Bringing Down Walls Ephesians 2:11-22

The notes below are from a sermon I preached on Ephesians 2:11-22. Some of them are incomplete, but I hope that they are a blessing nonetheless. I preached this about 8 months ago. 

Intro—Walls take all kinds of forms. They can be tall, they can be short, they can be wide, they can be narrow, they can even span miles. Just think of some famous walls: Berlin Wall (built in the 60s, came down later 1989-90), Great Wall of China (parts are over 2000 years old, 13,000 miles long), Wall of separation between church and state, border wall, the Wall of the Jewish Temple, etc.

What is the purpose of a wall? It could be many things: Protection, enclosure, imprisonment, keeping others out, etc. Robert Frost—“Mending Wall”—“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” “Good fences make good neighors.”

One purpose for a wall is separation—a completion of a barrier keeping two groups apart. Our passage today deals with walls, and even though part of the focus is on a spiritual kind of wall, physical walls play a role. Look at Paul’s words in Ephesians 2:11-22.

When the walls come down, God’s temple can go up.

Point 1 Walls Cause Division: The Wall of Hostility (2:11-16)

Paul starts by distinguishing between Jews and Gentiles. It was an age old prejudice. The people of God vs. the others. God’s chosen vs. the excluded. Clean vs. unclean. There is no secret that in Paul’s day Jews and gentiles didn’t get along. Note how Paul describes the Gentiles here (2:11-12): uncircumcised, outside of Messiah (and the messianic promises), excluded from Israel, strangers/aliens to the covenants and promises (i.e., outside of Jewish world), and without hope and without God in the world. This is at least how some of the Jewish people understood gentiles. 

Look at the Temple: Holy of Holies, Holy Place, Court of the Jews, and Court of the Gentiles (where Jesus chases out the moneychangers). On the wall between the court of the Gentiles and the court of the Jews was a sign warning anyone who was not a Jew that they could die (perhaps by God’s hand) if they entered the court unworthily. These walls created division, they separated people, perhaps they even caused prejudice.

What walls separate us today? Walls of race, economics/income, politics, personal issues. Sometimes we build walls in an effort to “protect” ourselves, but we often end up in isolation. Sometimes we build walls by our selfish endeavors, we have a kingdom to protect so we build walls to keep the undesirable or competitor out.

How do we build those walls? We build them by excluding anyone we consider the “other”, the “gentile”, the “unclean”. Disagreement on protocol, disagreement on decisions, even the willingness and desire to focus on the past (how we used to do it) instead of listening to God about our future.

Walls separate—walls that may be a result of some form of hostility.

We disagree, so we build walls. We don’t want to mix with “those kind of people”, so we build walls. We think we know better than others, so we build walls. Soon we find ourselves walled in like a monastery. We are no longer in community, but we find ourselves isolated. Walls can isolate, and that isolation can cause division and hostility.

Don Harbuck once said that all these walls are really just one wall. “The wall is everywhere. All of us know about it. No age or age group has gone unshaped by its pernicious power. Its menacing power moves the length and breadth of human existence. What wall is it? Paul calls it the dividing wall of hostility. It is the wall that separates and fragments and isolates. It is the wall that keeps people apart. It makes them suspicious and distrustful of each other. It kills fellowship and breeds prejudice and spreads gossip and sets loose the dogs of war. It takes many forms but it always remains the same wall wherever we encounter it.”

Remember, when the walls come down, God’s Temple can go up.

My favorite words in this passage are in verse 13: “But now in Messiah Jesus”—here we have God’s great wrecking ball by which he brings down the walls of hostility that divide us.  Those who are far away—the people who did not know God, who were not part of God’s people, the unclean. Those who are near—those who think of themselves as “clean” or “in”.

In verses 14-16, Paul reminds us that God uses the blood of Jesus to bring together both groups of people. Think of the sacrificial system of Israel—without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. Consider the separation the wall of sin creates. The sacrificial system provided a temporary patch to deal with the separation of sin. Jesus’ “once for all” sacrifice deals with it permanently. The wall of hostility has come down because of Jesus’ death. But it wasn’t just the demolition of a wall that was God’s goal, he also intended to take two disparate and even warring groups and make one new person out of them. When the walls come down, God’s temple can go up!

Note the corporate nature of this event. God isn’t simply saving individual souls to make them “clean,” God is reconciling groups to make ONE NEW PERSON out of them all. As Paul will go on in chapters 3 and 4 to discuss, the goal here is the building up of the body of Christ. The body of Christ, the bride of Christ, the people of God is indeed composed of individuals, but it is supposed to be a company of “peace”. The body of Christ is a corporate thing, not an isolated individual thing. To bring about peace (i.e. "shalom") requires at least two people, it requires a community.

Shalom—a sense of wholeness—humans cannot have that in isolation, but only in community! Jesus becomes the means by which the walls come down, the person whose sacrifice produces reconciliation, and the one who brings peace. It is non-negotiable, there is no other way.  The reconciliation of verse 16 is brought about by the death of hostility. The walls MUST come down or God’s temple will not go up. God will not build on YOUR personal favorite foundation. He will only build on the foundation of the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. Jesus' death on the cross is the means by which hostility is defeated, the walls are torn down, and God’s temple is built. You cannot have it any other way.

Tozer says: "God never negotiates with men. Jesus Christ's death on the Cross put an end to any kind of negotiations. It is now Christ or nothing. It is God's Word or its entirety or nothing."  

What walls do we need to tear down (or better, where does Jesus need to come and tear down our walls by his sacrificial life and death)? Where do we need hostility to cease? Where do we need to repent and turn to the wrecking ball and architect of God (remember, Jesus’ earthly adopted father Joseph was a builder, and Jesus’ heavenly Father is a Creator)?

Jesus brings the walls down, but he is also the cornerstone on which the new Temple is built. When walls come down, God’s Temple can go up!

Point 2 God’s Foundation brings Unity: The Temple of God (2:17-22)

Two “peoples” of God: One made up of human ancestry (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc.) the other created by the Holy Spirit. Both came into existence by God’s grace and promises. Circumcision of flesh vs circumcision of heart. One is a physical wall/demarcation, the other is spiritual. It is a matter of the heart.

There are two Temples in our passage: One made with human hands, one made by God; one that was stable, immovable, and had walls to separate people, one that is dynamic, active, and without walls—both commanded by God and by his promises. The Temple God desires is NOT a building or a specific group, it is a living, breathing, “going” entity/congregation that does not sit idle or look to the past. Look at Isaiah 66—where will God dwell? 

Paul tells us that God will dwell in a people who are built up on Jesus and without walls. You’ve heard of “Doctors without borders”, think of this as “God’s people without walls” or “The church without boundaries” or something similar.

2:17-18: Jesus proclaims shalom to ALL—those who are in and those who are not. There is no privileged position, since ALL need to hear the good news of Shalom from Jesus. Paul returns to “we” language in verse 18 and reminds us that WE ALL have access to God’s reconciliation, to God himself, as a result of what Jesus has accomplished. We can’t be the people we are called to be unless we come to the wall wrecker and temple builder—Jesus the Messiah. Outside of him there is no peace, no people, and no reconciliation. Paul reminds us that Jesus is the ONLY way to be a part of God’s temple. He tears down our walls and then builds us up. When the walls come down, God’s temple can go up!

2:19-20: When Jesus tears down our walls of hostility, he brings us into a family. We are not saved as lone ranger Christians to “go it” on our own. We are born into a community of people who allow Jesus to destroy their walls while relying on him to also build them up! Through Jesus, and him alone, we become God’s household built on God’s foundation and cornerstone. We cannot get there without help. Our walls hinder us, and we need Jesus to make us a “new creation”.

2:21-22: God’s Temple—built on Jesus, built for Jesus, full of God’s Spirit. You cannot claim to have God’s Spirit if you also build a wall between yourself and others.

Galatians 3:28: There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

When the walls come down, God’s Temple can go up.

God will not build his church with our walls, with our selfish plans, with our prejudices, with our hostilities. He will build it on selfless sacrifice. He will build it by tearing down walls of hostility and building on the death and resurrection of Jesus. If we do not have the right foundation, we will find our work failing.

When the walls come down, God’s temple can go up.

Conclusion:

So, how do we respond?

First—what walls of hostility do you have between you and God? Have you come to know his grace and mercy through Jesus? Are you angry at God for not doing things the way you want him to? Are you living in a past tense view of ministry and longing for the old ways when God has called you to move forward? His people, his body, his temple is not stationary, it is on the move! Ask Jesus to deal with your walls today. Repent of building your own temple and ask God to show you how to move forward. Call on him, he will respond.

Second—what walls of hostility do we have with others? We need to tear those down. We need to humble ourselves and serve others EVEN if they do NOT deserve it (as Jesus did in Phil 2). 

Third—a church cannot move forward if it is content to sit still and build its own little kingdoms and walls. Jesus said to seek God’s kingdom first, not our own isolated realms. What do we need to leave behind today to move forward with Jesus. What grudges are we holding, what walls are we building, where do we need to repent.

Finally—where do you need God’s Shalom? Where is reconciliation and a sense of well-being needed in your life today? Come to the wall wrecker and temple builder and let him deal with it. Ask him to destroy what is keeping you from reconciliation, and ask him to establish what will lead to Shalom.

Thank your for reading!