back to indexWed Bible Study Ephesians Lesson 7
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Alright everyone, we're going to gather our attention up here. 00:00:15.640 |
Earlier I made that announcement about the coronavirus and if you kind of got the sentiment, 00:00:23.440 |
we're neither making it a nothing deal and we're also neither making it like everything 00:00:32.960 |
But one thing I do want to make mention of the fact that is right now things are fast 00:00:37.240 |
developing the tenor of how things have been developing since even Sunday till now, which 00:00:45.360 |
And so please know that if there are major changes, it could possibly be that let's say 00:00:52.320 |
We will make sure to update you guys and make sure we communicate broadly about that, okay? 00:00:58.600 |
So let's take a moment to review and then I'll read the passage and we can jump in, 00:01:09.800 |
Reviewing this part's not on your packet, but remember there is so much to be said in 00:01:14.040 |
Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 10 and the last section of it was man, like, look 00:01:27.260 |
He seated us with Christ and God's desire is to show, like, put on magnificent display 00:01:34.480 |
his kindness towards us in Christ, the love that he has shown to us, okay? 00:01:39.040 |
And so by review, the whole section, verses 1 through 10, showed us an incredible contrast, 00:01:46.280 |
On one side, you're absolutely dead in your transgressions and sins and you're absolutely 00:01:52.220 |
oppressed by the forces all around you and the force of your own flesh. 00:01:58.440 |
God has, but in God's mercy, he has made you alive and raised and seated us with Christ. 00:02:05.160 |
Similarly then, in this passage, verses 11 all the way down through verse 22, but we 00:02:09.960 |
cut it off a little bit early, is this amazing contrast of salvation again, but it highlights 00:02:19.480 |
Whereas the previous section highlighted for us this absolute truth that you went from 00:02:23.840 |
death to life, what a vast, vast contrast of reality that you would go from death to 00:02:29.920 |
living, here and now, Apostle Paul is highlighting for us our salvation where we go from far 00:02:38.600 |
Whereas one side, it is your existence and your reality before God, here and now, he 00:02:46.260 |
This is the relational contrast of the gospel, right? 00:02:49.600 |
This is the ramification that if you were dead, then you were absolutely detestable 00:02:57.320 |
If you've been made alive in Christ, now you are bringing, have been brought to him in 00:03:01.700 |
Christ because our Lord has ascended to the Father, right? 00:03:10.480 |
The ramification of the gospel, it has its great impact and it has everything to do with 00:03:21.460 |
It's not about, "Oh, my former self was poor, sad, hardened, and now I'm much better than 00:03:38.060 |
Please look at your passage and it says, "Therefore, remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in 00:03:44.520 |
the flesh who are called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision, which is performed 00:03:52.120 |
Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth 00:03:56.240 |
of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God 00:04:05.760 |
But now in Christ Jesus, you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the 00:04:12.200 |
For he himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier 00:04:17.360 |
of the dividing wall by abolishing in his flesh the enmity, which is the law of commandments 00:04:22.760 |
contained in ordinances, so that in himself he might make the two into one new man, thus 00:04:28.000 |
establishing peace and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross. 00:04:37.720 |
And he came and preached peace to you who are far away and peace to those who are near. 00:04:43.320 |
For through him we both have our access in one spirit to the Father." 00:04:49.320 |
God, we thank you for your grace and Lord, we thank you so much. 00:04:54.440 |
God, not only did you free us from the oppressive grips of Satan of this world and our flesh, 00:05:01.840 |
Father God, you showed us how dead we were spiritually. 00:05:05.480 |
And Father, you have made us alive in Christ. 00:05:09.000 |
But we thank you, Father God, because in justifying us, in freeing us, we just recognize, God, 00:05:19.360 |
But Father God, in your love, in your inexplicable care, in your mercy, you purposely drew us 00:05:30.760 |
And for that, Lord, today we want to reflect, we want to meditate, and ultimately we want 00:05:42.920 |
So as we take a look at this passage, there is clearly a section where it describes your 00:05:52.260 |
And remember, as you do your Bible study, if you see the repetition of terms, make sure 00:05:57.160 |
you actually list them off and stare at it and observe all that you can learn. 00:06:03.280 |
But before we even get there, he tells you and commands you, "Remember all this stuff." 00:06:10.840 |
So we can't just slide by that, and we have to ask ourselves the question, why does Apostle 00:06:16.720 |
Paul command the church to remember and reflect upon all of these various terms that are oh 00:06:30.400 |
The previous ones where it said, "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins." 00:06:35.040 |
Those things we should actually remember too. 00:06:39.560 |
So in thought of your deadness and the mercies of God that made you alive, you should also 00:06:44.880 |
therefore remember this as your previous former state of alienation prior to you receiving 00:06:53.480 |
And just as a good way to do Bible study, when you ask questions for yourself, any time 00:06:58.080 |
you see a command in the New Testament, especially these didactic teaching epistles, these like, 00:07:03.560 |
you know, the lessons and the directions that we receive, ask yourself these questions like, 00:07:07.800 |
what does Apostle Paul want me to do when he says, "Remember?" 00:07:13.060 |
Because is he telling you to go into your room all pitifully in the dark and just sulk? 00:07:18.800 |
Is he telling you to be like, "Oh yeah, that's right." 00:07:23.480 |
And then you got to ask yourself, am I doing this right now? 00:07:34.760 |
This is something that's actually repeated multiple times in the Bible and the scriptures 00:07:42.240 |
Sometimes we're like, "Man, we received such a grace. 00:07:45.600 |
And then like we, the MO, the like, the operating, you know, the tendency of mankind throughout 00:07:51.800 |
history has been, we just always tend to forget even the greatest of things. 00:07:59.640 |
God with his strong, mighty hand delivers the people. 00:08:02.640 |
They walk the desert and like, "Are you even with us?" 00:08:04.800 |
You know, like, it's crazy how quickly they forget. 00:08:10.440 |
Do you understand what he means when he tells you to remember? 00:08:13.680 |
But moving forward, I asked you as a study of this passage, please make sure you understand 00:08:19.360 |
the description of the conditions that we were in. 00:08:28.520 |
And he says, "Remember all these different depictions." 00:08:30.960 |
So, I have for us, I like to highlight in red the stuff that's sinful or the former 00:08:41.640 |
And what's more, I highlight the ones in the next section because as he was describing 00:08:46.120 |
what Christ has done, he gave different descriptions of the state that we were in. 00:08:50.200 |
So, as a summary list for us, it talks about being separated from Christ, right? 00:09:02.240 |
You know, all of that stuff is strangers, right? 00:09:05.400 |
You guys have heard recently probably the term being thrown around a lot, xenophobia, 00:09:16.000 |
You're not the local guy that everybody knows, right? 00:09:20.360 |
Having no hope without a God in this world, you are absolutely far off with a barrier 00:09:27.960 |
And there was enmity between you and God's law, between you, God himself, between you 00:09:38.720 |
Think about this for a moment and take a moment to observe that. 00:09:45.820 |
If you can't tell, the guy has no neck because he's sad, right? 00:09:52.840 |
There's like, you can't really see it very well, but there's like snake and bone down 00:09:56.840 |
there because there is a level of this depiction where you are not in a neutral state with 00:10:08.400 |
Whenever you meet the Lord, you are not in a mind my own business world. 00:10:15.800 |
It's like, "You know, I'm just minding my own business and God's out there and he wants 00:10:18.840 |
me to have a better purpose for my life than the one I purpose for myself now." 00:10:24.240 |
Sometimes, don't settle for the less purpose, go for the higher. 00:10:28.280 |
That is not the picture the gospel paints, is it? 00:10:48.100 |
And so, as a takeaway, I've got two questions, right? 00:10:53.240 |
One is, how humiliating do you think this is for the Gentiles in this church? 00:11:09.880 |
If you've heard a gospel that didn't make you feel rejected, perhaps you didn't listen 00:11:19.720 |
If you have never felt, after hearing the gospel, a sense of rejection, I'm not sure 00:11:30.400 |
Because if you were looking at this laundry list, or I guess if you were looking at this 00:11:34.560 |
depiction of the picture that Apostle Paul is trying to give you, I want you to understand 00:11:40.600 |
I want you to see the reality of where you were, right? 00:11:43.880 |
He is showing you an incredibly bleak, bleak picture of your life. 00:11:50.440 |
I mean, to say that you're separate and excluded, you are alienated and strange, but he flat 00:12:02.200 |
Have you ever said that to anybody in your life? 00:12:10.320 |
But if you think about it from a relational picture, this is a picture of complete rejection. 00:12:18.680 |
This is a kind of picture where maybe I should have drawn the guy banging on the wall and 00:12:23.240 |
God saying, "No, I will not accept you and this wall exists between you and me. 00:12:36.760 |
That is a profoundly humbling thing to accept. 00:12:41.000 |
And so the second question I have for you is, do you have an understanding of how desperate 00:12:50.640 |
When you look back, the command is for you to remember, right? 00:12:54.460 |
So when you look back at your life prior to Christ, do you summarize and interpret it 00:13:04.020 |
If we're truly thinking about a state of despair, if we're truly thinking about a state of rejection, 00:13:12.420 |
But sometimes when I read people's testimonies, their depiction of their previous life is 00:13:36.600 |
But is that the picture that the scripture and the gospel paints for us? 00:13:41.500 |
What's more, you think about why Apostle Paul would need to say this to the Gentiles, right? 00:13:49.220 |
You hearken back to, let's say, the beginning chapters of 1 Corinthians. 00:13:53.380 |
It is so innate within us to have arrogance and pride, right? 00:13:59.980 |
Where you join the privilege, where you join this group, this group that like, "Oh my goodness, 00:14:09.680 |
We have future with the Lord," and all this kind of stuff. 00:14:11.900 |
And that should be to us like praise and thankfulness. 00:14:15.620 |
And then it immediately turns into like, "And you, right? 00:14:22.660 |
It's pretty incredible, but we can already imagine the scene in that section. 00:14:28.100 |
Now in order for us to just appreciate this all the more because, again, for us as we 00:14:35.860 |
look at this passage, I introduced it by saying, "What an incredible contrast." 00:14:40.820 |
Just like the previous passage, it's an incredible contrast. 00:14:44.480 |
For us to appreciate the contrast, we have to then get the first part right. 00:14:49.620 |
And therefore, in order to do that, an example. 00:14:52.780 |
An example of how destitute, an example of how separated, an example of how estranged 00:15:01.140 |
There is this word that I have a hard time pronouncing. 00:15:19.140 |
And what's really interesting about this is, here's the question I want to ask you. 00:15:23.320 |
When you think about your life before Christ, it is not something that is inherently observed, 00:15:29.500 |
and it's not something that feels natural, but the Bible teaches us before you are saved 00:15:35.700 |
in Christ, your relationship with God is absolute hatred. 00:15:46.740 |
Is that something that really kind of strikes us? 00:15:49.620 |
And you know what's very interesting is, Scripture talks about this. 00:15:55.340 |
This is absolutely foolish, but this is the way that I imagine it, right? 00:16:00.460 |
We're puny, tiny little people, and somehow we think we can put our dukes up and go at 00:16:07.900 |
But Scripture says this, "And through him to reconcile all things to himself, having 00:16:14.780 |
Through him I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven, and although you are 00:16:20.220 |
"Alienated, hostile in mind, and engaged in evil deeds." 00:16:25.580 |
That is your description, and that word for hostile is the same word you find there. 00:16:30.580 |
What's more, in Colossians 2, verse 10 through 14, some of you guys have already texted me. 00:16:35.380 |
It's kind of weird that the passage talks about the law being hostile, but take a look 00:16:41.740 |
"Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with him 00:16:45.460 |
through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 00:16:49.460 |
When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made 00:16:53.640 |
you alive together with him, having forgiven us of all our transgressions." 00:16:59.300 |
"Having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was 00:17:06.620 |
hostile to us, and he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross." 00:17:13.460 |
The way I want to describe that to you is, a lot of people mistakenly think that, again, 00:17:20.980 |
we are neutral with God, minding our own business, and what we have to do is accept this God 00:17:26.500 |
who's going to make our lives so much better. 00:17:28.820 |
Now, is God going to radically transform our lives? 00:17:34.420 |
But the scripture says the hostility actually went both ways. 00:17:38.540 |
You are hostile to God because prior to us knowing God, every single man stood as Lord 00:17:44.620 |
over his own life, which means your kingship stands directly hostile to God's kingship. 00:17:50.700 |
But what's more, your transgression and sins are like a rap sheet. 00:18:00.680 |
You have a certificate of debt that says you owe. 00:18:06.240 |
You have certified documents that show you how wrong you were. 00:18:11.780 |
And in that way, the law of God is hostile to you because God's good and holy word compared 00:18:24.980 |
So then, I take a moment to think about this. 00:18:28.700 |
Like, I want to just give you a final illustration, then turn to the but and then turn it over, 00:18:36.920 |
I hope I did enough to get us to think about that question. 00:18:41.600 |
Do we really understand how lost we were before Christ? 00:18:53.240 |
It's not the swagger wagon because it's a mama van, right? 00:19:00.020 |
It's not the little dinky cars because they're small. 00:19:04.620 |
It's not the style of cars that make people not want it. 00:19:12.820 |
Cars that have hidden faults, that have been in wrecks before, that have been deemed at 00:19:22.860 |
If there is a description for me that worked, was to think about a damaged vehicle that 00:19:34.080 |
The highlight of this passage is not so much just your deadness. 00:19:37.040 |
The highlight of this passage is your rejection relationally. 00:19:40.760 |
The gospel teaches us it's not because God is mean. 00:19:52.900 |
Our stain of sin is a sickness that nobody would want to be around. 00:19:58.340 |
I mean, we're in the midst of a panic because there is an unknown, very little that we know 00:20:04.440 |
about this disease that's going around rampant. 00:20:07.600 |
If an individual is then diagnosed with that disease, that person is cast out. 00:20:14.020 |
And so it was all through history with the Jewish people and their regiments and the 00:20:34.820 |
And then he says, reminding us of the future passage, I mean, sorry, previous passage, 00:20:40.220 |
but God being rich in mercy because of his great love, which he has loved us, even when 00:20:48.140 |
we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ by grace, you have 00:20:52.620 |
been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ. 00:20:59.180 |
And then today, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were formerly so far off, you have been 00:21:20.100 |
Because if you actually understood how far you were, if you actually understood how much 00:21:25.500 |
our sins separate us from this loving God, when we hear the news, Christ draws you near. 00:21:47.100 |
And the only way I want to have us, not the only way, but one of the important ways I 00:21:50.840 |
want you guys to think about this is because, remember, one of the passages talked about 00:21:55.700 |
you are being called the uncircumcised by the circumcised. 00:22:09.780 |
Because that was their whole tradition and mark. 00:22:12.420 |
I am a chosen person of God in the chosen nation of God as a sign of the covenant of 00:22:27.900 |
And then therefore that also elicited a pride in them. 00:22:31.400 |
You uncircumcised going, you ethnic, all the others who don't have this promise mark, all 00:22:42.760 |
If you read old, old literature, the Jewish people hated everybody else. 00:22:47.840 |
And what's really interesting is everybody else hated them. 00:22:50.400 |
There was just a hate, hate relationship that existed. 00:22:53.180 |
So much so the Jewish people would say the ethnic, the gentiles, were literally food 00:22:59.040 |
for the fires of hell, fuel for the fires of hell. 00:23:03.320 |
It was against their law, their systematic laws to even help a gentile woman give birth. 00:23:10.040 |
Because that just means another heathen would enter this land. 00:23:12.760 |
And then throughout history, so many people have hated the Jewish people. 00:23:16.920 |
And then around the time of this writing, the people saw the Jewish individuals as the 00:23:25.440 |
That is heightened by the story of Sarah and Hagar. 00:23:30.120 |
Abraham was given this promise, you will have a son. 00:23:36.040 |
Sarah got super impatient and was like, what in the world is happening? 00:23:39.520 |
She looked to her slave girl, Hagar, and said, I want you to sleep with your master and have 00:23:46.880 |
The green monster came out and said, I need you to get out. 00:23:54.920 |
Hagar goes walking in the wilderness and she cannot feed her son. 00:24:00.680 |
And so in order to not see her son whimper and die of starvation, she puts her son by 00:24:06.520 |
a bush and she goes walking away to be a distance away. 00:24:11.880 |
But I want you to think about the perspective of the son. 00:24:15.920 |
Because sometimes we think it was an infant baby. 00:24:19.120 |
I think the story actually talks about some years going by. 00:24:27.800 |
I think the child was old enough to understand what was going on. 00:24:35.440 |
Like to have the emotional contrast of not only being the slave boy, but the unwanted 00:24:46.360 |
boy who poses a threat to actually your father. 00:24:51.560 |
And then to be in a state where there is nothing for you. 00:24:58.440 |
And now what you're looking at is absolute bleak, bleak moment of despair with no food. 00:25:08.820 |
And the only thing you're thinking is I'm going to die in this place. 00:25:17.320 |
When there is this contrast between you uncircumcised to now you being brought near. 00:25:31.720 |
And so for us to appreciate this contrast and now, and now those who are outside the 00:25:37.240 |
camp, those who are detested, those who are absolutely rejected, we are being brought 00:25:48.440 |
And scripture says here, Psalm 73 verse 28, "As for me, the nearness of God is my good. 00:25:54.360 |
I have made the Lord God my refuge that I may tell of all his works." 00:26:01.440 |
Can I give you guys kind of like a, I just want to meditate on this and give you like 00:26:06.360 |
Because today's passage and the passages in Ephesians chapter 1 through 3 you guys know 00:26:15.440 |
It's the theology we're supposed to appreciate and understand. 00:26:17.680 |
And I'm going to give a really personal example, okay, between me and my wife with Bia. 00:26:24.480 |
Because here in this passage in Psalm 73 he says, "The nearness of my God is good." 00:26:31.160 |
And the thing that I'm trying to get at with trying to exposit this passage is have you 00:26:35.520 |
felt that because you understood yourself to be Ishmael, the Gentile, the wrong lineage, 00:26:46.280 |
To go from that to them being brought near by the blood of Christ, seen, seen as a child 00:26:57.080 |
There is an experiential exhortation I want to give to you is when we hear the gospel 00:27:01.680 |
we then have to feel the pains of the farness and also the incredible bliss and joy of the 00:27:10.480 |
And I'm going to challenge you, even as a Christian, if you're walking your life and 00:27:16.520 |
the things that's going to motivate you for sanctification, the things that's going to 00:27:19.960 |
motivate you and fuel you for trying to live in the nearness of God, let it be this aspect 00:27:26.400 |
And so now to my example, my wife and I, Bia and I, feel like we have a really great relationship. 00:27:34.160 |
But I know you guys, it's going to surprise you, sometimes we fight. 00:27:38.800 |
All right, so some of you guys are like, "Why is that funny?" 00:27:44.320 |
Sometimes we fight and sometimes we fight hard. 00:27:46.440 |
And I'm going to be honest, even though sometimes in my pride I'm like, "I'm the humblest guy 00:27:56.520 |
I'm so reasonable and logical and I know how to fix problems. 00:28:06.400 |
But man, sometimes you're just really humble by your own weakness and sometimes I just 00:28:11.840 |
act like a child and then ruin the good things that we have. 00:28:18.720 |
My wife and I got into an argument and because I got super defensive, I did the, "What do 00:28:25.720 |
When you get super defensive, you just like, "Define this, define this. 00:28:29.280 |
And then you kind of exaggerate the stuff that they say. 00:28:31.200 |
"Do you mean that blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah?" 00:28:36.360 |
I'm like, "Are you giving me attitude there?" 00:28:44.040 |
Now in conflict, what you're supposed to do is in conflict you're supposed to actually 00:28:51.360 |
pull the other person closer and say, "Let me understand what you're saying and hear 00:28:57.320 |
Do you understand me so you should be willing to speak?" 00:29:00.840 |
But then when you act like a child, you push the other person away. 00:29:04.320 |
You're like, "If you really want to understand me, then you come after me. 00:29:10.360 |
If you want us to reconcile, then you reconcile with me." 00:29:13.320 |
And you turn to Cole's shoulder and go, "Hmm," right? 00:29:18.520 |
Bia early on in marriage, she hated it when I'm like, "You know what? 00:29:24.320 |
So then I'd be like, "I need to go for a walk, right, to cool down." 00:29:28.160 |
She would be like, "Do you have any idea what it looks like when you turn your back 00:29:37.200 |
And then you realize sometimes you do the cold shoulder and back turn because you know 00:29:42.680 |
Okay, long story short, there was a moment in our marriage relationship where I did that, 00:29:56.680 |
I would come home and we would do like little talk, like, "Did you eat? 00:30:08.920 |
After I did that for like two, three weeks, I could almost feel my heart getting crusty. 00:30:17.000 |
And then therefore, when I went to work, I sat down and tried to read this book. 00:30:22.500 |
So I closed it and started distracting myself with other stuff. 00:30:28.920 |
And then I started trying to write because obviously I have to write sermons. 00:30:40.240 |
I felt my heart getting crusty and then I felt the rest of my body getting crusty. 00:30:46.920 |
And then Pastor Peter walked by the office and I was like, "I can't do this anymore." 00:30:56.280 |
And I was just like, you know, like the world was done. 00:31:00.840 |
And Pastor Peter had to guide me and stuff like that. 00:31:05.800 |
I remember it was weird because the pain of being far from the one who I'm supposed to 00:31:14.200 |
be one with, the pain of being far from somebody I'm supposed to be so intimate and close with, 00:31:25.840 |
And so after that, it's literally every other like argument that I had, I was like, "No, 00:31:38.040 |
So if we're going to talk and stuff, we're just going to talk here." 00:31:43.440 |
But that is how it's supposed to be with you and God. 00:31:49.720 |
For you to feel far from God should be absolutely painful. 00:31:55.120 |
And that's why to us, when we think about, and when I think about this passage, we should 00:32:04.820 |
We should have the affections where we can say with our hearts, "The nearness of my God 00:32:13.720 |
And so the opposite of that, when we sin, when we falter, when we waver, that to us 00:32:23.040 |
And so again, this passage for us shows us and highlights the gospel truth that to us, 00:32:29.760 |
the greatest impact of the gospel is you have access to God. 00:32:35.700 |
You have now a nearness and you've been brought close. 00:32:41.320 |
This is to you, your great treasure, and this is to you, your great privilege. 00:32:47.460 |
When somebody comes to me and they're not Christian and they tell me about how their 00:32:50.400 |
life is a wreck, they tell me how they can't handle the stress, they tell me how they can't 00:32:54.800 |
handle the pains of their family dynamics, and they can't handle why they are made certain 00:33:00.120 |
I tell them, when your relationship with the one who should be everything to you is off, 00:33:06.800 |
Your heart is crusty, your body is crusty, and you can't do anything else. 00:33:19.200 |
And when you become one with him and you feel the nearness of God, trust me, all the other 00:33:27.680 |
Now, in the last section, we have the fruit of all of that coming near to God. 00:33:35.280 |
And coming near to God, we have peace and oneness of our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:33:40.920 |
We have peace and oneness with our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:33:43.960 |
Now, this next section is long, and I'm not going to be able to cover all of it, but we 00:33:50.920 |
There is so much going on here, but I want to highlight a couple things for you. 00:33:55.200 |
A, the term peace is a major point of this section, clearly, right? 00:34:09.500 |
One of our guys, like, that's kind of like saying, like, God is holy. 00:34:12.120 |
That's kind of like saying God is love, right? 00:34:14.920 |
To say Christ is, he himself is your peace is a huge statement. 00:34:28.380 |
So now we have to ask the question, like, what is this peace? 00:34:33.680 |
And what I want to highlight to you guys is just one of these dictionary entries. 00:34:46.880 |
Peace used in the scriptures has so many different entries. 00:35:08.840 |
It's like, I'm trying to define something here, man. 00:35:10.800 |
And if you write every kind of good, that's just way too broad. 00:35:25.880 |
God is giving you the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:35:29.840 |
And I want to make this kind of profound for you by giving you this example. 00:35:40.480 |
It's not just simply a state of mind, but it includes a state of mind. 00:35:45.680 |
And the example that I want to give to you is I want you to think superpower, okay? 00:35:50.400 |
The US as a nation is a superpower in this world. 00:35:54.000 |
The whole world looks to the United States to what? 00:35:59.800 |
When you have some crazy terrorist regime trying to overthrow this small little nation, 00:36:12.520 |
In order to make peace in the region, what do they have to do? 00:36:17.380 |
They have to exercise the full force of their military. 00:36:31.480 |
He abolished the flesh, in His flesh, the enmity. 00:36:39.880 |
Think about the incredible power of God and the authority of God to not just, "Hey guys, 00:36:48.200 |
He is coming into our lives, abolishing, destroying, and putting to death those things of wickedness, 00:36:56.520 |
those things of animosity, those things that make for conflict. 00:37:00.760 |
This is to us an incredible, incredible blessing of God. 00:37:04.720 |
Because, then, the power of God, the incredible blessing of God, then equates to our tranquility. 00:37:12.520 |
It equates to everything in the condition where we can have actual happiness. 00:37:20.080 |
Christ then, He Himself, is the context by which we can actually live. 00:37:27.240 |
I mean, think about the corollary that I'm talking about. 00:37:30.100 |
If you are an individual in a conflict-stricken nation, and a superpower comes in, and it 00:37:35.380 |
eradicates the terrorists, and gives you a brand new hope, that is, to us, our victory. 00:37:42.660 |
And then, what's more contained in this passage is oneness. 00:37:53.980 |
Those are the two things I want to highlight from this passage. 00:37:57.260 |
Peter said in verse 7 that God wanted to show His incredible riches and grace and kindness 00:38:09.420 |
And what's really incredible, he says, I highlighted it for you, he says, "I am making both groups 00:38:22.500 |
I would like to highlight this interesting passage for you. 00:38:24.620 |
I go to this passage regularly for marriage sermons. 00:38:27.900 |
When I officiate weddings and stuff, I go to this passage. 00:38:30.940 |
And it's not Ephesians 5 where it says, "Husband, love your wives as Christ loved the church." 00:38:35.300 |
It's actually Jesus' high priestly prayer in John chapter 17. 00:38:41.420 |
In Jesus' high priestly prayer in John chapter 17, Jesus says in His prayer to God, "I do 00:38:50.260 |
not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through your 00:38:55.100 |
word, that they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in Me and I in you, that they 00:39:05.340 |
also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent Me. 00:39:10.300 |
The glory which you have given Me, I have given to them." 00:39:14.020 |
Right, like the glory that God the Father has given to Christ the Son for Christ's 00:39:25.060 |
He says, "I have given to them that they may be," what? 00:39:27.940 |
"One, just as we are one, I in them and you in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, 00:39:34.340 |
so that the world may know that you sent Me and love them even as you have loved Me." 00:39:40.860 |
This to me summarizes what Apostle Paul is saying. 00:39:43.980 |
God wants to show His magnificent love, magnificent love. 00:39:51.140 |
But the way that He's going to do that is not just by dropping gifts from a helicopter. 00:39:57.500 |
He's going to come down and be near you, but beyond that, He says, "I want to be one with 00:40:04.660 |
I mean, we appreciate Christ's sacrifice because He died in our place. 00:40:11.300 |
But think about, I can't even describe it in words, but think about the arena of sacrifice 00:40:17.420 |
when you share yourself in such a way that you want to have that person be one with you. 00:40:28.980 |
But there is no sparing of yourself, but as you are, you want that person to be. 00:40:37.020 |
And for God, that is to us the most incredible gift of all. 00:40:41.860 |
God desires oneness because He in His nature is one. 00:40:46.980 |
And what He's desiring for us in His blessing is that He would make all of us one with Himself. 00:40:53.540 |
You know, this whole passage section began in Ephesians chapter 1 with, "Blessed be the 00:41:04.380 |
Like, the limits just keep going higher and higher, I feel like, right? 00:41:10.140 |
The whole idea of raising you and seating you and all that stuff was just mind-blowing. 00:41:14.780 |
And then to hear this, that He is in unrestraint giving to us all that He is. 00:41:24.260 |
Heavenly Father, we thank You so much for Your grace and we want to thank You so much. 00:41:35.500 |
I pray, Father God, that as we are looking at this passage, Lord, may all the things 00:41:42.500 |
that we're learning truly convict, break our hearts. 00:41:47.740 |
And Lord, the things that we are learning, we want to remember it, Lord. 00:41:51.360 |
We want it to affect us so much that we never forget. 00:41:54.780 |
And I pray, Father God, in that way, we're walking by faith. 00:41:59.020 |
We're walking, Father God, with the lens of the gospel of how amazing You are to us and 00:42:07.980 |
We again want to just thank You, thank You, thank You from the bottom of our hearts.