Please turn with me to Ephesians 2 - starting at verse 11.  We are going on in our look at the first three chapters of Paul’s letter to the believers in Ephesus.  While you’re turning to Ephesians…

How many of you remember the song that goes with this picture?  Do you remember this?

I'd like to teach the world to sing, (sing it with me)
In perfect harmony.
I’d like to buy the world a Coke,
And keep it company.

Do you remember that?  1971 - probably the most successful ad jingle in history.  All these people singing about living in harmony.  The dawning of the age of Aquarius - harmony and understanding.  That longing that we share for coming together - ending what divides us.

On August 28, 1963 - this man - who is?  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - gave a speech before at least 250,000 people in Washington D.C.  Tremendous speech.  Familiar words.  Remember these?

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heart of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character…

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama...little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers...

Isn’t that a great dream?  Powerful words coming from the heart that touch all of us.  In some ways we’ve made some progress towards that dream.  Whatever someone may think about his politics a black man is president of the United States.  Thinking back a few decades that’s huge.

And yet - doesn’t it seem like the more progress we make at tearing down what divides us we only discover new ways to separate?

As we’ve been looking at Ephesians - we’ve seen that we live in what kind of world?  Humpty Dumpty.   We know this.  The world we live in is fallen - cracked - whatever all the kings horses and all the kings men have tried to do - there is no way Humpty is getting put back together again. 

We only have to look as close as our own hearts to know that whatever we’re trying to do to accomplish peace within us - between us - between nations or in our marriages or where we work or our schools - wherever we live our lives - our striving for peace most often comes up short.  How easy it is to live in a city - even the size of Merced - and feel alone.

Where we’re coming to in Ephesians 2 - starting at verse 11 - is where we must go - to God.  Only God can heal our divisions - whether that’s between races or nations or parents and children or husband and wives - even here in the church.  Only God can heal our divisions. 

Look with me at Ephesians 2 - verses 11 and 12 are Paul’s description of The Great Divide.  Let’s say that together, “The Great Divide.”     

Verse 11:  Therefore - which refers back to what we’ve been looking at the last three Sundays - because God has been so over the top in blessing us - even in His grace and mercy and love - saving us - putting us into a relationship with Him - and using us according to His great purposes - giving our lives purpose and meaning and hope…

Therefore - because of everything God has graciously done for you - therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands - remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

There are two parts to this great divide that we need to grab on to.

First:  Paul says that you - meaning us Gentiles - you were physically divided from the Jews.

God commanded Abraham to circumcise himself and Ishmael and Isaac - that all of Abraham’s descendants would be circumcised - the great outward physical symbol of God’s special - covenant - relationship with His chosen people.

God’s desire was to set aside Abraham’s descendants that Israel would be that shining example of what it meant to be God’s people.  Then to bless all the nations through Israel - that Israel would be the birth nation of the Messiah - that Israel would be used by God to draw all nations to Himself.

Instead - we know that what happened?  Instead of being the channel of God’s blessing to the nations - Israel - God’s chosen people - became self-righteous - smug in their position - arrogant towards other nations.  From a Jewish perspective the world was divided into two groups.  Us and everyone else.

In a number of ways that division was lived out by the Jews.  For example - Jews didn’t socialize with Gentiles.  They avoided any contact with them.  If a Jewish boy married a Gentile girl or a Jewish girl married a Gentile boy - the family had a funeral.  If a Gentile woman was giving birth no self-respecting Jew would help her since she was bringing another Gentile into the world. 

Paul uses the physical reality - circumcised and uncircumcised - to illustrate that attitude.  To the Jew - uncircumcised meant being sexually immoral - religiously ignorant - unclean - detestable - unchosen.  Being called “uncircumcision” by the so called “circumcised” really is derogatory - racist.

In many ways that attitude has been reciprocated.  Wherever the Jews have gone they’ve been hated - persecuted.  The worst was the holocaust of the Nazi regime.  Grab on to the hatred here.  This is a long way from the age of Aquarius.

The arrogance of one nation against another has touched every nation on earth.  That arrogance touches each one of us - either on the receiving end or the giving end - in the places where we live our lives. 

Second - Paul writes that you Gentiles were spiritually divided from Israel.

God had made certain promises to Abraham and Jacob and Moses and David - made promises to His people.  Every Jew knew that if they’d sinned - if an animal was brought before God - sacrificed in just the right way - that God had promised to forgive that sin.

Every Jew knew that God had provided a priesthood to intercede for His people and prophets to instruct His people in how to live rightly before Him.  God’s people aren’t alone in the world.

Every Jew knew that no matter how bad things got one day God was going to send the Messiah.  That God would restore His people.  Every Jew lived by that hope.

The Gentiles had none of that.  In contrast to the “covenants of promise” -that Paul writes about in verse 12 - Paul describes the Gentile condition as “having no hope and without God in the world.”  What do the Gentiles have?  Themselves and a bunch of pagan irritable made-up gods that look and act like us. 

A number of First Century Roman and Greek tombs that have the epitaph, “No Hope.”  The philosophy of the day was despair - meaningless existence - no real purpose to life - emptiness.  Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?”  That’s the hopeless cynicism of the day.  Doesn’t sound too far off from today does it?

Paul writes that - before we came to Jesus - before we knew God’s grace poured out on our lives - we were like that - separated from God - on our own - with no hope and no future.

Bottom line - The Jews - by their arrogance - rather than being a channel of God’s blessing - even caring about the condition of the Gentiles around them - rather than being the people used by God to heal the division between man and God - the Jews were a point of division - keeping the Gentiles from God.

Verses 13 to 18 focus on God’s Answer.  God’s answer to what divides us.  Let’s say that together, “God’s answer.”   

Verse 13:  But now in Christ Jesus you - Gentiles - who formerly were far off - divided from God - His promises and His people - you who were formerly far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.  For He  -Jesus - Himself is our peace, who made both groups - Jew and Gentile - uncircumcised and circumcised - made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity - the hostility - the hatred - which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two - Jew and Gentile - into one new man - one as God’s people - thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both - Jew and Gentile - reconcile them both in one body - meaning the church - one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.

Verse 17:  And He - Jesus - came and preached peace to you - Gentiles -  who were far away, and peace to those who were near - the Jews - for through Him we both - Jew and Gentile - have our access in one Spirit to the Father.

God’s answer:  First:  In Jesus, God has broken down the wall dividing Jews and Gentiles.

Herod’s temple - the temple that Paul would have worshipped at - Herod’s temple was built on an elevated platform that was divided into 3 courtyards on the same level.  The first was the court of priests.  Then moving outward - away from the altar - was the court of Israel or the court of men.  Then farther away was the court of women.  Then from those three courtyards there were five steps - a wall - then another fourteen steps - down - which finally brings us to the court of the Gentiles.

Point being - the temple is for the Jews.  The Gentiles belong down there.

To make sure that a Gentile never approached the temple the Jews had built a barrier - a dividing wall made out of stone and about 3 to 4 feet tall - that ran through the court dividing where the Gentiles could go from where the Jews could freely go.  Then the Jews hung signs on the pillars warning that foreigners to stay away.

In 1871 - archaeologists - digging around the temple site - uncovered a sign from the temple - with these words in both Hebrew and Greek:  “No man of another race is to proceed within the partition and enclosing wall about the  sanctuary.  Any one arrested there will have himself to blame for the penalty of death which will be imposed as a consequence.”

Paul - coming back from his third missionary journey - came back to Jerusalem with Trophimus - a man from the church in Ephesus.  When Paul went to the temple - a rumor went around that Paul had taken Trophimus - taken this Gentile from Ephesus past the barrier.  That caused a riot.  The Jews rioted and Paul almost got killed.  (Acts 21:27-36)

Point being that a Gentile could come to the Temple - look at it - buy cheap souvenirs - post cards - “T” shirts - whatever - but a Gentile could never approach the temple.  The wall was a barrier - a division - keeping them back from God - His promises and His people.

That’s what Paul’s writing about here in verse 14 - this barrier of the dividing wall.  Symbolic of the very core of enmity - hatred - division - between Jew and Gentile - Gentile and Jew.

Then Paul writes about the Law of commandments contained in ordinances.  Rules and regulations of the Old Covenant - the same Torah - law - that the Jews used to exclude the Gentiles from coming to God.

The Jew could easily say, “We have the Law of Moses.  You don’t.  We have the Temple with its sacrifices.  You don’t.  We live as God’s people.  You can’t.”

Grab this:  The Jews - hanging on to their spiritual hypocrisy because they were keeping the Law - doing this and not doing that - despising the uncircumcised Gentiles.  The Gentiles hating the hypocritical Jews - for their self-righteous arrogance.

God’s solution is to nail all that to the cross with Jesus’ broken body and spilled blood.  Jesus - on the cross - makes obsolete the outward rituals of the Law - the ordinances and the commandments - makes obsolete anything that might be put up to keep us back from God’s presence

What Jesus did on the cross was to make clear that both Jew and Gentile - far off - really close - or somewhere in between - it doesn’t matter - all of us together - equally - are sinners - equally are desperate for God’s grace.  All of us need God’s forgiveness and spiritual rebirth.

Levels the playing field.  Doesn’t it?  Because of Jesus Christ - God’s answer - there’s no place at the foot of the cross for spiritual superiority or any other kind of hypocrisy.

Way too often a spouse will come to me for counseling - to complain about the injustices of their marriage.  Usually they begin with the words, “I know I’ve got my problems.  But...”  An admission of culpability that’s suppose to excuse the venomous list of grievances they’re about to level at their spouse.

So many marriages are in trouble because we forget that God - through Jesus - has leveled the playing field.  We see ourselves as somehow different than our spouse - rather than honestly admitting that we’re a fellow seeker of God’s grace and mercy and love.  How different would so many marriages be if we would let go of our self-focus - our arrogance - and instead become passionate about helping each other towards God.

Wouldn’t that attitude - of humbly seeking God’s grace and forgiveness together - wouldn’t that attitude make a huge difference in the world around us?

Second - God’s answer to our division - God has created the Church.

If we take two alley cats - tie their tails together - drop them into a 50 gallon drum.  We have union.  But we don’t have unity.

In verse 15 Paul writes that God has made the two - Jew and Gentile -   into one new man.  The verb “made” in Greek literally means to create.  God takes one of these and one of these - puts them together - and creates something completely astounding - the oneness of the Church - union and unity.

In verse 18 - Paul writes that its through Him - Jesus - through Jesus’ work on the cross oneness is opened up to us.  Then through the Spirit - God the Holy Spirit - we’re able to live in this relationship.  Finally - our access is to God the Father - God “our” Father - Father of both Jews and Gentiles.

Paul writes in Galatians 3:28:  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Becoming one in Jesus doesn’t mean that we stop being individually who we are.  But something new has happened.  We’re one in Christ Jesus.

Down in Ensenada - worshipping and serving with our partner church - Mexican - American - Armenian - Swedish - there’s an incredible oneness.

Maybe this experience has been yours.  Wherever I’ve gone in this world - whatever continent - whatever country - wherever - and met with followers of Jesus - there is a oneness that transcends background - race - nationality - culture - economic strata - whatever potential differences.

Oneness because we’re the same church.  United by the same broken body and spilled blood.  We proclaim one Gospel - share one faith - one purpose - one calling.  We serve the same Lord - the same Spirit - the same Father - one God sovereign over each one of us.

Grab that - our oneness as the Church is the creative work of the Triune God.  God creates that amazing reality unparalleled in human history.  There may be cheap imitations.  But only one church made one by God.

So imagine - if God can create the church - taking so much diversity and bringing about such amazing unity - what might He do in your family - your workplace - your school - your life - if you open yourself up to Him?

Going on - verses 19-22 focus on God’s Purpose.  Let’s say that together, “God’s purpose.”

Verse 19:  So then - consequently - as a result of what God has done - you - Gentiles - are no longer strangers and aliens - separated from God - His people and His promises - but you are fellow citizens with the saints - we’re full citizens of God’s kingdom - with all the rights and privileges of that implies - not associates - not half-breeds - but with equal status with everyone else - and are of God’s household - we’re part of God’s family - all of us - Jews - Gentiles - male - female - whatever - we’re all part of the same family - fellow heirs of the riches of God’s household

Verse 20:  having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone - all of what God has been opening up to His people from the Adam on down to fulfillment in Jesus - all of that is ours.  Spiritually - our heritage is the same as Israel’s.

Verse 21:  in whom the whole building - all of what God is putting together - the whole building - being fitted together, is growing into - a what?  a holy temple in the Lord,

Verse 22:  in whom you also - Gentiles - those brought near - you - are an integral - crucial - piece of this building - you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

The purpose of a temple is what?  Place of worship?  Place of service?    Place where man meets god?  All that helps to achieve one purpose.  Which is to draw attention to the deity within.  Focus man on God.

God is building us up together to be citizens of His kingdom - His family - His people - His Church - a dwelling that God inhabits - to bring glory to Himself - to testify of His grace - His mercy - His love - of what He will do in our lives if we’ll open ourselves up to Him.

As believers our life together is about glorifying God.  Let that be the purpose of our marriages - our families - our life together as the church - in whatever our part in whatever relationship we find our selves - when our lives are all about God there is no opportunity for division.

Two brief thoughts of application.  First:  Tear Down.

Jesus tore down the greatest barrier in creation - tearing down the wall separating us from God.  In doing so He brought us together before Him.

That ought to drive us to our knees in humility.  There might be a wall that divides you from your spouse - or your kids - or your parents - somebody at work.  Remember what God has done for you and let’s get off of our little pedestals of pride.  Let’s submit ourselves to God and be vulnerable with each other.

Second:  Build Up.

Its the easiest thing in the world to walk away when things go wrong.  But if we’ve got the same Lord - the same Spirit - the same Father - we need to come together - to bring each other before the throne of His grace and seek Him together.  Or, if our struggle is with someone or a situation outside the church we have the opportunity to bring that person or situation before God.  Let’s allow God to use us as tools in His hands to build up our brothers and sisters and to be His instruments of grace in the world around us.

In a Humpty Dumpty world crying out for harmony and peace people need to see what God can create in us when we allow Him to create what He desires to create in us and through us.  May God be glorified.