God's Power Changes Relationships - Ephesians 2:11-22

This lesson uses the literature produced by Life Way Publishers that is used throughout the Southern Baptist Convention as its guide in publishing a weekly lesson for this Sunday school classes. Specifically this is the Adult Commentary entitled “Explore The Bible,” My commentary appears in the weekly papers of Des Ark “White River Journal” and of Heber Springs “The Sun Times” and is sent by email to over three hundred class members for their timely use in their classes the following Sunday. The writer started teaching at Griffithville, Ark. in 1947 and had to give up weekly classes in 2009’ but have continued writing as a ‘labor of love’ for God’s Word and His children.

I always try to acknowledge any direct quotations used, and now acknowledge that the following introduction to this lesson is taken from this week’s LifeWay commentary. It is interesting to me that the behavior of elephants teaches us much that we should know about human relationships.

Dr. Ben Garner, author for LifeWay says, “Elephants are amazing creatures…huge, heavy, and slow-moving, they are intelligent, expressive and social animals. They live in tight-knit herds ruled by the oldest female, the matriarch, in family herds of 6 to 12 members that are her sisters and or their offspring. Adult males live primarily solitary lives and only join a family temporarily. A family moves, rests, and feeds as a single unit; they defend each other and care for offspring. If a mother dies, the “aunts” watch over the young much like a human godmother might do. One of the aunts will adopt the cub to care for it as her own.

How wonderful to observe the family unity that is part of God’s design in the animal kingdom! How much more awesome to see God’s plan for family unity being lived out in the church! In this week’s lesson, we learn about God’s work to unite Jewish and Gentile believers into one new people, one family in Jesus Christ…In Christ, we as believers are brought together joined together, and built together.”

In this lesson today we will look at man as he lived B.C. and then as he change in the period A.D. Since Paul was a Jew first and then a Christian, he is making sure that his people think of themselves as a Gentile first and then as a Christian. Read the first two verses of chapter 2. Paul speaks of the condition of the Gentiles before Christ came. He was the apostle to the Gentiles, but he never forgot the unique place of the Jews in the design and the revelation of God. This is his attempt to draw the contrast between the Jew and the Gentile. This contrast is a severe one that still explains why we sometimes have so much trouble accepting those who do not share our religious beliefs.

The Jewish law demanded circumcision, which was a physical man made thing—not spiritual. And Jews called the Gentile the uncircumcision and had a great contempt for them. This was probably the greatest of the divisions between the two. The Jews actually taught that “God had created the Gentile to be the fuel for the fires of Hell.” It was unlawful for a Jew to render help to a Gentile woman in childbirth because this was helping bring another Gentile into the world. Dear Sunday school member, there are some severe differences between the beliefs of some Christians today, but I dare say that none are more severe than these. If a Jew married a Gentile, they performed a funeral for that Jew. Jews were unclean if they even entered the home of a Gentile. Jews often criticized Christ because he visited non Jews.

BC the Gentile had no hope of a Messiah—The Authorized Version of the Bible says that “they were without Christ.” The Jewish hope was a positive direction upward toward heaven—and on the other hand, the Gentile hope was going no where. To the Gentile, history was a march to no where—while the history of the Jew was a march toward God. Then BC became history [Christ was born, lived, died, was buried and resurrected] and AD arrived in what we know as the New Dispensation… Christ came and with His coming the Gentile entered into that new view of history in which a man is always on the way to God…Both Jew and Gentile…Ladies and gentlemen…Christian friends…we were and are the Gentiles…This was the greatest day of our lives. All people, regardless of race, color or creed can accept Jesus Christ as Savior and immediately be on the road to Heaven.

You and I [Gentiles] were aliens from the Israelite society. If you have not studied Jewish history, you may wonder what this means. Their history says that they were hagois laos, or the holy people. Hagois means different; therefore they wee different people from Gentiles. How were they different? They were God’s people. God was their king. The gentiles of this age were Roman citizens under the rule of the Roman Emperor. Others were under a dictator, democracy or aristocracy—but Israel was a theocracy; their governor was God. In Judges 8: 23 Gideon told his people the Lord shall rule over you. The Psalmist sang in Psalm 145: 1 “I will extol thee, my God and king.” He literally meant that to the Jew, their God was both God and King. They had Exodus 6:7 which says “I will take you for my people, and I will be your God.” This promise was under the old covenant which the Gentiles knew nothing about. [Gentiles did not have access to the Jewish writings.]

All through the Old Testament, God’s design had always been worked out through a specific nation. They did not realize that God’s choice of the Jew did not show favoritism or special honor to the Jews—but it was to place a special responsibility on them. They were supposed to accept him and then teach others to do likewise. They failed. They crucified Christ. I personally believe that God turned to America as His special choice to take the plan of salvation to all other people.

The end of this barrier was broken down as you can learn by reading verses 13 retouch 18. The language Paul used here is referring to the construction of the temple which had walls or barriers that prevented the Gentiles first, then the women, the court of the Israelites, then the Court of the Priests, and finally the Holy of Holies which could be entered only by the High Priest. Under law, only the High Priest could enter the throne room and speak to God. When the barriers came down [salvation became available to all who believe] and now we intercede for our sins directly with Christ. Specifically when did it happen? It happened while Christ was on the Cross—the moment He died—the curtain was rent from top to bottom and the throne room was opened to you and me. This event was announced through a mighty storm of lightening and then total darkness during the day and was witnessed by everyone present in Jerusalem that day.

Now under the New Covenant, both the Jew and the Gentile [all, everyone, regardless of race or nation] have the right of personal access to God the Father of Jesus Christ. The word that Paul uses for access to God is prosagoge which is a word of many pictures. It means bringing a sacrifice to God…bringing men into the presence of God…it was used to introduce an ambassador to a national assembly…and above all prosagoge is used to introduce a person to a king. This new unity in Christ produces Christians who are friends with God. Now read verses 19-22.

Paul paints two pictures of the new Christian. A] Gentiles are no longer foreigners. B] Gentiles are now full members of the family of God. Through Jesus Christ we are at home with God. I personally cannot understand how or why so many different men…churches…denominations have decided to enforce their own barriers…barriers beyond what Christ demands. That is why we have the confusion that has been brought about because of these differences of rules and regulations. There should be no rule or regulation required by a specific church that can not be documented as totally scriptural. The greatest tragedy of the Church is that it is sometimes more exclusive than God teaches that we should be. The Bible teaches us that there are many things that we SHOULD do, AND WE SHOULD! But the Bible teaches us that there are only a few things that WE MUST DO—AND IT IS MOST IMPORTANT THAT YOU KNOW WHAT THOSE FEW THINGS REALLY ARE… AND WE MUST DO THEM!