Sermon Series: 

Ephesians–the Believer's Bank

Strangers In the Night

Ephesians 2:11-13

PSBC 5/21/00 pm

In a nutshell: This passage speaks about our condition before we were Christians. And it speaks of the condition of the "impossible" people in our lives–the people who have not been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. It points out the only thing that can lead a person out of that condition–the blood of Jesus Christ.

I. Introduction

A. Dominican Republic

Illustration: Almost 7 years ago, Diane and I went on a short term missions trip for two weeks, to the Dominican Republic. It was a life changing experience for both of us.

But something that sticks out in my mind, was after several days
-where I preached at several services through an interpreter
-and worked on some building projects around the mission station,
-and visited some remote villages
-and did some teaching in a Bible College, to pastors...
...our hostess asked me to go across the street to the grocery store and purchase some bottled drinking water. I walked into the store, looked around and saw a lot of familiar things on the shelves, but with one big difference–everything was written in Spanish. And since I didn't know Spanish, I was lost. When I paid for the two five gallon containers of water, I gave the check out girl the money our missionary hostess had given me, and I hoped she gave me the right change, but I didn't know.

When it came down to it, I didn't know the language, I didn't know the currency, I couldn't even ask an intelligent question and be understood. It really hit me–I was a stranger in a foreign country.

B. Can you relate?

Have you ever moved into a new town or city that was different from where you were born and raised?
Or maybe you lived in another country for a period of time, rather than this country.
Or maybe you've begun a new job recently, or changed schools, or moved into a new neighborhood.
...If you have, you can relate to what being a stranger is all about.

II. The Strangers are Us

I don't know of anyone who likes to be a stranger. It's an uncomfortable feeling. You look for friends, or companions, or someone, or a group of people who are going to accept you and help you feel welcome, and fit in.

Well, Paul, in the rest of Ephesians chapter two, gives us some more insight as to what belongs to us–to Christians–by helping us understand and appreciate how you and I started out as strangers but wound up being adopted members in the family of God.

And as we study this tonight, I think you're going to gain some new insights into...
–what the non-Christian people whom you're praying for, are feeling deep down inside, as they consider a relationship with Jesus Christ,
–the strangeness that they feel as they try to grasp the fact that God wants a relationship with them,
–and how you can be that person who helps them out of that condition of being a stranger to a relationship with God. If you have your Bibles, turn to Ephesians 2...

A. Hostility between Jew and Gentile

Ephesians 2:11
11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the body by the hands of men)--

Let me stop there in mid-sentence, to catch you up "culturally" with what Paul is talking about here.

If you didn't know it, there was an extreme hostility between Jews and Gentiles in the New Testament world. To the Jews, there were only two classes of people–Jews and anyone else (called Gentiles). To be a Jew was to be one of God's chosen people. To be a Gentile was to be a heathen dog–worth nothing. In fact, an old Jewish saying said that Gentiles were created by God to be fuel for the fires of hell. The Jewish people looked with disdain and contempt on anyone who was a Gentile.

And it could be added that because of that prideful outlook, the Gentiles didn't have many warm fuzzies for the Jews, either. The fact is, both groups viewed each other with disdain.

B. Physical Difference

Paul uses a phrase in verse 11, that is a slang expression used of the Gentiles, BY the Jews–"Uncircumcised". From your knowledge of the Old Testament, you might know that male circumcision was the sign and seal of the covenant that God made with Israel.

Every male would be circumcised when he was eight days old. This was a physical symbol that God's promise to be the God of the Jewish people, was passed on to that child and the family that he would have someday.

The Gentiles, though, were not circumcised. So, when a Jew called a Gentile, "Uncircumcised" (which literally means foreskin), it was simply another way of saying that the Gentile was inferior. It would be like a white person using the "N" word for a black person, today.

Illustration: John MacArthur, in his commentary on the book of Ephesians, writes about an incident he observed that illustrates Paul's point in verse 11... "I visited a contemporary African church not long ago, that was composed of believers from various tribes who had been bitterest of enemies for countless generations. A missionary who was officiating at a communion service in the church commented to me as he looked around. He saw the chief of the Ngoni, along with many other members of that tribe. He also saw members of the Senga and Tumbuka tribes–singing, praying, and participating in the Lord's Supper, together. In former years, he said, each of these tribes loved to brag about how many men, women, and children of the other tribes they had killed, raped, or maimed. He said, one of the old chiefs could remember the days when the young Ngoni warriors had gone out to attack their enemies. They had left behind a trail of burned and devastated villages and had come home with their spears bloodied with the death of Senga and Tumbuka people. Then the missionary added, "As they once were divided by the spilling of each other's blood, they are now united by the blood of their common Savior, Jesus Christ.""

Paul's point in verse 11, is that one of the things that Christians can be thankful to God about is that the outward bodily difference between Gentiles and Jews–and in reality, any bodily difference between one group of people and another, is broken down by the blood of Jesus Christ.

III. Spiritual Difference

But in verse 12, Paul goes deeper than just the difference between Jew and Gentile. He goes to a much more important issue–the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian.

You see, the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian goes way beyond just the way we look, or our ancestral backgrounds. It has to do far more with the spiritual condition that non-Christians find themselves in. Yet even in these differences, like in the difference between Jew and Gentile, the blood of Jesus Christ can wipe the differences away.

Ephesians 2:12
12 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.

Paul lists out 5 spiritual differences that used to be, but are now gone, because these Ephesian-Gentiles had become part of God's family and followers of Jesus Christ.

A. Separate from Christ

The first difference is called, being "separate from Christ." When Paul says, "separate from Christ", he is saying separate from the Messiah. Christ is the Greek version of the Jewish word, Messiah.

This means that a person who is not a Christian, has no messianic hope of a Savior or Deliverer. Which means, that when it comes to the end of a non-Christian's life..
...there is no purpose to help make sense out of what has taken place in their lives,
...there is no plan for reconciling with a holy God,
...and there is no hope for eternity outside of, "I hope it all works out somehow, someway."

And that's a terrible place to be. Yet, that's a person's place who is separated from Christ.

B. Excluded from citizenship in Israel

The next thing that was spiritually true of a person, before he or she became a Christian, and that is still true of our friends who don't know Him, is that they are "excluded or alienated from citizenship in Israel."

So, what's the big deal about that? You probably never wanted to be a citizen of a middle eastern nation anyway. If you want the desert living, you have chosen to live in Palm Springs–there's more golf courses here anyway. But Paul is talking about something that goes way beyond physical territory–or dirt.

The contrast concerns being a part of a kingdom ruled by the God who states, "I love my people", ..versus being part of the pagan world.

You see, the pagan or Gentile world worshiped a variety of gods. The Greeks had their list of gods, the Romans had their list of gods, the Persians had theirs, the barbarians in Europe had theirs, the Norsemen had theirs, and other people all around the world had their own list of gods. And as you study any one or group of these gods, you'll find that everyone of these gods are all as irritable and as undependable as humans are.

Pagans or Gentiles never thought of a god who loved them. There was no such thing as a loving God, outside of Israel. There is no suggestion in any of the writings that we have from archeology that people outside of Israel felt loved by their gods. They could ask for kindness and mercy, and people tried to influence and trick their gods into showing them favor, but there was no sense of belonging to God's family.

But the Jews had this idea of God's love for them. And Christianity, which was the fulfillment of Judaism had the love of God at it's core.

A.W. Tozer writes, God wants us to worship Him. He doesn't need us, for He couldn't be a self-sufficient God and need anything or anybody, but He wants us. When Adam sinned it was not he who cried, "God, where art Thou?" It was God who cried, "Adam, where art thou?"

Not feeling or having the love of God is what that phrase, "excluded from citizenship in Israel" means. I believe that this is one of the best starting points we can bring up with people who are "impossible"–This is what I wrote about in the newspaper last Sunday. People can have a relationship with God. They can be recipients of God's love. Nothing else but a relationship with Jesus Christ gives such a thing.

C. Foreigners to the Covenants and Promises

The next thing Paul brings up about our former condition and the condition of anyone who is not a Christian is that they are foreigners or strangers to the covenants and promises.

A covenant by God was a promise in which God bound Himself to carry out what He said to His people.

Within the covenants that God gave He promised to...
–bless His people,
–to prosper His people,
–to multiply, save and redeem His people.
–He promised to give Israel a land,
–He promised His Kingdom would come,
–He promised a King to rule His kingdom,
–and he promised eternal life and heaven.

What do pagans or Gentiles have to look forward to? What do our non-Christian friends have to anticipate? Well, the Gentile of Paul's day had no hope in their dark world. They really were strangers in the night.

They belonged to unreliable, irritable gods, and there was no certainty that these gods would ever respond to their needs. So, when their spirits were oppressed, when they were filled with guilt and shame, when things like violence, cruelty, war and injustice happened, as it so often did, they had no place to turn, no promise of help, no hope for the future–they were left strictly to their own devices.

And friends, there is nothing different between Paul's day and our's. People without a relationship to Jesus Christ don't have anything but themselves to fall back on. That's Paul's point.

D. Without hope

The fourth condition that was ours before we knew Jesus and that characterizes our non-Christian friends, is they are without hope.

Illustration: Let's say you were in financial problems and owed your creditors more than a million dollars, and you owed Uncle Same an equal amount. So, you owed two million dollars. Now, I, Tom Rietveld, come up to you and say, "Don't worry, I'll take care of your debt. Just go on living like you don't owe anyone anything. I'll pay your debt from my resources."

Would you feel relieved? Would you feel hopeful that your bills would be paid? Of course you wouldn't! Because you know that there is no way I can deliver on my promise to take care of what you owe. I don't have two million dollars! Even if I say I will take care of your debt, even if my intentions are honorable, you have no hope that I will be able to rescue you, because I don't have what it takes to back up my pledge to you.

But, Christians can have complete hope in God's promises for two reasons:
1. God has every resource at His disposal
2. God cannot lie.

The Gentiles, however, had no such promises from their gods, so they had no grounds for hope. Most Gentiles of Paul's day either thought death ended all existence or death released their eternal soul to some nether world to wander aimlessly throughout eternity. For the Gentile, death either brought nothingness or everlasting despair.

The Greek philosopher, Diogenes said, "I rejoice in sport in my youth. Long enough will I lie beneath the earth bereft of life, voiceless as a stone, and shall leave the sunlight which I love, good man though I am. Then shall I see nothing more. Rejoice, O my soul, in thy youth."

Our pagan culture is saying the same thing today. Just look at the booming business of plastic surgery, health spas and personal trainers, Viagra and cosmetics. Then tell me that things have changed in the last 2000 years. They haven't! Your and my non-Christian friends and acquaintances are living without hope. So they're hanging on to their youth as long as they can, and buying into the old beer commercial philosophy of "you only go around once in life, so you should grab all the gusto you can."

E. Without God in the World

Finally, Paul states that the condition of a person without a relationship to Jesus Christ is that he or she is "without God in the world".

When I read this, at first I thought, "Duh! Of course they're without God–isn't that what we've been saying all along." But then I came upon this testimony, and I understood what Paul was describing...

Illustration: A South American Indian told a missionary who led him to Christ, "When I was living in the jungle, we never knew a day without fear. When we woke up in the morning, we were afraid. When we went out of our houses, we were afraid. When we walked along the river, we were afraid. We saw an evil spirit in every stone and tree and waterfall. And when night fell, fear came into our huts and slept with us all night long."

That's a life without God–a darkness that leads to despair, cynicism, superstition, emptiness, and a mocking of faith. That describes our world to a tee.

If you experience hostility toward your faith in Jesus Christ, understand, it's not intellectual superiority on someone's part–it is more than likely that that person has a fear that you're right. Because outside of God, there is nothing reliable, loving, or strong enough that can even take the place of God. And this scares self-reliant people, to have to admit this!

IV. Blood of Jesus

A. Significance of "Blood"

Now let's look at the next verse to give us some perspective on this all...

Ephesians 2:13
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

Here's the solution to spiritual "Gentile-ism". It is through the blood of Jesus Christ.

Notice that Paul doesn't just say, "we have been brought near through the death of Jesus Christ." Rather, Paul says it is the blood of Jesus Christ. That is very significant!

At times the Bible talks about the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. But more often it talks about the shed blood or the blood of Christ. Why?

A lot of people, today, don't like the fact that the Bible does this. They don't like to think of the cross or of the death of Jesus as being bloody. But God emphasizes it. Why?

The reason He wants us to dwell on the blood, is because blood is always a sign of violence. You see, the death of Jesus was not some simple passing–it wasn't some old age/death bed experience. It was violent–a bloody, gory, ugly, revolting scene–a man hanging torn and wretched upon a cross, with blood streaming from his wounds.

Ray Stedman writes about this in his commentary on Ephesians. He says,
-"God wants us to remember that violent death, because violence is the ultimate result of paganism. It is the final expression of a godless society.
-Cruelty arises immediately when love and truth disappear from society. And God is simply reminding us that when humanity had done its worst, had sunk to its lowest, had vented its anger in the utter wretchedness and violence and blood of the cross...,
-His love reached down to that very place and, utilizing that violent act, began to redeem, to call back those who were far off and bring them near–in the blood of Christ."

B. Brought Near

That phrase in verse 13, "brought near" is a good one to end on, this evening.

Explanation: In the Temple at Jerusalem, there were a series of courts, each one a little higher than the one that went before. Of these courts...,
–the first one was called the Court of the Gentiles.
–the second was called the Court of the Women.
–the third was the Court of the Israelites.
–the fourth most inner court was the court of the Priests;
–and finally there was the Holy Place–where the worship of the people was brought to God. The Holy Place was where the nation of Israel and God connected.

A Gentile or a pagan could only go into the first court. Between that court and the next court was a screen made of marble. And inscribed on that screen in a variety of languages was this message... "Let no one of any other nation come within the fence and barrier around the Holy Place. Whosoever is taken doing so, will have himself to be responsible for the fact that his death will ensue."

Paul's phrase "brought near", referred to taking someone from the Court of the Gentiles to the Holy Place–the place in the Temple that represented coming face to face with God–the place where a true relationship with God begins. And being "brought near" only happens through the blood of Jesus.

Friends, I close with this statement (on your note sheets) from the great Scottish author of the last century, Henry Drummond, whose book on 1 Corinthians 13 called "The Greatest Thing in the World" is considered by many to be one of the most inspirational books ever written. He puts a person's relationship with Christ in it's proper perspective when he said this...

Apart from Christ the life of man is a broken pillar; the race of man an unfinished pyramid. One by one in sight of eternity all human ideals fall short; one by one before the open grave all hopes dissolve.

There is no hope of any kind, outside of Jesus Christ. We can never forget that as we thank God for our salvation and as we pray for the people in our circles of influence who still need to experience that salvation for themselves.
Amen