Chapter Two of Ephesians is one of Paul’s clearest statements about the Cross as God’s power for redemption.
In this chapter, Paul used the most dramatic image he could have used to describe the estrangement of the Gentiles, and the reconciling power of the Cross. His image was the Temple in Jerusalem. The layout of the temple painfully marked the separation of the Gentiles. Inside the temple walls were a series of courts. The innermost court was the hallowed “holy of Holies” into which the High Priest could go and that only once a year. Then came the court of the Priests just out side the Holy Place; then the Court of the Israelites; then the Court of Women; then finally far back and away from the Holy of Holies, far away from the priests, separated from the men of Israel by a barrier of “lowly women,” there was the Court of the Gentiles. On the low barrier separating this lowest court from the rest were posted signs in Latin and Greek, giving warning that death would come to any Gentile who sought to advance toward the “Holy of Holies.”
Paul uses this familiar layout of the Temple to speak metaphorically of what the blood of Christ had done. The warning signs had been smashed, the enmity between the Jew and Gentile had been abolished. On Crucifixion Day, not only the barriers between outer and inner courts, but even the curtain isolating the “Holy of Holies” was rent into from top to bottom.
Let’s look now at this power packed chapter of Ephesians.
I
Look first at verses 1 through 10. In these verses Paul minces no words in pronouncing our predicament, and he spares no image or metaphor in presenting the possibility that is ours.
Our predicament: Verse 1, “You were dead in trespasses and sin.”
No mild response can be made to such a graphic metaphor. In fact, it is more than a metaphor. Death and sin are taken seriously by the Bible, and they go together. “The wages of sin is death,” contended Paul in Rom. 6:23.
Sin cuts us off from God, the source of Life; thus we are dead. This is the inevitable result of sin; and it is universal Paul begins with “You,” talking to the Gentiles, but he gets only to the third verse before he includes himself and the Jews. Listen to him, “Also we once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh…and we were by nature children of wrath.”
Our predicament? Dead in trespasses and sin.
But what about our possibility? As the predicament is excruciatingly painful, the possibility is excitingly clear and beckoning: “To be made alive in Christ.”
Sin equals death, and answer to death is resurrection. Christians are those who have been made alive in Christ.
We may not like to think of it, but the Bible is clear:
The end toward which everything moves is God’s judgment.
“It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the Judgment,” The writer of K says in Chapter 9, verse 27. John makes the case clear in his fifth chapter, the 28 and 29th verses: “Do not marvel at this; the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.”
It was after delineating our predicament and possibility that Paul stated with trumpet clarity and conviction the refined essence of the Gospel in verses 8 and 9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of your self, it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast.”
II
And that brings us to my focus of concentration - second part of this chapter, verses 11-22, and the theme of the sermon: No Longer Strangers.
The meaning of estrangement had been seared like a burning brand upon the souls of the Gentiles were contemptuously called the uncircumcision by those who arrogantly claimed that God’s love was only for the circumcised and that others were created “to be the fuel for the fires of hell . “They felt the burden of being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenant of Promise, having no hope and without, God in the world.” (Vs. 12). These descriptive words of Paul in verse 12 are like a death shroud over the spirit, hanging heavily over our souls even now, having no hope and without God in the world.
But now, not so – since the Cross – the way is open to all. Those who were “afar off “ and “those who were near” have been reconciled, brought into the body by the Cross. All - no one is exc1uded – “all have access by one spirit to the Father.” We are no longer strangers - or we need not be.
III
Now, let’s apply this. Particular powerful aspects of the gospel are to be noted. I selected four phrases from this passage to give us light.
One, “For he himself is our peace,” (vs. l4). Paul is saying something radically new and revolutionary. Gentile’s are near to God - through Jesus Christ: “He is our peace.” In Christ God died for both Jew and Gentile, bringing them both into union with himself. In his flesh abolishing the enmity which the law had created. And what does that mean today? To you and me, to the world? It means that there is no person beyond the realm of God’s salvation – and that is Jesus Christ. He is our peace.
Then the second word: “One body by the cross.” Paul speaks here of a new humanity and he speaks in two ways. In verse 15 he says Christ created one new man “in himself.” In verse 16 he speaks of “one body by the cross.” Both revelations of the power of the Cross.
A physical barrier may be removed and the people a once separated unchanged. In my home town of Richton, Mississippi, every day at noon, five days a week, elderly people with limited income come together for a hot nourishing lunch. They sing together, play games together, share in craft making together, and though the government may frown upon it, they worship together. There are black and white people in that daily gathering, which would have been unheard of even ten years ago. But the barriers have finally come down.
It doesn’t take too much spiritual perception to see that within some the harshest most demeaning, and destructive barrier is still there - inner estrangement and hostility. That has the crushing power of forced segregation behind it. It is a revelation to talk to my Mom and Dad, now in their mid-70’s who were victimized by a system that would not al1ow the faintest expression of broken barriers for 200 years. It is a joy to see in them the freedom that has come. It is heartening to hear them express in genuine human caring terms their concern and relationship with all sorts of people, even though to a marked degree it is still superficial and limited. I know, as they know, that the removal of the real barriers of estrangement and hostility involves a profound personal change. That’s the reason change of human hearts is so essential for permanent social change. And that’s the reason political and social action is doomed to failure without the power of the Gospel. The change that Christ brings is essential.
Divisions of all sorts - race and religion, class and sex – belongs to that old order which must pass away with the advent of Christ in our lives. So we have the second way Paul speaks of the new humanity: “one body by the cross.” This is the church – not an ecclesiastical organization but the new humanity spoken of in verse 15. The Church is nothing else than the incarnation of Christ. By the cross we are brought near to each other and to God. We are no longer strangers.
Now comes the third phrase in verse 18: “Access by one spirit to the Father.” The Greek word translated “access,” is a technical term for the right of free approach into the presence of a king. In the Persian royal court, there was an official called the prosagogeus. His function was to introduce people who desired an audience with the king. The image is beautiful and the truth is clear: Christ is our prosagogeus. We have open access to the Father. On the cross Jesus flung the door open - in fact, nailed it open so that it could never be closed again - the door into the presence of God.
Then comes that climatic word in verse l9: the summary word, “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God.”
Is it clearer now? Who we are and what we must be about as a community of faith. No longer strangers – we are all together as one - children, youth, young adults, retired, rich, poor, educated, uneducated, Republican, Democrat – together in the household of God. But we are not together for the sake of being together, to bask in the fellowship of this worshipping community – we are together to receive inspiration and power, and encouragement and training to take the gospel to the “Gentiles,” to those who are separated, those who do not yet know Jesus as their peace, those who have not claimed access by the spirit to the Father, and those who have not been made “one body by the Cross.”
Here is a great picture of it from church history. Pope Adrian VI, of the 16th century, was the last non-Italian pope before John Paul in our day. In 1523 a Florentine painter came to see Pope Adrian to receive the pope’s blessing for his painting. The painting was called “The Bark of Peter,” which is a reference to the church as a ship. It showed the church being carried aloft by angels blowing trumpets. The water beneath the ship was calm, but everywhere else the waves were whipped up into a fury and sinners were drowning in the waves, crying out for help. The pope was pictured sitting on the deck of the ship, his hands clasped in prayer, his eyes closed, his palace guards surrounding him. In the port holes of the ship, you can see the faces of the faithful peering out. They are inside the church, safe and warm, and dry, and comfortable, being lofted by angels to the Port of Heaven.
Adrian looked at this monstrosity of a painting, and stood up. ‘No, no,” he cried. “This is not my ship. The church is not high above the seas of storm and misery of this world. Put my ship down in these waters. For we will not be saved without these.” And he knocked his papal ring against the writing figures in the painting. “And these. and these.”
Adrian was right. Because we are no longer strangers, we must become friends to the strangers of our neighborhood, our city, indeed the world. Friends to the strangers, that they might become friends of Christ. The church must be a place of hospitality in which the lonely and broken hearted, the sick and the emotionally strung out, the estranged, those victimized by sin and guilt, find a place of healing, life, forgiveness, strength and hope. We must be forever restless as individuals and as a church until there is not a single stranger left among us.
Now I ask you, how many strangers are there on your street, people who are outside the household of God, the church? How many strangers are there in your circle of friends? Strangers to Christ and His gift of life? I’m talking about people you play bridge and tennis and golf with, people with whom you go to parties? How many strangers among that circle of friends? Do you e care enough to know? How many strangers to the household of God are there in your own family? This may be the most difficult to acknowledge, the most difficult to do something about. But we must be forever trying.
Now, the biggest question of all. Are you still a stranger? You don’t feel at home with Christ? A barrier still separates you? You may or may not know what the barrier is - some hidden sin, some unsurrendered aspect of your life, some unresolved guilt, some broken relationship. You may or may not know what the barrier is, but you know it is there, because you still feel like a stranger - a barrier of some sort is there between you and Christ.
I want you to know that no matter how strong or ominous you think the barrier, it is flimsy, like tissue paper before the surging power of the Cross of Christ and His love. In fact, the barrier - every barrier has been shattered, dissolved by the blood of Jesus Christ. You have only to accept that. I’m praying that you will do that now.
Will you bow your heads, close your eyes and be in prayer, all of us now, for a closing moment of reflection. This could be the most important moment in your life. So let’s be open to God in prayer. Here me carefully now.
Sometimes it takes a specific act on our part to complete the action begun by Christ. That simple acts begins with awareness and acknowledgement and it continues in simply claiming for our selves the forgiving grace and acceptance of Christ. I want to give you that opportunity now.
We are all praying at the point of our need, but you who feel like a stranger, and only you know that in your heart, will you pray this prayer after me:
Lord Jesus Christ, I have not felt at home with you…
I feel that I am still a stranger…
my sin, my refusal to surrender myself to you is separating me from you…
forgive me, Lord Jesus, for all my sins…
forgive me for refusing your love…
I accept you as my personal savior…
I want to make you Lord of my life…
I dedicate myself to you now.
The entire congregation is still praying. But as a final specific act op of some of you, to nail down and acknowledge explicably what you have done, will you who just prayed that prayer after me, if you prayed that prayer earnestly in your heart after me and put it down
We thank you, Lord Jesus, for those who have responded to your love today in this special way by accepting you as Savior and dedicating themselves to your Lordship. Give them the assurance now that they are no longer strangers. They are members of your household. And when they feel like a stranger, help them to remember this day, and reclaim your promise, that they have been drawn near, into fellowship with you by your blood on the Cross. Amen.
Now I want you to hear the invitation clearly. Most of you who in this specific act have accepted Christ as Savior are already members of this church, or some other church. There is only one thing needful now. Very soon, even today if possible, you need to share what you have done with at least one other person. Families can talk about this on the way home, or at lunch - husbands and wives can share together - friends with each other. The Scripture teaches us that we need with our lips as well as with our hearts. So I urge you to simply share the commitment you have made today with another.
There may be some of you who accepted Christ this morning who are not members of this church, or any church, and would like to become a part of this particular expression of the household of faith. We invite you to meet the ministers of the church now to do that, along with others who may wish to transfer their membership here from some other congregation.