05 Ephesians 2:11-22 What is the Glory of God?

Speaker: Welcome to Wednesday in the Word, our serious Bible study applied to real life. Today is Wednesday, February 19th, 2014. Our passage of Ephesians 2, verses 11 through 22, and our teacher is Krisan Marotta. This is the fifth message in our series on the book of Ephesians. Krisan Marotta: We are in Ephesians 2. We're going to go from 11 to 22. So I'm going to start you out with a thought question. When you think of people like me, who do you think of? What comes to mind first? Do you think women first? Do you think moms? Do you think uh students? Women with children? Do you I mean what what do you think of when you think of who people like me, who's like me? When we first moved here, I became friends with a coworker, even though we had absolutely nothing in common. He was black, male, he was political liberal, he was much older than I was, his kids were grown. Um at the time I had little kids, we had different educational backgrounds, and on the surface we had absolutely nothing in common, yet we were both believers. And we found in our discussions that we would react very differently to things in life. It was almost like we we were looking through opposite ends of a telescope when we try to have these discussions. So just to give you an example, um, I told him that a state trooper had moved in next door to us, and our reaction was, wow, I'm so excited. Now there's a police car parked between our house and their house, and we're gonna be safe. And his reaction was, oh no, you have a policeman in your neighborhood, you're in for trouble. Because his experience growing up with police was very different than mine. So we were yet we were both Christians, and that formed a bridge between us so that we could become friends. And as we um talked together, he told me that he had learned only recently to think of himself first as a believer, and then second as black. And at the time I thought, hmm, I don't think I'm there yet. I think of myself first as probably white female and secondly as a believer, and I hope over the years I've switched that around. But the bridge between us was our common faith. And that I think is as it should be, because I think that's what the main point of Paul's um Paul's main point in this passage today is when you think of people like me, you should think believers. And it should be more important that we are believers than that we are whatever else black, white, Asian, Hispanic, male, female, rich, poor, southern, western, republican, democrat, whatever. So let me re review where we are in the book and then we'll talk about how he makes this point. So remember, we started in chapter one. He goes through all our spiritual blessings in Christ, and he opens the letter by this wonderful praise section about what God has done for us, that God chose us, adopted us, redeemed us, sealed us, revealed the mystery of his will. And then he praised the beautiful prayer that Sheila just read, that we would fully comprehend what it means to be believers, that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened, so that we would deeply comprehend the hope of our calling, the value of our inheritance, and the confidence we have before God. Then in the early part of this chapter, he contrasts, of chapter two, he contrasts who we were by nature with what we can become by grace. So he says, we were dead in our trespasses and sins, but God made us alive. So we God saved us, and our faith, our salvation, our good works, all of that are part of the gift. So he focuses in the first part of the chapter of how we were alienated from God. We were dead in our trespasses and sins, but God reconciled us to himself through Jesus, and now he's going to look at our other relationships and say, we were also alienated from each other, from other people, and just as we have been reconciled to God through Christ, we have been reconciled to each other through Christ. So to fully understand this, I think we have to do a little bit of background to understand, because for us, that's you know, after post in the post-civil rights America, we kind of think, yeah, of course, that's kind of a no-brainer. But in the world that Paul was writing, there was a very deep and hostile divide between Jews and Gentile. And God, I don't think, intended that division. He called Israel to be his people, but he did call them to bless all the nations through them, to be a light to all the nations and spread that blessing. So Israel was to be different, but she also had a vocation, a mission to be a light for the nations. And the problem of, of course, was she was sinful and abandoned that mission and turned that position of responsibility into a position of privilege, and um and instead of being a light to other nations, Israel basically detested the and despised the other nations, and vice versa. William Barclay in his commentary summarized it this way The Jews had an immense contempt for the Gentile. The Gentiles, said the Jews, were created by God to be fuel for the fires of hell. God, they said, loves only Israel of all the nations that he had made. It was not even lawful to render help to a Gentile mother in her hour of sorest need, i.e., in labor. For that would simply be to bring another Gentile into the world. Until Christ came, the Gentiles were an object of contempt to the Jews. The barrier between them was absolute. If a Jewish boy married a Gentile girl, or if a Jewish girl married a Gentile boy, the funeral of the Jewish boy or girl was carried out. Such contact was with a Gentile was the equivalent of death. So Jews held the other nations in contempt, and the feeling was pretty much mutual. And the symbol of hostility between the Jews and the Gentiles was the dividing wall that was built around the temple of Herod the Great. So let me, John Stott read summarizes it this way, about speaking about the temple wall. The wall was a notable feature of the magnificent temple built in Jerusalem by Herod the Great. The temple building itself was constructed on an elevated platform. Round it was the court of priests. East of this was the court of Israel, farther east was the court of women. These three courts, for the priests, the laymen, and the lay women of Israel respectively, were all on the same elevation as the temple itself. But from this level one descended five steps to a walled platform, and then on the other side of the wall fourteen more steps to another wall, beyond which was the outer court of the Gentiles. So the temple's up here, you gotta go down to a wall, you go down to another wall, and then the Gentiles were allowed to be down there. So they couldn't even see it looking up. This was a sp I'm continuing his quote now. This was a spacious court running right around the temple in its inner courts. For many part of it, the Gentiles could look up and view the temple, but they were not allowed to approach it. They were cut off from it by the surrounding wall, which was a one and a half meter stone barricade on which were displayed at intervals warning notices in Greek and Latin that read in effect, not trespassers will be prosecuted, but trespassers will be executed. So the fame there's a famous Jewish historian, you've probably heard of Josephus, and he we have a lot of information about the time from his histories, and he describes the partition this way, the wall. A partition made of stone all round whose height was three cubits. Its construction was very elegant, upon it stood pillars at equal distance from one another, declaring the law of purity, some in Greek and some in Roman letters, that no foreigner should go in the with the sanctuary. And archaeologists have uncovered two of these pillars. One is a white limestone slab, it's about a meter across, and it reads, No foreigner may enter within the barricade or enclosure around the temple. Anyone who's caught doing so will have himself to blame for his ensuing death. So they took this very seriously. And we have another example of how serious the division was. We're going to look at Acts 21, because we actually have an instance from the Bible. So this is Paul, he's in Jerusalem. He has been with a group where they've been keeping a vow, and the vow is over, and then a riot ensues. So this is Acts 21, 27. When the seven days were almost over, the Jews from Asia, upon seeing him, that is Paul, in the temple, begin to stir up all the crowd and laid hands on him, crying out, Men of Israel, come to our aid. This is the man who preaches to all men everywhere against our people and the law and this place. Besides, he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place. For they had previously seen Trophimus, the Ephesian, in the city with Paul, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. Then all the city was provoked, and the people rushed together, and taking hold of Paul, they dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut. While they were seeking to kill him, a report came up to the commander of the Roman cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. At once he took along some soldiers and centurions and ran down to them, and when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. So Paul's in Jerusalem. The Jews mistakenly believed that he took a Gentile into the area reserved only for Jews, and that's enough to create a riot throughout the city, and they're beating Paul nearly to death so that the Romans have to intervene. They put him in chains and drag him away. And continuing on, this is Acts 21, 33. Then the commander came up and took hold of him, this a hold of Paul, and ordered him to be bound with two chains, and he began asking who he was and what he had done. But among the crowd some were shouting one thing and some another, and when he could not find out the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks. And when he got to the stairs he was carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob, so Paul's been beaten so badly he can barely walk. For the multitude of the people kept following them, shouting away with him. And as Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the commander, May I say something to you? And he said, Do you know Greek? Then you are not the Egyptian who some time ago stirred up a revolt and led four thousand men of the assassins out into the wilderness? But Paul said, I am a Jew of Tarsus in Sicilia, a citizen of no insignificant city, and I beg you allow me to speak to the people. When he had given him permission, Paul standing on the stairs, motioned to the people with his hand, and when there was a great hush, he spoke to them in the Hebrew dialect, saying, Brethren and fathers, hear my defense which I now offer to you. Okay, so there they've beaten Paul nearly to death, they drag him away, he gets to the top of the stairs, he turns to speak to the crowd, and that I'm not going to read his whole defense. He goes through his whole conversion story, including the road to Damascus, how Jesus came to him and changed his whole worldview, how he was persecuting Gentiles before that. And the crowd listens until he says this. Skip down to Acts 22, 21. And then he said to me, so he's speaking of it, and then God said to me, Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles. And they listened to him up to that statement, then they raised their voices and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live. So they were willing to listen to his whole story of who Jesus was and what he was done for him. But when he said, And God told me that the Gentiles are part of this good news too, they say, That's it, we're not listening anymore, and they want to kill him again. So that gives us a glimpse into the depth of the enmity between Jew and Gentile. It ran on both sides, it was deep, it was vicious, and that hostility is what's behind what Paul is writing to now. So we have to realize how divided the world was at this time. Okay, so back to Ephesians 2. That's all the background. Before we go into the details, let me just go over the structure of the section. I think you can mark it off by three stages. And the stages are marked by formerly in verse 11, at that time in verse 12. So those are kind of the same, formerly and at that time in 11 and 12, but now verse 13 and so then in verse 19. And he says, basically, formerly you were alienated from God and his people, but now because of his death on the cross, uh because of Jesus' death on the cross, he has reconciled dues to Gentile, creating this new single humanity, so then you are no longer aliens. You are now full members of God's household. So if you just take out all the phrases and boil it down to one sentence, the logic comes down to remember that at one time you were alienated, but now in Christ you were have been brought near, so then you are no longer strangers. So I'll say that again. Remember at one time you were alienated, but now in Christ you have been brought near, so then you are no longer strangers, but fellow citizens. And that's basically what he says in all these verses. But we're going to go into the details. Okay, let's look at eleven and twelve. Therefore, remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision, which is performed in the flesh by human hands. Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. That's pretty bleak. One commentator said, basically, he just said they were Christless, stateless, friendless, hopeless, and godless. Yep, that about sums it up. Christless, stateless, friendless, hopeless, and godless. And Paul says, remember, remember who you were. We were alienated. All those blessings in chapter one, you were alienated from them. All the promises of the law, they didn't apply from you to you. You were excluded from the household of God, strangers to the promises of the law without hope and without God. And it's interesting, Scripture tells us to forget many things like grudges and grievances and past wrongs, but we are to remember who we were before Christ. Just like Israel in the Old Testament is frequently commanded to remember that they were slaves in Egypt and God brought them out of slavery in Egypt. In the New Testament we see repeated, remember who you were before the intervention of Christ. And just as in the early part of chapter two, where he contrasts, we were dead, but God made us alive, now he's going to use we were far off, but we have been brought near. It's the same kind of language. But notice he emphasizes the phrase in the flesh. He says these distinctions between you Jew and Gentiles were were just outward physical signs. They were they were distinctions of external, of an external nature. So circumcision was the mark of the of the Old Testament covenant. It was performed by human hands, but it's something we did on our own. So remember in the early part of the chapter, he made took great pains to say everyone was dead, Jew and Gentile, everyone was lost, everyone needed Christ. And I think that's by adding this phrase in the flesh, he's pointing back to that, that this outward sign was no good without the inward circumcision of the heart. So without the change brought about by faith, the outward sign does no good. So you've got these two groups who are dividing themselves on an action performed by outward hands. And he says, but now in Christ, you you who were formerly, who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. And that's pretty common Old Testament language for Jews versus Gentiles. The Jews were those who were near to God, the Gentile nations were those who are far. So in Deuteronomy 7, you see, For what great nation is there that has a God so near to it as the Lord our God whenever we call on him? Or in Psalm 148, 14, he has lifted up a horn for his people, praise for all his godless ones, even the sons of Israel, a people near to him. And then Isaiah 49:1, listen unto me, O islands, and pay attention, you peoples from afar. So the islands, the people from afar, the Gentiles. And then in this is Isaiah 57 19, creating the praise of the lips, peace, peace to him who is far and to him who is near. So the Jews and the Gentiles, says the and then he goes on, I will heal him. And I think we take it for granted that we have access to God through Jesus Christ. But Paul's saying, remember, it wasn't always so. You were once alienated, you had no standing to go before God, but now in Christ you have been given that standing, you've been brought near. So I think the f I'm and notice he adds, now in Christ and by the blood of Christ. I think the now in Christ points to the personal faith and trust that is required, and the blood of Christ points to his sacrificial death on the cross. Both are necessary. We need the historical event of the cross, but we also need a conversion to faith. We need to go from unbelief to belief, and both are necessary, and I think that's what he's pointing to. And then he goes on to explain what Christ did and how he did it in 15 through 16. For he himself is our peace who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. By abal and that's a reference to the temple wall there, by abolishing in his flesh the enity, which is the law of the commandments contained in the ordinances, so that he himself might make into make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross by it having put to death the enity. Okay, so who's the both? Yeah, it's a Bible study question we have to ask. I think he means the Jews and the Gentiles. So the dividing wall separated the Jews from the Gentile, it symbolized the Gentile alienation from God, and he says that wall separated the court of the Gentiles from the rest of the Gentiles, and it's been broken down. Now historically, it was still standing. So at the time Paul wrote this, the law would that wall was still physically in place. It would be leveled when the Romans conquered Jerusalem in 70 AD, but it's still there at the time he's writing. So he's saying, metaphorically, it's been destroyed by the cross. One commentator said, summarize it this way, it still stood, but it was already antiquated, obsolete, out of date, so far as its spiritual meaning went. The sign still stood, but the thing it signified was broken down. And that's what Paul's referring to, that wall that kept you out, that wall that prevented you from even getting a glimpse of the temple, and being part of his people, that's broken down. That no longer separates you. There's no barrier between you and God anymore, and between you and God's people. And this was accomplished by Christ, and he gives three verbs to explain how he did it. He gives us by abolishing in verse 15, and then that he might make or create, some translations have also in verse 15, and then reconcile and verse 16. So by abolishing in his flesh the enmity, which is the law of the commandments contained in the ordinances. So I think he's saying that that law that separated Jews from Gentile, that prescribed that Jews would live one way and Gentiles would live another, so that they look different, they dressed differently, they ate different fruits, they followed different traditions. That law that clearly marked who was in and who was out, that's been done away with. And Christ did away with that. Now, so we have to ask how did he do away with that? It's still a picture of righteousness. So if you were going to, the law still describes accurately what righteousness looks like. He didn't change the moral standard of behavior, but he did abolish it as a means of salvation. So he is abolished it as any way that we could think that by keeping the law we could get to God. So we don't we can't keep it no matter how hard we try, and we fall under God's wrath, and that's the enmity he did away with. He fulfilled the consequences of the law by taking it upon himself and removed that barrier. And then so that he in himself he might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace. So with that barrier removed, we become one new family, or God's new society, if you will. So all the barriers between Jew and Gentile are removed, and I think we can extrapolate, so are the barriers of gender, social class, race, educational background, any other external barriers that we put between us. So he removed the barriers that separate us from God. We saw that in 2, 1 through 10, and now he's talking about these horizontal barriers between us. And he might reconcile them both into one body to God through the cross by having put to death the enmity. That's verse 16. I think the enmity is God's wrath, so the wrath of God that fell upon us because of our rebellion. So we talked last week about two consequences to our rebellion. One that we experience sin and death, and the other that we are guilty, that there's a judicial punishment that must be paid, and that that is that's described by the wrath of God. And it's also this enmity is a synonym for that. So he satisfied God's wrath so that we could be reconciled. So notice the parallel in the two halves of the chapter. They both start with a description of life without Christ. We were dead, we were alienated, but God made peace through Jesus Christ, and those who were far off have been brought near. So, how that sounds great in theory. How do we get rid of, I mean, how do we effect effectively accomplish that? How do you get over generations of hostility between two groups and have them become one? And I think he gives us some clues in what he goes on to say in 17 and 18. And he came and preached peace to you who were. Far away in peace to those who were near, for through him both groups have access in one spirit to the Father. So those who are far off again are the Gentiles. Those who are near were the Jews. They both now have peace with God, so we are no longer under his wrath. But then he goes on to say we are rec we have access. So if reconciliation is a one-time event where our guilt has been removed, access is the ongoing, continuing relationship that is now possible. So we have been justified by Christ, we now have peace with God, and we have ongoing access to him. And I don't think it's an accident that he begins with the description of our alienation and and who we were before and says, remember that, because I think that's part of the key to how we get to reconciliation with each other. So just as we have to let go of our pride and our self-righteousness to approach God, I think we have to let go of it to approach each other. Once we start from the position of look how bankrupt I am, look how desperate I am, how hopeless I was without God, what how could I be in any position to start drawing lines now and saying, ooh, well, I'm better than you, or I'm different than you, or I have something on you? Paul's saying, remember who you were, you were all in the same boat. He just spent the first one and a half chapters telling us basically who we were in Christ before and what God has done for us. And starting from that position of understanding the depth of our alienation should be the first step to removing the barriers between us and the pride that says, Well, you're not like me, because you are like me in what matters. We're all in the same boat, we're all dead, we're all alienated apart from God. We have no reason to boast or separate. So to break down the barriers between each other, I think we have to first break down that pride in self-righteousness. And once we're properly humble before God, we can then humbly approach each other, regardless of whether we're Jew, Gentile, rich, poor, black, white, Asian, Hispanic, male, female, whatever. Okay, and then that's my favorite part of the passage. Then he says, So then, we are fellow heirs, we are a holy temple. So here's the so what of he says, so you you were alienated, you've been reconciled to God, you've been reconciled to each other, and here is the really good news. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household. Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. So he says, So then you're no longer aliens and strangers, so aliens without legal rights, now you're fellow citizens, you're members of the household. And he uses three metaphors to describe who we are in Christ, and each one gets more intimate and better than the one before it. So he starts with fellow citizens. So now we're members of the kingdom. So it's like you move to Australia and you're not an Australian citizen and you become a citizen. Now you have all the legal rights and privileges of being a citizen in the kingdom, and in this kingdom, God is the king, he's the only one who can bestow those privileges. So he moved he starts with now you're fellow citizens, but you are also of God's household. Now you're part of the family. So, you know, being U.S. citizens or whatever is one thing, but when you're a member of the family, you have now all the rights and privileges and the loyalty and the commitment and the devotion of a family. So that adds another level of intimacy and loyalty. And then he says, in the end, but you are also a holy temple in the Lord. So that's the one I think that we really it's kind of lost on us, but that's the most intimate and personal of all, because he's saying now you are a dwelling place for God. So he's continuing his analogy of the temple. He just talked about Jesus breaking down the dividing wall that separated us, and he said, Remember, the temple was where God dwelt, and if you wanted access to God, you had to go to the temple. That was the only way to get it, and you couldn't get there. But now all those barriers are broken down, and you are the temple. God is with you. So you are his household, you are the building where God dwells with Jesus as the cornerstone and the apostles. So let me let me look at that. Oh, actually, before we go into let me skip back to 220 for a minute. Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus himself being the cornerstone. I think we ought to pause there for a minute, because the most important part of any building is its solid, stable foundation, and Paul is saying, there's this temple God is building, and the rock upon which it is built is Jesus Christ, and the foundation is the apostles and prophets. So the temple is being built on the person of Jesus and the message of the apostles and the prophets, not their offices, not their personalities, not their titles, but the message, the thing they taught about who Jesus was. And I think that means what binds us together, what makes us into a strong new society is how close we remain true to that foundation. So we ought to be built on scripture, we ought to be built on the message, and once we the closer we stick to that, the more unity we will have. So the foundation, just as a building's foundation ought not to be skewed or altered once it is laid, so the message of the gospel ought not to be tampered with, added to, subtracted from, and we will succeed or fail based on how loyal we stay to that foundation. John Stott summarized it this way. I like the way he said this. As a building depends for both its cohesion and development on being tied securely to this cornerstone, so Christ, the cornerstone, is indispensable to the church's unity and growth. Unless it is constantly and securely related to Christ, the church's unity will disintegrate and its growth will either stop or run wild. I thought that was profound. That that is our cornerstone. That's the foundation. We we want to measure everything off of that, and if we're all measuring off the same line, then we'll have unity and we'll have growth. Okay, but let's talk about this last. I mean, we can kind of understand aliens, now we're citizens, and we can understand being adopted into a family, but what does it mean to be a temple of God or a dwelling place of God? I think that would have been very um that's a rich imagery for the Old Testament Jewish believers and probably those more familiar with the New Testament, but I think we miss it. So I want to we're gonna skip through the Old Testament and look at the glory of God and what that means. So in the Old Testament, the glory of God was his visible, active presence in the midst of his people. It's typically described as a cloud, and we first see it in the wilderness. This is Exodus 13, 21 and 22. Then the Lord was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. He did not take away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night from before the people. So God's presence with them is symbolized by this pillar, this cloud that's described as God's glory that goes before them. And that as they are wandering around the wilderness, they have that with them, and then they erect the first tabernacle, which is the tent where they meet God. So listen to what happens in when they erect it. This is Exodus forty thirty three through thirty-eight. He erected the court all around the tabernacle and the altar, and hung up the veil for the gateway to of the court. Then Moses finished the work. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, the sons of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, they did not set out until the day when it was taken up. For throughout all their journeys the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in it by night in the sight of all the house of Israel. So this again is God's physical, physical, a visible sign of God's presence with his people. It's in the tabernacle, and then they get into the promised land and they build the temple. So in this is first Kings eight, Solomon finishes the temple, the work is complete, they retrieve the Ark of the Covenant from the tent of meeting, and they move the ark into the temple, and what happens? First King eight ten. It happened that when the priest came from the holy place, the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priest could not stand to minister because of the cloud. For the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. Then Solomon said, The Lord has said that he will dwell in the thick cloud, I have surely built you a lofty house, a place for your dwelling forever. So now we've got the temple in Jerusalem, the Holy of Holies is there, God's presence has settled into it, and what happens when the exile comes? So you have God's visible active presence in the midst of his people, and Ezekiel, who's one of the prophets who warms of the impending doom of the exile, has a vision in which the glory of the Lord departs from them. This is one you may not be familiar with. So this is his vision. This is Ezekiel 10, 3 and 4. Now the cherubim were standing on the right side of the temple when the man entered, and the cloud filled the inner court. Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherubim to the threshold of the temple, and the temple was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the Lord. So he's saying, We were in the Holy of Holies, the the cloud, the temple of the glory of God is there, and it leaves the mercy seat and goes to the temple. Um and then the threshold of the temple, then the vision continues, this is ten eighteen. Then the glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim. When the cherubim departed, they lifted up they lifted their wings and rose up from the earth in my sight, and the wheels beside them, and they stood still at the entrance of the east gate of the Lord's house. Then the glory of the Lord hovered over them. So he's seen this withdrawal. It goes from the Holy of Holies, it goes to the threshold of the temple, and now it's moved to the east gate. And then in 1122, then the cherubim lifted up their wings when the wheels beside them, and the glory of the Lord of Israel was over them, and the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the s of the city and stood on the mountain that is on the east side of the city. So Ezekiel seen this vision of the glory of Lord of the Lord departing from them. It moved from the temple to the threshold to the east gate, and now it's not even in Jerusalem anymore. It's on the mountain outside Jerusalem. And that vision was doomed to the Israelites, because if God is no longer dwelling in his temple, then the temple can be destroyed, and they can be lost. And in fact, that's what happens. The exile does come about and the Babylonians and the Assyrians destroy the temple. Okay, so where does the glory of the Lord go from here, right? So the exile happens, they're carted off into Babylon. So when they finish the second temple, we would expect the glory of the Lord to return. But listen to what happens. This is in Ezra chapter 6, 15 through 18. So the exile is now over, it's about what 480 years later. The exiles have come back and they've worked to rebuild the temple. And this house was finished on the third day of the month of Adar in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king. And the people of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles, celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy. Then they offered at the dedication of this house of God one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and as a sign as a sin offering for all Israel twelve male goats according to the number of the tribes of Israel. And they set the priests in their divisions, and the Levites in their divisions for the service of God at Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses. Well, what's missing? There's no mention that the glory of the Lord comes and fills this temple. So they're back in the land, the exile's over, and we would expect the glory of God to come back and settle in as he did before. But in fact he doesn't. Where do we see it again? Not until we get to the New Testament. This is Matthew 123. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. Remember, the glory of God is his visible, active presence in the midst of his people. And then in Luke 2, in the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night, and an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. And they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all the people, for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. So God's glory returns with Jesus. And where does it dwell today? Paul says, It's in you. So when he says in 222, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit, he's saying, Where does the glory of God shine today? In you. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, remember, you are now the building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord in whom you also are being built together into dwelling of God in the spirit. So God dwells with us now in us. And that's the rich imagery he's saying, this division, this barrier is all gone. You are now not only members of God's household, you are the place God is dwelling with you, and that ought to give you great worth and joy. And I think all these things he's been saying that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened to understand. This is part of what he wants us to understand. Remember, before you were Christless, stateless, friendless, godless, and hopeless, and now God is with you in a very real and personal way. Amen. Alright, so let me uh just wrap this up then with some implications. So, what does this mean for us? So, how would we apply this in our lives? And I'm gonna give you three things. The first is the one Paul says, remember who you were. Remember who you once were and who you are in Christ. So, who you were by nature and what you can become by grace. So we were without Christ, we were cut off from God, we were alienated, we were under his wrath, we could not solve the problem of our sin and death. And all that has been changed. We can now keep God's law in a way we never could before because we have his spirit within us. And I think a lot of the problems of our human relationship stem from this kind of pride and prendedness, and he's saying the first step in getting over that is remember who you were in Christ. So remember that orphan status and let it keep you humble. Let it tear down the barriers we erect between each other and how insignificant they look compared with who we are now in Christ. So, what does it matter if I'm rich or poor or male or female if I don't know Christ? What does it m- I mean, that's that's the essential thing I have to want. And if he died to tear down those barriers, what business do I have erecting them again? So let him build relationships wherever he wants. You know, we we want to encourage and support each other and let our common faith be the bridge between us. There's a lot of alienation in our society today. You know, black, white men, women, um, you know, mothers at home versus career mothers, we can erect barriers everywhere. Young, old Republicans, Democrats, and he says, all these divisions pale in comparison to the depth of our sinfulness. The analogy I always use, my husband loves science fiction movies. So we're always watching these really bad science fiction movies. But what happens is the aliens attack Earth, and suddenly we all drop our nat, you know, suddenly the Russians and the Chinese and the Americans are all working together because the aliens have attacked. And who cares whether you're, you know, you're Chinese or South American or American when you've got aliens to deal with. And I think there's an analogy there. Paul is saying, remember who you were. It's like the aliens have attacked. All those differences don't matter anymore. You know, just drop all those earthly differences and realize who you were in Christ. Not to imply that Jesus is an alien. I'm not let's not carry that analogy too far. But it is a picture of those differences don't matter when you see what's really at stake. And I think that's part of what we can try to begin to understand. The second one I already alluded to, the foundation, that everything is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets and Jesus as the cornerstone. The truer we stay to the original message of the gospel, the more unity we have, the more growth we have. Paul's going to develop this when we get into chapter four, but it that is our foundation. And when we start, you know, speculating on strange aspects of theology, or, you know, we can get into all kinds of fights. Like Paul says in um, I think it's in one of the Timothy letters, he says, don't wrangle about words, just stick true to the message. So I think that's another analogy, is we can agree to disagree on a lot of things, but we want to stick to the foundation. And then one more, I'll wrap up with this one. I I had a whole section on this and I boiled it down, so I hope this is clear. But if you keep following the glory of God through the New Testament, what is a surprising thing happens. The glory of the Lord becomes connected with the cross. And in fact, 23 times in the New Testament, when the crucifixion is spoken of, it is spoken of as the glorification of Christ. And there becomes this link between displaying the glory of God and suffering. Let me just give you one example. This is John 17, 1 through 5. This is Jesus' prayer as he's approaching the cross. Jesus spoke these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you. Even as you gave him authority over all flesh, that to all you have given him he may give eternal life. This is eternal life, that you may know the one, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I have glorified you on the earth, having accomplished the work which you have given me to do. Now, Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had before the world was. So you see this, there's this very strong connection between the glory of Jesus as the glory of God and the suffering He does on the cross. And I think maybe I'm stretching the rubber band too far, but I think there's a lesson there in that it's often through our sufferings that we also glorify God. You know, we that God's power breaks into the world not through these displays of power, but through kindness and compassion in suffering, or grace and mercy in suffering. And that as we give of ourselves in the unexpected kind of self-sacrificing ways, that it displays God's glory in a way nothing else does. So in our weakness, in many ways, Jesus is glorified, and it's in a response to struggles that we can reveal the glory of God. Now, I don't know about you, but that's kind of a major blow to my pride, you know, and my my kind of view of the modern successful Christian woman. You know, I want God to be glorified through my fame and fortune and achievements and successes, you know, and all the plaques on the wall or whatever. And more often than not, I think that's not how God is glorified, but he is glorified when we give of ourselves selflessly, with humility, relying on uh his power and the power of the Holy Spirit, and then just showing grace and forbearance when life is tough, when there's sufferings and trials and things don't appear to be going our way. All right, let's pray. Father, thank you that you uh brought those of us who were far off near. And I just pray that as we study this book we would begin to understand the immense riches brought to us by the blood of Christ, and the depth of how lost we were before he came and his intervention, and then the joy of adoption and reconciliation and our inheritance in you that he gave us. In Jesus' name. Amen. Speaker: Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word. For notes and study questions related to this message, please visit our website, wednesdayintheword.com. Thank you for being with us, and we hope you'll join us again.