Peter Barnes | Ephesians 2:11-13
SERMON NOTES
Brought Near
(Eph. 2:11-13)
– To the Gentile, a Jew was a barbarian; to the Jew, a Gentile was a heathen or a dog.
1. Remember where you have come from.
– 2:11; unlike Ex.16:2-3; see Deut.15:15; 24:17-18, 21-22
– John Newton had Deut.15:15 over the fireplace in his study at Olney.
– Warwick Marsh sacked this week.
2. The hopelessness of life without God.
– 2:12; opposite to Rom.3:1-2; 9:4-5
(a) You were without Christ. Psalm 2; Daniel 9:25-27.
(b) You were outside the covenant community.
(c) You were strangers to the covenant promises. Matt.26:28.
(d) You were without hope. The emperor Marcus Aurelius referred to man’s activities as ‘smoke and nothingness’. The ancient historian, Tacitus, records one man who killed himself because he was so upset at being born.
(e) You were without God.
3. But God brings us near by the blood of Christ.
-2:13; Isa.49:1; 57:19; Acts 2:39; by Christ’s blood (1 John 1:7)