ESC preaching pastor Houston Tucker guides an exploration of Jesus' role in connecting us with God—a key theme in Ephesians. We'll delve into the joy of baptisms, the strength of family unity, and how I've grappled with Paul's complex teachings, inspired by Tim Keller. Together, we'll trace biblical history from ancient rituals to modern spiritual commitments, understanding our shared need for grace.
Imagine we're building a spiritual house where each of us is a stone shaped by God. In this discussion, we reflect on how personal growth helps build God's temple—ourselves. Witness how qualities like love, patience, and self-control develop in us, strengthening our community of believers.
In the final part of our journey, we focus on the hope and reassurance God's promises provide, especially valuable in uncertain times. Whether you're doubting or seeking affirmation, this episode is a source of encouragement. Let’s find solace in God's enduring victory and love. Join me in this uplifting episode to anchor your faith amid these challenging times.
ESC preaching pastor Houston Tucker guides an exploration of Jesus' role in connecting us with God—a key theme in Ephesians. We'll delve into the joy of baptisms, the strength of family unity, and how I've grappled with Paul's complex teachings, inspired by Tim Keller. Together, we'll trace biblical history from ancient rituals to modern spiritual commitments, understanding our shared need for grace.
Imagine we're building a spiritual house where each of us is a stone shaped by God. In this discussion, we reflect on how personal growth helps build God's temple—ourselves. Witness how qualities like love, patience, and self-control develop in us, strengthening our community of believers.
In the final part of our journey, we focus on the hope and reassurance God's promises provide, especially valuable in uncertain times. Whether you're doubting or seeking affirmation, this episode is a source of encouragement. Let’s find solace in God's enduring victory and love. Join me in this uplifting episode to anchor your faith amid these challenging times.
This is the word of the Lord. Good morning everyone. I love this. I love to be together with some people celebrating a really special day, a really special thing. I love to see families coming in celebrate kids being baptized. It's really beautiful. My name is Houston. I'm one of the pastors here.
Speaker 1:You know I'm excited to preach this passage to you today and also a little nervous. I'll just say that right off the bat. You know we're in this series on the book of Ephesians and we're calling this series Renewed and you see that in your bulletin there's a cool graphic there, ben made, and as a way of reminder, ephesians is a book that Paul wrote, a letter that Paul wrote late in his life, later in his life, and it was a letter made to circulate, so it was designed just to circulate to people, and so the result is that it's kind of a generic letter. It was not written to a specific group and so we don't see a lot of the usual hallmarks of that. We don't see a lot of Paul giving specific messages to specific people and instead we had a lot of generic things. And generically does not mean unimportantly. That's really key here and the big theme of this whole book, the main theme is that in Christ, god has made us a new people, and what we see from our passage today that Tim just read, is this is one of the places where Paul develops this theme the most, and he develops a really key part of this theme. But here's the deal. I don't know what you experienced when Tim read it. This is a dense passage Does anyone have the experience of? I have no idea what's going on here. Me, I can raise my hand me when I first heard it. So here's the deal. Me, I can raise my hand to me when I first heard it. So here's the deal.
Speaker 1:When I sermon prep, I research, take a lot of notes, think through things, and what I like to do is I like to see what other preachers that I respect have done, make sure I'm kind of on the right track, make sure I'm not going crazy out here. And so a pastor I really appreciate, really respect his name, is Tim Keller. He was a pastor in New York for like 25 years and what I found is that Pastor Keller preached 24 sermons on this passage in his career. And here's the deal. You might think that I'm saying he preached this passage 24 times. No, he preached 24 distinct sermons on this passage. If you add all that up, that is somewhere around 13 hours of sermon, and somehow I have to do it in three. Just kidding, some of you know me and you had like the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. You're like three hours. No, we will, god willing, not be here that long.
Speaker 1:But what this says to me it confirms something that I was finding in my study is that this is a dense passage. There is a lot going on here. There is so much still going on here that we could be at this all day and just scratch the surface, and so what I'm going to do is I'm going to pull out one theme, a theme that I think is very core to this passage, but one theme nonetheless, and we see it most clearly in verse 14. It says, for he himself, meaning Jesus is our peace. That is the main idea I'm going to pull out today that Jesus is our peace. And that means that if Jesus is our peace, it means that we must be in need of peace. We'll find out that, apart from Jesus, that's true we are desperately in need of peace, and Paul talks about this need for peace with an image, a metaphor, of being far away. In verse 12, he says that before Jesus, we were separated from God, we were alienated from his people, we were strangers to his promises, and the result is that we were hopeless and godless. You can see that this language drives home an idea that being apart from God is destructive. There's a lot of consequences. Therefore, it's really good news that Jesus is our peace, that he brought us near to God, that he made us his people, and what I want us to see is that the picture here, especially in this passage, is that it's actually something like a war, like we were members of another community and our people are at war with God. There's hostility between us and Jesus in his mercy. He took us out of that and he brought us his enemies. He brought his enemies near and he made us his own people.
Speaker 1:It reminds me of a wonderful movie called the Last Samurai. I knew Val would respond to that. Out of everybody, I could sense it. Do you guys know this movie? The Last Samurai, tom Cruise movie? Here's the deal. First of all and I'm sorry, 21 years ago, guys, this came out Everybody, I'm sorry. So great movie, very cool.
Speaker 1:The movie is all about this man named Nathan Algren, played by Tom Cruise, and he's an American military officer late 1800s, and at this time Japan is in a big transition. Nationally, they're going from being this kind of feudal state to a national imperial government, and there's a lot of changes happening. And one of the things that's happening is that the emperor is like trying to modernize Japan, trying to bring it up to date, and consequently he's disrupting a lot of the traditional Japanese way of life. And so what happens is a group of samurai who were once a part of the army defect and they start a rebellion because the emperor is disrupting too much of their lives. And so, you know, the imperial army has lost a lot of its firepower, you could say, or sword power, and they start recruiting peasants to come serve in the army. But they need someone to train them, and that's where Tom Cruise comes in. They bring in Nathan Algiers to come train the soldiers, prepare them for battle, and in their very first battle, which happens way too early, they're all defeated.
Speaker 1:Tom Cruise is the only survivor of this army, of this force that's gone to battle, and the samurai capture him and they take him back to their village and then, while he's in their village, you know, there's all kinds of hostility because he's a prisoner of war, he represents the enemy in so many ways. You can imagine that the animosity between Cruz and these people in this village. But then over time, you know, nathan Algren begins to win the leader over and then he falls in love with one of the women there and come to find out it's not just any woman, she's the sister of the village chief. And then eventually they get together and become a family. And slowly this picture comes up where Cruz has gone from being an enemy of these people to being close to these people, to being a part of these people. And the movie all builds to the scene where Tom Cruz, you know, has been trained in the way of the samurai and he goes to battle with the other samurai and dies fighting alongside them. Super cool, super awesome story. And what I really love about this picture or about this movie is that it shows us a powerful picture of how someone can go from being an enemy and not just losing hostility but becoming a member, becoming family, and in this he finds a place where he belongs, a place he's never had before, and in that belonging he finds purpose, and it's the same way for us as Christians.
Speaker 1:The idea is that we were all far from God. We were all enemies of God's kingdom, we were hostile to him. But Jesus, in his mercy and love, he's brought us near, he's made us a part of his family and now we belong and have purpose. And so what we're going to do is we're going to unpack this idea. We're going to unpack what Paul says here and we're going to see the main idea again that Christ is our peace. And we're going to see that that plays out in two parts. We have to see first that we were far. We were far from God, far from his people, and we see that Jesus, in his mercy, has brought us near. So we were far. His mercy has brought us near. So we were far and he has brought us near. And what we're going to do is we're going to see what in the world that means. We're going to unpack that and we're going to see why this room full of people in the 21st century America should care about this. So we're going to get into that, but first let's pray.
Speaker 1:God, I thank you for this day. I thank you for this time we get to spend together. Lord, I just pray that, as we open your word and we sit under your word, that you would speak to us, that you teach us what you have for us. God, we're so thankful for this time we get to celebrate people joining your kingdom. And, god, I pray that as we unpack this idea that for those of us who maybe don't know you, that you would win our hearts over, and for those of us who do know you, who do follow you, that you would remind us again what a great story this is and how it still impacts our lives today. We love you, lord, and pray that the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts would be glorifying to you, lord, and pray that the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts will be glorifying to you, lord, our God and Redeemer, amen.
Speaker 1:All right, first thing we're going to talk about is how we were far. So what does it mean that we were far? Well, paul gives us two answers. He says that we were not a part of God's people and we were hostile to God. So by far we mean we were not a part of God's people and we were hostile to God. Let's unpack those. First, what does it mean to say that we were not a part of God's people? We'll look at verses 11 and 12. We'll see what Paul means he says. Therefore, remember that at one time you, gentiles in the flesh, who are called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision which is made in the flesh by the hands, remember you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope without God in the world. So we see, paul starts by talking about circumcision and already we probably all or half of us, have checked out right, because this is weird, and here's my promise to you, it's not that weird. It's a little weird, but it's not that weird. I think it'll make sense to us Because in the Old Testament, circumcision was an important thing.
Speaker 1:It was and it still is for Jewish people today, an important part of what it meant to be God's people. See, a long time ago, back before there were even a Jewish people, there was a man named Abraham, and God met with Abraham and made a promise to him. He said that he would give Abraham a big family and a place to belong and that ultimately, god would be his God and that Abraham's family would be God's people. And in return, he wanted Abraham to commit himself to God. He wanted to serve the Lord, only the Lord, and the Lord would be their God. And the symbol of this agreement was circumcision. And the way that it worked is that this was kind of a seal on the promise, and it's a lot like you or I signing on the dotted line of a contract, so we can say that the signature is not the contract. The signature is what we do to say, yes, I will keep my end of the contract, I commit to this. And so for the Jewish people, since the Stone Age, circumcision was the way that they would say yes, I commit to this relationship, this contract with God. It's how they keep signing on the dotted line.
Speaker 1:And so for Paul to call those of us who are not Jewish the uncircumcised, I want us to see that he's not primarily talking about our ethnic situation, he's not primarily talking about a physical attribute. He's primarily talking about our status with God and being God's people. See, because we never sign on the dotted line, we were never in covenant with God and, as a result, the Lord was not our God, we are not his people. And this is a problem, and it's a problem for many reasons. See, the covenant was where you related to God, it's where you had a relationship with him and, very importantly, it's where you received the blessings of God. That's what Paul is talking about in verse 12.
Speaker 1:So all this tough language he says you are separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the. This is tough language, but essentially he's just getting at one idea. He's saying we were not a part of God's people and didn't get the benefits of being a part of God's people. And in fact, the word that Paul uses see in verse 12, is translated as commonwealth. If we were using this word today, we would say something more like civil rights. It's like these are the things that come along with your citizenship, with your status. So if you're an ancient Roman, you know there are a lot of things that come along with being an ancient Roman. You have a right to a fair trial, you have protection from the government, you know that you can't be tortured by any local governments. These are all things that, if you're a Roman citizen, these are guaranteed to you. They're the promises, the benefits that just come automatically with this.
Speaker 1:But the key is seeing that Paul's talking about that kind of idea, but he's not talking about, like, social civil rights. He's talking about, let's say, spiritual civil rights. See these benefits and blessings that Israel received, not because they're like a geopolitical nation, but because they're God's people. And all throughout the Old Testament we see the ways that God said I promise this to my people. He promises that he's going to take care of them. He promises that he's always going to be with them. He promises that he's always going to be with them. He promises that he'll bless their work, bless their crops. He promises that in the temple he'll always be there so they can meet him. So there's a ton of benefits to being God's people. In the Old Testament and you know, we know, god blessed everybody, not just his people. But this was the place where you get God's, let's say, special blessing.
Speaker 1:And one super important, crucial blessing was God's promises. God promised his people that at the end of the whole story, at the end of everything, that he was going to come and fix it all. He promised that all that death and destruction out there in the world, all this chaos, doesn't have the last word that he does. He promised that he would save them, that he would save them, he would rescue them. And so if you were living in the world and you don't have these promises, man, you look around, you see the world is chaotic and it's continuing in that direction. And what hope do you have that it's going to be different, that is going to change. I think you don't have any, and I think that's why Paul says at the end of 12 that you were hopeless, we were without hope. And we were without hope because, ultimately, we were hostile to God. You could say we were enemies of the state in God's kingdom. And if the promise is that God's going to come back and he's going to win, that's not good news for us, right. But here's the deal, here's the deal, here's the key.
Speaker 1:This hostility, this problem, man, it ran deeper than the lines between jew and gentile, because the reality is that, even though the, the jewish people, were god's covenant people, they were in the same boat. They were hostile to God too. You've been talked about this. Last week, paul described it that we were once dead and that we've been made alive in Christ, and that is a blanket statement. Humanity was once dead, humanity was once dead. He's saying that everybody, jew, gentile, everybody is a sinner and therefore not in a good way. I mean it means that despite all of the civil rights, the spiritual civil rights Israel had, they were in that same boat with us. They were fundamentally in the same people. They were estranged from God and spiritually dead. And that's because the problem predates the people. It predates Abraham.
Speaker 1:It goes all the way back to the beginning, to the first humans, and the first humans said to God I don't want anything to do with you, I'm going to do it my way. It was a rebellion. It was right at the beginning, separating off and becoming that foreign people group and immediately declaring war. And so the idea from this passage is that it doesn't matter if you are far I guess Gentiles or, quote, near like the Jewish people were, because far and estranged or near and estranged, everyone's estranged. It doesn't matter, we're all in the same boat, we're all hostile enemies of God, and God's going to come back and win.
Speaker 1:And that does not feel like good news. But there is good news, the good news that it doesn't end there. The good news is that we have been brought near Because in being brought near by Jesus, he's reconciled us to God, and that's exactly what Jesus did on the cross. Look at verses 13 through 16. It says but now, in Christ Jesus, you who are far off that's us have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he himself is our peace, that's us ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in the place of two, so making peace and guys, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. There's a lot here. There's a lot here, but I want to just put out one idea. One of the things that Jesus accomplished on the cross is that he took those of us who were far from God and he took those who were near and made us into one people, his people, his special people, his followers. He took down that barrier that divided us, that made us distinct and different and distinguished, and he made a new group. And here's what he did After forming this new people, jesus went to work. He went to work, he went as a representative of his followers, of this new group, to the cross and then died. And here's the deal.
Speaker 1:A lot of times, when we talk about the gospel, when we talk about Jesus' death on the cross, we can focus on just this aspect of Jesus paying the debt for our sins, and that's good, that's important. But look, paul is drawing out another aspect of this altogether. He's saying that Jesus took that hostility, the animosity that was between us and God, and he internalized it us and God and he internalized it. It says that he became our hostility. You could say he is the embodiment of our enmity with God. And then he died and he killed that enmity, he destroyed it on the cross, and the result is that this new group of people is no longer at war Because he killed the war, he destroyed the war, and now it's like we're like Tom Cruise and we're not just in the group near the group, we're a part of the group, we're a part of this family of God, we're his people now, and so the question is what is he doing with us now that we are his people? This is key. I've said a lot of things are key. Maybe this is the real key thing.
Speaker 1:A lot of us can treat the moment of conversion, can treat this time of baptism like this is the climax or the end of the story. But here's the deal. It's not. This is the beginning. It's the beginning of a brand new story, because Jesus has reconciled us to God in order to build something great. And that's what Paul says at the end of our passage, verses 19 through 22. He says you are no longer strangers and aliens, but your fellow citizens with the saints Not only citizens, but members of the household of God, and built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. And Jesus is the cornerstone in whom it all is being joined together and is growing into a holy temple in the Lord. In him also, you are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. You see, paul says that now, through Jesus, we've been made into God's people, and not just that, we've been made into his household.
Speaker 1:And you know Paul does a little play on words here. Pretty neat. The word household the first century, you know it refers to everyone that you would call your quote house, like it would mean your kids, your spouse. It also would mean any extended family that lives with you or lives near you. It would also mean any servants or any employees. Everyone that was attached to your life is your household. So the picture here is that we have been brought in and made a part of this beautiful family. But then he plays off of that. He says we're not just a household, we're a house. And that's weird, but really cool, I think, because it turns out that the end goal for this thing was not just to become a part of the family, but to now have a role in the family.
Speaker 1:He wants to build us into something. Specifically, paul says he wants to build us into a holy temple. Now, again, this might feel like strange language, it might not connect with us, but here's what he means. Feel like strange language, it might not connect with us, but here's what he means. Being built into the temple, I think, means a lot of things here, but we'll pull out two. First, the temple is the place where God lives, and second, the temple is the place where people meet God, and so what that means is that God's people, christians, are now the place where God lives and the place where people meet God, and so that means a lot of things, too many things, maybe 13 hours worth of things.
Speaker 1:But here's what I think it means for us, this group, today. Some of you are getting baptized today, and that is so exciting. We're here for it, literally here for it. But here's the deal. You can't think of this time as the climax or the end. This is the beginning, because, remember, as the climax or the end, this is the beginning. This is the beginning Because, remember, you're participating in a symbol, a symbol of what Jesus has done for you. You're going down in the water and you're being washed clean by the blood, you're being buried with Christ so that you can raise with him a lot of things. But all of that you're being made into a new person, and this new person has a role. He's got a role. He or she has a role in this community, in the church, because if you think about this image of God building a house, it's like you are now a brick, a very special and good brick, but a brick nonetheless, and God is building this house out of all of us. And here's the deal you have got a place where you fit in and you've got people that you fit in with.
Speaker 1:And the tough thing about this but ultimately good thing is that God wants to build something really beautiful. He wants to build a really special house for himself, and so that means that we all come in as very jagged, very misshapen let's say, clunky bricks, and God is doing this work of refining us and shaping us into pieces that fit together. And that's hard. That's hard because it means that we're constantly being refined as christians so that we can fit into this big thing that god's making. And so tangibly that means that, man, in your life as a christian, you are going to experience god growing you and shaping you and refining you. And it will hurt sometimes, it will be hard, but it's really good because what God is doing is he's making you more loving and he's making you more patient and he's making you more self-controlled All of those great fruit of the Spirit. He's making you a better version of yourself so that you can fit into this community that you're a part of and so that all of us together can represent this beautiful thing that God has done. And ultimately, the goal is that this house that he's building, because he's put all this work into it, it's going to be sturdy, it's going to be strong, and that life is going to throw all kinds of storms at us. You don't need me to tell you that, but because of this work that God's doing, it is strong enough to withstand these storms, withstand these hard times. So lean in, lean into this process. It's a long process, but it's's a good, it's a really good one.
Speaker 1:And and finally, you know, like I said, god's temple is the place where people meet god, and and that means that christians are being made into a space where people can meet God, and that means that when we spend time with people other Christians, non-christians that we are figuratively a space where people can meet God, and that doesn't mean that we are supposed to be God to them or be perfect or have it all figured out. That's not you, that's not our job, that's too much to put on ourselves. What I think that means is that when people meet us and they spend time with us, we want them to see the work that God is doing in us, see all that stuff I just said about being formed and refined into these useful bricks. I think that's the work that we're showing to people. I think it's a lot like when you're remodeling your house and someone comes in and it's like okay, this place is a mess, yes, but you should have seen it before. And it's like you know, you go in this part and you say look at this wall, it's a great wall. And they're like yeah, it's a wall, what are you talking about. You're like no, no, no, it used to be just a bead curtain and good vibes, but now this is a useful structural thing that is supporting the roof, it protects me, and so, maybe more tangibly, we show the ways that God has changed us and has changed our lives, has given us a foundation to stand on, has protected us, has guided us, has made us into a more beautiful thing. This is what we want to show to people. It's not that we're done Lord knows we're not but it's that God is doing great work. And the hope is that when we show this work, when we say, hey, look, you should have seen this place before someone goes, hey, that sounds a lot like me and what I had, that sounds a lot like the kind of work that I need done. And the hope is that someone would see that and say, man, I got to get this God too. And it brings us to the last thing.
Speaker 1:If that's you, if you don't know Jesus or he's not at work in your life, man, I want to encourage you. He does great work, he does great things, he takes these wreck of people like me and he does a lot of great work. And man being God's temple means that God is never, ever going to give up on that temple. He's never going to give up on this group. And if you want someone who's never going to give up on this group, and if you want someone who's never going to give up on you, that's Jesus.
Speaker 1:And man being God's temple, being his people, means that we have promises, promises that he's going to come back, he's going to fix everything, he's going to win. And man, if you don't think that the trajectory of the universe is going in a good place, I have good news for you he wins. So I want to encourage you today is if that's you, or maybe you do know Jesus, but you need to be reminded of those things. I mean, come find me, come find Ben, find somebody. Let's talk about it. Let's talk about it because he is good, he's faithful, he's faithful, he's merciful, and man, he does great work. Let's pray God, thank you.