All Christians Are One Holy Temple!

12th Sunday after Pentecost, 8/20/23 Ephesians 2:13-22 All Christians Are One Holy Temple! There are those in the United States who firmly believe that our country’s citizens are more divided now than ever, that the social unrest over politics, pandemic, and protest of just a couple years ago hasn’t subsided. What do you think? Just when I think things are settling down, a new issue of contention raises its ugly head. Just when I’m alone with my thoughts while driving my vehicle, I see a bumper sticker that states clearly, almost painfully, on which side of a current issue the owner of the vehicle stands. And some of them do with it with language I hope our children never have to read. It makes me wonder what I might have in common with that person other than citizenship in our country. Sadly, such divisiveness pollutes even institutions in which we had hoped we wouldn’t find it. Local school board members sit nervously behind scheduled meeting tables while parents rant and rave about the education their children are receiving. Why can’t our hallowed halls of education be immune to such divisiveness? In our daily lives, we try to escape it by spending time enjoying what’s happening on a field, stage, or screen, but, alas, they have become popular platforms for sharing a particular point of view. We just want to be entertained! We don’t want to hear it! And, saddest of all, we find such divisiveness even in the church. In the last place we would expect to find people lining up behind one leader or another, one doctrine or another, one race or another, one ethnicity or another, there it is. Satan, the master of divide and conquer does some his best work among God’s people, in the church. In this morning’s text from Ephesians 2, Paul meets that sinful, soul-destroying tendency head on. He reminds all Christians of what binds them together eternally—a common faith in Christ. And he does so by reminding us that this unity isn’t something we manufactured; it’s something Jesus has produced in us. In doing so, he frequently makes a symbolic reference to a building, a church, a temple. So, let’s ponder and celebrate this great truth this morning: All Christians are one holy temple! In this portion of Ephesians 2, Paul talks about barriers and walls and households and foundations and cornerstones. Along the way he refers to people far away and near. He mentions foreigners and fellow citizens. When you first heard these words, did your head spin? It’s not surprising. To begin to understand what Paul is saying, you need a little background information. Paul wrote these words to the Christians in the congregation in Ephesus, modern day southwest Turkey. It was a thriving congregation, the veritable hub from which new congregations extended like spokes on a wheel. There doesn’t seem to be a particular problem or false doctrine that caused Paul to write these words. Instead, it seems that he wanted to remind the Ephesian Christians what they once were, what they are now by God’s grace, and what God’s plans were for them in his kingdom here on earth. And to get down to brass tacks, Paul tells these Gentile Ephesian Christians how Jesus made the same change in Jewish Christians, so that he could bring them into one spiritual body, his church. And that was difficult for some Jews and Gentiles to ponder. More on that later. To make his point of how the Lord has brought Jews and Gentiles together, Paul seems to make reference to the Temple in Jerusalem that King Herod had built for the Jews, a magnificent structure. Perhaps he’s referring to a specific feature of that Temple, the separation of Gentiles from Jews. Listen again to what Paul wrote, “[Jesus] has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations.” In Herod’s Temple, there was a low wall of stone. On it was inscribed the warning that any Gentile who crossed over that wall would be punished with death immediately. Think about the hostility that produced. Here were Gentile believers in the God of the Jews, who believed his promise of a Savior, people such as the Ethiopian eunuch in the Book of Acts, who were made to feel like second-class believers in a very harsh and dramatic way. In this text, Paul relates what Jesus did to remove that wall, figuratively, not literally. He begins our text with these words, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one.” Who were the ones far away? The Gentiles. They had no prescribed worship form from God. They had no promises of the Savior. They didn’t live like good Jewish people because they were Gentiles. They largely missed out on so many advantages that the Jews had. A little later in this text, Paul refers to the Jews as those who were near. Think about all the advantages the Jews had when it came to their spiritual lives. They had all the sacrifices and all the annual celebrations that all pointed them forward to the sacrifice that the Savior would one day make for them. They were God’s chosen people through whom he would bring the Savior into the world. They had God’s prophets and God’s word. And here’s what Jesus did to bring two so distinctly different groups of people together, “[Jesus] set aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.” Did you catch all that? Probably not. Let me help you. The most important word in those two sentences that I just read is the word “law.” The Jews prided themselves on keeping God’s law. The Pharisees boasted of their daily success at going beyond what the law required. And the Jews sneered in derision at the Gentiles. They referred to Gentiles as detestable street mongrels. And the Gentiles struck back. It was all too easy for Gentiles to see before their own eyes how the Jews avoided obeying the laws of God with their sophistry and casuistry. For instance, God demanded that Jewish sons provide for their aging parents. The Jews came up with a way to circumvent that law by claiming what they have is devoted to God. The Jews prided themselves on taking care of widows and orphans, but secretly robbed them of anything of value and enslaved them. And Gentiles noticed. In effect, Paul says, “Enough! Both of you, Jews and Gentiles!” Here’s what Jesus did with the law. He abolished it in his body. In other words, as true man and true God, he obeyed that law perfectly for everyone. No one can boast about their keeping of the law or charge others with not keeping it. Jesus fulfilled it! And then he sacrificed himself on the cross to remove the eternal punishment in hell that the sins of all people deserve. The law that divided them has been removed by Christ. In doing so, he reconciled both Jews and Gentiles to God. The holy God no longer has anything against those who trust in Jesus. Their sins are gone. So, instead of their sins separating them from God, they have access to God and peace with him through Jesus, Jew and Gentile alike! In fact, Paul stated, the two are now one. “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” What a glorious mouthful that is! All Christians, regardless of their past, their ethnicity, their education, their accomplishments, their income and social status, are one, one magnificent spiritual Christian body. As different as they might be on paper, they are one. How did that happen? Through the word of God. Paul refers to the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. He’s talking about how the apostles presented Jesus as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophesies, the very same word that draws us together. He refers to all Christians as a building, the church, with Jesus as the cornerstone. Like the construction of an ancient building depended on a properly set and aligned cornerstone, so everything in the church depends on Christ. And that building keeps rising. It’s still being built by Christ. Each day he adds stones—Christians—to it. And when one stone needs a little help remaining in place in the church, Jesus performs divine tuckpointing. In a world filled with divisive philosophies, ideologies, and theories, here is one gathering of people in which all are united—the church. All Christians are one holy temple! How Christians around the world express that unity is a Bible class topic for another day. I want to begin right here with us. What a reminder Paul has given us! In a world that reinforces the idea that you are responsible for what you become—positively or negatively—the Lord Jesus reminds us that we are not responsible in any way for being members of his church, the body of Christ. No matter where you came from, no matter what you’ve done—good or bad—it doesn’t matter at all when it comes to being part of the holy temple of God. Jesus did it all! And that means he has made each one of us his saints—holy people, people who live each day in the forgiveness of sins, wearing the robe of Christ’s holiness. There are no platinum or gold members in the church! We’re all “red” members, washed clean with the blood of Jesus. So, let’s look at each other that way. Instead of pondering what others among us do or don’t do, look at one another as what Jesus has done for each one of us—the same thing. I’m sure you would be quick to call a fellow member to account for using a racial slur. Let’s do the same for ourselves here inside each time we want to erect a barrier between us over what someone has said or done or didn’t say or do. We’re all in this together, and our goal is to encourage each other to be faithful to Jesus until he calls us home to his heavenly temple. Let’s think the best of each other, and of our fellow Christians around the world. That’s what Jesus does. And now he uses us to call others into his holy temple by faith in him! May Jesus richly bless our efforts! Amen.