Breaking Down The Walls | Sun Grove Church

Paul’s words in Ephesians 2 bring a room full of very different people to the same table. Jewish believers carried generations of law, covenant, temple worship, and promise. Gentile believers came from a world full of idols, sexual brokenness, and very different ways of life. The differences were real, and the divisions were deep.

The temple itself showed that distance. The Court of the Gentiles stood outside the places where Jewish worshipers could go, and a wall warned foreigners not to come farther on threat of death. Sin had brought that separation from God from the beginning. Sin meant living apart from the Creator, the source of life and light, and it brought death, darkness, shame, hiding, and conflict between people.

God’s story, however, was always moving toward restoration. The law, priests, sacrifices, and temple all gave glimpses of the day when God would deal with sin once and for all and bring people near. Christ entered creation as fully man and fully God. Christ lived the perfect human life, took humanity’s place in death, forgave sin, and gave new life.

The cross changed everything. The torn temple curtain opened the way into God’s presence. Christ became the once-for-all sacrifice, so no repeated sacrifice could ever be needed again. Christ became the one mediator between God and humanity. The cross also knocked down every dividing wall, including the wall that kept Gentiles far away.

Christ did not merely bring Gentiles a little closer to Jewish people. Christ created one new humanity. The cross reconciles people to God and reconciles people to one another. Former foreigners and strangers become fellow citizens, brothers and sisters, and members of God’s household.

God’s family is not a building or a local gathering alone. God’s church includes every person, across history and across the globe, who has received the Spirit of God. God is building that family on the foundation of his Word, with Christ as the chief cornerstone. Living stones are still under construction, and God uses unfinished people to build his people.

Paul’s picture calls God’s people beyond individual spiritual growth. The body grows as every part does its work, speaks truth in love, serves, receives help, and gives away what God has formed in them. The cross brings people near, gives them belonging, and builds them together into a dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. The cross brings the far near. [42:48] Christ does not wait for separated people to find their own way through the barriers. Christ paid the cost, tore the curtain, and opened the way into the presence of God. Grace means that access to God rests on Christ’s finished work, not on background, performance, or religious history. [42:48]
• 2. Christ destroys dividing walls of hostility. [53:21] Christ’s peace does more than make individuals feel better about God. Christ creates one new humanity from people who once stood on opposite sides of deep cultural, ethnic, and religious walls. The church becomes a real witness when Christ’s people let him reshape their assumptions about one another. [53:21]
• 3. Belonging is given before it is chosen. [58:23] God places believers in his forever family through faith in Christ. Local church participation becomes the choice to live out that belonging in a particular place, with actual people and actual differences. Family life becomes difficult at times because living as one body requires the Spirit’s work, not mere preference. [58:23]
• 4. God builds his people through people. [01:02:49] Living stones cannot become a spiritual house while staying detached from one another. God uses unfinished people, ordinary encouragement, spiritual gifts, Scripture, and shared life to strengthen his church. Healing received in community can become grace offered to the next person who walks in carrying pain.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [36:50] - Communion and the Potluck Table
• [38:24] - An Invitation to Celebrate Recovery
• [39:09] - The Wondrous Cross in Ephesians 2
• [40:03] - Jews and Gentiles at One Table
• [42:15] - Far Away but Brought Near
• [43:15] - The Temple’s Barriers
• [46:29] - Sin, Separation, and Death
• [48:27] - God’s Plan for Restoration
• [49:32] - Christ Opens the Way
• [52:38] - One New Humanity in Christ
• [55:14] - Belonging in God’s Family
• [60:32] - Built Together as Living Stones
• [63:08] - Growing Into Spiritual Maturity
• [66:52] - Healing That Builds Others
• [69:39] - Responding to God’s Invitation
• [74:22] - The Lord’s Table

Bible Reading

Ephesians 2:12-22
“remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 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 and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting 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. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. 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.” [42:06]

1 Peter 2:5
“you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” [01:04:52]

Ephesians 4:14-16
“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” [01:03:13]

Galatians 3:28
“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” [56:29]

Observation questions

1. In Ephesians 2:12, what words describe the Gentiles’ former condition before Christ, and what changes in verse 13?
2. What physical barriers and restricted areas in the temple pictured the distance between people and the presence of God? [45:00]
3. According to Ephesians 2:14-16, what did Christ do to the dividing wall of hostility, and what did he create out of the two groups?
4. What building words does Paul use in Ephesians 2:19-22 and 1 Peter 2:5? Who is named as the cornerstone, and who is doing the building?

Interpretation questions

1. Paul says that Christ “himself is our peace.” How is this more than simply Jesus helping two groups be nicer to each other? [53:26]
2. Ephesians 2 says believers are brought near “by the blood of Christ.” What does this show about whether access to God is earned through religious effort, family history, or good behavior? [50:40]
3. Paul calls believers fellow citizens and members of God’s household. What kind of responsibility toward one another comes with being family rather than remaining strangers? [56:16]
4. Ephesians 4:15-16 connects maturity with speaking truth in love and every part doing its work. Why might growth in Christ be difficult to pursue alone? [01:04:19]

Application questions

1. The cross brings near those who were far away. Are there places where shame, failure, pain, or a sense of not being “good enough” still makes you feel distant from God? What would it look like to trust Christ’s finished work in that area? [52:19]
2. Christ has destroyed dividing walls of hostility. Is there a person or type of person you tend to keep at a distance because of their background, politics, age, culture, life choices, or past? What assumption might Christ be asking you to examine? [56:46]
3. Belonging in God’s family is given through faith in Christ before it is lived out in a local church. What makes it hard for you to be known, receive help, or stay connected to other believers when life is difficult? [58:23]
4. God uses unfinished people to build his people. Where do you tend to disqualify yourself from serving or encouraging someone because you do not feel fully prepared, healed, or mature? What is one small way you could participate anyway? [01:02:45]
5. Speaking truth in love helps the body grow. Is there a conversation you need to have with someone—with honesty, humility, and love—or a person who may need encouragement from God’s Word this week? [01:03:54]
6. God gives gifts, life experience, Scripture, and encouragement so that believers can build into one another. What has God been forming in you that might become grace, wisdom, or support for someone else? [01:06:07]
7. Healing received in community can become help offered to another person. Where might God be inviting you either to take a step toward a supportive community or to walk patiently alongside someone who is carrying pain? [01:08:43]