Unity in Christ: Overcoming Barriers and Division

The great object of this epistle to the Ephesians is to explain and to expand God's great purpose during this present age. It's put in summary form in the tenth verse of the first chapter: this, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He, God, might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him. [00:02:08]

The Apostle goes on at once to say this: he says this great ultimate purpose of God is already being put into operation. He says the church is a symphony illustration of this, and it's a very wonderful thing. He goes on to say, you remember there in that first chapter, that the Ephesians, the Gentiles also, have been brought into the church. [00:03:24]

The most important thing for you is to have the eyes of your understanding enlightened. Your greatest need, he says, is knowledge and understanding. Here they were, not many in number, and surrounded by a pagan atmosphere, suffering persecution. What do they need above everything? What they need, he says, is to realize this great thing and to realize therefore the exceeding greatness of God's power to all who believe. [00:04:15]

There were two main obstacles standing between these Ephesians and coming to God and being Christians. What were they? Well, the first was their state and condition in sin, and the Apostle deals with that in the first eleven verses, first ten verses of this second chapter. We've already been dealing with it, but there it is, let's not forget it. [00:06:29]

The world in those ancient times, you remember, was divided into two main groups: the Jews, the Gentiles. And the division seemed absent, and any talk about reconciliation seemed quite monstrous and ridiculous. Jew and Gentile, Jew and Gentile. But on the other hand, the Gentiles had their classification, and particularly the Greeks. [00:11:20]

The astounding thing is that it's true. You Ephesians have been brought in. You are likewise in the membership. This is the astounding thing that nothing less than the exceeding greatness of God's power could ever have brought to pass. Now that's his message. Now the way in which the Apostle puts it is extremely interesting. [00:12:42]

The trouble was that the Jews had taken hold of this, which really was a fact, and they turned that fact into a problem. And it had happened in this way: the Jews, through misunderstanding the teaching of their own scriptures, had come to think that the only thing that really mattered was the sign in the flesh. [00:15:32]

The division in the ancient world was due to one thing, and that was the differences had been turned into barriers. I've already been explaining to you differences have become middle walls of partition. Now the principle is this, you see, that there are differences, and it's folly to minimize differences. Differences are facts. [00:25:10]

Pride is blinding. Pride is a powerful spirit that controls us and Dragoon's us and dominates us. And under the influence of pride, a man can't think straight. He becomes prejudiced, and he cannot see anything truly as it is. Prejudice is the greatest curse in life, and it generally is grounded and rooted in pride. [00:27:41]

The whole tragedy of the Jew at that time was that he'd missed the real point. He had missed the real sense of values. He thought that it was circumcision in the flesh that mattered. What Paul and others at the teaching was that it was circumcision in the spirit that really matters. [00:33:46]

Christ alone can cure, nothing else at all. Why? Well, for this reason: that if that is the cause, obviously what is needed is a change of heart. It isn't enough just to appeal for goodwill and for kindness and friendliness and brotherliness. It simply does not work, and it will not work. [00:41:14]

There is only one hope: that men and women be born again, that they be reconciled by the blood of Christ, that God should forgive them, that God should give them a new nature and a new heart and implant a new spirit within them. And all sharing this spirit together will worship Him and praise Him. [00:45:01]