Racial Reconciliation Ephesians 2:10-11

All right, Ephesians chapter two. As I was saying that we're gonna look at the red headed step child of Ephesians, and that's Ephesians chapter two, verses eleven. In following most people, if we all love Ephesians, amen, And we all love Ephesians chapter two up to verse ten, right, you say, Ephis chapter two. Everybody starts quoting. If we just started quoting and just you know, just just reciting it from memory, we'd be good all the way up to about verse ten. And then people are like, get there, wait, there's more. And the answer is abslutely, there's more in Ephesians chapter two. It's all good. Amen. Ef egire Chapter two is just good. But I mean in verse eleven it it just gets gooder. And that's not even a word, know. And so we are going to. Look at at at that part of the past part of the chapter that. But as we do, here's what I want us to understand that in the midst of all of this, in the midst of these discussions about social justice and race and sex and you know, all these other things, at the end of the day, the question is what does God say about us? Right? What does God say about us, and is what God says about us sufficient? And when we start talking about who we are in Christ, when we start talking about our unity in Christ, our brotherhood, and our relationships, do we believe that the Bible is sufficient in that regard? And one of the scariest things about all of this talk is that. We're beginning to see a new hermeneutic development where now sin is institutional as opposed to being in the heart of man. We're reading things differently here. And not only that, but we're starting to develop a new canon to where if you're not seeing things rightly on these issues, people are not saying you need to go to this text. They're saying you need to read Divided by Faith, you need to read Tanahaze coachs you need to read If you're not getting this, then here's a list of books that you need to read in order to then be able to read the scriptures rightly as it relates to our unity with one another in Christ. That is a problem because I believe that the Bible is absolutely sufficient, not just inerrant, but absolutely sufficient for all matters of faith and practice, and how we deal with one another across ethnicities is a matter of faith in practice. The Bible is sufficient for that. Again, I am not arguing that we shouldn't read other things. I've quoted other things of the course of this weekend. But the Bible is sufficient. Let me put an even finer point on it. I worry when we begin to hear people say things that would suggest that I've had the Bible all this time, and I've had relationships with brethren of different ethnicities all this time, but it wasn't until I read this book that I finally understood God's heart on this issue of justice as it relates to race and ethnicity. Mmm mm hmm. That no, no, and it's not even it's when I finally read this book, and this book was an exposition of that. No, when I read this sociology book. And so now we've got sociology overwriting and governing our theology. That's not okay. That is hugely problematic. Again, I'm not suggesting that we don't read sociology. One of my degrees is in sociology. We didn't have anyone to teach our sociology class for our undergraduates at ACU, and so for the last couple of years I've been teaching intro to sociology, by the way, and loving every minute of it, because it is an incredible tool in understanding how worldview is shaped and how worldview has been co opted. Because there are a few things that have been more potent in driving our culture in certain directions antithetical to biblical truth than sociology. And so it is no coincidence that a lot of the texts that. People are now referencing as our new canon. You know, one of the famous phrases, one of the phrases that you'll hear over and over again is if someone is, excuse me, on the wrong side of this debate on social justice, they need to do their homework, meaning here's a list of texts, most of them sociology text or some history texts or whatever. They need to do their home. They need to read these things. Then they'll understand. And when people are preaching something that is considered to be on the right side of this issue, they are lauded for having done their homework and for the number of books on the subject that they read before they got up and said ABC or X y Z, do you see what's missing there? The text? The text. The text. Is the Bible sufficient for racial reconciliation. And again that's the catchphrase, racial reconciliation is the Bible. Can you and I sit down with our Bibles and achieve racial reconciliation or are there other texts and other ideas and other ideologies that have to inform our reading of the text in order for us to achieve justice and righteousness in this particular field. That's the question. Before we get into this, let me explain something to you. I believe in racial reconciliation. I have to because I believe the Bible. Amen, I have to believe that. And perhaps you it would help you to know this about me. We've been in Zambia for the last three and a half years. The last three and a half years, we've been in a church where most of the people look like us. Now, granted, we're foreigners, right, we're outsiders. But it's been over two decades since my family has been part of a church where most of the people look like us, and that was by design. In the early nineties, Promise Keepers movement was huge and I was invited to preach at a number of different events, and racial reconciliation. Was just on. Everybody's agenda, and I mean it was a big movement. It was a massive movement. And during that time, in the early to mid nineteen nineties, here I was. I had come to faith in the late nineteen eighties and nineteen eighty seven. I was a member of a black fraternity. I married a woman who was a graduate of Historical Black College and University. I was the founder of Black Student Fellowship at Houston Baptist University and had been a member of and was preaching at a predominantly black church. It was just black, black, black, black black. That was my world. And now all this promise keeper stuff is happening, and the racial reconciliation conversation is happening, and for me, it brought me to a crossroads because I'm looking and listening and meeting a lot of my white brethren who were passionate about racial reconciliation and basically asking, how do we do this? How do we not have our church continue to look like it looks? How do we have our church, which is predominantly white in a neighborhood that is not predominantly white, began to reflect the broader community. I'm beginning to be invited into places where you come. We want to have this event. We want to reach our community, we want to reach the different ethnic groups in our community. And I and this is this is not an indictment of all black churches. This is not an indictment of all black This is this is me and my experience. I looked in my circle and I realized that I was not hearing that from my side. I didn't know black pastors who were staying awake at night because their churches were too black, who were on their knees weeping before they went and stood up and preached because most of the faces that they were going to preach to looked just like them. But this is what I was running into from white pastors. Again, I am not saying that it didn't exist. I'm saying that in my I experienced, I didn't see it. And I was convicted and made a decision in the mid nineteen nineties that my family and I would not continue to go to churches where everybody looked like us, that if I was serious about racial reconciliation, that this is something that we would do. And it was hard. It was hard. Took a position at a predominantly white church, and it was tough. We faced a lot of things. Sometimes we faced over racism, rarely more often than that, it was just insensitivities, ignorance. But it was what we signed up for, and it was difficult. It was hard for my children because they were too young to really understand what we were doing and why. And it was hard to be the only black kids around. But if I believed what I believed, then what were the options? What were the alternatives? It was difficult from another perspective as well. It was difficult from the perspective of having conversations on more than one occasion were people to my face accused me of selling out, and I was saying, wait, wait a minute, wait, wait a minute, wait, wait, wait, wait wait wait, Because because you go to promise keepers rallies, and you will do pulpit swaps, and you will do all of these sorts of things. But now that I've decided to take this to another level and make a personal commitment with my life and my family's life, I'm selling out. Then what are we really trying to do? I was accused, And this one was always difficult, of robbing the Black Church of its best and brightest. Now, on the one hand, thanks for the compliment. But on the other hand, what do I do with that? Because part of me is going what a horrible way to think about the church. You're black, therefore you belong to this group, and your gifts and graces and talents and abilities belonged to this group, and it's robbery for you to take them in for you to get But on the other hand, I distinctly remember when I graduated from Southwestern Seminary receiving a questionnaire from a black PhD student. I forget what school they were at, a black PhD student who was doing research for their dissertation and wanted me to fill out this questionnaire because less than fifteen percent of all black ministers in this country, according to their research, had seminary education. So this is the research project trying to figure out, Okay, what is it that led you in this direction, and what is it that helped you to stay the course? And what is it that you see how it be torn having conversation with my wife and children when certain things would happen constantly, having that wrestle and that struggle with is this tokenism or is it real? And regardless of what it is, is this the commitment. Or is it not? And if I do have a problem. With the way people understand me or don't understand me, can I simultaneously fault people for not understanding me and then not make myself available so that they can have a relationship with me and learn to understand me. How dare you white people who don't have relationships with black people not understand us? Do you see the dilemma? And it's a double edged sword because ironically now that part of my history is often leveraged against me in this entire discussion. You don't get a voice in this discussion. You don't get a dog in this fight because you abandoned your people. I J I just I just want you to sit with that, and then I wanna answer lingering question why would you do that? And what do you hold on in the middle of that when it's hard EPHESI in chapter two and in the time we have left, I want us to just walk through this a and see the truth from God's sufficient word about our unity and reconciliation that exists. We don't have to achieve racial reconciliation. It exists, It has been achieved. It is a reality that we must walk in. But it's not something that we have to accomplish. It's already been accomplished. Therefore, remember that at one time, you gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision, by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands. Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. That's bad news. There's a parallel here to the first part of the chapter. Right in the first part of chapter two, we start with bad news, dead in trespass and sins alien and I mean, it's just bad news. And then we have that. But God here we have bad news. Then we have butt now. But before we get to the butt now, let's rest here in this bad news, because in order to understand the magnitude of the reconciliation, you have to understand the magnitude of the division. And look again at it, you gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision, by what is called the circumcision. I want you to understand that the division that God overcomes here is more significant than anything that we face why Because race is arbitrary. Racial classifications are not real classifications. There is but one race. There's virtually no genetic difference between us. By the way, if we were not of the same race, we couldn't reproduce with one another. There is one race. We have the same original parents. Amen. We're a multiple ethnicities, but one race. And the racial distinctions between us are arbitrary distinctions based on certain features that we have, but not based on real differences. They are arbitrary, and sometimes we see these. When the Hutus and the Tutsis experienced genocide in Rwanda, people look at that and when we go, I don't get that these people look the same to me. Do you realize that the genetic difference between the Hutus and the Tutsis is small, but the genetic difference between white people and black people is almost as small. But the difference between jew and gentile was established by God himself and was not arbitrary but real. You know what that means. If God can reconcile those who have real and God ordained distinctions between them, he can certainly reconcile people who have arbitrary and artificial differences and distinctions between them. And look at this verse twelve. Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of Promise, having no hope and without God in the world. It's not just that the Gentiles were outsiders related to another ethnic group. It's not just that Gentiles were separated from the cultural hegemony, if you will. It's not just that there were systems that were oppressing them. It's not just that they didn't have access to wealth. It was you are alien ned from God and from Christ. This is real, This is significant. And this is not to make light of anyone else's experience of alienation or separation. But nothing compares to this, having no hope and without God in the world. What compares to that sitting in the back of the bus, no lynching, no being, having no hope in men, without God in the world. It's worse than slavery. Slavery's bad news. Amen, this is more significant than that. Now we can look at verse thirteen. But now, these Pentecostals, we take a praise break right here, right. But now, when news is so bad. It doesn't really matter what comes after the butt now, because it's got to be better than what was before it. Amen. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near. The Blood of Christ. Make no mistake about it. This language is clear. This is temple language. As we go through this, it's clear that this is temple language, and it's clear that what we're dealing with here is the whole idea of You know, here's the Holy of Holies, and the Holy of Holies the High priest one day a year just to go in through the Holy of Holies, and only the high priest gets going there. And then there's the court where the priests do their work, and only the priests get to do their work there, and and and and then there's the court of the Jews, and Jewish men get to go there. And then there's the women who would get to go here. And then further and further and further back you would have gentile proselytes who could come but could only get so close. But now through the Blood of Christ, you who were way back there. Have been brought near. You've been reconciled. You've been reconciled, and how how how through reading the right sociology books how through feeling sorry enough about what your ancestors did to someone else's ancestors. How by having enough of your grievances addressed. No, the blood of Christ. Christ died to reconcile us to himself and to one another. The blood of Christ, the blood of Christ. Don't you dare add anything to this. The blood of Christ is sufficient. To reconcile us. It's enough. It's enough. The blood of Christ is enough, and it's the only thing that can reconcile us. This is why looking for reconciliation through other means is futile. It's futile, it cannot be achieved. Not only is it futile, it's blasphemous because it becomes the blood of Christ. And 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 commands expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in the place of two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. There's so much here, and at the time won't permit me to deal with all of these things. But notice this that four times we see this word peace and Christ is our peace. Christ. Christ not only gives us peace and brings us peace. He is our peace. He not only accomplished our piece. He is our peace. It is Christ. And by the way, this peace that Christ brings is not just a peace where two sides decide to put. Down their arms and no longer fight. That's wonderful and it's wonderful to have that kind of peace. Last week we were. In New Orleans and we took our children to the National World War II Museum. Amazing museum there in New Orleans. If you haven't been, it's worth the trip and go through this process, and you know, they've got it designed to where you start from the beginning and from the Nazi build up, and you then have you know, Pearl Harbor, and you know, and now all of a sudden there's the build up of the American war machine, and then there's the road to Tokyo and the road to Berlin and the road and then you go to the end of the museum and it's like, here is the victory that was one, Here are the peace treaties that was signed. And we say Amen, Hallelujah, praise the Lord. That arms were put down and peace treaties were signed. But that is not the reconciliation that Christ brings himself is our peace, who made us both one, and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the log commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross. Thereby killing the hostility. We don't just put down our arms and no longer fight with one another. We become one another. He makes the two into one. That's the reconciliation that we have, the reconciliation that makes the two into one, the reconciliation that makes us brothers and sisters in Christ, the reconciliation that is so real that if you belong to Christ, and if you've been a Christian for any amount of time, you understand this reality. There are people in the Kingdom of God who are far closer to you than your blood relatives in some cases, because blood might be thigger than the water, but it's not stronger than the cross. It is an amazing reality. And you can go anywhere in this world and find a church. You don't even have to understand the language. But in the worship of God, in the presence of the saints, you are at home. You're at home with your brothers and with your sisters, and you don't have to read sociology texts. In order to achieve that. Is it important for us to understand each other? Absolutely? It is in our church in Houston, And I told you guys, you know, Houston is the most ethnically diverse city in America. And uh, anybody have paper towel or something like that I can uh. But in in our church in Houston, in the last six months before we ended up uh going to Zambia, there was a growth spurt. Our church went to a growth spurt. And in this growth spurt, God. Sent us people from eleven different nations in a six month period. Not whose ancestors were from eleven different nations, Not people who from eleven different ethnicities in that six month period, thank you, thank you very much, thank you. But people who were born. In eleven different nations Russia, France, Germany, China, India, Argentina. I mean it's Nigeria in this very brief window. And sometimes there were hurdles to overcome with that. But guess what, the Bible was sufficient. I didn't have to go get a sociology textbook on each one of those nations or ethnicities in order to have a brotherly relationship or a pastoral relationship pastoral commitment to those people. It was the unity that has been achieved through the Blood of Christ and the grace of God and the presence and power of His Holy Spirit, uniting us in faith and giving us what we needed in order to come to know and understand and appreciate each other. It was sufficient. It was sufficient. Now let me hurry to say there were ways that we could grow in our understanding and our unity, and those things were great. It was great to go over to the hall of the Russian Family and have a Russian feast and to learn about Russia. I mean, that was great and absolutely beneficial, but not necessary. The blood of Christ is the necessary element. The rest of it is gravy. Amen. And here's the other side of that, the other problem that I have with that. And I've talked about stereotypes on a number of occasions, but the problem that I have with this, and I've dealt with this in apologetics. One of the difficulties in the way that we often practice apologetics is we think, Okay, this person is a Muslim, this person is a Buddhist, this person is so what I need to do is I need to go read up and study up on that religion so that I can then come to this person and have a conversation with them about their because because now I understand them. Well, well, no, actually you don't, because they're a person. They're not a collection of facts. They're not a stereotype. They're a person. So don't tell me that you've read books about the black experience and about black people and therefore now you understand me. Because I'm unique and black people are unique. We're not all the same. Amen, somebody sufficient again, let's move verse eighteen. Oh, verse seventeen. First, he came and preach peace to you who are far off, in peace to those who are near. We can't miss this. We can't miss this. We can't miss this. We can't miss this. This is incredibly important. Here's why, because the way we think about things often is this, we think, well, there's the you know, there's the Jews and the Jews, these privileged people who have you know, all of these things. They do have the. Covenants and the promises, they do have, the history, they do have all this, they do have the scriptures. They you know. So what we really need to do is Christ needs to come and get those Gentiles up to speed and up to where the Jews are. And oftentimes what was the Judaizing controversy about the Judaizing controversy was in many ways this it was a kind of ethn agnosticism. Yeah. Yeah, see, see, we have the stuff. You got to get to where we are in order to then get to God. You got to become a Jew before you become a Christian, because there is something very significant about being a Jew. Look at this verse again, He came and preached peace to you who were far off, in peace to you. Who were near. The Gentiles needed the Cross of Christ and the blood of Christ in order to be reconciled to. God, and so did the Jews. Because God is no respector of persons. It's interesting, you know, so many times and missions, you know, there's all this the oppressed and the poor and the downtrodden, and the you know, And so we feel like, if you really love God and you really are going to obey the scripture as you're going to find those areas in those neighborhoods where poor and oppressed people are, and you're going to do ministry there, and you're going to establish churches there. Can I ask you a question, do we believe that rich people automatically know God that they don't need churches planted among them? Do we really believe that? Do we really believe. That we need to go to the inner city because inner city families have difficulties, and inner city families face hardships, and inner city families face obstacles. But we don't need to go knocking on. The door of the wealthy family because obviously they don't need our pastoral care. No, they need Christ. They need the Gospel. All people need the Gospel, all of them. Verse eighteen. For through him, and watch this amazing reversal that comes. We both have access in one spirit to the Father. You are separated from Christ, amen, But now through the Spirit we have. Access to the Father. You see the trinity there right, You see the Father and the Son and the Spirit. Up in verse twelve, the problem was you were separated from Christ in verse eighteen. Through him, we both have access in one spirit to the Father. You and gentile verse eighteen. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens. In verse twelve. You are alienated from the commonwealth of Israel in verse nineteen, verse nineteen, So then you are no longer. Strangers and aliens. Up in verse twelve, you are I'm sorry, strangers to the covenants and promises. And now you're no longer strange in aliens. In verse twelve, you are alienated from commonwealth in Israel, and now verse nineteen, but you are fellow citizens with the Saints and members of the household of God. This is better. This is better. What you have now is better than what you didn't have then, because you could be part of the common Word of Israel and lost. You could have the covenants and promises and they do nothing but condemn you. But now you have access in one spirit to the Father. Now you are no longer strangers and aliens, and now you are fidel citizens with the Saints and members of the household of God. Not only did he. Fix what was broken, he can't just come to your dilapidated house and repair it. You got a new house. Amen. And I want you to notice something. He starts off talking about what the gentiles didn't have, and we end up talking about what Jews and Gentiles now have because of the Cross. This is sufficient who we are. And then he finishes built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ, Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit. That's racial reconciliation. And it's not something you and I have to achieve. It's something you and I have to believe because Christ has already achieved it. It is done, it is real. We are one in Christ. And the rest of it is just walking in that reality. It's kind of like, uh, a married couple. If a married couple has difficulty, If a married couple becomes alienated and estranged from one another. They don't need to get married. They're still married. All the married folks should have said, Amen, right there, an, let me try that again. If a married couple becomes a strange, they're alienated or has difficulties. They don't need to get married. They're already married. Aybay, Okay, thank you, thank you. You didn't stop being married. You didn't stop being in a one flush union just because things got hard. Amen. You need to be reminded of your union. You need to strengthen your union, but you don't need to need another union. Same thing with racial reconciliation. We are reconciled in Christ. We don't need to achieve racial reconciliation. We just need to walk in the racial reconciliation that Christ achieved at the Cross. It's ours, it's real, and I don't need sociology books in order to walk in this reconciliation. I need God's book in order to walk in this reconciliation. Again, that's not to say that it may not be helpful or informative. Just like when there's an issue between me and my wife, helpful and informative for me to. Hear from her what her grievances are, what her heartaches are, what her. That that can ben that's helpful, Amen, But that happens in the context of relationship. Here's what I don't do. My wife and I are at oz with one another. My wife and I are having these problems and these grievances on us, I go read books about her. No. No. And this is why sometimes it can seem like splitting hairs in this current debate, because nobody's going to argue that it's a bad thing to learn about each other. Amen, nobody's going to argue that. Nobody's going to argue that it's a bad thing to understand our history. No, nobody's going to make that argument. But the problem comes when we say, if you're relying on the scriptures and you are not being informed by these particular sources and or perspectives, then you cannot achieve reconciliation in this area because you haven't done your homework. You haven't done your homework. You me the Bible not enough. You gotta have sociology history. And again, I teach sociology. So I'm not going to argue that it's somehow it's just can't be a relevant thing or can't be that. That's not my point, that it's not my argument. I'm simply saying the Bible is sufficient, and we use the Bible to critique all other books, and not other books to critique the Bible, and it worries me greatly when in the midst of this movement, if you will, I I'm hearing at the forefront of it, this new canon, this ever growing, very specific list of books that we need to read. In order. To properly understand and execute racial reconciliation. And the implication, of course, is because the Bible's not sufficient. Where else would we do that? And it's interesting, it's not just on this issue. Now we're beginning to hear this on the gay Christian issue. Here's a list of books that you need to read in order to understand these issues of sexual orientation. What is it, Matthew vinesbook you know, God and the Gay Christian Here's these six fascegors of scripture that have been misunderstood because they haven't been read in light of these other realities that have to be brought to bear, a new hermeneutic. And a new canon. So that you can then properly understand and apply the Bible. And I'm saying. The Bible is sufficient, not as an ignorant, fundamentalist, Biblicist, bigoted No, the Bible is sufficient. Let's pray. God, we thank you for your goodness and mercy and kindness toward us. In Christ, we rejoice in his finished work, and we rejoice in what He has accomplished through the Cross. May we ever embrace it and grow in it, and rejoice in it and Christ's name.