Okay, friends, if you're willing and able, would you please grab a seat and turn to Ephesians chapter two. Some of you have asked. About some of the architectural elements in the church, and I just wanna make mention that in the book Nook, if you look in the book Nook and on your lower right hand as a little uh, uh, architectural classroom guide to kind of guide you through some of the intentionality of the space, all of it is not meant to distract you.

It's meant to catch you up into the beauty of the gospel and to remind us that we are invited into a star, a story that is far older and bigger than you could have ever imagined. And today, even in the preaching of his word, you are invited to believe the gospel once again and to see yourself in the light of that story.

So let me pray for us and then we'll look together at God's Word for a few minutes. Oh, father, would you take us now in these minutes, and would you strengthen our heart? Would you humble us? Would you remind us that your grace is enough? And would you help us to recognize the blind spots in our heart? Of how we treat those who are different than us, of how you, through your finished work on the cross, have made us new.

And we pray, Lord, that you might surprise us as we prepare to come to communion this morning of how you are at work in us, and we pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Years ago when Lorna and I lived in Dallas, Texas, there was a place that we always avoided. One weekend in the month of October, some of you know, this weekend of October you've been there.

And we, no matter what happened, no matter what our plans were, we always avoided I 30 that went near the cotton bowl for years in the shadows of big techs and between, uh, Turkey legs, uh, OU and Texas, the football teams were for years separated their locker rooms by one cinder block wall. And until 1990, did you know that both teams came down the tunnel into the cotton bowl together?

But after shoving matches, persisted and after too many fans poured their 36 ounce Dr. Peppers on the opposing team, they decided to end that tradition. And so now when you go, the visiting team goes out first, and then they'll give the all clear. And then the home team will come down the tunnel separately.

Never tell shall the two meet together. And even as I talk about OU and Texas this morning, I can see some of your blood boil because this game is important, uh, to you and to your families. Listen, it's just football, isn't it? But what a picture, isn't it? Maybe not, but what a picture it is of our deep hostility toward the other.

And it's interesting, isn't it, that this is just a beautiful metaphor, just a simple metaphor of the way that we sometimes create dividing walls of hostility toward one another. As one of my friends said, the OU Texas game is one of the most important weekends of his fall because he doesn't root for his team, he roots against the other.

And this is no problem that, uh, that we have created. It's a problem that goes all the way back. And in the church in Ephesus, though, it was a beautiful church, though this book was written not to address a scandal or a particular crisis. It was written to show what the church could be in all of her beautiful mess.

And Paul knew even then. And he comes to it in this passage in Ephesians two, verse 14 through 18, which we're about to read together. And he says, there is a group within the church, Jew and Gentile who have deep divisions, deep hostility toward one another historically, and traditionally and culturally.

And they are called now to not give up their Jewishness or their Gentile ness, but they're called to be one new body in Christ. And I wonder if we. Might do the same, be the same kind of countercultural community for the common good in light of the finished work of Jesus. So if you're willing and enable it, stand together as we read Paul's words to the Ephesians in chapter two, verses 14 through 18.

It's there in your bulletin and it's notes. Are there also for you to follow along if you're a note taker in the sermon? Please give your attention to God's word. Men and women have died to have it translated into English so that we might read it for ourself. For he himself is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh, the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances.

That he might create in himself, one new man in place of the two. So making peace and might reconcile us both to God and one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility and he that is Jesus came and preached peace to those who were far off and peace to those who were near for through him. We have access in one spirit to the father.

The grass withers and the flowers fade, but God's word stands forever, and this is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Please, Paul, in these four verses makes four points. First, Christ himself is our peace. Secondly, Jesus abolishes the law's barrier. Thirdly, the cross is the means of our reconciliation.

And lastly, the gospel is for everyone. First. Christ himself is our peace. If you were to take a straw poll in your community and you were to ask, what is the one thing that you long for right now in our day and age, it's probably the same thing they said 10 years ago, two decades ago, 50 years ago. What is it?

We long for world peace.

What an elusive word. Peace.

We pursue it by politics. We pursue it by education. We pursue it by activism. All of those, of course, have their place in their sphere, but Paul in the Greek cuts right to the heart of the matter. Alexandra Sossin wrote, some of you may know in the Gulag Archipelago that the dividing wall in the world, the dividing line cuts not through politics or classes, economics or culture.

It cuts right down through the human heart because the heart of our problem, the heart of the matter is the heart. And in Greek altos, Gar is the way that this sentence begins in verse 14. Usually sentences when they transition for or because Gar here or Paul puts altos in the front as if to say himself for Jesus himself to emphasize it.

He is our peace, Paul and Alexander. So. Knew that it is not an ideology. It is not a culture. It is not merely something that you learn. It is a person, the one and only who can bring peace. Jesus himself is the embodiment of peace. I wonder if you know him

now. I know you know about him.

I want you to think about Jesus's own life. Think about his own behavior. Think about how Jesus was able to bring this disparate groups together in a way unlike any other ideology or political person could in history. Any other moral teacher, Jesus was the one who was able to bring these deeply competitive fishermen together.

Jesus was the one who created harmony between the tax collector and the zealot who are political enemies, and he brought them both to his table. Jesus was the one who restored, sinner and Pharisee alike, knowing that they both needed the grace of God, the sinner, because he was aware of his sin and the Pharisee because he kept thinking he could earn it, and Jesus brought them both to the beauty of the cross.

He tore down the barriers. Now, as I mentioned earlier to the kids, there was a physical wall in Jerusalem at the temple, and it was about five feet high, and there was an inscription on it and it said, no foreigner may enter within the barrier surrounding the temple. Anyone who is caught, who is not a Jew will have himself to blame for his ensuing death.

Now, most of you probably aren't used to not being able to go wherever you want. But I want you to imagine not being able to go there all of your life. Jews longing looking in one. Peter has this throwaway line, it seems in his. Epistle where it says the angels crane their necks. They long to look at the way the gospel is at work in you and gentiles for generations could not enter the temple.

Why? Because God called Israel to be a holy people set apart, and he gave them laws and he gave them culture. He gave them a tradition so that they might walk in his holiness. They were called the ceremonial laws of ancient Israel. There was a dividing wall between Jew and Gentile, and the hostility was deep.

The Jews saw gentiles as unclean outsiders, and the Gentiles saw the Jews as arrogant and exclusive, and the wall in the temple was a physical reminder of their difference. And Jesus, it says he tore down that wall. Any of you remember, uh, you remember Reagan when he told Mikhail Gorbachev, Mr. Gorbachev, what did he say?

Yes, tear down this wall. One of the great speeches of our day, Jesus himself didn't just say it, he accomplished it. Now, if Jesus tore down the walls that divide us so that we all find ourself on level, ground before the cross, why o trinity do you resurrect those walls? Think about it, what is it that divides you from others?

Race, education, membership into a club and is the them in your life? And how do you, how do you define yourself by the us? Isn't it interesting that even if we know in Christ that the dividing wall of hostility has come down, that we were made right with the Father in heaven, through the work of Jesus, by the power of His Holy Spirit?

Oh, it is so easy for us to still build up walls. Oh, Trinity, what an opportunity we have. As a member of the church to be able to be those who, no matter what your political sensibilities are, you say we are centered on the heart of the heart of the heart of the gospel. What is it that chiefly defines me?

It is not Republican or Democrat. It is not homeschool private school, public school. It is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what that does in you? It makes you radically loving. And I just wanna say to you in so many ways, thank you.

Like you're doing awesome. Somebody came to our church and they sat in the pews for several months and they kept trying to figure out, okay, what is, what is their, what are their politics and what is their, uh, education sensibilities? Are they public school, private school, homeschool? And they couldn't figure it out.

And that was when they knew, ah, this is the church I wanna belong to. And it's not because those things aren't important. Issues are important, and we talk about them biblically, but the chief thing that defines us, because the divided wall of hostility has come down is the finished work of Christ. And notice how it comes down.

It says it comes down in his flesh. What does that mean? It means that Jesus took the, the thems. He took the hostility that you proclaim toward others. He took it upon himself at the cross. Do you know that kind of love? Think about the way that Jesus, knowing all of the anxiety in your heart right now about your future, about what this week may hold.

The Lord Jesus knows you so well that when he went to the cross, he knew your anxiety and he was able, without being anxious for the joy set before him, he endured the cross so that he might break down the hostility in his flesh, wander of wonders, and he did it for you. Or think about the bitterness that we may have in our heart.

Think about how Jesus absorbed our bitterness in his perfect life and his sacrificial death for us. Think about knowing the betrayal of Judas for what was the equivalent today of only several hundred dollars. He was betrayed by his friend and knowing that Judas was going to betray him in the minutes ahead, Jesus washed Judas feet and he absorbed that bitterness.

And do you know what that does for you friends? It allows you not only to believe that Jesus is our peace, but it allows you to actually live in it. It allows you to reconcile with those that have harmed you or that you have harmed without fear because your savior is cheering you on and died for you and loves you.

It allows you to have hard conversations. It allows you not to love conflict, but not to be fearful of it, to have a beautiful. A Christ-centered perspective of how to go into conflict when necessary to help shape relationships by the gospel. It allows you to be the one oh husband in the relationship to your wife to be the first to confess, not wait for her.

You lead your family by being the lead repenter and your family. And demonstrating what it looks like for your children to see someone who is broken by the gospel. Listen, one of my friends who is living in his twenties, in the midst of all of his friends deconstructing, I said, why is it that you're still a believer?

And he said, because I saw my dad repent to my mother. And I said, surely this good news is truly good, because I saw the way their marriage worked and dad always was quick and mom followed. To repent to the other one and ask forgiveness first, Jesus himself is our peace of verse 14. Secondly, he abolishes the law's barrier.

If you ask your neighbors, what is Christianity all about, most people would say it's about being a good, moral, upright person. It's about following rules. It's maybe some people scarred by the church might say, well, it's full of hypocrites and I really don't think that there's much difference. But here Jesus says that you are made a new pilot project, a new humanity.

John Stock calls you a pilot project, a counter-cultural community for the common good. C. S Lewis says The gospel is not making good people better. The gospel is about making people new creatures. And I wonder if you have ever placed your faith in Christ and been made new? Oh, the freedom he offers to you.

To be unburdened by your sin and shame and guilt, and be welcomed into his arms because he has taken your hostility to the cross and he has gladly laid down his life because he knew and loved you. Do you believe it? In Christ, Paul says, God created one new humanity. The wall here that Paul references is undoubtedly an allusion to the temple wall, but most theologians and biblical scholars believe that what Paul is talking about, this dividing wall of hostility.

And if any of you ever go to seminary or or in seminary, this will probably be the passage that your New Testament professor will ask you to write a paper on to figure out what is the dividing wall of hostility that he's talking about. Is it the literal wall in the temple? Is it the law somehow? Is it the cultural differences between Christians and the rest of the world and what most New Testament scholars, here you go.

Here's the cliff notes for you seminarians. What most New Testament scholars will say is that undoubtedly Paul is talking about the ceremonial aspects of the law. That was the dividing wall of hostility because the Jews and Gentiles shared separate diets. They shared separate clothing. They shared separate practices in life.

And Jesus says, I'm not asking you Jews to become Gentiles. I'm not asking you Gentiles to become Jewish. I'm asking you to become something new, namely the church. So that you can keep all your cultural uniqueness, that's beautiful and that's okay, but your primary identity now is centered on the cross of Christ because at the ground of the cross, things are level.

Jesus abolished the laws barrier and it radically transforms the way that you live and you think, and so the question is, are you living as a new creation? Or are you still clinging to the old divisions to justify yourself? Friends, there's a watching world out there. As a pastor, sometimes I have opportunities to hear people's candid remarks that they might hide from you, and they look at the church and they just don't see much difference.

But don't you know that the solution to so many of our problems, of course, all of them are found in the gospel and others of them socially. Our mental health is learning how to become friends again, learning how to be a community again, learning how to have civil discourse. Again, even if you disagree with one another.

How to disagree amicably and with wisdom, and that's what we're invited to be able to do. We're not asking you the elders of this church to agree with everything about everything, but we are asking you to say that my chief identity is the centered. It is centered on the gospel. It is the finished work of Christ.

Why? Because Paul tells us in Ephesians two, that Christ in his flesh broke down the dividing wall of his hostility by abolishing the laws of commandments expressed in the ordinances. That's the reference to this ceremonial law. So Christ himself is our peace. Secondly, he has abolished the law's barrier.

Are you with me so far? Thirdly. The cross is the means of reconciliation. Look at verse 16, and he might reconcile us both to God and one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. Division, of course, isn't anything new. It had, it's been in our world, fallen world since Cain and Abel in the ancient world.

It was deeply divided. Jew and Gentile and Paul taught the Ephesians that Jesus reconciled them both in one body through the cross. The means of our unity is not our shared political identity or educational template or cultural views or race. It is through the. Cross in this room, there is a vine that goes all the way around on top of the wainscot, and you can look, and every one of these vines is a picture.

It's a picture of us being grafted in one body. These rude screens, ROOD are pushed back against the windows in the medieval church. They separated the clergy from the laity, but now as Protestants, we've pushed them back so that we all worship in the same space. In the presence of God, there is no difference in holiness between the clergy and the laity, the pastors and the people.

We are all sinners who've been made saints through faith in Christ before our triune God and therefore. We encourage, strengthen, exhort each other in the faith. We read God's word and we study it, and we want to know what he says because it is a love letter given to you. Christ himself is our peace that changes your behavior because he has done everything for us to earn our salvation.

He earned it and we get to rest in his righteousness. And he brought down the dividing wall of hostility, and now it says verse 16, that he might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, killing the hostility. O Trinity, would you ask the Holy Spirit to give you awareness of the blind spots where you might be dividing the body in ways that you might not con be conscious of the way that you look down your nose at people.

Baptists Lutherans. So mother calling card that you might hold up and you might say, no. I am known not even for being a member of this church, I'm known because of my trust in Christ's finished work. 'cause the world thinks the divisions we create are so silly, frankly. And they become so important to you.

Those of you who are new, and those of you who've been coming for a long time, let me just as a pastor, say something to you. Trinity is a gift to learn how to deepen friendships, learn how to teach your children how to talk and love others. You may not hang out with people in this room throughout the course of the week, but on Sundays.

You get to meet people from all walks of life who are centered on one thing that is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The heart of the matter is the heart In this room is a snapshot of what the healing balm to the nations ought to be. It ought to be the church walking forth in faith and repentance to love our neighbor, and lied to the one who truly loved us enough to give his life for us.

Amen. He himself is our peace. He has brought down the dividing wall of hostility. He reconciles us. He's the means of a reconciliation through the cross. Verse 16 and verse 17 and 18. The gospel is for everyone, everyone in this room, and it is to be preached to everyone outside these walls.

Paul quotes Isaiah 57, verse 19, when he emphasizes that. The gospel is preached to those who are far off. Those are the Gentiles and those who are near, those are the Jews, because both groups desperately need Jesus. You show me somebody who's been a Christian for a long, long time, and I'll assure you somebody who knows today, they need the grace of God more now than when they first believed.

Why? Because the older and older you get, the more you see the depth of your sin, and then the more you see the depth of your sin, the more that you need the heights of beauty of his grace. I. And he offers it to you, and that's the disposition we have when we come to the Lord's table. Nothing in our hands, we bring simply to the cross.

We clinging at the foot of the cross. The ground is level. In Dallas, there is a federal judge. And a church where Lord and I were married and he was serving communion one Sunday. And as the people came forward, his eyes locked on someone and their eyes locked on him, and as he said, this is the body of Christ given for you, and this is the blood of Christ shed for you.

He recognized the man was a convicted felon he had seen in his courtroom earlier that month. It was an awkward exchange. People noticed that. They obviously looked surprised to see each other in church at the Lord's table. And after the service, somebody asked the judge about him serving this man and the judge without a moment's hesitation said, isn't it amazing that the Lord would make me worthy of serving him because he understands grace in a way that I am still longing to know the dividing of all of hostility has come down.

And the ground is level at the foot of the cross because Jesus has abolished the hostility through his flesh, namely on the cross of Christ. I wonder if you are able to be a peacemaker this week and not a peace manipulator or peace faker, but you are able to be a true peace maker. I wonder if there's somebody in this room or in this church or somebody perhaps, that you need to move toward reconciliation with.

And in lie to the power of the cross, you do have the courage now and the strength to have hard conversations. And so would you be sensitive to the Holy Spirit that you might do that? And maybe that person is the very person that you invite to come to Trinity next week? Oh, how the Holy Spirit is at work in our hearts.

Let us. With wild abandonment come to the table and faith and repentance. Knowing that he has made us not separated by football teams, not separated by culture, not separated by membership or club, he has made us one new body because he's killed the hostility through the cross, and now he asks us to go be his pilot project in the world.

O Ephesians, O Trinity. Might we become living examples of Christ's peace in the world empowered by the prince of peace who gave his life for you? Let's pray. Fathers who come to this table, we do pray that you would strengthen, encourage, embolden us to see how Jesus fulfilled the law in every way and make sinners like me and like each of us worthy.

Given a righteousness that we did not earn. And as we come to this to your table this morning, at your invitation, we pray that we would come in faith and repentance, and as we give of our tithes and offerings, we pray, Lord, that you would help us, those of us who have been blessed with much or little, might be able to give outta the overflowing gratitude of what you have done in our hearts.

And we pray all these things in Jesus name. Amen. 

Sermon transcript is computer generated.