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| Pastors Michael Catt (l) & Daniel Simmons |
Opening thought:
This
weekend the movie Courageous opened across the nation, a movie about men being
the husbands and fathers God has called them to be. I urge you to see the movie
which was was made by a Southern Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia, and pastored
by Michael Catt. As a young white minister, Michael Catt was fired from a
Mississippi church for quoting Martin Luther King, Jr. in the pulpit. He never
forgot it.
“Getting
fired … was really a pivotal, defining moment for me,” Michael Catt said.
Now
58, he’s the pastor of Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, GA, and among a few
churches taking steps to create – and maintain – the multi-ethnicity of Christ’s
body nearly a half a century after King’s death.
When
Catt became pastor of Sherwood Baptist in 1989, he noticed his predominantly
white congregation was a stark contrast to the small city of Albany, whose
population is about 65% black. He led the way in hiring its first black
associate pastor. A tragic flood in Albany in 1994 eroded racial barriers even
more and created a sense of unity that still exists today. Catt and his
congregation reached out to the predominantly black Mt. Zion Baptist Church,
which had been damaged by the flood.
There
Catt met Senior Pastor Daniel Simmons, who is black, and the two forged a
friendship and began swapping pulpits. Now, the two regularly preach at each
other’s churches, and their congregations come together for those occasions.
Catt,
Simmons and their mixed congregation are featured in the new movie Courageous, produced by
Sherwood Baptist, ranked #1 in per theater ticket sales its first weekend.
“We
learn from each other,” Simmons said of the two churches. “We mutually support
and encourage each other.”[1]
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| Pastor Fred Luter |
Contextual Notes:
Paul’s
letter to the Ephesians is an awesome study of the church of Jesus Christ. In
chapter 2 we see that God formed His church of flawed human beings, but He
formed it out of His great love for sinners of all kinds (Eph. 2:1-4). He takes
those who are dead in their sin and makes us alive in Christ, recreating us to
make us suitable for the good works He prepared in advance for us to do (Eph
2:5-10). That regenerating, recreating work closed the gap between Jews, who
enjoyed a covenant relationship with God, and the Gentiles, who were locked out
of that relationship (Eph 2:11-13). By bringing both Jew and Gentile to God
through the Cross, Jesus settled the long-standing hostility between the races,
removing its cause (Eph 2:14-18). As a result, Jew and Gentile are now “fellow
citizens” of God’s household and together parts of a holy temple that God’s
Spirit is building even today (Eph. 2:19-22).
Key Truth: Paul
wrote Ephesians 2:11-22 to teach believers that
believers are people of reconciliation through Christ’s blood, Christ’s peace,
and in Christ’s household.
Key Application: Today I
want to show you what God’s Word says about racism and reconciliation.
Key Verse: Ephesians 2:14
Pray and Read:
Ephesians 2:11-22
Sermon Points:
1. We
are all reconciled in Christ’s blood (Eph 2:11-13)
2. We
are all reconciled in Christ’s peace (Eph 2:14-18)
3. We
are all reconciled in Christ’s household (Eph 2:19-22)
Exposition: Note
well,
1.
WE ARE ALL RECONCILED IN CHRIST’S
BLOOD (Eph 2:11-13)
a.
Eph.
2:11-12 – The term Gentiles, in case you have always wondered what it meant, is
the word for all other people on the earth other than Jews. Jews made up about
10% of the population of the 1st Century Roman Empire. The Jews were
special because of their unique relationship with God, with covenant promises
that go back to Abraham and Moses. Those differences created a sense of
superiority and arrogance on the part of the Jews and hostility from the
Gentiles. Anti-Jewish riots even two centuries before Christ were known in many
cities in Asia and Europe.
b.
Most
of the believers in Ephesus were Gentiles, and Paul reminds them that the Jews
had dismissed them as the uncircumcised
while they had been proud to call themselves the circumcision. Circumcision of course was that ceremony that God had
commanded Abraham to perform on every male descendant to participate in the
chosen nation. The term uncircumcised
became an insult about those on the outside.
c.
ILLUSTRATION: While
most of the time we write off Southerners figuring they=ll never
get the race thing right, we must remember that racism isn=t just in
the South. When I was in graduate school in Southern California a few years
ago, I had a dear friend who had staged sit-ins at Kentucky lunch counters in
the 1960's. Often she confided to me in
her beautiful Black English: AGene,
honey, I sat in lunch counters in Kentucky in the sixties, but I never in my
life seen such racism as there is here in Los Angeles.@ She taught me that racism is not a Southern
problem; it is an American problem.
d.
Why is racism Satan=s
strategy? We find the answer in Mark
11:17: “My House will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” Remember
the Tower of Babel? The Missiological Plan of God was that the people he
created would multiply and fill the earth as distinct ethnolinguistic people groups
(Gen 1:22, 28; 9:1, 7), and then select one people, Israel, to be a kingdom of
priests with a Messiah to take the message of redemption to the entire earth. But
at the Tower of Babel the people disobeyed by gathering together (Gen 11) and
God scattered them, confusing their languages. Satan=s strategy has always
been the same: Stop the transference of the Gospel over cultural boundaries
through racial prejudice, hatred, and racism.
e.
APPLICATION: In
America, this strategy of the enemy played out in the antebellum period in a
simple racial pride. Those descended from Europeans honestly believed the lie
that they were superior in a number of ways to the other nations of the earth.
Thus, the enslavement of other Europeans, then Native Americans, and then later
Africans was not questioned except by those affected by the Second Great
Awakening (1802) and the Finney Revivals in the North which led to political
abolitionism. The fruit of those centuries of slavery led to the iniquities we
still endure among those groups including poverty, the breakdown of the family,
and the non-leadership of many men. The kind of racism we are familiar with
from the era of Jim Crow and segregation actually developed in the postbellum
period in a culture of Western Indian massacres and Reconstruction in the South
when white Northerners pitted White Southerners against Black Southerners for
their own political and economic gain. Those resentments from the War between
the States remain with us today.
2.
WE ARE ALL RECONCILED IN CHRIST’S
PEACE (Eph 2:14-18)
a.
In
bringing together Jews and Gentiles, Christ has reconciled them to each other,
and at the same time has reconciled both of them to the Lord (Eph 2:14). Jesus
has created a new peace, a new harmony, just as Isaiah prophesied the coming
Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6).
b.
The
dividing wall that separated Jews
and Gentiles was very real. It was the barrier that kept Gentiles from entering
the inner part of the Temple in Jerusalem (see Acts 21:28f. Archaeologists have
uncovered an inscribed sign from the Herodian Temple forbidding entry to the
Court of the Jews on pain of death). Jesus destroyed that barrier of access to
God on the cross. In Him there is no barrier or dividing wall between Jews or
Gentiles. In Him all human hostility and barriers are brought to peace. Jesus
Christ is the only one who has the cure for the evils of racism, tribalism, and
divided Christianity.
c.
Jesus
also abolished the cultural requirements of Jewish law, its commandments and
regulations, that had been a barrier to Gentiles becoming believers (Eph 2:15).
Jesus fulfilled the Mosaic law perfectly (Rom 8:4; Luke 2:1), establishing a
new covenant through his death on the cross (Hebrews 7-10).
d. One
New Man (Eph
2:15-16) – In Christ Jews and Gentiles are one. The atoning work of Christ on
the cross destroyed their enmity and brought reconciliation and peace. Jesus
put to death the basis of hostility between Jew and Gentile by providing equal
access to God through his sacrifice on the cross. The two are called not only
to live in peace, but to live as one. Paul masterfully brings together Isaiah
52:7 and Isa. 57:19 to show that all this was already planned. The veil has
been rent!
e. In fact, the word Paul uses here for
reconcile is the Greek word apokatallaso,
meaning a “complete change from enmity to friendship without any impediment”
(Eph. 2:16). This word is stronger than the ordinary one used in 2 Corinthians
5:16-21 or Romans 5:10-11 (katallage: “the changing of places, to come
over to the other side,” “to change from enmity to friendship”). That ordinary
word is also used in Colossians 1:20 where reconciliation involves bringing “all
things” under the authority of Christ, even principalities and powers.
f. Trinitarian
work: Note that all
three persons of the Trinity work together to reconcile Jews and Gentiles to
each other and the Lord: the atoning work of Christ made it possible. The Holy
Spirit gives access to the Father (Phil 2:18)
3.
WE ARE ALL RECONCILED IN CHRIST’S
HOUSEHOLD (Eph 2:19-22)
a.
This
house in which the far-away Gentiles have been brought near with now elder
brothers and sisters, is a temple of worship. It is built on a solid foundation
of the prophets who foretold the Messiah’s coming (the inerrant Old Testament
and the Bible the early church had), the apostles who proclaimed the gospel of
Christ (the inerrant New Testament in process) and founded churches, and Christ
who fulfilled the prophecies of the prophets and the worked redemption,
becoming the Chief Cornerstone. In ancient buildings the cornerstone was highly
prized because it tied the whole building together. Now that temple rises, a dwelling
place of God (Eph 2:22)
b.
Paul’s
call to them to seek oneness, peace, and unity is a call to us to seek the same
with our fellow-Christians whatever their race or background, that we might be
one temple displaying God’s holiness
c.
I want us to pay
attention here because there is something more here than assuaging racial guilt
or just getting along somehow in a multicultural world. Somehow in the
spiritual world, when reconciliation happens, something important occurs. Paul
said it is, indeed, a mystery: “This mystery is that through the gospel the
Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one
body, and sharers together in the promise of Jesus Christ” (Eph 3:6). Paul
saw it as his job to “make plain” this “mystery:” "I became a servant of
this gospel . . . to preach to the Gentiles . . . and to make plain to everyone
the administration of this mystery . . ." (Eph 3:8‑9). Paul describes the
purpose in Eph. 3:10-11 that “His intent was that now, through the church,
the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and
authorities in the heavenly realms.” Therefore, through a unified Body of
Christ (i.e., the church) God’s intent is to make known to the demonic
principalities the manifold wisdom (i.e., the mystery of reconciliation) of
God! Through a reconciled body! Through reconciliation! Therefore, the gospel
is preached through the Unity of the Body.
d.
This Unity in the Body, demonstrating Christ’s
Peace, is an answer to the Jesus’ intercession in the Garden of Gethsemane
before his Crucifixion: “May they be brought to complete unity to let
the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you loved me” (John
17:23). The demonstrated unity of the Body of Christ announces the violent
rushing in of God’s Kingdom into the spiritual kingdoms of this world. “From the
days of John the Baptizer until now, the kingdom of heaven has been
forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it” (Matt 11:12).
e.
This announcement in a city or region through
believers’ demonstration of reconciliation and demolition of racism erects a
new spiritual climate for a community. It opens the door for God’s work in a
new way. Paul had already seen the reality of reconciliation at work in Corinth
(Acts 18:9-11). His experience there teaches us that there is a connection
of some kind between the number of believers in a city in unity and the work of
the church. The exaltation of the higher authority of Christ through
reconciliation brings the demonic forces under subjection to the Lord Jesus
Christ in that area, city, or region. They
are forced to submit.
f.
Then through the Person and Work of Jesus Christ,
we can intercede boldy. “In him and through faith in him we may approach
God with freedom and confidence” (Eph 3:12) about our crime rate, our
conversion rate, our unemployment rate, our church growth rate, our suicide
rate, revival, and spiritual awakening. Paul exhorts that unity in the body is
a key to the church’s work: “Therefore, “make every effort to keep the unity
of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called
to one hope when you were called – one Lord, one faith, one
baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and
through all and in all” (Eph 4:3-4). Unity is, after all, a goal
of the church. “It was he who gave . . . apostles, . . . prophets, . . .
evangelists, . . . pastors, . . . and teachers, to prepare God’s people for
works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all
reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become
mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:11-13).
g.
APPLICATION:
One area where we need improvement is with Latinos. They are here among
us. Do we look down on them simply as wetbacks? Are we overlooking the labor
and sex trafficking they are enduring? Are we reaching them? Are we befriending
them? Are we learning from them?
Invitation:
[1] Lucas L. Johnson, “Churches work
toward integrating congregations,” Augusta
Chronicle, September 30, 2011, http://chronicle.augusta.com/life/your-faith/2011-09-30/churches-work-toward-integrating-congregations#.TocRkIJuET4.twitter
[2] Eric Eckholm, “Southern Baptists
approve steps aimed at diversity,” New
York Times, June 15, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/us/16baptist.html
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