Deo Gloria

Sermon for July 25, 2021

Pastor Martin Bentz

Text: Ephesians 2:13-22

Theme: Extreme Makeover: Church Edition

• From far away to near
• From alienated to reconciled
• From fear to peace
• From foreigners to family

I’m sure many of you are familiar with the show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition originally hosted by Ty Pennington or currently hosted by Jesse Ferguson.  It’s one of a number of shows on TV where someone’s family home is given an extreme makeover.  They knock out walls, replace the flooring, replace the cabinets, replace the lighting, redo the patio and so much more.  And the results are truly amazing.  When the homeowners finally get to see their home after it’s been remodeled, they often are stunned by the dramatic difference.  Sometimes they’re left speechless.  Sometimes they’re reduced to tears.  They can hardly believe that this new, modern house was once their old, outdated home.

This morning in these verses from Ephesians 2 Paul describes a similar remarkable, extreme makeover.  The architect or builder in this case is not Ty Pennington but God.  And the house that is being remodeled is not some physical house located in California or Florida or even Minnesota.  It’s God’s house, the Church.  It’s you and me.  I wish had some before and after pictures I could show you, but Paul doesn’t provide us with any.  Instead he uses a variety of contrasting words and imagery to highlight the dramatic change.  We’re going to take a closer look at some of these contrasting words and images this morning and together we’re going to marvel at the amazing change God has brought about in our lives by making us members of his Church.

The first is from far away to near.  In v. 13 Paul writes, “But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.”  The Jewish people enjoyed special favor as God’s Old Testament people.  Out of all the people in the world God, in his grace and mercy, had chosen them to be his people.  He had brought them near to him at Mt. Sinai.  He had established a covenant with them.  He given them his Word.  He had given them his commandments.  He had given them his promises, especially his promise that one day he would a send a Savior who would come from their descendants.  How abundantly blessed they were to enjoy this very special relationship with God!

But Paul isn’t talking here to the Jewish Christians in Ephesus.  He talking to the Gentile Christians.  They had not enjoyed this kind of close relationship with God in the past.  God hadn’t made a special covenant with them.  God hadn’t given them his Word or his commandments.  God hadn’t given them him promises, especially his promise of a Savior.  They had been left out.  They had been excluded.  When it came to God and their relationship with God, they were far away.

But all of that had now been changed.  Through Jesus Christ they had been brought near.  Jesus, the promised Savior, had given his life on the cross for all people—not just Jewish people, all people, them included.  Through Jesus’ blood God had washed away their sin and guilt and all the things that would keep them separated from him and had brought them near and made them members of his people, his Church.  Now it wasn’t just the Jewish Christians who enjoyed this close relationship with God, they did too.  In Christ, through the blood of Christ, God had brought them near.

In his grace and mercy God has done the same with us.  We too by nature were rather far away from God.  We enjoyed no special favor in God’s sight, no special status, no special relationship.  We were separated from God.  We were far away from him.  And we deserved to be because of our sins.

Do you know that passage in the Bible where it talks about how God has removed our sins as far as the east is from the west?  The reality is that’s how far we deserve to be removed from God because of sins, because of our selfishness, because of our cold and loveless hearts, because of the lousy way we’ve treated others at times and created problems in our relationships, because of all the times we have hurt others with our words and actions, because of all the times we have sinned against God and broken his commands.  We deserve to be separated from God forever, banished from his presence forever, kept as far away as possible in a terrible place called hell.

But God has changed all that in Christ.  Through the blood of Christ shed for us on the cross God has removed our sins and guilt, the very thing that separated us from him.  Through the blood of Christ God has made us holy and sinless in his sight.  Through the blood of Christ God has brought us close to him and made us members of his church, his holy people.  What an incredible blessing!  Can we help but be amazed?

The second amazing change is from alienated to reconciled.  Listen again to Paul’s description, starting at v. 14,

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations.  His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.(vv. 14-16)

Picture an estranged couple in divorce court.  They’ve been at odds for years.  They fight and argue about everything.  There’s hard feelings and bitterness and resentment.  I’ve been in divorce court—thankfully not in regard to my own marriage, but regarding that of others.  It’s not a pretty picture.

It wasn’t a pretty picture for the Gentiles in Ephesus either.  They were estranged from God because of their own sinfulness and ignorance.  They didn’t know who the true God was.  They worshiped false gods like Zeus and Artemis.  Some of them even practiced sorcery.  Their lives were a mess, especially when it came to abusing God’s gift of sex.  And they were estranged from other people too, especially the Jewish people.

The Jews had all these rules and regulations about what you could eat and not eat.  Because of their rules they refused to come over for dinner or for a cookout.  The Jewish people looked down on the Gentiles with distain and often wanted nothing to do with them.  There was so much friction, so much animosity between them.  They couldn’t even worship together at the temple in Jerusalem.  There was one court for the Jews and another court for the Gentiles; but not anymore.

Through Christ, God had changed all of that too.  As Paul mentions in v. 16, God reconciled both of them to himself through the cross.  Through Jesus’ perfect sacrifice on the cross, the penalty for their sins had been paid.  Their sin and guilt had been taken away.  And their broken relationship with God had been restored.  They had been reconciled to God—and to others too, especially the Jewish Christians.

All of those Old Testament rules and regulations about eating and drinking had been abolished in Christ.  All of that special status enjoyed by Jews as God’s chosen people had been abolished in Christ.  The animosity and hostility that had existed between them had been abolished in Christ.  God had done more than reconcile them to him; he had also reconciled them to each, so they all could be part of the same church, the same body, his body of believers.

God has done the same with us.  Though we too were once alienated from God because of our sins, because of our unfaithfulness, God has brought us back.  Through the death of his Son, he has taken away our sin and guilt and brought us back into right relationship with him.  He has reconciled us to himself—and to one another.

There are so many things that could divide us, so many things that could create tension and friction between us and keep us separate from one another: race, gender, financial status, social status, opinions about politics, opinions about COVID and COVID vaccines, our own sinful words and actions.  There are so many things that could divide us, but don’t allow Satan to undo what God has done, to ruin the marvelous work God accomplished when he reconciled us to himself and to one another and made us all part of the same church, the same body, his body of believers.  Marvel at what God has done for you.  Appreciate what God has done for you, what he has done for us all.  And strive to be what he has made you: his reconciled people.

The third amazing change God has worked in us, his people, is the change from fear to peace.  Four different times Paul uses the word peace in these verses.  In verse 17 he uses it twice: “He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.”  One thing this whole COVID pandemic has brought out is the fear people have of dying.  Before COVID they probably didn’t have to think about it all that often.  Before COVID it was easier to fill their lives with other things and focus their attention on other things; but now they can’t get away from it.  Every day there’s another report in the news how many new cases there were, how many new people have been hospitalized, how many new people have died.  And chances are they know one of those people.  They know someone who died from COVID.  Maybe it was a neighbor or a coworker.  Maybe it was a family member or a relative.  And they’re afraid.  The thought of dying scares them because they don’t know what’s going to happen to them when they die.  They don’t know if they’ll make it to heaven or end up in hell.  In fact, they have this nagging feeling inside that God is actually going to hold them accountable for their sins and will condemn them to hell, so they’re afraid.

A while back I had a conversation with one of our members who had COVID, someone who ended up on a ventilator in the hospital.  It was touch and go for a while and the doctors weren’t too sure he was going to make it.  But you know, he said he was never afraid.  He said he had this peace while in the hospital that things were going to be OK.  One way or the other things were going to be OK.  Either he was going to get better or Jesus was going take him home to heaven.  And you know he thanked me again for the time I had spent with him in Bible Information Class, teaching him about Jesus and his great love for him, teaching him what Jesus had done for him so that he might have forgiveness and eternal life in heaven.  It made all the difference in the world.

God has done the same for you and me.  Through Jesus Christ he has taken away our fear and replaced it with peace.  Instead of being afraid of dying, you and I can have that absolute peace and confidence of knowing that our sins are forgiven and that one day he’s going to take us to live with him in heaven—all because of Jesus.  What an amazing and marvelous change!

The fourth and final change is from foreigners to family.  I’ve visited several different countries so far during my life, but I’ve only been a foreigner once, for about 6 weeks while I studied Spanish in Guadalajara, Mexico.  I stayed with a Mexican family while I was there and they were very nice, but I always felt a little awkward, a little uncomfortable.  They spoke a foreign language and they always talked so fast.  And they ate salsa on their bananas.  And they took a shower in this little room up on the roof.  Things were just different.  I was a stranger there.  I was a foreigner.

That’s what we all are like by nature, foreigners to God and his family.  When we come into this world, we are born into our family—the Anderson family, the Larson family, the Schmidt family, for example—but that doesn’t make us part of God’s family.  As far as God’s family is concerned, we’re still outsiders.  We’re strangers.  We’re foreigners.

But God changed all that on the day of our baptism.  Through the waters of Holy Baptism he washed away our dirty, filthy sins and made us holy in his sight.  Through the waters of Holy Baptism he adopted us into his family as his very own sons or daughters.  So we’re not foreigners or strangers anymore.  Instead we are full-fledged members of God’s family.  God is our dear father and we are his dear children.  This is the way Paul describes in verses 19+20: “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.”  Again can we help but be amazed?

What an incredible change!  What a remarkable, remodeling project God has worked in your life and mine in bringing us to faith in Jesus and making us members of his Church: from far away to near, from alienated to reconciled, from fear to peace, from foreigners to family!  Do you suppose those homeowners ever forget what Ty Pennington or Chip and Joanna Gaines or any of those other remodelers did in giving them a whole new home?  I kind of doubt it.  And I don’t think we’ll ever forget either.  I think we’ll spend the rest of our lives giving honor and praise and thanks to God for the marvelous work his grace has accomplished in our lives.  Amen.