What to Remember and What to Forget. (Ephesians 2: 11-22)

This Podcast is part of a 10-year project to complete an in-depth, daily study of the entire Bible, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. 

Episode Notes: What to Remember and What to Forget. (Ephesians 2: 11-22)

Now, as we move into the second half of this chapter, Paul does something very pastoral, very human, and very necessary. He asks a question. A question that every Christian, in every generation, needs to hear:

 How is your memory?

 Because Paul knows something we often forget:  The Christian life is not only shaped by what we believe, but by what we remember.

So, in this next passage, Paul gently takes the church by the shoulders and says: “Remember.”

This is a passage about identity, but it is also a passage about unity, reconciliation, and belonging. It is about the God who takes strangers and makes them citizens, who takes enemies and makes them family, who takes scattered stones and builds them into a temple.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Welcome back, friends. It's a joy to have you with me again as we continue our journey through Paul's letter to the Ephesians as part of our whole journey through the whole Bible, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. Now, in the last couple of days, in the last couple of episodes, we've been swimming in very deep waters indeed. The waters of Ephesians 2, verses 1 to 10. Those breathtaking verses that I spent a couple of days in. The verses that take us from death to life, from wrath to mercy, from bondage to freedom, and from who you were, to the button eye of look what God has done. But now as we move into the second half of this chapter, Paul does something very pastoral, very human, but also very necessary. He asks a question a question that every Christian in every generation needs to ask, and that is how's your memory? Because Paul knows that sometimes we're inclined to forget. The Christian life is not only shaped by what we believe, but by what we remember. And when we forget who we were, we lose our gratitude, and when we forget what Christ has done, we lose our humility, and when we forget that we were once outsiders brought near by grace, we lose our love for others because of our inability to recognize that they are now where we once were. So in the next passage, Paul is going to take the church by the shoulders, look them in the eyes, and say, Remember. Remember who you were, remember where you came from. Remember how far off from God you once stood. Remember that dividing wall that once separated you. Remember the hostility that once defined you and your fellow human beings. Remember the peace that Christ has now made. Remember the new family He has created for you. Remember the access you now have to the Father. Remember to the house you now belong to, remember the community to which you now belong, and remember the cornerstone on which your life now rests. This is a passage about her identity. But it's also a passage about unity, reconciliation, and belonging. It's about how God takes strangers. It's about how God takes those who are strangers to him and makes them citizens, who takes enemies and makes them part of his family, who takes scattered individual living stones and builds them into a temple. So before we go any further, before we explore the richness of the idea, let's just hear the words. Words written to a divided world, words written to a fractured church, and words written to remind us of who we are in Christ. Let's remember together as we listen now to Ephesians 2, verses 11-22 in today's episode of our journey through the whole Bible. I'm delighted you've decided to join me today. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who were once far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one, and who has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations, his purpose was to create in himself one new humanity, out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he has put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near. For through him we now both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people, and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, and with Christ Himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple to the Lord, and in him you two are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit. So this passage is really about the spiritual importance of memory, both forgetting what we need to forget and remembering what we need to remember. Now apparently there are three medical signs of mental decline in old age. The first one is memory loss, but I can't remember what the other two are. You're welcome. We all forget things, don't we? That's the reality. As a schoolboy, I forgot my homework more than once. As a teenager, well shall I say I forgot to make my bed most days. And as an older man, I often forget where I put my keys, sometimes even leaving them in the door. Perhaps you've forgotten a loved one's birthday, or perhaps even more dangerous, your wedding anniversary. Or maybe you've walked out of the supermarket and had absolutely no idea you can't remember where you parked the car. What would we do without the little beep and the lights flashing on the car alarm? We all do it. We forget. Robert Louis Evanson once said, I have a great memory for forgetting things, but there are some things God says he does not want us to forget. In fact, several times in the Bible, God specifically says, Remember this. And Ephesians 2, 11 to 22 is one of those passages. And Paul begins with two simple words. He says, Therefore remember. So this is not a suggestion, it's not being positioned as a sort of gentle nudge. It's been stated as a fact, a command almost. The text is about to tell us something that God wants us to hold on to, to keep in front of us, and to never lose sight of, because spiritual forgetfulness is one of the great dangers of the Christian life. Paul divides the passage into three sections. It's a sort of before and after picture. Firstly, he shows us who we were in verses 11 and 12. Then he showed us where we are now in verses 13 to 18. And then he demonstrates what we are becoming in verses 19 to 22. It's a before and after picture of a spiritual transformation story. And Paul begins with the before, and he says, Remember that formerly you were Gentiles. In other words, remember who you were before Christ found you. Remember that you're not part of the people to whom God had made his original covenant promise. Now a covenant is an unbreakable sacred promise, and God made such a promise to Abraham that he would bless him, give him descendants, give him a land, and bless the whole world through him. That means that God's word would come through the Jewish people initially. And the Messiah would arise out of, come through the Jewish people also, and also the sign of the covenant would be circumcision, the thing that marked them as God's chosen people. And that sign became a dividing line, it became a boundary, a marker of identity. And the Jews saw themselves as the people of the promise. And they saw everyone else outside that covenant, outside the promises of God, outside of God's redemption story. But this is saying, and this is reminding us that before Christ came we were not part of God's covenant people. We didn't know the Messiah, we didn't expect the Messiah, we didn't probably even recognize our need for a Messiah. And then he adds something even more devastating. You were without hope and without God in the world. So we're without God, without Christ, without the promises of God, without the expectation of hope, and ultimately without the presence of God. And this it says is the spiritual condition of every person before they come to Christ. And Paul is saying here, remember that. Don't forget from where you have come, because if you forget who you were, you will never appreciate who you are now. But then the text turns the corner. Those two magnificent words, but now they are the hinge of this whole passage. You were further, you were far away, but now you are near. You were outside, but now you're on the inside. You were strangers, but now you are part of a family. You were without hope, but now you have a living hope, and you were without God, but now you belong to Him. And how did this happen? Not by effort, not by religion, not by heritage. It says it happened by the blood of Christ. The cross is the bridge, the doorway. The cross is the invitation and the welcome at. Christ shed his blood to bring us near to God. It's about having peace with God and peace with one another. And verse 14 says Christ Himself is our peace. Not he gives us peace, although he does that, not he teaches peace, although he does that, not he models peace, although he certainly did that. It says he is our peace. Peace is not a feeling, you see. Peace is a person. And what does this peace do? It has made all of us as one. It has broken down that dividing wall of hostility and has created a new humanity, and he has reconciled both groups of people to God. This is astonishing, friends. The cross not only reconciles us to God, but it also recognizes all humanity to one another. And the hostility between the Jew and the non-Jew in Paul's day had lasted for centuries up to that point, but it was broken down, broken through at the cross. The dividing wall, something literal in the temple, symbolic in the culture, was torn down. Christ did not create two churches. There isn't a Jewish church and a Gentile church. He created one new community, one new humanity. One body, one family, one people, one church, made up of all tribes, all nations, all languages, all backgrounds. The cross is the great equalizer and unifier. It is the great reconciler between man and man and man and God. And Paul is describing something completely brand new here, a new community born at the cross. Now today we call it church. Paul, interestingly, calls it the body of Christ. So this is not a club or a social group. This is a whole new humanity, a people formed by the work and the cross, united by the Spirit and reconciled to the Father. The church is not built on any shared culture or values or background, and it's certainly not built on any shared political preferences. It is built on Christ. And in Christ, the walls can come tumbling down. The walls between Jew and Gentile, the walls between races, the walls between classes, between cultures, between people of different backgrounds, even between the genders, the walls between people who would never naturally be together, while the cross tears them down and builds something new, a family, a family of God. So this text is showing us not only who we were, but who we are now and how Christ has brought this peace. This is nothing less here than a new type of community, something the world had never seen before up to this point. Because the text is moving from what Christ has done to what Christ has created. This is significant because the New Testament is not simply the story of individual salvation, it is also the story of the birth of this new community. And Paul wants us to see that this new community is not Jewish people becoming Gentiles, nor is it Gentiles becoming Jewish. No, something far more radical is happening here. God has created something entirely new. This is not a renovation of the old, this is a brand new creation and a new way of everyone having direct access to the Father in heaven. A privilege that is described here is beyond measure. The text says he came and preached peace to you, you who are far away, and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. This is breathtaking, friends, because through Christ, by the Spirit, we now have direct access to the Father. Not through priests anymore, not through rituals, not through sacrifices, not through a temple religious system, not through any system, through Christ. The one who himself dwells in us by his spirit is the one who has opened the way for every believer, not just to come to the Father, but to come boldly to the Father. This is saying it doesn't matter how far off you once were, it doesn't matter how close you thought you were, and it doesn't matter what background you come from, it doesn't matter at all what your past was like. In Christ we all stand on the same level ground, and we all come through the same door. We all have the same access because we all belong to one family. We are fellow citizens, but we are also family. We're brothers and sisters of one single household of faith, and that is what he wants us to remember. But now the text reaches the great therefore moment. This is the conclusion of everything he's been saying. In verse 19 he says, Therefore, or consequently, in some translations, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household. No longer foreigners, outsiders' friends, no longer strangers from God, fellow citizens and members of his household, part of the family of God, nothing less than that. You're not on the outside looking in anymore, you're not a guest in God's house, you're not even just a visitor in God's kingdom. You belong there because you're part of the family, and beyond that, you're precious to him. And it continues to tell us that that community is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, and with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone. The church is not built on human ideas or ideologies, it's not built on the shifting sands of culture, it's not even built on tradition of religion, nor should it be built on personalities. It's built on the apostles, the prophets, and now Christ Himself, who is the cornerstone. And the cornerstone is the stone that defines the shape and holds the structure together. And Christ is the cornerstone of this, the church, his family, his community. But he is also meant to be the cornerstone of our individual lives. He is the cornerstone of your very identity. Everything must align with him, and everything indeed depends on him, and everything is held together by him. And here, in this text, Paul gives us one of the most astonishing images in the New Testament when it says, In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. Now in the Old Testament, God dwelt in the tabernacle. Later he would dwell in the temple itself. But now it says after Christ has ascended and the Spirit has descended among his people, God now dwells in his people. Not in the building, not in the structure, not in a geographical place. God dwells in the worldwide Christian community and its expression in the local church and in the individual believers within that local church. And it tells us, and in him you two are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit. Wow, this is mind-boggling. This is saying God dwells amongst us. He dwells in his church, but he also dwells in you. In you. We are the temple, we are the dwelling place of God, we are the home of God's Spirit. And the text is saying, remember that, remember this. Do not forget who you are. So the message on one level is simple, but it's vitally important. You need to remember who you were, you need to remember who you are now, you need to remember what Christ has done, remember what you have become, remember that you are now precious to God and that you belong to his family, and remember that you are his dwelling place on the earth. You who were far off have now been brought near. You who lived without any hope have now become a living hope. You who were without God now has God Himself living in you, and you who were a stranger are now part of his family. You were an outsider, but you're now a citizen, but more than that, you're part of his family. You were lost, but now you have been found and brought home. And Paul says, Don't forget this, because this is what God wants you to remember here. We're not valuable because what we're made of or what we do, we're valuable because of who we belong to. And we belong to God, and we are his and we are precious to him. And this passage is saying, never forget that. Remember not just who you are, but remember whose you are. Remember who you were, remember who you are now, remember what Christ has done, and remember that you belong to God because you are precious in his sight. And next time we're going to explore this even further as we press on through this book. We look even further at how remembering can shape our lives, our identity, and our sense of unity with other people, and indeed will shape our lives together as the very people of God. And I look forward to sharing that with you. But until then, may the Lord bless you and keep you, and may His Spirit remind you daily of who you really are in Christ. Remember Him and remember that. Okay, that's it for today. If you're new to this, may I recommend that you subscribe and join us in this journey through the whole Bible, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. You can of course do that wherever you get your podcasts from. And if you'd like to go back to the very beginning and do the whole project, then we are 21 seasons in, believe it or not. 1300 episodes. Now you can go back to the start and begin and do the whole thing at whatever pace works for you. Now, some of the podcast providers out there won't, will not keep or enable you to access the full back catalogue. 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