking at them and saying, “Why are those people hanging out together?”

In the

First century, rich people didn’t hang out with poor people. And yet in the church,

They

Weren’t just hanging out. They were acting like they were family. That’s

What Jesus calls us to do.

That’s who

Jesus calls us to be. There, there’s this part of how God has wired us,

That we are not meant to do life

Alone,

That, that we’re not meant to just, “Okay, hey, I believe in Jesus and so I, I don’t need anybody else. I can just, I, I can just

Worship

God by myself and, and yes, by myself, independent church, I can be saved, but I’m still missing a whole part

Of what God has

Designed me to experience.” Loneliness is not

God’s

Intention. ,

There’s a, a

Fascinating area of,

Of

Social science. It’s

Called the social

Baseline theory. Here’s

What it says. “The

Human brain assumes we will

Face life with other people. Trusted

Relationships are not merely an added comfort. They

Are part of how our

Brain normally handles danger, stress, and difficulty. “Uh, Not long ago in 2017, there was this experiment that was done. , They posted

A paper, here’s the title of their paper, Relationship

Status and Perceived Support in the Social Regulation of Neural Responses to Threat.

Whew. So it’s a

Long title

To a paper. , But basically, here’s what they

Did. , They took a few hundred people and they said,” Okay, we’re, we’re going to put your brain underneath a, an MRI and we’re gonna watch how your brain interacts while we

Put you through a few

Different challenges. “And So they sign up and they get there. And I don’t know if they told them this before they signed up or they just told them after they signed up, but,

But they told them,”

Hey, we’re gonna shock you. “And So at, at any given moment, somebody over here

Is gonna press

A button. It’s gonna sh – send an electric shock into your body and we’re gonna see how your brain responds. But, but they, they tested it under three different scenarios. The first scenario was you’re gonna be completely alone. You’re just gonna sit there, we’re gonna

Watch

Your brain. And at any given moment, you’re gonna get shocked and we’re just gonna watch what happens.

The

Second scenario was now you’re, same thing, you’re gonna, we’re gonna watch your brain, we’re gonna shock

You, but

There’s gonna be a stranger that’s gonna sit next to you and is gonna hold your hand. And then the third scenario was we want you to bring in someone who you

Have a close relationship with. It could be their spouse, it could be their parent, it could be a

Friend. And that person was gonna hold their hand and then they were gonna shock them.

And

So they measured the brain and here’s what they found. When that person was alone, that their brain, the anticipation of the shock, their brain starts to go into overdrive. It’s anticipating, it’s fearful, it’s stressed, it’s anxious because it knows at any given moment this bad thing is coming. Same thing happened when they were holding the hand of a stranger. And, and some of you are like, “Yeah,

It’s because they were

Holding the hand of a stranger. How awkward and weird is that?”

But the brain did

Something unique and different when they were holding the hand of a loved one is what they

Write. “Researchers

Found that when people faced

The

Threat of an electric shock holding the hand of someone familiar, it

Reduced

Activity in the brain regions involved in vigilance and emotional self-control. The

Threat

Had not changed, but

Because they were

Facing it with someone they trusted,

Their

Brains did not have to work

As hard

To manage it.

It,

It’s saying that your brain, my brain, when we know we’re facing a challenging situation, when we face that challenging situation alone, our brain is in overdrive preparing for that. But in this beautiful way

That God

Designed us, when we are facing that same challenge and we’re facing it in community with people

Who love us

And care for us,

The threat is the same. The

Danger is the same. The challenge, the problem, those things are the same, but our brain can calm down because it can say, “Hey, I, I know that’s real, but I’m not alone. I have people

That will do this

With me.”

That’s what God

Designs us for and that’s what God

Gives us the church

As an avenue to

Experience.

Well, let’s go on. Look what it says in verse 14. In verse 14, it says,

“For

He himself,” Jesus

Is our peace,

“Who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh

The dividing

Wall of

Hostility.”

Now, when, when we think of this dividing wall of

Hostility, i- if you’ve heard that phrase before, heard that verse before, it’s this beautiful

Image of we naturally have barriers between us. In the first entry, there was this barrier between Jews and Gentiles. And Paul’s saying that Jesus

Has

Broken down that dividing wall. And there’s a part of that that’s

Figurative, but

In the first century,

Especially the people that were receiving

This letter,

The church

In Ephesus, the Ephesians, they would have interpreted this and heard this in a slightly different

Way because

For them, there was

A literal physical barrier that

Prevented them from approaching the temple. Josephus

Was this

First century Jewish historian. He was not a Christian, did not follow Jesus,

, but he’s

A great historian that tells us some context that’s going on during the first century. And one of the things that he does is

He describes in his

Writing this stone barrier, a stone barrier that was about four and a half feet tall,

That you had the,

The temple, outside the

Temple you had this

Temple court and outside the temple court you had this stone barrier and on the stone barrier, they

Had

These signs and the signs read this, “No foreigner should

Go within

That sanctuary.”

So

A Gentile in the first century, they could see the temple, they

Could approach

The temple, but they couldn’t go near the temple. There was

A literal physical barrier that

Prevented them from going any further in. Now here’s where it gets really

Fascinating.

Why was Paul imprisoned? Paul, right now, as he’s writing the, the book of Ephesians, he is sitting in a prison in Rome. And, and probably you’ve heard, well, he, he was in prison because he’s proclaiming the gospel, he’s teaching people about Jesus, and all of that is true, but there’s a very specific reason he initially gets arrested. R- right after where we read, if you flip over to the next chapter, Ephesians chapter three, verse one, Paul says this. He says, “For this reason,” talking about everything that we just read, “For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles.” He’s saying that he is a prisoner on behalf of the Gentiles. Now he himself was not a Gentile. He was a Jew. So why did Paul get arrested in the first place? The Bible gives us the answer to that.

, , You, you don’t have to turn there. , But in Acts chapter 21, starting in verse 28, that Paul is approaching the temple, that he’s been preaching the gospel, and here’s what it says, “Men of Israel help this man, Paul, who is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law in this place. Moreover, he even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.” Now pause for a second, because that’s not true. He did not actually bring a Greek into the temple, but they are claiming that that’s what he did. Their claim is that Paul took someone who was not Jewish, took him into their sacred holy place. Verse 29 explains it, “For they had previously tr – , trophimous the Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.” So understand, why are they upset?

They are upset because Paul has been hanging out with an Ephesian in Greek named Trophimus. They’ve been walking around the city together. They’re, they’re, they’re close buds. And then when Paul shows up into the temple courtyard, they assume that he’s brought Trophimus with him. It says, “Then all the city was stirred up and the people ran together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple. And at once the gates were shut, and as they were seeking to kill him, word came to the Tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. He at once took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. And when they saw the Tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. Then the Tribune came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains.” Paul is arrested. Then it’s a, it’s a multi-month process of him getting on a boat, being taken to Rome.

Eventually, he sits there for years in prison in Rome and he writes a bunch of different letters, including this letter right here. And so for Paul, when, when he talks about this dividing wall of hostility, it, it’s this real tangible thing that he had experienced that, that he, just by being associated with Trophimus, that they were so concerned that the Trophamus had breached this wall, that they beat Paul. They were beating him to almost the point of death, and then he gets arrested. And the reason he is arrested is because they assume that this physical barrier had been crossed, that someone was not supposed to cross that physical barrier. And what is Paul writing? Paul’s writing that that physical barrier, because of Jesus, he says, “It is gone.” And by it being gone, he says, “Thereby killing the hostility.” He, he says, “Okay, this group of people that because of race, be- because of that, they did not like each other.

They hated each other.” He’s saying that the wall is gone because of Jesus and because the wall is g- gone, thereby it’s killed the hostility that in Jesus, the thing that brings us together is not because I’m a great person and you’re a great person, it’s not because we’re trying hard, it’s not because we’re just setting aside our differences, it’s because we recognize that Jesus is more important. And if I in my life will bend the knee to Jesus, it changes everything if you will also bend the knee to Jesus. You see the cross, it reconciles us to God, but there’s an end to it. And the cross makes us family with one another. And we talk a lot about how God has redeemed us to himself through the cross, and that is true and it’s, it’s beautiful and it’s amazing, but in doing so, he has also redeemed us together as the family.

And that’s what we see at the very end of this chapter, that Jesus turns strangers into family. The people that were far off from God, God has broken down the barriers. He’s killed the hostility. And, and not just that, not just so that, well, hey, we can be cordial, but instead, even deeper than that, that we can be family. Look what it says in verse 19. It says, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.” That, that idea of the household of God, that, that for us, probably if you’ve been around church, you, you’ve heard that language. Yeah, church is a family with a household of God, but for the first century, that was radical thinking that, that your family, you are so much more loyal to your family than anybody else.

And, and he is saying, “Hey, in Christ, that’s who you become. The other Christians are part of the family.” And then in verse 22, he says, “In him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit.” Imagine if you’re Trophimus, Trophimus was that guy that was hanging out with Paul. It tells us in Acts 21 that he was an Ephesian. So, so it’s highly likely that Trophamus, as part of the church at Ephesus, would have heard this letter. And, and Trophimus knew that he wasn’t allowed on the other side of that barrier,

So, so he, he could look

At the temple and probably

A lot of his life, he looked at

The temple and he had wondered and he had heard, well, God’s presence is in the temple.

But as he’s

Hearing this letter, here’s what he understands, that, that

Jesus, when he dies

On the cross,

That, that it tells us that the, the curtain

That divides Why did

The

Holy holies inside the temple? It’s torn.

Why is it torn?

Because something radical changes because of

Jesus,

That the presence of God,

Which before Jesus

Was in a physical location, now

Because of Jesus, that the presence

Of God is no longer in a physical location, it’s in us.

That because of Jesus, that we

Become the temple of God. And it’s not that I’m the temple and you are not. No, anyone who is a Christian, you

Are the temple. So

For Trophamus, he’s thinking back that maybe even he from the outside was watching his buddy Paul get beat, get beat on his behalf

Because they thought he

Had gone somewhere he

Wasn’t supposed to go.

And now Paul’s saying, “Hey,

That, that barrier that was there before, it

Is gone.” And that barrier no longer

Is

There between you and your relationship

With God, but that barrier is

Also no longer there between you and other people. That

If you love Jesus, that

Is enough.

That the people

Once kept

Outside

Are now not just inside the temple,

They are part of

The temple. And that

Is a

Profound, profound thing. Now here’s the challenge. The challenge in a really big

Church is that

You could just come every single week and you could come to worship and you could never know anybody. And by the way, hey,

That’s okay.

I know for some people like, “Hey, I don’t want anybody to

Talk to me.” But there

Is a design by God for something deeper than that. ,

There’s a handful of elders that we’ve got, , that

They have been a part of a, a community group together, small group together

That started decades ago.

, They’re all in their 60s and 70s.

Decades ago,

It was some moms that were part of mops, and now it’s called Momco. At that time it was Mops, that

They started a Bible study together

And decades

Later, they are still together in a

Bible study. And they would tell

You that, that their life, their closest,

Dearest friends in life that they have been through, through amazing joy and also tremendous heartache is that group of

People.

And, and can I tell you that that doesn’t happen on accident? That happens because they intentionally said, “We want to find community inside this

Place.”

And, and although that’s hard and that’s challenging, can I tell you that that

Is available for you? , There’s a

Book called Atomic Habits, which is a, an amazing book,

, about the habits that we create.

And, and in it,

The author talks

About the challenge of starting new habits

That we often hit a place called the valley of despair. Like we

Expect immediate results and it doesn’t happen so we hit that valley

Of despair and so we quit.

And I think so

Much of how he describes it is also true

Of relationships, of community when we’re trying to build community.

He, he writes this, he says habits

Or in your mind, replace that

With

Relationships often appear to make no difference until you cross

A critical

Threshold and unlock a new level of performance. In the early and middle stages of any quest,

There

Is often a valley of disappointment. You expect to make progress in a linear fashion and it’s frustrating how ineffective changes can seem during the first

Days,

Weeks and even months.

It doesn’t feel like

You are going anywhere.

It’s

A hallmark of any compounding process. The most powerful outcomes are

Delayed.

And that’s true community. And, and so here

Would be the

Question that I would pose to

Everybody. What

Is one specific step that I can take, that you can take

Towards

Living like family with other

Believers? Like it’s great to read about it,

But what does it actually look

Like? ,

Let me give you a few different options. , One option is that this moment, , last week is when we kicked off midweek. So this moment is a great moment and in the, the calendar year to jump into a midweek. So find a women’s Bible study, a men’s Bible study, a Wednesday night class.

Like there are lots

Of different opportunities that we’ve got. So maybe

Pull up the website

Or, or look on your, your phone and, and say, “Okay, I’m gonna jump into class.” Today we have Sunday Fun Day. And so as soon as we are done, there’s a natural urge to say, “I’m gonna get out to my car as fast as I can.” I, I know some of you,

Like you’re about to leave,

Like right now, like you’re gonna try and beat the crowd because I ate to my car.

I gotta get out of this place. And so what if today

You say, “Hey, I’m gonna go hang out.” And, and there’s a part of that

That’s slightly

Awkward and slightly hard.

But if

You’re willing to invest, there’s something that can happen. The, the last step that I would challenge you for,

, is

We are trying to launch more connect groups. Hey, here’s what a connect group is.

It,

It’s a group that meets on Sunday morning. It’s like a Sunday school class

If, if you’re old school like

That. They meet on Sunday morning every single week. And we, we get asked a question all the time, “Hey, do you have a connect group for fill in the blank? Hey,

We’re,

We’re newlyweds

Or

We’ve got young kids or we’re empty nesters or I’m single.” And so here

W – is what I would ask.

If you are interested in being a part of a connect group, we’re about to launch a bunch of new connect groups. Here’s how we’re gonna do that. , We’re gonna ask you to fill out a form of interest to say, “I’m interested in a connect group.” We’re

Gonna take

People that are in the same general demographic of

Life. So like you both

Have junior high kids

And we’ll get a whole group of those people together.

We’ll do a launch party and then we’ll, we’ll, we’ll find some leaders and try and start classes. Or

We’ll say, “Hey, we already have a class that is

Your exact same demographic.” So if you’re interested, and this doesn’t sign you up for anything, this doesn’t commit you anything, it also doesn’t cost you anything. If you’d say, “Hey, I’m intrigued

By that,” a few

Different ways you can sign up. One, you, you can use the QR code on the screen right now. , You also can use the QR code in the seat back in front of you. You also can tap the seat back in front of you. You can also go to the

App. You’ll

Also get an email this week. So there’s like nine ways that we are gonna send you the exact same form. So all you gotta do is click on it and say, okay, hey, I’ll fill it out. Give us your name, your, your, your kinda info, and then what we’ll do is we’ll sort that and we will try and get you connected to a class. And here’s what’s gonna happen if you go to a class. The first time you go, it’s gonna feel uncomfortable and it’s gonna feel awkward. And you, and you’re gonna go for a month and you’re gonna think, well, after a month, these are gonna be my best friends in the whole wide world. But just like habits, that’s not gonna be the case. It’s still gonna feel awkward and uncomfortable. But if you will stick with it, you’ll wake up one day and you will say, these are the closest relationships in life.

And when I walk through the valley, these people will be there to hold my hand figuratively and sometimes literally. And that’s what the body of Christ is supposed to do. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, God, I thank you so much for today. , God, my, my prayer for us is that we, we would be a, a church that has torn down those walls of community or <laugh> the walls of hostility in order to create community. , God, help us to, , to lay aside pride and ego and just all the things that our world constantly is trying to do to divide us. Help us to be a people from all different backgrounds, all different races, all different cultures, all different socioeconomic classes that we are united by one thing and that is our love for you. Help us to be distinct, help us to be different.

Name the Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen.