Church is a Place of Reconciliation

Scripture: Ephesians 2:11-22

Introduction

God reconciled the world to himself through Christ.  Psalm 69:9

• Church is a battlefield.
• People show up here on Sunday after a week of being immersed in the world.
• The enemy has been working overtime along with his legion of demons to trip you up.
• There are so many distractions and alternatives thrown in your path to keep you away.
• Yet, somehow, my dear remnant of Christianity, you still showed up!!
• The enemy hasn’t given up though – oh no – he’s right here with us.
• He’s just waiting for me to say something to hurt your feelings or step on your toes.
• And if it’s not me, it will probably be someone else.
• Everybody here has good ideas and great energy and does things for the right reasons.
• But that’s not what the enemy is going to whisper in your ear.
• Oh no he’s gonna tell you “they don’t like your ideas” or “you don’t fit in here”
• He’s gonna stir things up and pit us against each other and cause trouble.
• Jesus knew all about that because He came to reconcile all of us back together.
• Jesus came to bring reconciliation to the world – and the enemy knows it.
• There are three groups of people that Jesus came to reconcile together:

1. Jews
2. Gentiles
3. Christians

1. Jews

• Peter told the Jews in 1 Peter 2:9:

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

• Yes, they are God’s chosen people set apart when God made a covenant with Abraham.
• Out of Abraham came all the Hebrew people. Lots of Hebrew people.
• By the time God sent Moses to deliver these people from what had become slavery in Egypt, Abraham’s descendants had grown exponentially.
• We read in the first chapter of the book of Numbers in verses 17-19 and 45-46:

Moses and Aaron took these men who had been named, and on the first day of the second month, they assembled the whole congregation together, who registered themselves by clans, by fathers’ houses, according to the number of names from twenty years old and upward, head by head, as the LORD commanded Moses. So, he listed them in the wilderness of Sinai.

So, all those listed of the people of Israel, by their fathers’ houses, from twenty years old and upward, every man able to go to war in Israel – all those listed were 603,550.

• Extrapolating that number to include women and children we estimate 2.4 million total.
• God had a lot invested in these people all based on His relationship with Abraham.
• He made a contract – or COVENANT – with these people. In Exodus 6:7:

You will be my people and I will be your God. I am the LORD your God, and you will know that I made you free from Egypt.

• Part of the contract was the Jews were required to show their respect by following laws.
• They started with only 10 laws – the Ten Commandments.
• Then they broke those laws down into even more laws: 613 laws.
• Jewish laws covered every aspect of behavior in the world.
• It is through strict adherence to the law that Jews demonstrated their faith in God.
• But did the Jews really follow God’s law? NO
• Even as God was finally letting them stop wandering in the desert and enter the promised land, they still disrespected Him and His laws.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’  I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people, and I might destroy you on the way.”

When the people heard these distressing words, they began to mourn, and no one put on any ornaments.  For the Lord had said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go with you even for a moment, I might destroy you. Now take off your ornaments and I will decide what to do with you.’”  So, the Israelites stripped off their ornaments at Mount Horeb.

• God was committed to upholding His side of the agreement, but do you think He was happy about it? NO
• The Hebrew people went through numerous cycles of obedience and repentance.
• And then they reached the place where they were once-again enslaved people.
• Only now they are being enslaved by the law and the corrupt leaders enforcing it.
• And that’s when Jesus came to earth to once-again save them from bondage.

2. Gentiles

• Let’s turn our attention to the people known as GENTILES.
• What are Gentiles? Anybody who wasn’t a Jew.
• Remember what Paul said to the Gentiles in verse 12 from our Ephesians Scripture:

remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

• Greeks, Romans, Africans, Asians, etc. all other people on the planet are Gentiles.
• But to the Jews, they were outsiders, unclean, beneath them.
• Yet, Jesus came to save them too.
• Jesus came to tear down the barriers that divide people. Verse 14:

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility,

• How did He do that? What was the key?  He died on the cross for everyone.
• Note what Paul calls the dividing wall: “the dividing wall of hostility.”
• If Jesus died to tear down the wall of hostility, then what should Christ-followers do?
• We ought to be tearing down barriers ourselves shouldn’t we?
• Now I know the world is telling us the opposite– it says “we should hate and be devisive”
• Democrats and Republicans hate each other. Liberals and conservatives hate each other.  Americans hate illegal immigrants.  Everyone hates the rich unless they are celebrities.
• Hate hate hate everywhere – so much hate. You know the enemy LOVES hate.
• Christ-followers need to walk in the path of Christ as Paul says in verse 17:

He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.

• Paul’s ministry focus was to extend Christ to the Gentiles.

3. Christians

• In verse 13 we have a new group of people that need to be reconciled, Christians:

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

• There is no longer a small group of chosen people; all people have now been chosen.
• Christ came to save everyone equally. From 2 Corinthians 5:17-21:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.  God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

• God’s creation has rebelled against Him so many times that He would be justified to turn against us.
• Instead of rejecting us, as we deserve, God sacrificed Himself on the cross to reclaim us.
• That’s why we need to build our lives around doing the same thing for others.
• Our churches need to be places of reconciliation – not battlegrounds.
• If someone hurts your feelings or says the wrong thing – seek reconciliation.
• Work it out; find common ground; seek Christ.
• That’s not how we usually do things – especially in the Baptist church.
• We have disagreements and then we split or splinter or we take our marbles and go home.
• The good news is that we often split and start up another church.
• But sadly, the enemy is winning overall and churches are taking it hard.
• So, we need to be a place of reconciliation.
• We need to start by reconciling with each other – no matter what the enemy throws at us.
• We need to be a place of reconciliation for others outside of our fellowship.
• Just like Paul was appealing to the Gentiles to come to Christ, we need to appeal to the unchurched to come to church.
• You can kind of think of us like the Jews in a way.
• We have our buildings, and our congregations and things are established and contained.
• To an outsider, we may seem impenetrable and a private club.
• This was very much the situation with the Jews at the coming of Christ.
• We need to overcome the tendency to be battle grounds and be known as a place of reconciliation.
• Then the enemy will flee.