Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Ephesians 2:13-22
Pastor: Pastor Berg
Sermon Date:  July 25, 2021

The Berlin Wall used to split the city of Berlin in two. And not only did it divide the city, but it divided the nation of Germany. On the East side of the wall was East Germany and communism and a completely different world. Under the red curtain of the Soviet Union, people in East Germany didn’t enjoy the privileges that their neighbors did on the other side of the wall. Because of the strict governmental control, the East Germans didn’t have access to the same choices in food, clothing, automobiles, nor were they able to find the lowest prices on the free market. Even though these people were from the same background and the same cultural heritage, they were living drastically different lives all because of the wall. And that was the other thing. The wall not only kept the free market out, it kept people in. They weren’t allowed to go west. They weren’t allowed to go over the wall. And the most terrible thing about that wall: Christianity wasn’t allowed to come in. The Good News of Jesus wasn’t welcome on the East side of the wall. 

Every single person in the world is born with a wall in their hearts that separates them from God. By nature, we’re God’s enemies. By nature, we don’t mind at all that there’s a wall there. In fact, we’re perfectly content to be separated from the freedom on the other side of the wall, the freedom that God gives, because we don’t know what that freedom is. We don’t want to go over the wall and even if we wanted to, we couldn’t. But obviously, we’ve gotten through the wall, right? We’re close to God. We’re in his house as his invited guests. So how did God bring about this change? How did he bring us close to himself? 

“But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Paul originally wrote these words to the primarily Gentile audience in the congregation in Ephesus. Like us, the Ephesians were formerly far away from God. They were separate from Christ. They were far away from the covenant God made with the children of Israel and God’s plan of salvation. But all of that has changed. Notice what Paul says: “you who once were far away have been brought near…” It wasn’t the Ephesians who had done anything, but instead they were brought near. It was all God’s doing–and it cost him a tremendous price. That change could only come about “by the blood of Christ.” By the blood of Christ, the formerly far away Gentile believers had been brought near, so close that now they are in Christ Jesus. These outsiders are not part of God’s Church! Everything we’ve just said about the formerly far away Gentile believers can be said of us! We were formerly far away from God. We were on the outside looking in. But God brought us close by the blood of Jesus, so close in fact that now we are in Christ, we are part of God’s Church.

What Paul has just described is really the transition from the Old Testament to the New Testament. The Old Testament describes God’s covenant, his plan of salvation through the lens of the children of Israel. It was the children of Israel God brought to the land of Canaan in the person of Abraham. It was the children of Israel that God preserved and prospered in Egypt. It was Israel that God brought back to Canaan and gave them the land. And it was through Israel that God sent Jesus. But now that Jesus has come, God’s focus has changed. The New Testament is no longer focused on physical Israel, but spiritual Israel. So how did God accomplish the change from the Old Testament to the New Testament? 

“For he himself is our peace. He made the two groups one by destroying the wall of hostility that divided them when he abolished the law of commandments and regulations in his flesh. He did this to create in himself one new person out of the two, in this way making peace.” The dividing wall of hostility came tumbling down! And what was that wall of hostility? Paul says it was the law of commandments and regulations.

Now, whenever we see that word “law” used, we need to ask ourselves, “What use of ‘law’ are we talking about?” Israel had three different kinds of laws in the Old Testament: Moral, Civil, and Ceremonial. The Moral Law is summarized in the Ten Commandments and those laws certainly apply not only to Israel but to all people of all time. However, the other two kinds of laws, the Civil and Ceremonial, were only binding on Israel. Those laws were part of God’s plan to keep Israel separate from the rest of the world. They were a wall that kept Israel safe from heathen influences. Those rules and regulations not only kept Israel safe, but they also bred a great deal of ill will and hatred between the Jews and Gentiles. Those laws became a wall of hostility that divided them. 

But those laws were only meant to keep Israel safe until Jesus came. When Jesus came and when he kept all of those laws perfectly, he accomplished their purpose. When he declared, “It is finished,” from the cross, he not only mean that our salvation was complete, but that the usefulness of these laws were finished. “In his flesh,” by his perfect obedience, Jesus destroyed that barrier. But why? Why did God do it?

“And he did this to reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by putting the hostility to death on it.”  God did it to create his Church. One of Paul’s favorite pictures in describing the Church is the picture of a body. Christ is the head and the Church is the body. We can see hints of that picture here. God’s purpose was to create a new man, a new body, one new body out of two. These Jews and Gentiles, these mortal enemies would come together and become the Church. How would God do that? Before God could repair the relationship between the Jews and the Gentiles, he had to repair the relationship between himself and all people. That’s what Paul is talking about when he says: “to reconcile both to God in one body through the cross…” Jesus paid for the sins of the whole world on the cross. His sacrifice repaired the broken relationship between God and mankind. God and mankind were enemies because of sin. But when Jesus took that sin away, he repaired the relationship. He made mankind into children of God. And it was that reconciliation, that repaired relationship that laid the groundwork for their reconciliation to one another. The two would become one and they would live in peace as one body. And what are the results of Christ’s work? “He also came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.” Jesus’ work brings peace. Jesus’ work brings peace equally to both Jew and Gentile because through Jesus both have access to the Father through the same Spirit.

No matter who you are or where you come from or what you’ve been through or will go through, you have been reconciled to God through the work of Jesus. All of us are equal in God’s eyes. We’re all part of the same Holy Christian Church. We’re part of this local body of believers called Eastside Lutheran. And because of sin, sometimes there’s conflict in the body. We don’t always see eye to eye. And again, because of sin, sometimes that conflict grows into hostility, even walls of hostility. But we have an advantage in solving those differences, in finding peace again in the body, in bringing those walls tumbling down.

“So then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household. You have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the Cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you too are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” No longer on the outside looking in, we’re all part of the body of Christ. We’ve been reconciled to God through the cross of Christ. We’re members of the same family with the same foundation.

And that’s all we need to bring the walls of hostility tumbling down. No matter who you are, no matter how long you’ve been here, no matter how you got here, you have one thing in common with everyone else here. We can solve any problem we have because we have Christ as our cornerstone. We have the pure Word of God. We’re starting on the same page. We go to the same Father through the same Spirit for all our needs. And it’s on the everlasting foundation of God’s Word, the good news about Jesus, that we can continue to grow God’s Church. The events of the past couple of years have threatened to divide us, to build those walls of hostility. Let’s tear them down! Let those walls come tumbling down as we build this house to be a place where God is pleased to dwell. For Christ is all in all. Amen