Preached in Markham Baptist Church, October 9, 2005

BECOME WHAT YOU ARE! PART 4: AN APPOINTMENT WITH GOD

You know the route we have taken these last number of weeks in our study of the New Testament book of Ephesians. Our theme is taken from Chapter 4:1 which exhorts us to become what we are. And we are discovering in the study of the first three chapters what we are. We are saints, living in this world with citizenship in the kingdom of God. We are rich! We have been given everything we need to live the Christian life. We are a people with hope, of immense worth because we are God’s inheritance, with wonderful power available to us all.

We concluded our study last week thinking not only who we are, but who Christ is. God has placed Him above all rule and authority, power and dominion and every title now and for ever (Ephesians 1:20-21) And at verse 22 we read that God has placed all things under His feet, that is, He is the king of kings, and has appointed Him to be head over everything for the church.

And the church? Well, says Paul, the church is Christ’s body – it is the fullness of Him. That is, it is through the church that Christ acts - it is His hands, His feet, His ears and eyes and mouth. It is the fullness of Him and through it He fills everything with His presence. Through it He fills everything in every way, Through the church He permeates the world with His presence.

So that is Jesus Christ. What a great, grand vision of Jesus Christ. There are so many people in the world who want to pull Christ down. They lift Mohammed and Buddha up and say people can come to God just as well as they can through Christ. Hogwash. They pull Christ down to the level of other gods. O that we would have a vision of Christ who is above all rule and authority, power and dominion and every title. Or some say He is simply a good man, a fine teacher, a bit deluded about His relationship with God, calling Himself God the Shepherd, equating Himself with the very titles of God, the great I Am. God the light, God the giver of bread, God the way, God the life. God. And the same people wonder why the church is so ineffective, so slow in moving forward. Could it be that our view of Christ is earthbound, so mundane-thinking that we serve a carpenter when in fact we serve the King who is far above all rule and authority, power and dominion and every title that can be given not only in the present age but also in the one to come?

What a magnificent vision of Christ, head of the church - His body! Don’t miss that. You - the church – you are the body of the King of kings. If that doesn’t astound you and give you courage to live this Christian life, well, I don’t know what will. The church isn’t some lowly institution - it isn’t this weak, ineffective, slow-moving, plodding organization – it is the body of Christ. O the magnificence of it – that He would choose to work through the church and choose to fill this world with His presence through the church.

Become what you are. And as we move to chapter 2, Paul says – As for you. He has given us this glorious description of Christ, and as a sidebar, a description of the church and now he says, “As for you.” And in verses 1 through 10 he tells us our past, present and future.

Henry Ironside tells of a time when he met a fortune teller on a train. She promised to tell him his past present and future for a small fee. He appreciated the offer but said, “I know my past, present and future,” and pulling out his Bible, he said, “it’s all written here in this book.”

“You have it written in a book?” she said.

“Yes, it is infallible. Let me read it to you.”

Here is my past, “you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest we were objects of wrath.”

The fortune teller wanted to get away at this point, “I have sat beside the wrong man,” she said. And moved to leave.

But he said, “But there’s more. You must hear about my present.” And he read, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.”

And she interrupted, “That’s enough. I don’t want to hear any more.”

“But you must – for there is not only my past, and my present there is also my future: ‘in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.’ ”

The old fortune teller was on her feet down the aisle of the train car, saying, “I sat beside the wrong man! I sat beside the wrong man!”

So there you have it, very quickly verses 1-7, our past, present and future. And all of it is God’s doing. We read in verse 10 that we are God’s workmanship. He chose us, created us, redeemed us all for good works – to fill this world with His presence. This was God’s plan.

And just when you think there is nothing more that God could possibly give us, just when you think we have learned all we need to learn about who we are in Christ, Paul continues in verse 11 through 22, and says there’s more.

Long before documentary filmmaker Michael Moore made the Oscar winning film, Bowling for Columbine, long before he made his commercially successful Fahrenheit 9/11 he made a very poignant and funny film entitled “Roger and Me.”

Roger and Me documents Michael Moore’s year long quest to bring the then chairman of General Motors, Roger Smith to Flint Michigan, the birth place of the motor car. Now this was not some whim on Michael Moore’s part. You see early in 1988, Roger Smith decided to close all the GM car plants in Flint Michigan. 11 factories in all, laying off 30,000 people. For GM the move was beneficial. After closing 11 factories in Flint they would open 11 factories in Mexico, pay the workers 7 cents an hour and then use the money they’d saved to take over other companies. It was a great business move for GM.

But it was horrendous for the people of Flint. The effects on the city were devastating, the crime rate skyrocketed, the downtown core became a ghost town, welfare jumped to an all time high, and homes were boarded up and abandoned.

So Michael Moore wanted to bring Roger Smith to Flint to show him first hand the pain and the devastation his decision was bringing on so many people. He tried for a whole year to get an appointment with Roger Smith.

He visits Mr. Smith’s office but is turned away at the lobby. He writes to Mr. Smith personally but gets no response. He phones Mr. Smith but is put on hold. He even visits Mr. Smith’s mahogany paneled health club but is politely and quickly ushered out.

He is allowed to speak to P.R. men, secretaries, and security guards but is never allowed to speak to Roger Smith the chairman of GM.

Until finally it looks as if Moore might get his chance when he pretends to be a G.M. stockholder and is admitted to the annual shareholders meeting. Roger Smith is chairing the meeting. We see shareholder after shareholder stand up at a microphone and air their grievances, ask their questions. Finally it is Michael’s turn. He steps up to the mike, states his name, but he is interrupted by Roger Smith who moves for adjournment of the meeting. Everyone then gets up and leaves Michael standing all alone at the microphone.

I won’t tell you the ending, only this - he never gets an appointment to see the chairman of one of the world’s richest, most powerful companies.

This morning you and I have an appointment with almighty God. Today we have an appointment with the Creator of the world, having more power, carrying more influence, exercising more authority than any chairperson or president of any company that ever was or ever will be. We are granted access to God.

To be sure it wasn’t always this way. At one time, says the Holy Spirit in our text, at verse 11, we Gentiles (that is all those outside of Israel) were considered to be far from God.

We were not citizens of Israel (verse 12). Because of our birth line we were excluded from being a part of that nation (verse 11 and 12). Because we were not citizens we did not have the covenant promises (verse 12). There were some great promises made about the Gentiles but they were never made to the Gentiles. And since we did not have the covenant promises we did not have the sign of the covenant, which is circumcision (verse 11). It was an outward sign demonstrating a spiritual reality that the Israelites belonged to God.

So that when Christ came into the world and the gospel first began to be preached it could be said that we “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.” (verse 12)

Israel had a very definite hope, they had the promises of God, and the word of God. The Gentiles had no such hope.

Our separation from God is illustrated by the structure of the Jewish temple at Jerusalem. It was a magnificent structure and consisted of a series of courts. The further into the temple you went the closer to God you were, until finally you entered into the Holy of Holies, the place where God was thought to dwell, and the place that only the High Priest could enter. And if there was one place that was far from God, it was the court of the Gentiles. That was as far as they dared go, as there was a sign on the wall posted in both Greek and Latin warning Gentiles to keep out on peign of death. The Gentile - you and I - had no access to God.

But now, as we see in verse 13, Christ came and destroyed that dividing wall. But now, in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

This is the great news of our text - we have access to God! We are not kept out of the club! We are not prohibited from having an audience with the chairman of the world.

We do not need to phone ahead for an appointment, we may come any time – we have access through the death of Christ. We do not need to write for permission to visit. He accepts everyone who calls upon His name in faith. We do not need to pretend to be someone we are not, He is eager to see you just the way you are.

We do not need to coordinate our daytimers - He always has time for us. We do not need to be careful about what we say - he wants to hear our every prayer and is compassionate and slow to anger.

He will never put us on hold, He will never interrupt us, He will never send His secretary, bodyguard, personal representative to speak to you – you may talk directly to Him and He will talk directly to you.

We do not need to dress or act in a particular fashion, only believe in Jesus Christ His Son because it is through Him that we are granted access to God. This is the good news - we have free and unhindered access to the living God!

But not only this, but we belong to God’s family. At one time we were separate from God’s family, the Israelites, but now He has made the two – that is the Israelites, the people of God and the Gentiles one. He has made us one body.

How did He do this? Verse 15 and 16. “By abolishing in his flesh the law with it commandments and regulations.” Now notice that wording - it is important. God didn’t simply abolish the law. He didn’t say, “Oops, I made a mistake and I take the law back. I see now it was too hard for you to live up to and it was an impossible demand.”

No, that’s not what happened. Yes, the law is impossible to meet, it is impossible to live up to, and instead of abolishing its demands, God met the demands in Jesus Christ. We are able to be part of God’s family because Jesus abolished the law in His flesh; that is, He satisfied the commands and the regulations of the law. And now what separated us from the Israelites - the law, the covenants, the sign of the covenant - has all been dealt with in Christ.

And now what used to be two distinct peoples, the Gentiles and the Israelites, are now one. There is only one way to God and it is through faith in Christ and His sacrifice. And it is as the two peoples put their faith in Christ that the two are made one.

The text says at verse 15 we are one man. In verse 16 it says we are one body. We belong to one another, both reconciled to God through faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

This was important in Paul’s day because there were Jewish believers who were saying that the Gentiles had to be circumcised to be a Christian, and that’s not true. There is only one way to God and it is through faith in Christ. He is our peace – He is our peace with God and our peace with one another.

And it is important for us to understand in our day because it tells us that we belong. We are part of the family of God. Not only do we have access to God but we belong to God.

There are so many times when Satan will tell us that we don’t belong to God. We get to thinking that we don’t belong to God if we have committed this sin. We don’t belong to God if we act this way, we don’t belong to God if we think this way. We don’t belong to God if I don’t do this ritual. And God breaks through all that and says – you do belong. If you have faith in Jesus Christ. For it is through Him that we are brought near, it is through Him that we have peace with God and with others. We belong.

Now of course, if you have faith in Christ, you will repent of your sin and seek to live for Him. If you have given your life to Christ, you will not act in any old way - you will act in the Christ way. You will not think according to the world, but according to His Word. To be sure, having faith in Christ doesn’t give us license to believe any old thing or to act in any old way.

But when you fall and when you slip, please realize that if you have placed your faith in Christ, God in the flesh, dying for you and for me, you still belong to the family of God.

So at one time, says the text at verse 19, we were on the outside, foreigners, aliens – but now we are fellow citizens, members of God’s household.

O, my friends - truly God has richly blessed us. For this is not a poor, broken-down household – remember where we began this morning – it is the household of the King who is above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given.

That’s who you are – you belong to God’s household, and you have access to God! Praise be to God for He has truly blessed us with every spiritual blessing!