If you're able, would you please remain standing for the reading
of God's Word? This morning I'll be reading
from Paul's letter to the Ephesians, chapter 2, beginning
with verse 11, Paul writes. Therefore remember that at one
time you Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by
what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by
hands. Remember that you were at that
time separated from Christ, alienated from the Commonwealth
of Israel and strangers, the covenants of promise, having no
hope without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus.
You who were once far off, have been brought near by the blood
of Christ. This is the word of the Lord.
You may be seated. Remembering often takes hard
work. Remembering takes work because
we're so prone to forget. And not only do we forget things
like our car keys and our homework, most of us live lives
forgetting much deeper realities.
We forget who we are. We forget where we come from.
We forget who we belong to. We forget where we're going.
This is why I believe the act of remembering is a kind of
spiritual discipline. In fact, throughout the Bible,
God calls his people to remember the book of Exodus.
God calls Israel to remember the Passover, to remember that he
brought them out of slavery, out of Egypt with a mighty hand and
outstretched arm. The Psalms call the people of
God to remember the wondrous works of God, to remember that
God is sovereign, He really is in charge of all things and all
His ways are good. He calls us to remember that
because it's so easy to forget with every fear and every
circumstance and every disappointment.
And here in the book of Ephesians, Apostle Paul calls us
to remember. To remember who we were, to
remember who we are now, and to remember where we are going.
Because we so often forget that we belong to Jesus, that we bear
his name, and that we know the end of this story.
So this morning Paul calls us to remember.
He's going to call us to remember in three ways.
The first is this. Paul calls us to remember who we
were. Look with me, Ephesians 2, verse
11, Paul writes. Therefore remember that at one
time you Gentiles in the flesh, Paul calls this church in
Ephesus to remember. He will use this word twice in
just two verses, and he's not calling him to any kind of
remembering, but he's calling to the spiritual discipline of
remembering to remember first who they were.
He uses the word. Therefore, he's pointing back to
the 10 verses, the beginning of Ephesians chapter 2 that are
leading up to this one. So if you have a Bible this
morning, invite you to turn to Ephesians chapter 2.
If you don't have a Bible, please take the Blue Pew Bible
in front of you. That's our gift to you.
Ephesians 2 verse one, Paul is calling us to remember, to
remember who we were and to remember the story of the
gospel, to remember what he's already written.
Ephesians 2 verse one goes like this.
Paul says, And you were dead, and the trespasses and sins and
which you once walked, following the course of this world from
the Prince of the power of the air, the Spirit that is now at
work, and the sons of disobedience.
Paul says, remember who you were.
Remember that before Christ you were a Sinner.
You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you walked.
You are sons and daughters of disobedience.
You were cut off from God, you're orphans, strangers, and
you turned your back on Him. But the story doesn't end there.
Verse 4 Paul continues 2 beautiful words.
But God being rich and mercy, because of the great love with
which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses,
made us alive together with Christ.
By grace you have been saved. Paul is saying, remember who you
were. Remember the gospel that's been
offered to you, this free offer of salvation to all who will
trust in the name of Jesus, his death and resurrection for our
salvation. Whatever your background,
whatever your culture, wherever you come from, every tribe,
every tongue, every nation, this gospel offering is for you,
Christ, for the nation's, the hope of glory.
And now here in Ephesians 2 verse 11, Paul is applying this
free offer to the gospel, to a very particular group in the
Ephesian church. He's applying it to the
Gentiles. Look again with me, Ephesians 2
verse 11, Paul says. Therefore remember that at one
time you Gentiles in the flesh, now Gentile was anyone who
wasn't Jewish. There's those who are often
called the nations, these different cultures and peoples
outside of the Jewish heritage. The city of Ephesus, where Paul
planted this church, was a metropolitan city filled with
all kinds of cultures and backgrounds.
Yes, it was home to a group of Jewish people who are part of a
much broader community of Jews who were scattered abroad.
They had been Hellenized, influenced by the Greek culture
around them, and we know that they're in the heart of Ephesus.
There was a synagogue, because we're told the book of Acts that
that is exactly where Paul started his mission.
He was preaching Christ in the synagogue, and that's how he
planted this church in Ephesus. We also know the city of Ephesus
wasn't just home to these Jewish people who'd become Hellenized,
was also home to all kinds of cultures, especially the Greeks.
In fact, the city of Ephesus was home to one of the seven ancient
wonders of the world, the heart of Ephesus, the temple to the
goddess Artemis. Artemis is a Greek goddess of
fertility. So we have to imagine that the
city of Ephesus and including this early young church that
Paul planted had to have been influenced by all of these
cultural realities. And so these first Christians
that Paul is writing to this letter to the Ephesian church,
we're bringing with them all sorts of cultural baggage.
Jews, on the one hand they are Jewish heritage and practice and
the Gentiles on the other with all of their Pagan worship, even
worship of the goddess Artemis. So in writing them, Paul's now
applying the gospel to the Gentiles, which all of us for
the most part would relate to. Most of us don't have Jewish
heritage. We are among the nations
Gentiles who've been invited into the promise.
Paul is now applying the gospel to them.
He's saying, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the
flesh, and then he refers them to them as the uncircumcision.
You may notice in your Bible is put in quotation marks because
Paul is actually quoting a reference he probably heard in
this Ephesian church. They have been called the
uncircumcision by others, by the Jewish Christians who were
there, who were looking down on the Gentiles because they
weren't circumcised. And they 'd be wondering this
morning, well, what in the world does any of this have to do with
us? This isn't 1st century Ephesus.
This is 2026, Dallas, TX. And what in the world are we
supposed to do with this idea of circumcision?
What's that have to do with Jesus?
Well, the story of Jesus actually begins the very first
book of the Bible in Genesis, where God makes a promise to a
man named Abraham. It comes to Abraham not because
Abraham deserves it, because there's something about
Abraham's resume that makes God choose him.
But no, out of God's sovereign grace and mercy comes to Abraham
and he makes him a promise. The Bible calls it a covenant.
It's a vow, and God makes this promise to Abraham, and he says,
I will be your God and you will be my people, Abraham.
I will make you a father of a multitude of nations.
Kings will come from you, and I will give you a land for an
everlasting possession. And this promise of land and a
Kingdom and nations will be for you and for your offspring, and
for their offspring, and for their offspring.
And their offspring in this promise, will last for
everlasting. I will be their God, and they
will be my people. This everlasting promise is
still in effect today. And as a sign in response to
that promise, God called Abraham and all of his descendants the
practice of circumcision. Now, with many of the covenants
throughout the Bible, these promises that God made by his
grace to his people, He would give a sign.
For example, God promised Noah never to destroy the earth again
with a flood, and he gave Noah a sign.
Some of you may know what that sign was.
It was a rainbow. Well, God didn't give Abraham a
rainbow. He gave him circumcision.
You should be asking why. Why circumcision?
Among many reasons, it was an indelible mark, a permanent
reminder that Abraham and all of his descendants belong to God.
And now Fast forward to the 1st century in this little church
plant in Ephesus filled with both Jews and Gentiles.
Jews who are circumcised and Gentiles who weren't.
And generations of Jewish practice of circumcision had
given way to the idea among the Jewish people there that the
thing that identified them the most was circumcision.
They were so focused on their religious practice that it
eclipsed what the religious practice was supposed to point
to. They focused more on the sign
rather than the thing it signified.
And they thought the thing that set them apart from all the
Gentiles was circumcision rather than the fact that they belong
to the one true God. So much so we see this language
used by the Apostle Paul the end of verse 11.
Notice what he says. You Gentiles are called the
uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made
in the flesh by hands. And what you can't see here in
English is that the Greek that Paul is using is the same
language that he would use and is often used to describe making
an idol with your hands. We don't worship statues of gods
and goddesses because they're made with human hands.
They're made in our image. In other words, what Paul is
saying is that the Jewish people in the 1st century and this
little church in Ephesus had turned circumcision, this
religious practice, into an idol.
Brothers and sisters, we can do the exact same thing.
We can take a God-given practice, something that's
designed to point us to him, and we could turn it into an idol.
We can worship the thing rather than God that thing points to.
We can worship music and a style, particular preacher or
pastor or a tradition. All of these things have been
given by God in order to point us to Him.
But we if we stop short at the foot of the throne, we end up
worshipping the thing itself rather than Christ alone.
This is what was going on in the Ephesian church, a division over
the practice of circumcision and elsewhere.
In Paul's letter he makes it clear that circumcision can't
save you. Colossians 2 verse 11.
Paul says in Christ you also were circumcised with a
circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the
flesh, by the circumcision of Christ having been buried with
him in baptism, in which you are also raised with him through
faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the
dead. Here in Colossians Paul is
saying circumcision can't save you.
So it doesn't matter if you're circumcised or not, only Christ,
his death and resurrection can save you.
And now, if you are in Christ, if you trust in his death and
resurrection, then you too have now been given an indelible
mark, a permanent reminder that you belong to God.
No longer is that circumcision, Paul says, but it's a new
circumcision, a greater circumcision, a circumcision of
Christ, which is called baptism. And that is why we baptize
professing believers and their children, because it's the new
and greater circumcision, a sign of God's faithfulness and His
covenant. That's for a different sermon.
For now, this is what I want you to understand.
Just as circumcision cannot save a person, the greatest problem
for the Gentiles in the Ephesian church was not that they were
uncircumcised. That wasn't their problem.
No, their problem was far deeper.
And this is what Paul says. He goes on in verse 12.
He says, remember that you were at that time separated from
Christ, alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel,
strangers, the covenant of promise, having no hope without
God in the world. Their problem wasn't that they
weren't circumcised, it's what they're uncircumcision pointed
to. The day before Christ, outside
of his death and resurrection, were separated from Him.
They were alone in their sin. They were aliens and strangers
to the covenants of promise. What promise is he talking
about? His promise to Abraham?
I will be your God, and you will be my people.
They had no hope and they were without God in the world.
What we must all reckon with is that this description describes
us outside of Christ. So this morning, if you are
curious but filled with doubt, if you've come this morning just
to check out Christianity, but you would not call yourself a
Christian, if you've not trusted in the death and resurrection of
Jesus for your salvation, then this describes you now.
You're a stranger to God. You are his enemy.
You're without hope. You're without God in the world.
But Paul is saying for all those who are Christians, all those
who have trusted in his death and resurrection, then this is
who you were. And I want you to hear me this
morning. It's who you were.
You were a Sinner, you were a stranger.
You were God's enemy, you were cut off from him, you were
without hope, but it is not who you are now.
That's the second thing that Paul wants us to remember.
He calls us to remember who we are.
Look with me verse 13 Paul says, but now in Christ Jesus 5
important words, the 1st 2:00 But now in other words,
everything that Paul just said, stranger, alien, cut off from
the promise, without hope is no longer who you are if you belong
to Christ. But now we have a new identity.
What is it? He tells us the next 3 words in
Christ Jesus. There are not three more
important words in the apostle Paul's writings.
He used something like this phrase in Christ Jesus over 160
times throughout his letters. For Paul, being in Christ is
synonymous with being a Christian.
And what he's saying is that if you believe in Jesus, it's not
as if that this list of propositions and this theology
and this faith is out there that you give just intellectual
assent to. But the one who believes in
Jesus becomes so united to Him, so connected to Him, so near to
him, that is, if they are in him, in Christ Jesus.
Let me give you a few examples of this throughout the writings.
The apostle Paul, Ephesians 2, verse 10, Paul says we are
created in Christ. Galatians 2, verse 20, we've
been crucified with Christ. Colossians 2 verse 12.
We've been buried with Christ. Romans 6 verse 3 we've been
baptized into Christ. Romans 6 verse 5, we've been
united with Christ in his death and in his resurrection.
Paul's message is simple. To be a Christian is to be in
Christ, to be given a new identity.
So this morning, if you have trusted in Jesus Christ for your
salvation, then you are so connected to Jesus that you're
bound to Him. He's bound himself to you.
The only problem is if you're honest, if you're like me,
rarely do our lives match that identity.
And we live our lives so often disconnected from the reality
that we are in Christ Jesus. This isn't just true because we
go on sinning, although we do, but often it's just our apathy.
Most of our lives are striving after other things and we forget
who we are. But the things of this world
really don't matter as much as we make them out to be.
Not because they're not important, but because we've
forgotten the most important thing that we are in Christ
Jesus. We've forgotten who we are.
GK Chesterton put it this way. In a book called Orthodoxy, he
wrote we've all read in scientific books, and indeed in
all romance, is the story of the man who's forgotten his name.
This man walks about the streets and can see and appreciate
everything, only he cannot remember who he is.
Well, every man is that man in the story.
Every man has forgotten who he is.
We are all under the same mental calamity.
We've all forgotten our names. We've all forgotten what we
really are. What Chesterton is saying, I
think, is frightening. True, most of us live these
lives desperation and striving, forgetting our names.
The Book of Revelation says that all those who are in Christ have
been given a new name. The very name of Jesus have been
written on us, and we go out now bearing his name to the world.
Yet we often forget that this is now who we are.
So Paul says remember, remember, remember that in Christ
everything that he has done, his death and resurrection, is now
ours. We died with him, and our sin
died with him, and when he rose from the dead, we rose with him
to new life. We must remember that in Christ
Jesus all that Christ is, and His righteousness has been given
to us. We have been made holy because
of Christ and West. Remember that all of Christ,
Christ promises to one day come again, to make all things new
are now ours, and that this is not the end of the story.
That's the third and final thing Paul calls us to remember where
we are going. Paul says, verse 13.
But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been
brought near by the blood of Christ.
It's directional language, but it's also relational.
Paul's borrowing from the prophet Isaiah 57.
We're through the prophet Isaiah, God promises peace to
those who are far off and those who are near.
Paul will directly quote this verse just a few verses later in
verse 17 of chapter 2. It's both directional and
relational because the prophet Isaiah is referring to the
temple. What are we near to are far
from. For Isaiah, it's the temple of
God. It's where He dwells were either
near to or far from His presence.
And we know in those days, in the 1st century, the temple was
constructed with a series of dividing markers.
The most inner marker was a curtain that separated the Holy
of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant lay.
That is where the presence of God dwelled.
The outer marker was a wall that did not allow Gentiles to go
into the Temple Mount. In fact, recently they
discovered a sign at that wall that said any Gentiles caught
past this sign have them own selves to blame for their death.
When Christ died on the cross, these dividing lines were torn
down. Every tribe, every tongue, every
nation, every Gentile now belongs to God because of Jesus
through his death and resurrection.
Gospel of Luke tells us when Christ died, the curtain was
torn in two that separate the Holy of Holies, and now His
presence does not reside in a place, but in a people.
We, as the Church of Jesus Christ, are now the living
temple of God, and we who are once far off have been brought
near. He dwells in US.
And it's amazing that this reality is, this nearness that
we now enjoy is just a glimpse of the nearness that awaits
everyone who belongs to Jesus. And so we must never forget
where we're going on this Ascension Sunday.
We must never forget that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
ascended and he reigns and rules from the throne.
But one day he promised to descend, to come back, to come
near to us once and for all. Until that day comes, Paul calls
us to remember our future, to remember our future.
He said, well, how can I remember something that hasn't
happened yet? Well, as Christians, we know the
end of the story. We've been called to remember
how the story ends. We do that every time we come
together on the Lord's Day to worship, to reorient ourselves
in that story, to remember. We do that every time that we
come and take communion together.
You see, communion is not just a memorial, it's an anticipation.
First Corinthians 11, Paul tells us that every time we eat this
bread and drink this cup, we proclaim the Lord's death until
he comes again. And so this morning as you come
to the table, remember, remember who you were.
You were a Sinner. You were cut off from God.
You were without hope. You are dead and your trespasses
and sins. As you take the bread and the
cup, remember who you are. You are now in Christ Jesus.
And as you go, remember where you're going.
Because as surely as this feast set before us fills our weary
souls this morning, it is just a foretaste of the feast that is
to come when Christ draws near to us once and for all and makes
all things new. Let me pray.
Father in Heaven, we pray now that you have blessed this feast
before us and us as your people, as we come to commune with you
and with one another. O Lord, we may now taste
forgiveness and drink mercy, and may we get just a glimpse, just
a foretaste of the feast that awaits us.
And may that feast melt every fear, every fear, every anxiety,
and may we find victory over every sin.
In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.