Initiating Relationships & Being In Consistent Community...Part 3 & 4...Ephesians 2:11-22

 

Look who turned 60!  I know, she doesn't look it and the big joke was that she didn't light the candles so she could use them for 90!  What a joy to be married to this wonderful lady.  The common grace God gave us in being united in marriage is only surpassed by His saving grace provided by His Son Jesus Christ on the cross and the evidence of an empty tomb!

This is part 3 and 4 because I was gone one Sunday and a good friend, Michael McKitterick filled in for me with a sermon relating to the Jesus' discipleship practices of the month from Colossians 2:4-6.  Here is the post of his message.

I look for and am thankful and grateful for young men like Michael and Zach and Chris who hold tightly to God's word!

This Sunday was lesson 4 and I went to Ephesians 2:11-22 for my text.  My main point was that God brings us to Jesus' cross and then places us into His community.  This is where discipleship happens.  Paul emphasizes the cross at least 3 times in this passage and the unity of the body of Christ, the church, multiple times.  

Two problems are identified.  One is name calling, "the circumcision" are calling the Gentiles by birth "uncircumcised."  This name calling has went the direction of hostility to others rather than our command to have love for others.  The name calling has also revealed a second problem of forgetting the mission given to us by Jesus.  

Just as salvation was to come from the Jews to the Gentiles (all nations) so we have the message of Jesus to share with the world and especially those God has put around us, relationships and community.  We need to remember our salvation, God bringing us to Jesus' cross, and that we proclaim to the world of His great love displayed.  This is impossible if we are looking at the others around us and calling them names of derision.  

Jesus' cross act was a marriage of sorts to bring the two groups, the Christians who were Jewish and the Christians who were Gentiles, into one group.  There is one family of God build upon God's word and Jesus as the chief cornerstone that we measure everything from.  What unites us is we all need to come to the cross of Christ for He is our peace, v.14; He is making peace, v.15 and He is preaching peace, v.17.  Jesus then brings us into His community to be discipled, from His cross to His community.

I pulled out these 4 points from the passage.

• God's family is ever expanding.  This is a mind shift we need to make because we will go back to being selfish even with the message we carry within us of Jesus' transforming work.  
• Name calling is telling of our condition.  I need to look at my heart condition if my response to those God has put around me with hostility rather than love.
• The local church body is my discipleship program.  God has provided it for me and therefore I need to embrace it to grow in Christ-likeness.  
• Initiating relationships and being in consistent community puts you in a discipleship atmosphere.  

I wish I could have dropped each one of you into the time of sharing I was a part of last night.  We offer a time at the end of each month to share with one another what God is doing in our hearts as we concentrate on being disciples so we can make disciples.  At 4:55 p.m. I was the only one under the pavilion with a start time of 5:00 p.m.  I was thinking that I might be packing up soon and heading home and then a car pulled into the parking lot and a couple got out.  About a couple minutes later another car pulled in and another couple joined us under the protection of the structure from the much needed rain.  We huddled closely to hear from each other but the 5 of us spend the next 2 hours being community and being discipled by the mechanism God created.  5 people brought to the cross of Christ huddled together brought to being built together as the community of Christ.  My prayer is that this is happening all over and we are making time to be discipled by God's family.

Adam