Dean Fulks
We are saved to show God's love and serve others
Jesus makes us new
God works as much corporately in your life as He does individually
Ephesians 2:10-14
10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. 11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— 12 remember that at that time you 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. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility
Sin builds walls of separation
Jesus breaks through to bring reconciliation
Ephesians 2:15-16
15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
Ephesians 2:17-18
17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
Three New Metaphors:
Ephesians 2:19a
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints…
We are a new nation
Ephesians 2:19b
and members of the household of God…
We are a new family
Ephesians 2:20-22
20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit
We are a new wall