March 24, 2002

                                  Ephesians 2:11-22

 

 

v. 11 - Past & Present - what we were by nature, what we

            are by grace.  REMEMBER!

 

v. 12 - “without Christ”          “having no hope”

            “without God”            “in the world”

             

No country, no promises - what an accumulation of miseries!

            Yet men in ignorance have no desire for a change.

             Any one of these situations is a tragedy!

 

Without pardon, without life, without grace, without hope,

without comfort.  How dark and cheerless was heathenism

and to day secularism, yea, secular humanism under its pop

culture. 

 

No experience of the three-fold blessing of the gospel -

Christ for us, Christ in us, and Christ with us

 

v. 13 - “But now”       “in Christ Jesus”

 

A complete reversal.   “the blood of Christ” the instrument

                                        of change.

 

v. 14 - “He is our peace”

v. 15 - “so making peace”

v. 17 - “came and preached peace to you”

 

Col. 1:20 - “having made peace through the blood of his cross,

            by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself”

Reconciliation - Christ’s Work!!

 

Prince of Peace

Peace of God that passeth understanding.

There is “joy & peace in believing” - Rom. 15:13

“we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” - Rom. 5:1

“Great peace have all they that love thy law” - Ps. 119:165

“To be spiritually minded is life & peace” - Rom. 8:6

“They that trust in the Lord are kept in perfect peace” - Is. 26:3

There is no peace to the wicked. - Is. 57:21

 

Peace between men - Jew & Gentile - needful today between

Jew & Arab.

 

“He....hath broken down the the middle wall of partition

between us” - v. 14

 

v. 18  - “boldness with access with confidence” ch. 3:12

 

v. 19 - Not aliens, guests or occasional visitors but permanent

            dwellers in the house and members of the family.

 

v. 20 - the building - Christ the Foundation and the Cornerstone

            from which all others are aligned.

 

He is the chief Corner-stone who determines the lie and direction

of other stones. 

 

We must be in harmony with Christ, our wills, notions, tastes, habits.

Secondary cornerstones - Ps. 144:12 - highly polished - Christian women.

 

 

Jesus, the Son of God, is not only the Origin, Foundation,Support

of the Church but He gives it its shape and form, He determines

the place & office of each stone and character to each member.

 

Veneer house & building experience - my choice - House in 1980

and shed in 2001.  Wall, hopefully in 2002.

 

v. 21 - “fitly framed together” - a jointing and a joining of the

            various parts to each other, forming a symmetrical,

            compact, & well ordered building.

 

The Church has many members in one body and all do not have

the same office.  It is not a collection of loose stones and timbers,

its members are in vital union with Christ and ought to be living

in loving and considerate fellowship with each other.

 

Some excel in prayer, some in praise, some in speaking, others

visit the sick, teach the young, witness to strangers, some can

write books, some can translate, some can guide the Church at

home, some can go abroad to the heathen.

 

From the first 120 to the last, from the disciples to the the

godliness of the lowly cottager, from Christian philanthropists

to those who have fought the battle of the cross in evil times,

losing their lives, or psychologically or subliminally wounded, in

all these we have a vision of the glory of the Church as the

habitation of God through the Spirit.

 

Heb. 12:22-24             Heb. 11:32-40             And like Abraham

                                                                        in Rom. 4:20-22

“groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord” Zech. 4:7

 

 

v. 22 - “In whom ye also are builded together”

 

No accident but compacted into each other to work to

God’s great ends.

 

“for a habitation of God in the Spirit” - the communication

of Divine properties to finite beings is the work of the Third Person

of the Trinity.

 

What condescension in God to dwell with humans - “the High

and Lofty One who inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy” -

Is. 57:15 selects his dwelling-place “with him that is of a

contrite and humble spirit” - we ought to live purer lives,

breathe a sweeter air, and to open our hearts to Him with

whom we have to do!

 

What a climax to this chapter which started out in death

in trespasses & sins and ends in a sublime Temple of the Lord God!

 

Each believer is a living stone, dug out of the quarry of nature,

hewn by the Word, and built into the heavenly structure.

THE CHURCH IS GOD’S BUILDING, NOT MAN’S

 

We are joined to Christ and cemented to one another in love.

Unity gives beauty as well as strength to the structure.

 

Publicans, Samaritans, Gentiles, heathen, corrupt officials,

the neglected, the ignorant, all are brought in through

the blood of Jesus Christ and His spiritual masonry binds

us together in one in Him!  We begin with Christ, we end with Christ!

He does not confine Himself to a select few, like priests, prophets,

ordained clergy but is “nigh unto them that are of a broken heart;

and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit” - Ps. 34:18