Bible Passage: Ephesians 2:13-22
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: August 20, 2023

Bulletin August 20, 2023

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

The apostle Paul once had it out with St. Peter.  It’s true.  It happened in the city of Antioch.  Paul relates the incident in Galatians 2.  Paul was doing mission work in the city of Antioch and Peter came to visit.  While there, Peter freely ate and drank with the non-Jewish, Gentile converts to Christianity.  UNTIL a delegation came from the church in Jerusalem.  These were “old club” Jewish Christians.  When they came to visit, Peter withdrew from the Gentile converts and no longer ate with them.  He ate “kosher” again.  He did this because some of the ethnic Jews still had scruples about “Gentile uncleanness” and the appropriateness of socializing with Gentiles.  Paul had to call Peter out and tell him his conduct was wrong.

This incident highlights one of the big issues in the early Church.  And that issue was racial tension.  The early Church struggled mightily with this issue.  A “sub-theme” in the book of Acts is the difficulty of “blending” Jews and Gentiles together into one, holy, Christian and apostolic Church.  A major development in Acts comes in chapter 10.  Peter is directed to go to the home of a Gentile man named Cornelius.  Peter is invited into Cornelius’ living room to address Cornelius and his non-Jewish friends.  Every part of Peter’s “Jewishness” must have been on high alert.  “What if the food they serve isn’t kosher?  What if someone there has come into contact with a dead body?  What if there is a woman there who is menstruating?  This whole thing makes me uncomfortable!  It all seems so unclean!”

How did things get this way between Jews and Gentiles?  Part of the answer is found in the Law of God itself.  That’s right!  When God gave his Law in the Old Testament, he very purposely separated his people from the nations around them.  The Law of God forbid inter-marrying with the Gentiles around them.  The “cleanliness code” of God’s Law meant that the nations around them would be in a constant state of “uncleanness,” and thus, the Jews would avoid them.  Let’s be clear, the Lord is not racist!  But the Laws of the Old Testament did “hedge” ethnic Israel off for a time because they were going to be the cradle of the Savior.

But here is where things go off the rails.  Sinful human nature steps in and abuses what the Lord intended for good.  The sinful part of the Jews led them to feel a moral superiority to the nations around them.  Instead of being overawed that God in grace chose them to be the race from whom the Savior would come, they became contemptuous of “uncircumcised” and “unclean” Gentiles.  Some even felt justified in abusing and mistreating Gentiles.  A hostility developed.  And since Gentiles have sinful natures, too, they felt hostility toward the Jews.  The Jews were viewed as very odd people and often mistreated.  Anti-semitism has a long history.

Which brings us to our text!  Paul is writing to Christians who are Gentiles.  They were once far off (v. 13).  Between them and the Jews there was once a dividing wall of hostility (v. 14).  But Paul writes to them and reminds them that they and the Jews together are now part of something new and marvelous.  They, together, are a remarkable fusion!  They, together, are a new man.  They, together, are one body and one building.  They are the Church!

How has this happened?  May I share with you just a listing of the prepositional phrases in our text?  The answer will become obvious how this wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile has been knocked down.  In Christ Jesus (v. 13).  By the blood of Christ (v. 13).  In his flesh (v. 15).  Through the cross (v. 16).  On it [the cross] (v. 16).  Through him (v. 18).  In him {Jesus] (v. 21, 22).  Those phrases tell the whole story!  Jesus Christ, the Son of God in flesh, went to a cross.  And just as an aside, the body, the flesh of the Son of God descended from Jewish and Gentile stock!  That’s right!  The Son of God had non-Jewish blood running in his veins.  Rahab the Canaanite and Ruth the Moabite were in the Savior’s line.  And that holy, precious blood of Jesus, that blood that came from Jewish and Gentile stock, was drained and shed for the sins of ALL people.  Through that blood of Jesus ALL people find forgiveness.  Through that blood ALL people have access to the Father.  Through that blood of Jesus the call goes out to Gentiles, “Peace!”  The same call goes out to Jews, “Peace!”  The blood of Jesus does not discriminate.

Nor should we.  We live in very racist times.  And there is strange irony in that, for the more our culture tries not to be racist, the more people seem to be divided.  Why is that?  Because, again, racism is a function of our sinful nature.  In Paul’s famous catalog of sins of the sinful nature in Galatians 5, Paul mentions hatred, discord, factions (Galatians 5:20).  My sinful nature will dislike you for any and every reason!  Different hair color?  Don’t like you!  Different ethnic background?  Don’t like you!  Different way of dress?  Different skin color?  Don’t like you!  Our sinful nature needs to be overcome.  And it is overcome in the blood of Jesus! There we find forgiveness for our racism.  There we find power to view people the way Jesus views people.

Friends, of all the people on the planet who should not be racist, it is Christians.  First of all, we understand we all have one Maker and we are all the same color.  There really is only one skin color.  Did you know that?  The pigment that gives skin its color is called melanin.  Melanin is brown.  Those with little melanin are light brown and those with more are darker shades of brown.  But finally, we are all brown!  And the same red blood was shed for us all.  The red blood of Jesus.

We leave off today reminding ourselves of John’s vision of the throneroom of heaven from Revelation.  I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb (Revelation 7:9).  How is it that people so disparate and so different can be getting along in heaven?  One reason:  Jesus!  Jesus means the End of Hostilities!

Amen.