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But so this morning, we're going to continue in our series in Ephesians. And if you've been with us for the past few months, really, we've been walking through Ephesians. And I generally hope that it's changing the way that you're living and going about your life. You know, we've talked about things, you know, reflected on the reality that God chose you before the beginnings of the earth. We've talked and reflected on that, you know, by grace, through faith, you've been saved. We've talked about the fact that, you know, through Christ and what he did on the cross, you are now seated in the heavenly places and authority and dominion. And I really pray that all these facts that we see Paul point out throughout Ephesians really begins to shape the way you live your life on a daily basis. And it really begins. It really begins to shrink some of the things that can consume us on a day-to-day basis. You know, the distractions, the anxieties, you know, the insecurities, frustrations, all those things that shape our day and many times unwillingly. You know, I pray that what we've gone through in Ephesians really begins to shape some of that and shrink some of those things that consume us. I pray that they, you know, really lose volume in comparison to what, what Christ has done, that you will see that as priority in your life and not these other things. But if we're not careful, we can really begin to only see the gospel as what it's going to do for us as individuals. And, you know, we can really see, you know, what has God done for me? What is God doing in my life? How does this help my life? How is this sermon going to help me? How am I going to be blessed? And don't get me wrong. I'm not in any way saying or diminishing the fact that the gospel is about our personal reconciliation with God and our ability to be in relationship with Him. But also, and Trace alluded to this last week, we see Paul really begin to shift into what the gospel does horizontally as well as vertically. And so today, I really want us to kind of focus on, the fact that the miracle of the gospel is not just that we are reconciled to Christ personally, individually, but also that we as reconciled people, as sinners, are reconciled to each other. People that genuinely we see throughout history would hate each other, would have all these divisions and all these things that came between us, that He's not only reconciling us to Him, but also as the church. And so, if you'll turn with me to Ephesians 2, 14 through 18, we're going to start there and we'll read the scripture, and then I'm going to kind of break this down just a little bit. All right. So, if you don't have your Bibles, it will be up on the screens here. So, Ephesians 2, 14 through 18, it says, For He Himself is our peace. As we go through this, really, there's a lot of intentional verbiage in what Paul is saying here. So, For He Himself is our peace. He is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in the place of two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And He came and preached peace, to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near. For through Him we have access in one spirit to the Father. Let me pray and then we'll get started. So, Holy Father, I pray this morning that the words that I speak would come from You and would really lead and guide in the direction that You would have us go this morning. Father, I pray that those who are here in this room would have ears to hear, that hearts to really receive, what You have for us this morning, Father. Father, I pray that it's not just us coming in to just listen and then go out the same as the way we came in, Father, but that we would really truly be changed by what You're trying to do in us this morning, Father. You're intentional in Your time with us, and You're looking to change us in the way that we live, in the way that we move, in the way that we live our lives, Father. And Father, I pray this morning that we would see how You're doing that and how You're shaping us this morning in this service. And it's in Your holy name we pray. Amen. Alright, so the first thing I want to point out is that Paul begins with, For He Himself is our peace. So, I think it's important to notice what Paul does not say and what I mean by he was intentional with his verbiage here. So, Paul does not say Jesus teaches peace. He does not say He encourages peace. He does not say that He brings peace. He says He Himself is our peace. And so, I think it's important to see, because many times we view peace as more of an ideology, okay? We see, you know, peace signs, and we see peace as some sort of political victory or victory in war or some sort of victory when it comes to a social reform or something of that. It's everyone agreeing and getting along on something. But that's not what Paul is saying here. Paul is saying that He is our peace. Jesus Christ is our peace. Peace is a person. And this matters because we, as humans, naturally produce hostility. Whether we see it or not, naturally, as sinful creatures, we create hostility and division amongst us. Sometimes this is political. Sometimes this is class. Sometimes this is culture. Sometimes this is race. Sometimes it's, you know, there's all these different pockets and tribes that we begin to put ourselves in, and we create this hostility among us. And that's just our nature as sinful humans. Sinful humanity will always find a way to divide itself. And what Paul is saying here is that He is our peace. So, we shouldn't be looking for peace in these other areas or these other solutions, but we should be looking for peace in Christ and Christ alone, because that's where peace is found. You know, I see myself many times, you know, I find myself praying for peace in these areas. But when I really dissect that, the peace that I'm praying for is some sort of worldly solution that will fix a problem that I see in the world. And in reality, that's not where that peace comes from. The peace is Christ. And so only Christ can reconcile sinful people, and only Christ can reconcile enemies to each other. So it's important, I think, that we start off seeing how Paul is defining that He is our peace to begin with. The second thing that I want to walk into is he talks about the dividing wall of hostility. So, to really understand how radical this passage is, you have to understand the historical context. The historical context of Jews and Gentiles. That's who Paul is speaking to when he writes this letter to the Ephesians. He's talking specifically about Jew and Gentile. And so I think sometimes it's difficult for us to relate to that, because we don't, we see it, we read about it in the Bible, we don't truly understand the depth of, and the word he uses, hostility, that they had between each other. So, archaeologists have found that as they've uncovered these temples from this time, that there was literally a dividing wall. So he's not talking about just a figurative wall, he's also talking about a physical wall that existed within the temple. So there was a wall in the temple where if Gentiles were to pass this wall, there was a sign that said, essentially to the effect of, if you're a Gentile, and you decide to pass this barrier, you're responsible for your own death, okay? So basically, we will kill you, and it's your fault, because we told you not to pass this wall. And so it would literally be like, okay, we have these curtains that we've placed up, which I love because it really adds to the space, but it would literally be like if there was a sign right there, it excluded a specific group of people, and if they cross that threshold, buddy, it's over, like, you're done. And it's your fault that you're done. And that's the way it was. So there was true hostility. There was generational hostility that was there between the Gentiles and the Jews. So the Jews viewed the Gentiles, you know, as spiritually inferior. They viewed them as less than. They were not a part of that covenant relationship with God. And so, you know, the Gentiles to the Jews were unclean, uncircumcised, all these different things that they used to characterize them. And the hostility and the hatred was both ways. Okay, if somebody talks about you and treats you like this, obviously you're not going to like them very much. And so the Gentiles did not have very good views. They viewed them as separatists. You know, I think before we go into the rest of what we truly understand, there was still hatred. There was hostility that was instilled in these, and it was lived out on a day-to-day basis. You know, we really, even, you know, with Abraham, still see hostility between the Jews and the Gentiles, with the Jews and at least the same wars that are going on now 4,000 years ago and started with Abraham and Sarah and Hagar. So hostility is something that still exists today. We see it in our day-to-day lives. But I think that we see that he tore, okay, Jesus didn't negotiate a peace treaty that allowed the Gentiles to, if they met these criteria, that's not what happened. He didn't climb over it. He didn't go around it. He tore the wall down that was the hostility between them. And how did he do that? He did that through the cross. But think about the ramifications of that in this time, okay? So Jesus, through the cross, tears down this dividing wall of hostility that has been there for generations, that created this separation between the Jews and the Gentiles. And so now, through Christ, Jews are now hanging out with Gentiles and worshiping with Gentiles, and Gentiles are now worshiping with Jews. So to Jews who didn't understand this and hadn't had that revelation from the Lord, this was weird, okay? This was crazy. This was asinine. You know, this is not something you did. Jews didn't go eat in Gentiles' houses and vice versa. That wasn't what it was. So this was a shock to the world around them. This was not natural for these people to be breaking bread together, to be living together, to be worshiping together, to be doing all these things. And all of a sudden, only through the blood of Christ on the cross were people who naturally would never become family, never be associated with each other, become associated with each other and become one through Christ. So the third thing I want to point out is that the cross killed hostility. So verse 15 says, by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances. Paul is not saying that God abolished holiness He is saying that Christ fulfilled the law as the covenant barrier that separated Jews and Gentiles at that time. I want to look at two other verses here as well that kind of talk about this. So Romans 7, 4, it says, Likewise, my brothers, you have also died to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. And I also want to look at Galatians 2, 19 and 20. It says, For through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And now the life I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So when Christ died, we died. It revealed our guilt and sin. But we were no longer condemned because of what Christ did on the cross. And so now for the first time, Jews and Gentiles are now on equal footing at the foot of the cross in front of God. And so both are broken people. Both are sinful people. Both are desperate for grace and on equal footing for the first time. And then Paul says in verse 16, he says, Thereby killing the hostility. So again, very intentional verbiage by Paul, I think, in what he's saying in all four of these verses in that he didn't manage the hostility. He killed it. In the church, this matters deeply because we do live in a culture, in a world that really, honestly, outside of the church, disciples outrage. You know, I think I was talking to Fox in preparation for this. And it's like, what is the best example that we could relate to when it comes to Jews and Gentiles? And I honestly truly don't think that there's one that is on par in today's America in 2026 that would give us the full picture of what Jews and Gentiles. But I think the closest one would be politically in Democrats and Republicans. And okay, you're probably like, okay, whatever. Well, I was thinking about this and I was preparing for the sermon. I was like, man, what I should do in preparation for this is put something on social media that incites, you know, people on the right or Republican and see how people react and then do the same thing the next day for people that would align with the left or Democrat and see what happens. And in my mind, I began going down this trail of, okay, well, I would probably lose my business. I would probably lose my job. I would probably have to take down my social media and hide my address, move houses. I wouldn't be able to afford, you know, all the, I was like, I went down all these different things. I was like, man, if I did this, all these hateful things that could potentially happen. And the fact that I could even go there and think that shows that there is that hostility. If you don't think there's hostility with posting political stuff on Facebook, ask Trace Kennedy, okay? I'm sure his DMs would prove the point that I was trying to make of this. But it's true. People demonize each other constantly. We're taught to assume motives, to caricature people, to paint a picture of who someone is. We're taught to cut people off, to dehumanize the opposition. But hear me. I'm not saying politics don't matter. I'm not saying that truth doesn't matter. I'm not saying that conviction doesn't matter. All those things matter. But what I am saying is that these earthly identities that we have that define us are no longer our primary identity, okay? Our primary identity is in Christ. For Christ's sake, we are one. And the danger is when believers begin finding deeper identity in these systems and processes and classes and tribes of the world than we find in ourselves in Christ. The church should confuse the world. We today, as the church, should confuse the world the same way that it was confusing to other Jews and Gentiles in the time that Paul was talking about. It's like, why are these people together? We should be the same way as a church. People should be... It makes no sense that these people that are of different backgrounds, different cultures, different races, different, you know, opinions, all these different things are built together as a family, worshiping one God, in unison together. And the only way that happens is through the blood of Christ. So the fourth thing that I want to point out is he says that we are one new man. Paul says that he might create in himself one new man in the place of two. Again, intentional. Paul does not say Gentiles became Jews or Jews became Gentiles. He says Christ created something entirely new, a new humanity, which is the church. We see that the gospel is not just Jesus died for my sins. This is 100% true. I'm not disputing that at all. But what I am seeing is that through this passage and what Paul is trying to show is that the gospel is also that Jesus reconciled hostile people, divided people into one family, people from every tribe, every nation, every tongue, every culture, every political background, all these things. We, together, form the dwelling place of God. And I think sometimes our verbiage, even at a young age, and we'll teach kids, you know, Jesus is coming into your heart and he's in your heart. And that is 100% true. But also, we as the church form the body of Christ. If, you know, one, if I only, you know, and I don't go to the gym much, but if I was to go to the gym and only work out my left arm, it wouldn't do very much for my body as a whole. Okay? And that's the same thing we say when we only focus on ourselves and what Christ is doing in us and not what he's doing in the body as a whole. We can lose sight of what God is doing because we do think so individualistically sometimes. Really, in America, this is a bigger issue, and I'm not bashing America, you know, I know we're having our 250th birthday, rah, rah, rah. But I'm not bashing America, but as Americans, we are taught to be independent. Literally, we were founded on an independent state, you know, we call it, we're taught to be independent more than other cultures. And so I think it's even more of a danger for us to think about the gospel as an individualistic thing only. I have found myself on numerous occasions coming into service saying, what can I receive? You know, how is the Lord God doing? How is he going to bless me with what Fox or Trace is saying today? You know, how is this going to benefit my life? But Paul is saying that God's vision of the gospel is so much bigger than the picture that we can paint when we get inside our own little bubbles. God is building a people together. He's building a dwelling place for his spirit. The church is not a weekly event. The church is the temple of God that we as people form, not built with stones, but built with redeemed people that are reconciled to Christ through the cross. People who otherwise would not even be together, most of us. You know, me and Trace went to a college class together and he didn't even like me, okay? You know, it's only through the blood of Christ that me and Trace know. But seriously, like what has brought many of us together is the blood of Christ. Many of us have different likes and interests and hobbies and things that normally would shape who we associate with in the world. But through Christ, we are one in the dwelling place for God here on earth. One body, one family, one people. And the last thing that I want to point out is that we now have access to the Father together. So verse 17 says, And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. So the far off in this instance are the Gentiles and the near are the Jews. And Paul's point is that both groups needed peace. Both groups needed Christ. All, everyone, all of every Jew and Gentile that he was speaking to then and everyone now comes to God the exact same way and that's through grace alone, by faith, through Christ and what he did on the cross. And then Paul says, For through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father. So this is the full beauty of the gospel is that through Christ by one spirit to the Father. There's multiple instances in this set of four verses where he talks about us being combined in one Father. So the goal is not, the goal of reconciliation is not merely peace between people. The goal of reconciliation is reconciled people together building the dwelling place for God here on earth. That's the church. Not consumers, not spectators, not people who just come to church because we feel like we're supposed to or we're checking a box, but us forming the body of Christ together that separates and shows something different to the world around us. It should reshape how we gather, how we attend church that is no longer simply attending church but that we are being built as the temple of God. And that should be displayed whether we're here or whether we're out in the community on a week-to-week basis. You know, we can't obey God's will for our life and what Paul is talking about here alone. I don't know how we can encourage each other alone. I don't know how we could bear each other's burdens alone. I don't know how we could forgive a brother or sister alone. I don't know how we could function as a body alone. We need each other. Our youth just finished up 201. And first of all, let's give up a hand for the 16 weeks. For those of you who've been through it, really, really grateful for our youth and their desire to know the Lord. And I know he's done a lot through 101, 201, but we just finished up 201 and the Lord is with us. Last week of 201 talks about overcoming conflict. And we talk about what it means to forgive a brother or sister in Christ. And we talk about what it means to not hold grudges or hold offense to brothers and sisters in Christ. We talk about what it means in terms of holding a brother or sister accountable when they sin. We talk about all these different things. None of that matters if our if the gospel is only about me and my personal bubble relationship with Christ. There's no reason for us to teach those things and talk about those things that scripture brings up if it's only about what Christ is doing in us. And I'm not diminishing at all. Please, please, please don't leave this place hearing or thinking that I'm trying to diminish what Christ is doing in us as individuals because that is obviously very important. But I think sometimes we stop thinking and we stop there. And what Paul is saying is that we need each other, that the spirit forms one body, not isolated Christians. And so it is important that we see these other things in the Bible where we forgive each other, where we're humble with each other, where we hold each other accountable. Those things are important because the gospel is not just about you and your personal relationship with Christ. So what does this actually mean for us? So I want to walk out kind of some in closing here some practical application of what does this mean for our lives because if this is true this cannot just be theological information. Honestly in studying for today and prepping for today God really revealed to me some areas of my life where I was living like I was only in this relationship vertically with God and not living as the church of God. And so it should begin to reshape the way that we live on a day-to-day basis because if Christ tore down this dividing wall of hostility that it talks about we cannot continue we cannot keep rebuilding the walls that he set out to destroy. We stop viewing people through earthly labels Republican Democrat Black White Hispanic American Poor Rich whatever it may be we stop viewing people each other as those things and we find our primary identity in and through Christ. Now it doesn't erase those distinctions it doesn't erase convictions that we have it doesn't erase wisdom discernment any of those things but it does mean that those earthly identities are no longer ultimate. It also means if this passage is true this is the word is God breathed that we stop baptizing hostility. This is hard for the church because the world around us sees outrage as profitable. Okay? The media profits off of you being outraged. Your social media algorithm is built around hostility and you being outraged. Politics thrive on that hostility that we were talking about and so we are constantly being discipled by the world to assume motives and like I said earlier to cut people off or dehumanize opponents but the cross Jesus through the cross he killed that hostility. So we have to ask am I becoming more Christ-like or am I becoming more hostile? And I think all of us would answer that question oh I'm becoming Christ-like but look at your life look at the thoughts that you have when you see certain things. Look at the actions that you take when people do certain things. Are the actions that you take or the thoughts that you have or the words that you say or want to say but hold back on are they shaping you and forming you to be more Christ-like and forming you together with brothers and sisters or are they creating more hostility and division amongst people? It means that the church should look differently than the world. People should be able to look at the church and see the example of what it means for people of these different backgrounds to be joined together. There's no thing in this world the first thing we started off with today was that He is our peace. There's nothing in this world that can truly create peace amongst sinful creatures sinful people sinful humanity. How many times have we seen in history people go through wars and then we make peace and then years later we're in another war of a different kind over something else over something different. We've tried for all of humanity to rely on the systems and processes and things that this world can provide to create peace amongst men and it's not possible without Christ because He is our peace. The world should not be able to explain why we are so unified. What I mean by that is that that is Christ-less should not understand you know I talked about you know Jews and Gentiles could not eat at each other's houses. This was like I mean there was literally and I don't know the exact scripture reference so forgive me but there's literally an example where Paul was even accused of having a Gentile come to his house and people were you know crossed the temple threshold and people were chastising him and you know people were condemning Paul for it. Okay? The world should look at the church and say we do not understand how this is possible because everything that we have tried outside of the church has not worked. It has not delivered true peace. Normal Christianity should be different generations different races different backgrounds different opinions different political backgrounds all these different things. That should be normal Christianity is that we set aside those things not that those things don't matter but we set aside those things because ultimately our identity as Christians is found in Christ and Christ alone and because of Him we can have peace because our goal in this life to live out the will of God takes precedence over anything that we're trying to do in the systems of this world. It means that we are as spiritual consumption or consumerism church is not for attendance tracking it's not inspiration and a pep rally for our week and I've literally made that statement in my life before I'm going to go to church and I'm going to get hyped up so I can go give out that's not what church is the church is all of us sinners reconciled to Christ being built together as the dwelling place of God that whether we're here or in our day to day lives throughout the week we are representing and living out what it means for sinners people that would normally be hostile towards each other being unified under something that if someone doesn't know Christ would not understand and that's why every member of ministry if you've been with us at MOVE for any length of time you've probably heard that and that's not a sticky statement that's not a that's not something that we just say as a tagline we mean that your encouragement to the body matters your spiritual gifts matter your prayers matter the things that you do to build the kingdom encourage one another lift each other up build the temple that is the dwelling place for Christ matter whether you're a young teenager or a young child or you're the oldest in the room and everything in between no matter what Gen Y, Gen Z, Gen A, Gen Millennial whatever it is every gift in this body matters we're all forming the body of Christ together it means that reconciliation becomes part of our witness imagine what it would look like if the church was known less for some of the things that we see now or less as just this place where we come you know as a building or as people who talk about certain things if the church became radically known for forgiveness if the church became radically known for humility for truth with love for reconciliation to brother what if that is what the church was known for in a world that really has become addicted to the things that divide us the church would stand out more than ever before if that's what we rallied around if we really embraced the part of the gospel that says I'm a sinner and I'm reconciled to Christ but I'm also reconciled to other sinners and together we form this body of Christ and so maybe I think the simplest application of this is two questions and I want you to ask yourself these write these down pull them up in the notes ask yourself these questions this week the first question is have I allowed earthly identity to become greater than my identity in Christ I'll read that again so have I allowed earthly identity to become greater than my identity in Christ and sit on that for a minute pray on that ponder that because naturally our prideful selves would say no but really dissect and look at your lives you can ask are you students you know I generally if you answer a question I'm going to ask you another question and another question and another question and we're going to dive deeper I'm not going to let you just stop at your initial answer to a question because we want to get deeper into what's going on and what God's trying to do there and so I ask you to do that with yourself because we want to say no but really look at your life look at every aspect of your life is your earthly identity greater than your identity in Christ in any area and the second question I want you to ask is where have I rebuilt walls that Jesus has already tore down and I'll read that again so where have I rebuilt walls that Jesus has already tore down because the gospel is not just Jesus saved me that is gloriously true but the gospel is also that Jesus reconciled us to God and to one another through the cross so in a world that teaches division we are unified in a world that produces hostility we have peace in Christ together the world that is divided by earthly identity we find our identity in Christ and Christ alone and so maybe the miracle of the gospel doesn't stop at we're saved as sinners maybe the miracle of the gospel is that we are saved as sinners but now we're also formed together as the dwelling place of God on a day in and day out basis only through Jesus only through what he did on the cross for us we find peace that the world just doesn't understand and so I'm going to pray for us today if you'll pray with me so Holy Father thank you thank you for revelation through your word thank you for discipline Father discipline us today and reveal things to us today that can only be done by loving Father the loving Father that you are Father not for anyone to feel condemned in any type of way but to see and identify the areas of our life where we have convinced ourselves that we've got it figured out we've convinced ourselves that we're not hostile that we're not dividing we're not building walls between us and other people we're not building walls that you have already paid the sacrifice to tear down through the cross Father reveal to us where we have placed more stake in earthly identities in the tribes and groups and classifications that the world has defined than we have done in you Father shift our hearts to see to be more grateful for the sacrifice that you made that we as sinful people who do not deserve the grace and mercy that you provide that through faith in Christ alone because of the blood that was shed we have the ability to be saved that we no longer have to live by the law that we are reconciled to Christ that we are seated in heavenly places because of what Christ has done but also that through that same sacrifice we are reconciled to each other Father give us eyes to see how divided we would be without you Father especially those of us who have been in church and in relationship with you and have been a part of the body for many many years Father give us eyes to see how hostile we would be without you Father reveal the areas where we are still hostile even with you because we are not inviting you into these places we are leading into these places on our own out of our flesh out of our sinful nature Father thank you thank you that you give us scripture to dive into to show us these different things Father thank you that the church is so vast that that that teachings from thousands of years ago can still be applied to what we are living out today they can still be applied to our lives today Father we think of of generations as just you know the kids that are in here and and the older adults that are in here Father but thousands of years of generations are united through Christ and the example that was set Father help us to leave here and ask these questions leave here and see where these questions can help us to live more within your will for our lives and less in our sinful nature and flesh Father we thank you we love you we appreciate the opportunity and the freedoms that we we have to come and worship you and it's in your holy name we pray Amen
