Join Dr. John Kyle as he delves into the transformative power of Ephesians, revealing the majestic truth about being brought near to God through Christ’s sacrifice. Experience the depth of God’s grace, as detailed in the scriptures, and learn about the peace and unity that Christ brings between those who once were far off and those who were near. Discover what it means to be part of God’s family, irrespective of race, status, or background, bonded together by faith in Christ.
Welcome to Expository Truths, where we exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with Dr. John Kyle, pastor of Faith Community Church in Vacaville. As Christians, we’re called to know the truth and be able to proclaim it. We can know truth when we know the Word of God, which is precise, without error, and powerful and effective for both salvation and spiritual growth. Enjoy digging deeply with Dr. Kyle as he takes us verse by verse through the powerful book of Ephesians, giving us a marvelous summary of the good news of Christ and its implications for our daily lives.
SPEAKER 02 :
Please turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2, verse 13. Ephesians 2, 13 through 18. The letter of Ephesians was written by the Apostle Paul to the Christians living in the city of Ephesus. Paul wrote this while he was under house arrest in Rome in about AD 62, and he wrote it to lay a proper doctrinal foundation for these believers so they could then live out those doctrines for the glory of God. We’re now in the middle doctrinal section of this book, found in chapters 1 through 3. Chapter 1 began by showing us the many incredible reasons that we should passionately praise our amazing God. And then it ended with a wonderful prayer, a prayer that we today should be praying for ourselves and for each other as we earnestly pursue those things that we are praying for. Chapter 2 began by telling us what we all were before God rescued us by His amazing grace. What was that? Anybody remember? We were… Dead, right? Dead. We were all spiritually dead. The good news is that God is rich in mercy. He is great in love. And because of His incredible, amazing grace, He raised us up from the dead and He gave us life, life, eternal life. And the call now is God’s workmanship. Literally, His masterpiece, His poem, is to earnestly pursue good works that honor and glorify Him. Paul then told the Ephesians to remember what they once were before Christ rescued them. Why? Because remembering the bad exalts the good and ignites our love for him all the more. So the bad is really, really bad, but the good is oh so very good. And that’s what we’re going to look at today. So let’s look. Last week, we got a little preview in verse 13, but we’re going to look at that a little bit more beginning in verse 13. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace who had made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in his flesh the enmity that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances. so as to create in himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that he might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And he came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through him we both have access by one spirit to the Father. Now here in today’s passage, we find five amazing truths about Christ that should seriously excite us as His beloved children. First, it says this, Christ has brought us near. Now, if you remember from last week, generally speaking, the Ephesian Christians came out of a Gentile background, a non-Jewish background, a completely pagan, idol-worshiping, and utterly hopeless background. And before Christ came, Israel was near, and the Gentiles were far away, but good news, not anymore. No, now that Christ has come, not anymore, and that’s good news for every single one of us here. Brought near implies the intimacy of a personal and saving relationship with the living God and also with one another. So forget about the labels and Jew and Gentile and forget about your background, rich or poor, black or white, nationality, anything else. Forget about your skin color. Forget about all that. Because every person who trusts in Christ for salvation and life is fully brought into spiritual union and intimacy with God. That truth gives great hope for everyone regardless of their background and regardless of their history and regardless of their past and regardless of how wretched they once were previously. See, Christ can bring you near. Even you. Then even me. For look, almost everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, right? Is that what it says? Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. So question, how is it possible that Christ can bring those who were once far off near? How is it possible that Christ can move people from being bound for hell to being adopted children of God with heaven as their inheritance? How? Look what it says, verse 13, “…by His blood.” By His blood. See, blood has great significance in the Bible. And this takes us back to the Old Testament where the whole old system was filled with blood and with death. Rivers and rivers of blood. Why? Because without the shedding of blood, there’s no forgiveness. Hebrews 9.22 See, blood represents life, and when blood is spilled, it represents death, a substitute dying in your place. It shows us the high cost for sin, for the wages of sin is death, and blood represents that to us. It’s pretty gory, but please remember, sin is gory. Think about it. When you sinned in the Old Testament, an innocent animal had to be killed, slaughtered, a bloody mess, blood everywhere. And it was all pointing to Christ on the cross who bled and died in our place. For you know that you were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, 1 Peter 1.18. See, you sin. death. You sin, something has to die. Something has to bleed and die. Why? Because sin is so serious to God that every sin against an infinitely holy God results in the death penalty forever. And that sin must be paid up in full because God is a just and righteous God. Sin is a crime against the God of the universe and the penalty for that crime is death represented by the shedding of blood. Leviticus 17.11 is the Old Testament’s central statement about the significance of blood in the sacrificial system. God, speaking to Moses, declares, For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I’ve given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar. It’s the blood that makes atonement for one’s life. In other words, God says, I’ve given to you the creature’s life, which is in its blood, to make atonement for yourselves and to cover the offense that you committed against me. In other words, the substitute’s life for yours, represented by the substitute’s blood being poured out and resulting in its death in your place. So the blood shows us that atonement, that true covering for your sin has been made. Death, something has to die so that you can live. And again, it all points to Christ on the cross. One said, you can’t enter into God’s presence by being good. You can’t enter into God’s presence by being a fine citizen. You can’t enter into God’s presence by going through the religious motions. You can’t enter into God’s presence by reading the Bible, by going to church, by being a member, by thinking sweet thoughts about God. No. The only way you’ll ever enter into God’s presence and into participation in the new covenant is by the death of Jesus Christ and your faith and belief in His shed blood on the cross on your behalf. That’s the only way. That’s the only access and that’s true. Look, the soul that sins shall die. But then God in his amazing grace went on and provided a death substitute. Who’s that? Jesus Christ, His Son. And just as blood cleanses our blood from poisons, so the blood of Christ, applied to our hearts by faith, cleanses our souls from the poison of sin. See, He bled and died so all who believe could live and go to heaven instead of hell. Look at this. On the night before Jesus went to the cross, He offered a cup of wine to His disciples and said, This cup is a new covenant in My blood which is poured out for you. The pouring out of the wine in the cup symbolized the blood of Christ, which would be poured out once and for all for everyone who would believe in him. And when his blood was shed on that cross, he did away with the old covenant requirement for continual sacrifices of animals and the shedding of their blood. Their blood wasn’t sufficient to truly cover the sins of the people. No, it was only a temporary covering. But the precious blood of Christ, the Son of God, paid the full debt of sin that we owe as believers. And now, praise the Lord, we need no further sacrifice for sin, and no more blood needs to be shed. It’s finished, right? Jesus accomplished it all. So again, to be forgiven, something has to die. So here’s the options for you. Either you die in your sin and face eternal wrath because of that sin, or else Jesus died in your place and suffered God’s full wrath against your sin on the cross. That’s it. That’s it. It’s one or the other. Something has to die. You forever in hell or Jesus in your place on the cross. May I suggest surrendering to Christ in repentant faith today so you can be brought near to God, forgiven, rescued, redeemed, and given eternal life instead of facing eternity in hell because of your sin. May I suggest that. Second amazing truth about Christ, He is our peace. The word used here is a Greek word, irene, and the Hebrew equivalent is the word shalom, peace. Peace pictures the binding or joining together again of that which has been separated. Peace means that the warfare has come to an end. But more than that, peace means the restoration of a broken relationship. Peace is what happens when two people who haven’t been speaking once again become friends. Peace means that a relationship that was once filled with enmity is now filled with joy. Peace is the positive change in a relationship between two people who once were enemies. Peace. Shalom. Now, in the beginning, man lived in peace with God, Adam and Eve in the garden. They were at peace. But sin entered that relationship, and when it did, man turned to his own devices, and that relationship was broken. And now every person who enters into this world comes in as an enemy of God. The Bible is very clear about that. That’s what sin does. It destroys every relationship in heaven and on earth. That means that without Christ, we’re all at war with God. We are enemies of God. We are in opposition to God. And Christ is the only one who can bring us together. It’s important for us to understand that all people without Christ as Lord and Savior are spiteful enemies of the God who created them. They might not even realize that, but it’s the truth nonetheless. So every person is truly in a dire situation. See, you’re not okay without God, right? You’re not okay. You are bad, not good, according to God and His standard. And even though you might have a nice job and a nice house and a wonderful family and a good retirement package, look… Without Christ as your Lord and Savior, you’re at war with God and you will die in your sin and go to hell. And that is the devastating reality of everyone who is without Christ in this world. That’s why Jesus is so amazing. See, peace with God comes in the form of a person. Jesus. Amen? Come on. He ends the enmity. He brings us together, which means heaven instead of hell, joy instead of wrath, hope instead of despair, the God of amazing grace instead of the devil who wants to take us down to the pit with Him. Jesus is our peace, our only true peace. Understanding that great truth, that comes first. But here, Paul is also pointing out the fact that Jesus brings true peace between Jewish believers and Gentile believers, which is something that seemed impossible before Christ came. Remember that? We looked at that a little bit last week. At this time… There had been a centuries-long hostility between the Jews and the Gentiles. And to most of the Jewish people, there were only two races of people, Jews and everyone else. Jewish pride ran very deep. The Jews believed that Gentiles were created to fuel the fires of hell. To the Jews, the Gentiles were dogs, and to the Gentiles, the Jews were homicidal enemies of the human race. And the hostility, man, it ran both ways. Now, obviously, it shouldn’t have been that way. I mean, while God gave laws in the Old Testament to the Jews, such as the dietary laws, to keep the Jews from mingling socially with the Gentiles so that their sinful ways wouldn’t rub off, The sinful prejudice of the day that was going on was never, ever in the mind or heart of God. I mean, the Jews were called to be a bright light to the Gentiles, not participating in their sin, but loving them and sharing the love of God with them. But over time, they added their own man-made rules for how to live, and this now is what they have become, prideful Gentiles. and prejudice. And sadly, many of the Jews had long believed that they were special and even superior to the Gentiles, to the non-Jews. Even though God was clear that He hadn’t chosen the Jews for anything in themselves, but simply because He loved them. See, it was the grace of God alone that distinguished them, and they had absolutely nothing to boast about, but still they boasted. But please know that when the Jews showed this kind of prejudice and partiality, they weren’t being faithful to the heart of God as revealed in the Old Testament. The idea that God shows no partiality is stated clearly in Deuteronomy 10.17 and 2 Chronicles 19.7. But they forgot and the hostility was massive. But look. Not anymore in Christ. Amen? Right? Christ changed all of that. And we saw that when we went through the book of Acts. Remember that? And while Christianity began with the Jews in Jerusalem, it soon spread out to the Samaritans who were half Jews. And then it went out to the full-blooded Gentiles in Acts chapter 10. And then it went out from there. And so God has made it very clear. that the church is made up of everyone who believes, regardless of their background or their history or their status or their skin color or their heritage. Question. How can a person be made right before God? How can a sinful, dirty person be clean in the sight of God? How can a sinner be reconciled to holy God? How? By faith. Right? Faith. Oh, look, that’s it. Faith. Jewish believer, Gentile believer, everyone, it’s faith in Christ alone. How good is that? You’re a wretched sinner, but so am I. You’ve done some terrible things. You’ve offended God time and time again in word, thought, and deed. You are spiritually and morally marked and marred and dirty, and so am I. So how are you going to be cleaned up and forgiven of all your terrible, wretched sin? Not by anything that you can do, for you certainly can’t clean yourself up. But guess what? Jesus can do it. And see, He did all the work. He lived a perfect life. He died and paid the deadly wages of sin in the believer’s place. And then He rose up from the dead. And now you can be cleansed and go to heaven. You can be forgiven of all that sin. You can be washed white as snow. You can be declared righteous in the sight of God by faith alone in Christ alone. That’s it. Repentant, saving faith. And when you truly believe… All your sin that condemns you is placed onto Christ, which He took onto Himself, bled, died, and was punished for all that sin in our place on the cross. And in return, He gives you, the believer, His perfect righteousness that clothes you and fits you with the clothing of heaven. That’s the ultimate trade-off. Your sin for His perfect righteousness. Result? Forgiveness. Life. Heaven, glory forever. And look, that’s true for everyone who believes. Everyone, Jew, Gentile, man, woman, everyone. Isn’t that incredible? By faith. By faith. So look what he did. He made both one and he, look what it says. He broke down the wall of separation. Generally between us and God, but specifically between the Jews and the Gentiles. Now here when Paul talks about the wall of separation, he’s probably referring to a four-foot wall in the temple precinct that divided the court of Gentiles from where the rest of the Jews could worship. On this wall were inscriptions that have been discovered by archaeologists which warn that if a person goes beyond the barrier, he will have himself to blame for his death which follows. Now remember, Paul was writing to the Ephesians from his imprisonment in Rome and these Ephesians probably would have known about this barrier even if they had never visited Jerusalem because the incident that had led to Paul’s imprisonment involved one of their very own men. If you remember back in Acts chapter 21, Paul was in the temple where a mob falsely accused him of bringing Trophimus, an Ephesian Gentile, beyond the barrier, which Paul obviously didn’t do. But the people lied about it. This then led to a riot. It led to Paul being beaten. And then it led to Paul’s imprisonment. This barrier in the temple symbolized the deep hostilities between the Jews and the Gentiles. But again, I got some good news. Christ has broken down the wall by His death, and every other wall He’s broken down, real or spiritual. And now, Jews and Gentiles alike have access to God, and they also have spiritual unity in Christ. See, He brings us to God, and He also brings us together. So, who are the children of God? The children of God consist of everyone who believes in Him. True, saving, repentant faith. And look, they come from every race, and they come from every nation, and they come from every age group, male and female, Jew and Gentile. See, in Christ, we are family. Isn’t that cool? Look around you, you know, I mean, we are family. And this puts an end to all racism. It puts an end to all partiality in the church and amongst the people of God. Look, in Acts 17, Paul makes it clear that everyone came from one source. And God’s the one who created us all in His image. And that means all racism is out. It’s out. There’s no reason for it. And it’s sinful. In James chapter 2, he makes it clear that Christians don’t show partiality or favoritism or prejudice. The word partiality there literally means to receive a face. And it shows us that we shouldn’t prefer one person over another because of man’s appearance, their face or their clothes or their skin color or their wealth or any other aspect of their outward appearance. So James is like, you’re a Christian and you’re a racist? You’re a Christian and you treat people differently because of how they dress or because of how much money they make? You’re a Christian and you look down on people because of their nationality? That’s certainly not Christian behavior. That’s ungodly, sinful behavior. And so James says, stop doing it. James gives an illustration of what he’s talking about. It goes like this. Two men come into a church gathering. One is obviously wealthy, as seen by his gold ring and fine clothes. The other is obviously poor, as seen by his shabby clothes. Someone in the church directs the wealthy man to the best seat in the house, while the poor man is told to stand out of the way or to sit down on the floor. So the rich man is given privileges because of his wealth, but the poor man is despised because of his poverty. And James says that such treatment is evil.” For when we exalt man on account of his wealth or power or status or looks or race or anything else, we rob glory from Jesus Christ who sovereignly gives everything that we are and have. And rather than exalting any person, we should exalt Christ alone. See, we’re all just unworthy servants of the Lord anyhow. And focusing on the glory of Christ puts… all of us in our proper place before God. Don’t exalt people. And also, don’t look down on people. No, just exalt Christ. And then treat all people with dignity and respect because Christ has brought us together and he’s broken down all the walls of separation. So this applies to the Gentile believers in Ephesus, but it also applies to us today as well. Third, Christ has abolished the enmity. Verse 15, having abolished in his flesh the enmity that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances. This here tells us that when Christ died, he abolished the law. Speaking of the law that’s found in the Old Testament. See, since Christ’s victory and death, highlighted by his resurrection, the old is done away with and now it’s all about Christ. The old was all looking forward to Christ, and when Christ came, died, and rose again, the new has come, and it’s all about Him now. He’s the substance that the shadows of the old pointed to. He’s the reality that the old pictured. Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 5, 17-18. Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. You see what Jesus is saying there? He’s saying that he’s a fulfillment of the law. The word fulfill means to make full, to complete, to finish something that has already begun. And that’s what Jesus does with the law of God found in the Old Testament. He fulfills all of it. Now, please note that while the law of God is fulfilled in Christ, or as Paul says here, He abolished it. Look at this. The law of God is still really good, and it has great application for us today because it reveals to us the heart of God, and loving God and loving others is clearly the heart of God for all of us, as well as being clearly outlined for us in the New Testament. But here, Paul is being very clear that those laws that separated Jew and Gentile are now nullified in Christ. Laws like what? Well, circumcision. Food laws. Laws that deal with sacrificing animals and so on. See, now it’s all about exalting Christ and loving God and loving others for His glory. And that’s something that every believer in Him can be united in doing.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thanks for joining us for today’s exposition from the book of Ephesians on expository truths with Dr. John Kyle. Continue on with us next week at this same time. And to find this sermon in its entirety as well as other sermons, visit vacavillefaith.org. Faith Community Church seeks to exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with a commitment to glorifying God through the pure, deep, and reaching message of the gospel through faithful exposition. Pastor John is the preaching pastor at Faith Community Church of Vacaville, a seminary professor, and a trainer of preaching pastors overseas. Join Faith Community Church for worship Sundays at 9 and 1045 a.m., located at 192 Bella Vista Road, Suite A in Vacaville. To learn more, visit vacavillefaith.org or call 707-451-2026. That’s vacavillefaith.org.
