Teaching Tuesday: What Are We Doing Here? - Unity in Christ

Series: What Are We Doing Here?
Sermon: Alive in Christ - Ephesians 2:11-22 (1.26.25)

Our text for this past Sunday was Ephesians 2:11-22, and most of the sermon focused on the first couple paragraphs, verses 11-18 where Paul tells the church in Ephesus that salvation and relationship with God is no longer found in being Jewish or becoming Jewish, but in the person of Jesus, because of the blood of Jesus.

Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection tore down the barrier that existed between the Jews and gentiles and paved a new road to the Father’s house. Jesus the Peacemaker has made peace, he’s made “one new humanity out of two” (v. 15), and through him everyone who believes and follows now has “access to the Father by one Spirit” (v. 18).

In the sermon I only touched briefly on the last paragraph of our passage, Ephesians 2:19-22, but it’s full of really good, important stuff. Because of what Jesus did, here is the result:

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 prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

Notice how Paul sets this up. In verse 15 Jesus has created “one new humanity out of two,” but the expression of this “new” thing - as he lays out for us in verse 19 - is really the full and better realization of the original thing. God through Jesus didn’t abandon his people - Israel - he changed what it means to be Israel, and invited all who believe in and follow Jesus to now be “fellow citizens with God’s people.”

The best way to think of the Christian church established by Jesus Christ - who is its cornerstone (vs. 20-21) - isn’t as a brand new thing that leaves Old Testament Israel behind, but as the redemption, perfection, and continuation of Israel as God intended it to be.

In other words, the church is the true nation of Israel; the real family of God’s chosen people, his adopted children, composed of everyone who submits to the lordship of Christ.

So in this passage God has provided a new definition of what it means to be his people, and then he closes chapter two with a new location where his presence will live. The glory of God on earth isn’t confined behind the temple curtain anymore, his Spirit now presides in the hearts of all believers!

Do we need any more evidence that our God loves us and wants a relationship with us? He offers salvation to everyone, and then gives the Holy Spirit to everyone who accepts that salvation.

What a God!