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The Mystery of the Gentiles

May 19, 2024 Speaker: Pastor James Wychers Series: All Things United in Christ

Passage: Ephesians 3:1–6

The Mystery of the Gentiles _web

SERMON INTRO:

"We're working our way through the book of Ephesians. We have reached Ephesians chapter three. I'm going to start this morning talking about something that I don't know much about. I don't usually do this. That something is Taylor Swift.

"So now some of you are going to say Taylor Swift, I don't know, but okay. You have proven your age if you don't know who Taylor Swift is, and that's okay. But her concerts, I mean she's really, really big right now. If you're an NFL fan, she's even bigger because of other things, but her concerts draw tens of thousands of people on consecutive nights. There are large amounts of money expended, and large amounts of time and effort to be there, to go, to be part of it. Not only for her, but any concert.

"Now I have a question about that. Why not just sit in your bedroom and listen to the music? It'd be a lot easier. A lot cheaper to do that. A lot less effort to do that. Well, the answer is a concert is a totally different experience, right? There's a sense of unity. There's a sense of togetherness there. There's a sense of awe, A-W-E amongst all the Swifties there. It's what we call a spectacle. We are all drawn to a spectacle. Why do they do this?

"I believe that God has made each one of us to experience a sense of awe, to experience a sense of amazement, to be astonished together with others or something deep within us that desires that. And that's the thing that draws. We might call that worship or praise.

"I'm not saying it would be wrong to go to a Taylor Swift concert. Do whatever you'd like to do, but just understand that there's something deeper underneath that that we are drawn to. We're going to talk more about that as we go.

"We've been in Ephesians chapter two, which showed the purpose of God's work on earth—that those who were dead in their sins were made alive together with Jesus Christ, and they have become monuments or treasures or trophies of grace.

"Salvation not only though secures the future, but it also transforms the present. Believers (Ephesians 2:10) are to live lives of good works because of the work that God has done in them. And we moved on in chapter two and saw further that through the good news of Jesus, God brought together Jews and Gentiles. He broke down the dividing wall of hostility and that was a deep and abiding wall that separated Jew and Gentile. He broke that down, and he made Jew and Gentile into one body, which we call the church. And even it says he made them into the dwelling place of God. The new temple, so to speak.

"So, the first part where we're getting to in chapter three, in this part, Paul lays out his role in the mission to the world, particularly how the mission to the Gentiles became his mission that he was called to. Today we're going to be reminded of the glorious mystery that's been revealed. That the gospel of Jesus Christ creates an amazing new and unified humanity which we call the church.

"Again, we cannot overemphasize the fact that and the importance that Jesus Christ created the church. That Jesus Christ came. That we are the people of God. That we are together the dwelling place of God. That God is present here. He is here, and we are here together. This is really, if we think about it rightly, this is an astonishing thing.This is an amazing thing. This is an awesome thing that God has done that and we are part of that together."

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