This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Misc. NT sermons” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, May 4, 1975.
About this sermon
God extends Paul’s inheritance by grace to Jew and Gentile alike, and pagan Ephesus mirrors Canaan’s Gentile past, the same corruption Romans 1 describes. The redemption of the exodus shows what that inheritance cost to secure. In Ephesians 2 Paul’s teaching on Jews and Gentiles together assumes that shared, costly inheritance.
Sermon transcript
Our scripture reading tonight is Ephesians chapter 2. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He hath loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not as the result of works that no one should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who were called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision which is performed in the flesh by human hands, Remember that you were at that time separated or separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world, that now in Christ Jesus you who were formerly far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. abolishing in his flesh the enmity which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that in himself he might 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 enmity. And he came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were for through him we both have our access and one spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saint and are of God’s household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing up into a holy temple in the Lord. in whom you also are being built together into a growing of God from the Spirit.
Let’s pray together. Father, it is the power of your word that confronts us with our own sin and need of forgiveness. It is your word, our God, as you by your Spirit convince us of our need of regeneration. And we call upon You for the quickening power of Your Word to work in our hearts, that we might be full of Your Spirit, that we might be born again, that we might be built up into this household of God that we read about in this passage. And we are asking, Lord, that we might not walk away from Your Word without becoming impressed with what is there for us. Burn it upon our minds, seal it to us in our hearts, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
Last week we were considering the book of Hebrews, and this week we are looking at the book of Ephesians, a letter that Paul writes to a Gentile church, a church which was located in a city in Asia Minor on the western shore, a city which was known for its paganism and its heathen worship. And we read in the book of Acts about the pagan practices of that city.
We read that there was a great temple to Diana. Diana was the goddess of love, and this wasn’t some sort of innocent Romantic cult that was going on. It was a religious practice that was full of every kind of debauchery. When we read about the pagan gods and goddesses of Greece and Rome, We shouldn’t be lulled into some sort of romantic ideology that we might gain from Homer, for instance. But we ought to see this as a spirit expressing itself religiously against everything that our God stands for.
Involved in this worship were cultic practices of temple prostitution, legal selling, buying of sex, of such a terrible character that even historians in writing about these practices are as bold as they might be in describing the practices that went on in these temples during these days. It was a great embarrassment, a great source of outrage. For instance, to Paul, as he went from city to city in the Roman Empire, and he confronted these practices and the immorality that was associated with idolatry.
You can get a pretty fair description of that in the first chapter of Romans. Anytime when you are tempted to become quite romantic about the gods and goddesses of the ancient world, Maybe to sober yourself up, you should read that first chapter of Romans and see just how offensive it was to God and his people.
Well, I guess what I’m trying to say to you is that I’m going to draw a parallel to what is happening here with Paul entering these cities, and what happened when the children of Israel entered the land of promise. there is a similarity. For you remember that when the children of Israel entered the land of promise, the inheritance that had been promised to their father Abraham, they were commanded by God to put to death all of these heathen nations of the Canaanites, and not to even spare the women and the children. It sounds pretty horrible.
But in those Old Testament times, we are getting a preview of the judgment of God in very vivid terms. The message of Paul is one which is completely controlled by grace. He is saying to us, in effect, that the wrath of God against the children of disobedience, whether they be Canaanites in the Old Testament or Romans in the New Testament, is being delayed. and it is the age of grace, in which God’s unmerited favor is being extended to all. That’s the structure of the book of Ephesians.
It’s a book written to Gentiles by a Jew, a Jew with a unique perspective on what is happening in his day. Notice how he begins the letter. If we look at chapter one, you can see how he starts out. He first of all identifies himself, as he does in all of his letters, being called the Apostle of Jesus Christ, not by the will of man, but by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus, who are the faithful in Jesus Christ. He greets them with grace and peace from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of all the kingdoms of the earth. And then he goes into this section, verses 3 through 13, where rather, verses 3 through 12, in which he is showing to these Gentiles the new dimensions, the new dimensions that the Messiah has brought for a Jew such as himself. Notice the language that he uses in this first part of the letter.
He talks about the blessing A blessing that would automatically turn our minds to the pages of the Old Testament in terms of that promise that was given to Abraham. The blessing that was to come according to the promises that were given to Abraham. But now we are seeing a new day, a new dimension. It’s as if the curtain has been drawn back and we’re seeing a whole new world, and that whole new world has been made possible through the Messiah, through Jesus. It’s a day of new blessings, of new blessings that are not isolated to a corner of the world, that don’t have simply in view some geographical location in a corner of the Mediterranean world. but rather these are blessings that are eternal in the heaven. For we are being blessed not with blessings that pertain to this earth, but we have now, in the Messiah, received blessings that pertain to eternity. These blessings are the blessings that God the Father has given to us in Christ Jesus, as He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing every blessing in the Holy Spirit, in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” he says in verse 3.
These are new dimensions for the Jews. Here is a Jew writing, and he’s talking in Jewish language. He’s talking in language that would make sense to a Jew. He’s talking about a new vocabulary for Jews, or the old vocabulary with new meaning. It’s a new world. with new meanings, with new vistas, with new horizons. He sees beyond the land of Palestine.
He sees Heaven, and the blessings that are eternal in Heaven. This is what was meant for the Jews in the Old Testament, but for the most part they couldn’t see it. But now Paul, in the fullness of time, a Jew reflecting on the work and ministry of Jesus Christ, sees it, and he declares it to these Gentiles. He is a Jew that has received these blessings that are eternal in the heaven. He is one who gains a new perspective on God’s choice, as he says in verse four, for God has chosen him before the foundation of the world, a Jew that he should be holy, blameless before him. He talks about God’s predestination.
He talks about being predestined as a son. for these sons are adopted now into the family of God.” Language that makes sense on the background of the Old Testament, language that was full of meaning for any Jew, because he recognized that the Jewish nation were the adopted sons of God. They were adopted in the Exodus. When the children of Israel came out of Egypt, they were adopted as the sons of God, crying out to their father for deliverance. But now they have been introduced into a new adoption, an adoption through Jesus Christ himself. And this is an adoption that issues in freedom, a new kind of freedom, a new kind of liberty for all the sons of God, as he says in verse 6.
He, as a Jew, reflects upon redemption. We know what redemption means. It means to buy back. The great act of redemption in the Old Testament is when God buys back his people from slavery. They were in bondage in Egypt. He redeems them. He redeems them with the blood of the lamb that is slain on the Passover Eve. He redeems them with a sacrificial system as the lambs and the goats are led to the slaughter for the sins of the people.
But now there has been a new redemption work for the people of God through the blood of And it is this redemption that brings forgiveness of sins according to the riches of God’s grace, which He has lavished upon all of the Jews who believe in Christ. But this is a new day of revelation as well. This is a new day of revelation. You remember the great revelation of the Old Testament was at Sinai.
There God descended upon the mountain, and the people were full of fear. They wouldn’t come up to the mountain because they were afraid. And God spoke, and the people said, we don’t want to hear the voice of the Lord, because we’ll die. Therefore, let him speak only to Moses, and Moses will tell us what God says, and then we will do it. But here is a day of new revelation, a day which is spoken of here in verse 9.
He made known to us the mystery of His will according to the kind intention which He purposed in Him. in view of an administration suitable for the fullness of time. Now God is not just calling unisolated people to Himself, mainly the Jews, but He is involved in summing up all things unto Himself, summing up all things in the Messiah, in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth.
And as there was an inheritance in the Old Testament, so there’s an inheritance now in the New Testament. In the inheritance that’s spoken of in verse 11, in Christ, in the Messiah, we now have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose, who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who are the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. All that Paul is saying there is that salvation is first extended, the inheritance is first extended to the Jews. and then to the Greek, to the Jew first, and then the Gentile. That’s the pattern of Paul’s missionary journeys. He goes to the Jew first, and then he comes to the Gentile.
But the salvation is meant for all, as in the Messiah. All things are being summed up, brought to their conclusion. Everything is being finalized in Him. Things in heaven, things in earth. This is the salutation of a Jewish Christian to Gentile Christians. And he’s talking in language that means so much to him.
Do you get a special feeling in yourself when you hear the word inheritance? Does it mean anything to you? Does it mean anything to you when you hear language about God’s choice, His election, His predestination? Does it mean anything when you hear language about redemption, forgiveness of sins through the blood of Christ? Does it mean anything to you when we talk about the full revelation of God, the full unveiling God that were held secret from the very foundation of the world.
These things meant something to a Jew, and they meant something to the Gentiles that Paul spoke to. And he is pressing these Gentiles that they might mean more and more and more to him. That’s why he goes on. In verse 13 he says, “…in this Messiah you Gentiles also, after listening to the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed in addition to us Jews, you were sealed in the Messiah with the Holy Spirit of promise.”
When you hear about the promise, does it mean anything to you? You talk to a Jew about the promise, and you watch his face. You talk to a Jew about the inheritance, and you watch his face. I had the privilege one time to sit in the company of a Jewish Christian and to hear him talk about the inheritance. It was like a whole new world. It doesn’t mean to us what it means to them. That’s their life. And Paul is shaping these Gentiles, and he’s telling them that everything that that promise of the Americans means to him, it can mean to them. Everything.
We, Gentiles, in addition to the Jews, have been sealed in the Messiah with the Holy Spirit of Christ. The promise that was promised to the Jews has now been extended to the Gentiles. And the Gentiles have been given a pledge of the inheritance with the Jew, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession through the praise of His glory, because God not only owns one nation of the world, He owns all the earth. The whole earth is the Lord’s and the fullest thereof, the world and they that dwell therein.
Everything belongs to God, and His program of redemption, that has begun with Abraham, in the blessings of the covenant, in all of the language that meant so much to Abraham, and every Jew, is now being extended to all the nations. This is how your Bible begins to become meaningful to you. When you start draining these words of their meaning, and you get emotionally involved in them, the inheritance, The promise is mine. I am God’s possession, and He is reclaiming me by redemption, through the blood of the Messiah, through whom He is bringing all things together, things in heaven and things on earth. All things are His.
Well, this is a salutation from a Jewish Christian to some Gentiles. And he speaks in Jewish language. Language that means a great deal to a Jew. But he wants so much for this language to mean just as much to his Gentile ears. So notice what he does. Notice what he does in verse 15.
He starts to speak about praying for them. For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers.” And what does he pray? He tells you that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.” Why, that’s just what he talked about up there as being the special possession of the Jew. Notice what he said there? Notice what he talked about in verse 8 at the end? “…in all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will.”
And now he is praying for these Gentiles that they, too, might have the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and of knowledge, the knowledge of God. And I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of your calling. What is the hope of your calling? What are the riches of the glory of His impertinence in the saints?” He’s praying that the Gentiles might begin to think along Jewish lines. That you, that they, might understand their Old Testaments when they read them, and that those Old Testaments might have meaning for them.
The inheritance doesn’t belong just to the Jew, The inheritance belongs to all who believe, and that’s exactly what he goes on to say. And what is the surpassing greatness of his power to us who believe, to all of us who believe, whether you are a Jew or a Gentile? These are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might, which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places. above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And He has put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave this Christ, this Messiah, as head over all things, to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all things.” his promised land, when the Jews entered into that land under the leadership of Joshua.
But now we have a greater Joshua, we have Jesus, and this Jesus has done battle with all the forces that live and dwell in the spiritual realm of our inheritance, and he has conquered them. And we need not fear anything, because Christ is the victor, and as we enter in upon the train of this Joshua, This new Savior, we are given our lot, our inheritance, among the saints. The lines are fallen unto us in pleasant places. The boundaries of our inheritance are sweet. And this is the fullness that each one of us desires for our lives. the fullness of the inheritance of God and the promises that he has made for us.
He goes on, and he, in chapter 2, delineates the fact that this is a Jew-Gentile thing. It ain’t for the Jews alone, and it ain’t for the Gentiles alone, it’s for both against. And it’s always by God’s grace. What is God’s grace? What is unmerited favor is undeserved of us. It is undeserved for the Jew, and it is undeserved for the Gentile. We all are saved through faith by grace, by God’s grace. It is a gift of God.
As much as that promise of the Spirit in which we have been sealed is our gift, as much as our inheritance is a gift, as much as the promised land in the Old Testament was a gift, so our salvation through faith is a gift. It’s not by words. lest when you reach the gate you can boast before God and claim by your own merits you are worthy to enter into that inheritance. You are not worthy to enter into that inheritance by your own merits, because as Paul says in verse 1 of chapter 2, you were all dead in your trespasses and in your sins. Every one of you.
But now, in Christ Jesus, we have been raised with Him, and we have been seated with Christ in the heavenly places. The heavenly places are our inheritance. That’s where we’re going, that’s our destination. He’s there already, and because He’s there, we are there in Him.
That’s what He has told us. that we have been raised up with Him,” in verse 6, and seated with Him in the heavenly places in our Messiah, in order that in the ages to come He might show forth the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness towards us in the Messiah, Jesus. For by grace, God’s unmerited favor, you have been saved, whether Jew or Gentile, through faith, and that not of yourself. It has always been, it still is, and it always will be a gift of God, not the result of your own works, lest any one of us should boast.” He goes on to say a few more things here in concluding this whole business.
He is trying to impress these Gentiles with the fact that they are now come into the fellowship of the redeemed. They have now come into the commonwealth of Israel whereby they were excluded before. They were strangers to the covenant of promise. In verse 12, they had no hope. They were without God in the world.
But now in Christ Jesus, they who were formerly far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. It is Christ who has made peace with Jew and Gentile. as if you have the Jews coming up to those heathen nations in the land of promise in ancient Palestine, and instead of doing battle this time with them, the walls of Jericho are torn down by Jesus Christ, and peace is established between those who are inside and those who are marching around the walls. And the Gentile unbeliever and the Jew share in the peace that Christ the Messiah has brought It’s a new day.
It’s a new day. And what is the work that we are all involved in now? It’s not a work at which we are driving out the Gentiles from the land of promise, you see, setting up our little politic practices in Jerusalem, building our tabernacles and our temples there. No! Now they’re being a temple built that is far superior to any of the temples of the Old Testament, even Solomon’s. And this is the temple that is made out of human beings, out of Jews and Gentiles alike, as he concludes this section and tells us that we, the Church of Jesus Christ, Jews and Gentiles, saved by grace, are a building which God is erecting as a dwelling for Himself in the Spirit. There is no difference now. between Jew and Gentile. God-free, barbaric Scythian, name-thief, but we are all one, and Christ who is all, if you know.
I don’t know whether you appreciate What this meant for a Jew who was schooled to hate the Gentiles all of his life until he met Jesus Christ. Who do you hate? Is it true that maybe in your heart you believe that there is no place for someone or some group in the Church of Jesus Christ. That is a lie. It’s not true.
For Christ the Messiah is summing up all things in heaven and in earth to the praise of the glory of the grace of God. Father in Heaven, we thank you for the grace that has been extended to certainly the Jew first, but also the Gentile. We rejoice, Father, that we have been included, and that the language that meant so much to Paul as an Old Testament Jew means so much to us now as New Testament believers, that he has been the vehicle of your revelation, whereby you are able now to make plain to us the height and depth and the riches of the inheritance that we have with the saints in glory. We are praying, Father, that we would rejoice in these things that He speaks so movingly about, and that we would embrace them to our hearts, and that we would look longingly to the fullness of the inheritance that has been promised to us and been guaranteed to us through the reception of the Spirit by grace.
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