"It Depends"
EPISODE 186
Draw Near to God
What threatens church unity today? What do East Berlin and airline amenities have to do with the temple veil? And how does life in God’s presence change us? This week in session 5 of Talking Through Ephesians we explore the last half of chapter two. We walk through the story of the temple, from the garden to the tabernacle; and from Solomon to the church and the New Jerusalem. We find Jesus in the doorway, the corner, the mortar, and everywhere else in the house, and discuss what it means that “he himself is our peace.” Along the way we learn about God’s nearness and holiness, and the privilege of access to the most guarded, sacred room that exists. Find the videos, guides, and episodes at biblegeeks.fm/ephesians.
Takeaways
The Big Idea: People who once couldn't enter the temple have now become God's holy house.
This Week's Challenge: Reconcile with any brother or sister you don't have peace with.
Episode Transcription
"What do we do when we disagree?" And he said, "It depends." That was the only answer he gave. Well, hello everyone and welcome to Bible Geeks Podcast. This is episode 186. I'm Bryan Schiele. I'm Ryan Joy. And thanks so much everyone for tuning in. We are, as we've been talking about over the past few episodes, continuing in our Talking Through Ephesians series. I've really come to appreciate the book of Ephesians as we've sort of been going through it a little bit slower. There's so many details and so much exposition in these first few chapters and really I think it's a great summary of the entire Bible in kind of a way. And I think as maybe you said early on in one of the episodes, it's a good summary of everything. Yeah, you know, it's how it goes with Bible study that you think you know the book or whatever it is and you get into it. And there's always just just so much to learn. One of the things I've appreciated is the way we're doing it, how each idea builds on the last idea. It's just so well designed and cohesive. And so I've really enjoyed the way that the themes swell, kind of like a symphony sort of coming together and building to kind of a crescendo here as we get towards the middle of the book. Yeah. Well, we definitely move on from that idea that we were all dead in our trespasses and sins here in the beginning of chapter two of Ephesians. And now we move in to verses 11 to 22, talking about how we've become this new humanity altogether in God's amazing design that he's had since the beginning of the world. And that leads us, I think, to our conversation starter here on the episode. And that is "Second-Class Citizens." This is Talking Through Ephesians. Second Class Citizens. We think of ourselves as an egalitarian society. But when you board a plane, airlines literally categorize people into different classes. First class passengers lie in a bed or eat fresh cooked meals. On the other side of the curtain, we second class citizens squeeze in like sardines, happy to get a cup of water. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld jokes about the little look flight attendants give before closing the curtain, like, "Maybe if you worked a little harder, I wouldn't have to do this." In Ephesians 2 verses 11 to 23, Paul tells Gentile Christians to remember that they once stood outside looking in. Before Christ came, the temple, the covenant, and all its privileges belonged to Jews. But now God has brought Jews and Gentiles near him, creating one new humanity in Christ. So here's the big idea. The people who once couldn't enter the temple have now become God's holy house. The temple structure provided a way to draw near God, but its walls, courts, and curtain veil also blocked access. One temple wall divided the court of the Gentiles from the inside, keeping them afar. By abolishing the law of commandments, Christ tore down the dividing wall. In his flesh, he eliminated the distinction between circumcision and uncircumcision. Our last lesson featured a before and after story, going from death to life. But Gentile Christians also have gone from separated strangers to family. We weren't second-class citizens. We were aliens, distant from God and hopeless. But now, Christ's blood has brought us near, offering us full citizenship. God lives within His church, a new multi-ethnic community living like Christ. We're living stones in this ever-growing temple, built on the apostles' and prophets' teaching all aligned to our cornerstone and life source, Jesus Christ. So here's the big question. How should we worship and serve before God now that he's made us his home? So follow along with this guided study at biblegeeks.fm/ephesians and may the Lord bless you and keep you. Shalom. All right. So the big idea that we talked about there in that conversation starter was that people who once couldn't enter the temple have now become God's holy house. It was so funny because I was reading through your article there as you laid out this picture of sitting in an airplane. And it was hilarious because as I was writing next week's conversation starter, I was actually sitting in a plane. I was at that bulkhead row right behind first class and I am not even joking. I watched the entire trip as people were eating their dinners and as they were getting their hot towels on their face and everything else. And it just like, it is so true. As you sit there and just look through the curtain, how on the other side of it all you feel, how excluded you feel, and just how much that would have had to impact Gentiles looking in at the Jews and their special relationship with God for so long. And now to have that curtain removed and taken out of place, it's not obviously to say that Gentiles could never access the Lord God. I mean, we had like Rahab and people throughout the Old Testament who were proselytes, who came to become a follower of God's, but man, just what God has done now in ripping down that curtain and allowing us all to have access to him through obviously his son, Jesus. It's just, it's awesome. It's so cool. - The God has always been concerned about all people, but like you said, it was through proselyte through basically becoming a Jew, even if they didn't have Jewish roots that they could become part of the covenant people. And now that is not so the covenant people are of all nations through faith. And the big question that we talked about there was how should we worship and serve before God now that he's made us his home? And back in my management days, back in the previous life of business and that kind of thing, we used to emphasize our open door policy. I tried to make sure all of my direct reports felt comfortable with just the relationship, the way that we tried to make ourselves available to them, support them, work through whatever issues arose in the work. And that worked because I knew I wasn't any different than them, I wasn't better than them, I just had the job of leading them. But it's different when God, who is our better, comes to live in the center of a community. And that's what Exodus and Leviticus are all about. When I read about the temple or the tabernacle in the Old Testament, the two principles that really jump out at me are God's holiness or his distinctiveness and the privilege of living close to him and coming near to worship because their access was so restricted, even among Israelites. But the big thing that Paul's emphasizing here and that we're bringing out in this conversation starter is that now I have the key card to the most guarded and sacred room that exists. more than an open door policy, God is always with me. God is present, is living with me. And that lends a different seriousness, a different sobriety, a different reverence and fullness and joy in every moment. Because if this is the moment that God is close to me, that God is present, then everything becomes sacred. And so I think that's my answer to how should we worship before God now that he's made us home. - Yeah, yeah, that's definitely true. I love the idea of having that key card though. You definitely don't have to swoop in like a heist movie from the air vent and try to break in anymore. No, it's full access. It's super cool. All right, so let's get in, I think probably to a little less serious, maybe lighthearted way to kick this thing off with our icebreaker question. And the question we're gonna ask each other this week is gonna be, have you ever maintained a long distance relationship of any kind. And I think of any kind is gonna do a lot of legwork on this one. - Yeah, the easy answer is that you and I are a long distance friendship. - Yes. - But Adrian and I never lived in the same state until we were married. And so that was a challenge. And that was a true long distance relationship back in the days before all the things that makes it easier. We didn't even really have texting or anything. But it worked out okay. and things are going just fine with that now not long distance relationship. What about you? You have any long distance relationships? - Yeah, obviously you and me, that's the first one I thought about, but I never really lived super far away from Sherilyn, and I guess we were across town from each other, but not too bad. But man, I have never really had a long distance relationship growing up, but I think I would be really bad at it. Like I am super terrible even when I'm on work travel to even check in with my wife on a regular basis just because of like the time differences and stuff. We're always missing each other and it's just dicey and hard to connect and stuff like that. I don't think I would do long distance relationships very well, so that's my answer to this one. - Yeah, this does make it a lot easier though. We had to invent a weekly meeting to keep the friendship strong. - Exactly, and it works for me. - That's what this podcast is. - As we move on here to our second segment, I think these conversations will just keep going. And so we're gonna get in here to find Jesus here we like to do in this chapter, this section in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 11 to 22. And I guess you can sum this thing up before we talk about where we find Jesus here. Well, and we summed up a lot of it in the conversation starter, but he starts out, "Therefore," calling back to this change that we've been brought to life through God's grace, "therefore remember." And I learned as I was looking at this that "remember" here is the, this This is the only command or imperative verb in chapters one to three. So this is all built on remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh were alienated from Israel. You were strangers, you were far away. But now there it is again, we keep coming back to it. But now another change comes in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. And then he goes on to talk about the peace that Christ has brought between Jews and Gentiles tearing down the wall of hostility, getting rid of the law of commandments that was expressed in ordinances. Love that language. And then coming full circle from being distant to becoming the temple. And we are a temple that is growing in the Lord and receiving life from the Lord, the apostles and prophets being the foundation and Christ being the cornerstone. So when you look in There's a lot of mentions of "in Christ Jesus" again, but what do you see? Where do you find the Lord? Yeah, no, Jesus is definitely, he's the entire building really. He's every piece of it that is important. He is the door. He's the access to the Father. He says, "For through him we have both access in one Spirit to the Father." So he's the door of the building. He's the cornerstone as we read there. He is the cornerstone in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. So he's the cornerstone, but also he's the mortar that sticks the bricks together. He's the thing that glues it all together. And like this amazing house that he's allowed us to build together into, in this dwelling place for the spirit. Jesus is, he's everything. He's the only way this all makes sense. And as we're really talking about here in the church, It totally makes sense that he is the catalyst or the linchpin or the glue that binds everything together in the way that he does, because why else would I be so closely connected to people who are of such varying and different backgrounds than me? Why would we be so united together and connected to each other, if not through Jesus, if not through a uniting force that can just, in an otherworldly way, break down what normally would have been a distinction or a difference between us. And not only his way of bringing people together, but most importantly, his way of bringing us back to God. That is obviously the biggest piece that Jesus brings to this puzzle. We can have this relationship, this access to the Father now, and it's all because of Jesus. There's so much to say about him here because he's every part of this. He's involved in every aspect of this building project that God has created since the beginning of the world. - It's interesting, Paul trying to work with this metaphor of the temple. - It's challenging. - But yeah, but trying to see how it's all, he always loves to have buildings that grow like an organic organism. It's growing, but it's growing from Christ. It's like he's producing it. He's bringing life into the building. And he's like you say, he's all every part of it. He's weaved into it, but he's also the cornerstone. That's another way of saying we are in Christ. And that's what it means to be the church. Like you said that he's everything. I grabbed onto this statement that he himself is our peace. - Yep, he's that too. - He is everything about our peace. And then he's broken down in his flesh, the dividing wall of hostility. So these are two statements in verse 14. He himself, that's a pretty awkward way to say something in English, just he gets the idea across. Thank you, you don't need two pronouns. But the translators have brought out the emphasis in the original. What is peace? Where does it come from? How are we gonna make peace with each other in the church? He himself is our peace. Jesus is peace. If you're together in Jesus, you know where to look to find your peace. Be like him, focus on him. He brings the peace with God. He brings peace within ourselves. peace that passes understanding. And here he brings peace between people who've never been able to get along, between the Jews and all the Gentiles, and the place where he created that peace was in his flesh. And that is a callback, I think, to a couple verses earlier where the difference between Jews and Gentiles, he uses it twice in verse 11, was in their flesh. You Gentiles in the flesh are distinguished from what is called the circumcision, which which is made in the flesh by hands. So it's three in the fleshes. Pretty clearly he's not endorsing the title, that they're circumcision. He's, you know, what is called the circumcision. He wants them to know it's only a fleshly mark, it's in the flesh and it's made by human hands. - That's his way of doing quote unquote, right? - Yeah, yeah. Air quotes, circumcision. (laughing) Not to be confused with real circumcision. And he really co-ops this term in Philippians 3.3. This is probably a term that Jews used a lot. We're the circumcision, they're the uncircumcision. That's where the Jews, they're the Gentiles. But Paul describes his Gentile friends in Philippians 3.3 as the circumcision. Those who worship God, those who are truly in Christ following what is meant to be followed, who have had that change of heart that makes them circumcise, the Romans 2.29 talks about. They're made alive by God at baptism in this circumcision, the flesh being eliminated and this new life coming, Colossians 2, 11 to 12. There is that surgery made by human hands that the Jews wanted to emphasize, but Paul is saying there's something else now in Christ. There's a different mark of God's covenant people. Jesus took away that fleshly difference when his fleshly body and blood were offered to take away sins and to fulfill the law and to tear down the wall between Jews and Gentiles. He in the flesh destroyed the distinction in the flesh. All right, so let's move on to our second segment here on the episode and that is here's the story. So we're going to tell a story on this episode and oftentimes we go to a just a particular Bible story, but I think we're going to do a sweeping "here's the story" through all really the Bible as we look at these times where the Lord God has been in a temple sort of relationship with his people. And what do we mean by that? I guess maybe you can kick us off from the beginning. Yeah, the story of the temple is an important story in the Bible and the introduction to the concept really we need to understand what happened in the garden and the fall in order to understand the concept of the temple. The Garden of the Lord, as it's called in Genesis 2.8, was a place of intimate fellowship with God. He walked in the cool of the day, Genesis 3.8 says, obviously personifying God and showing that he was present in the temple in a special way. It was a place of life. It was a place of closeness. It was a place of beauty. And when human sin brought their expulsion to the east, he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life, Genesis 3.24. So it's no surprise that the temple and all of its decor was full of garden imagery, full of cherubim imagery, guarding God's presence. It's all looking back to that original temple garden. The rest of the Bible is a journey back to that fellowship and the temple gives us this critical storyline to follow that journey through. And I think that's where we kind of move on to maybe the first place or structure that people would normally associate with a temple. And that was the precursor to the temple, which was the Tabernacle. From that time period where the children of Israel journeyed from their exile of slavery out to the promised land, spending that 40 years wandering in the wilderness, They spent a lot of time out there and they needed a structure where they could meet with God. And this structure was, it was meant to be mobile. It was meant to be picked up. And so we see the outer structure of the tabernacle, which kept the inside structure and all of the different areas of that place separated from the rest of the community around them. And we have the holy place and the most holy place and all the different altars and all the furniture and furnishings. just you can go to the book of Exodus and you can see the detail that God gave as his plan and direction for that amazing tent that he wanted them to carry around. And in Exodus chapter 29 verse 43, we see the purpose of this tabernacle and it says, "And there I will meet with the children of Israel "and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory. "So I will consecrate the tabernacle of meeting "and the altar. I will also consecrate both Aaron and his sons to minister to me as priests. I will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God who brought them up out of the land of Egypt that I may dwell among them. I am the Lord their God." And just so cool to see God's words to his people and how he was going to be in their presence, they were going to be with him because he is the Lord, their God. And how cool that must have been to just constantly look over there, across the camps, to see God's amazing, beautiful structure that they all contributed to and sacrificed to help build and that's where God met with his people. That's such a beautiful picture. They went from that tabernacle to the first temple after God allowed David to provide preparations and His son to build the Lord that beautiful lavish house on Mount Zion in Jerusalem and it was modeled on the tabernacle plans, but he's super sized it He decked it out blinged it out even more His reasoning he said the house that I am to build will be great for our God is greater than all gods 2 Chronicles 2 verse 5 says, "So after the priest brought the ark into the Holy of Holies, a cloud filled the temple." It says, "For the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord." In 1 Kings 8 and verse 11. So this is where God came to live just like He had rested in the tabernacle all those years and led them. He has a place that He has settled into. But after years of trouble, rebellion, all the stuff that the Israelites and Judah did through the years, his glory left the building. And God allowed it to be destroyed by Babylon in a lot of really tragic, heart-wrenching passages in the Old Testament about this, how Babylon destroyed the temple, destroyed Jerusalem and much of Judea in 586 or 587 BC. The people were taken captive to Babylon while the city and the house of the Lord was just in shambles. And so then years later, 537 or 538 BC, a group of Jews led by Zerubbabel returned and rebuilt the temple. And it was not much compared to the old one. And so they were discouraged, but prophets like Zechariah urged the people to see past what he called the day of small things to the messianic hope ahead. And eventually the temple structure became more impressive. Herod the Great poured money into it. By Jesus' time and Paul's time, that second temple was beautiful and impressive. But Jesus predicted in his time here that at some point soon, not one stone would be left on another. And sure enough, about a decade after Paul's letter to the Ephesians in 70 AD, Rome destroyed the second temple to and all of Jerusalem and just left it just like Jesus predicted left it with nothing. And so that's where Paul is looking forward, knowing that there's a prophecy to be fulfilled. But he says that there's something else for us to look to as the temple even before that second temple was destroyed. Yeah. And so we see really the transition from this physical temple to a temple really not made with hands, a temple that's not a structure or a building that you could point to and see the architecture and look at it and then leave to go home. Now, this is a temple now that we take with us. It's a mobile temple. And in fact, before we talk about the church, which is really the temple that Paul is describing here in these verses here in Ephesians, you have to think too about Jesus being the temple. talked about himself being the temple in John chapter 2 when he says destroy this temple and in three days I Will raise it up and then we realized that he's not talking about the physical temple But he's talking about a temple of his body and if if you think about the temple being a place where God dwells and where God is with his people Obviously Jesus was the place where God dwelt and that's such an amazing thing to see Jesus starting out this real idea of just God always being with you and God always dwelling in you and among you and so if we are in Christ well guess guess what's going on with us too. We have this intimacy, this fellowship with the Lord God and so we as the church get to be these walking talking temples, these mobile places where God goes with us and what a cool way to think of ourselves As Paul would talk pretty extensively throughout his writings about this, but I think in 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 he really lays this out as he's talking about making sure that we keep ourselves unstained from the filthiness of the flesh and making sure that Idolatry has no part with us. He talks about we are the temple of the living God He says as God says I will dwell in them and walk among them "I will be their God and they shall be my people." He says, "Therefore come out from among them "and be separate, says the Lord. "Do not touch what is unclean and I will receive you." It's this idea going back to the tabernacle, even where God is going to be with his people, he's gonna be in their presence. And as we see here, it's our responsibility to treat that seriously. And you were talking about having this sobriety almost or thinking seriously, knowing that God is with us, we don't mess around. Like we don't play around in dirtiness and filthiness and sin. We cleanse ourselves. We stay away from those kinds of defiling things. We don't touch what is unclean because we want a relationship with God. We wanna present ourselves in such a way that His Spirit would be pleased to dwell within us. And what an amazing way to think about our bodies and our lives and really our whole relationship with each other as the church. - And someday those who have their robes white, who are cleansed in this life by the blood of the lamb and are walking in the light will enter a new place, will become part of the New Jerusalem. This vision that John saw of this great city coming down from heaven where there'd be no death or tears. In his vision, the city was, it's huge, but it's shaped like a cube, just like the Holy of Holies. And his vision was just so full of temple imagery and garden imagery because in that place and time, the dwelling place of God is with man. Revelation 21 verse three says, we'll worship him there. We'll see his face. 22 verse four says, and so John sees the tree of life, but he doesn't see the temple. And you'd expect, okay, everything from the temples here, there's an altar in the vision and an altar of incense in the vision and lampstands and every temple thing fills this vision. Where is the temple? But it says there is no temple for its temple is the Lord, God, the Almighty and the lamb, not only is he himself our peace, he himself, the building, he himself is everything as Bryan Schiele says, he himself is the temple, the Lord, God, the Almighty and the lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it for the glory of God gives it light. So the end of the temple story fulfills it, but it also makes it utterly unnecessary. There's no need for walls, no need for curtains or sacrifices or distance between Holy God and his people. In that place, we'll occupy the space where he lives. And that's our hope. - Yeah, that's just so cool. I wish I could figure out a different and more appropriate word to use, but I just keep saying, man, that's so cool. It is because it you just view this great plan from the beginning and that's really what it's always been about God in the presence of his people who love him and worship him and as I just Step back and see the big picture know where we're headed where we've been for me I think I see this temple story and I see that every temple that we read about that We've been talking about here in this segment. Every temple is fit for purpose That's just such an interesting way of viewing this because you go back to the temple where God Was in the garden with his people they were naked and there was nothing around except for the amazing goodness and Creation that he put into that garden But they weren't dressed in a really special way or they weren't like as you fast forward to the time of the tabernacle where? things started getting very argumented and prescriptive and they did things in a very specific way. Back in the garden it wasn't like that. It was an intimacy and a closeness. And God tried to train his people over the years to see the importance of that relationship, the importance of being holy before him. You know, making sure that they were clean as they would wash their hands in the laver and making sure that the blood was a part of it as they sprinkled all of the things with the blood of the sacrifice. All those things happened in the tabernacle and in the temple, but they didn't happen in the garden. And it sort of was this progression to help the people see that each of these times where God was with his people, he's training them to think seriously about this relationship all the way to the time where obviously Jesus comes and we have this relationship with him in the church. Even now, we may not be doing all of those things that we're a shadow like back in the temple and tabernacle days, but now it's also fit for purpose. Now we also in our church, in our relationship, in our hearts really, we take this seriously. And we know we're being trained to want to have this relationship with God. And every time we've seen these different temple moments throughout history, it is all, like you said, leading us to that final temple where there won't be a temple. It'll just be us with God, with all of these amazing things that he's prepared for us. So every single time God is with his people, it's different, it changes, but there's a common thread that you see through the whole thing. And it's always about reverence and sobriety and holiness really before God. - Yeah, it really seems to be this teaching tool for us. Like every day that the sacrifices were being offered in the temple, there was instruction about sin, the sin matters, good and evil matter, that there is a cost to it, that there is a connection between our behavior and our ability to live in the presence of His Holiness. All of these different pieces, I was thinking about back in the day, back in the '80s, I was 10 when President Reagan stood by the Berlin Wall and said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." (both laughing) I can remember a couple of years later when I was 12, watching people chiseling pieces of the wall off and like knocking down sections of the wall. There was so much joy. It wasn't like an, it didn't seem angry at all to me. It just seemed like a party. Like people were so like full of you use the word elation in your conversation starter, this idea of just satisfaction and relief. And at last it's here and reading today's passage. I was thinking about that, there was the precursor of Germany's reunification, the fall of the Iron Curtain, and the temple really, it is about coming close to God, but it's also this constant reminder of the need for distance from God's holiness. And so everybody knew back in those days, if you're traveling with this tent around, with the tabernacle around, you knew, okay, we're close to God, we're special in this way, but don't go to the room where God's glory dwells. - Oh yeah. - Don't go there. - Yeah, watch yourself. - Even when the high, yeah, watch yourself. Even when the high priest goes in there once a year, it's to cleanse us and cleanse that holy space from all of our awfulness that would contaminate it. At the temple that Paul knew, there was this series of walled courtyards that illustrated just how exclusive temple access was. Gentiles could go to their separated courtyard. Jewish women could go one step further to the next room. Jewish men hit their wall in the room after that. The priest could go a little further, but there was that room nobody went in for 364 days. And that's the one that mattered. That's the one where God's glory, the covenant mercy seat was and the place that, the box that held the document of the covenant and all of that. And it's the perfect illustration for all that Paul wants us to see in this passage in Ephesians two. The dividing walls are gone. Access to God is unbarred and secured by Jesus. The temple isn't a place we go to see God. It's not a place that anybody could stand in our way to keep us out of, because like you said, we are the temple. It's just a, it's such a rich and textured metaphor or picture for us to learn from and chew on there. There's a lot of pieces, but it just seems so obvious. once you see, oh, that's why Paul picked this, and this whole thing about nearness, and about walls, and separation, and all of this, is built on this idea of temple. - That's so, yeah. I mean, I'm not gonna say it's cool, because I've been saying that a lot, but it's so cool, for sure. All right, let's get into our last segment here on the episode, and that is our Reach Out question. ♪ Reach out, reach out and touch someone ♪ - Okay, so this passage, there's a lot of things going on, as we've been talking about, But it's talking ultimately about the way that God has brought us all people, all nations together, and he's made a oneness that you wouldn't think was even possible in his church. And so our reach out question kind of picks that up and brings it into the modern church and says, what threats to church unity trouble you? Christ has given everything to make us one with God, with him and with each other. and then as we've talked about before, we can treat it lightly. What threats concern you today? - Well, I would say like if there's a threat that I shouldn't be concerned about, I don't think that exists. I think all threats are probably something that should bother us, but I think maybe for me, one of the things that I worry about and I probably struggle with a little bit more than I'd care to admit is comparison. I think comparison is a really challenging confrontation to unity in the church because on one side you can sit there comparing yourself to other people and feeling like you're not enough, you know, that you're not as good as someone else or you haven't accomplished as much as someone else. And so maybe because of that, you take your foot off the gas or you don't get involved like you could or use your talents and abilities. And then on the other hand, I think it'd be really easy for you to start looking down on other people with contempt and suspicion, thinking maybe you're more valuable in your service to the king because of all of your amazing qualities. Obviously both of those things are wrong and are not helpful. But I think if we really take our eyes off of Jesus, and I've been guilty of this, sometimes I've been comparing myself to other people and discouraged that I'm not doing more to visit people who are in the hospital or open up my home more like some other people do. And that can be a real challenge. It can be a real discouraging way of living and looking at yourself in that way. And maybe obviously on the other side of that, feeling like my quote unquote opinion is more valuable than someone else and they should listen to me because I've got things figured out or whatever. Like it's these kinds of body problems that I think Paul is describing in first Corinthians. And obviously that church was very difficult in their unity with each other. They had a real hard time. He's always trying to get them to understand like in chapter 12 how one body part is not more important than another one. And so stop comparing yourself to other people. Like this weird comparison of how a hand might say that he's not of the body because he's not an eye or something like that. Or if we're just always looking at each other and trying to be like each other or compare ourselves with each other. I think that's a threat. I think that's a real challenge for us to get over and just to be happy that you're a brick going back to the Ephesians metaphor, like you're a brick. And one brick is just as important as the brick next to it, because they're all together joined by Christ, modeled after the standard of the cornerstone. We are all just bricks. And every part is important in keeping stable and keeping this kind of firm security. But the more we compare ourselves to other people, I think we're just missing the boat. That it's not about Jesus anymore, who we should really be looking to. We've made it about ourselves, or really about each other, I guess. I was thinking about how our society is so fragmented and obvious, it's you just whatever, turn on anything. Turn on a computer, turn on a TV show, turn on anything, and you will see just everything is political, it feels like in some way, everything is divisive, and it's just hard to keep that completely out of the church, but we need to try. If every issue is a splinter issue, We have no hope of unity. We can't just fragment down into all these different little tiny groups. I know that, you know, we have to stay true to the Lord and to His word and His way and His holiness and love. And that's going to eliminate some people, but within His faithful people, within His church, we've got to just hold on to each other and try to create unity and get good at making unity. that is a skill that is something to develop, is how to make and keep peace among brethren. And I'm grateful the church here has always put an emphasis on unifying around our shared faith, around the Lord. And a lot of the most mature, respected brothers and sisters here, I feel like have both that scripture-led discernment, but also the emotional intelligence to wisely, skillfully navigate all the potholes that can show up, all the possible problems that can show up. And you just have to watch because not every situation is the same. I remember years ago, I asked one of our friends, Chad, he had read through the Bible. He said, "Okay, this year, I'm reading through the whole Bible to figure out what should we do whenever we disagree." And he went through it and he's reading through the whole Bible. And I'm like, "So how's it going?" and I check it in through the year. And then he gets to the end and I said, "Okay, so what's the answer? What do we do when we disagree?" And he said, "It depends." (both laughing) And that was the only answer he gave. (both laughing) So not every situation is the same. I mean, you can see it very clearly in scripture that there's a time for this and a time for that. And you're trying to figure out this through discernment, through love, through skillfully dealing with both people and the important issues we're working through. How do we maintain the unity of the spirit, as Paul calls it later in this book. And there's churches out there that I'm sure you've heard about, I've heard about through the last few years that have fractured or died, that I don't know their situation, but you gotta think that some of those things didn't have to happen. Each congregation just has to stay vigilant, invest now in the bonds between us that will help us get through that next rough patch together and care about unity because it matters to Jesus. So it's gotta matter to us. - There are so many things that just Satan has in his tool belt to drive a wedge between us. And I love how you talked about that as a splinter issue sometimes, 'cause that's the way it feels. I mean, there's so many little tiny things that you just kind of let grow and fester and they become things that drive a wedge between people. And I don't know why we don't see those things as more important at the time, but little tiny things can just blow up in just ways that we never expected them to. And you got to see Satan as being pretty happy about that sometimes. So let's move on to our last segment here on the episode. And that is our challenge for the week. I am ready to face any challenges that might be foolish enough to face me. So kind of following up from that conversation, the challenge this week is to reconcile with any brother or sister you don't have peace with. and not a super hard one this week, gonna be real easy for us all to do. Just go reconcile with somebody that you've been struggling with. Yeah, yeah, go forth and do it. - Yeah, can we go back to the ones where we just had to highlight a word in the Bible as we went through? - Oh, no doubt. - Yeah, so obviously this challenge comes from the way that this passage describes Christ's work. It's a work of reconciliation, a work of peacemaking, and tearing down walls. And so we need to imitate that we're imitators of Christ. We see Paul doing this. We see other people in the new Testament doing this. And whenever we see a relationship problem with brethren, we need to recognize that it's not okay. It's not okay to just let whether it's petty things or even big things. We have to work on it. We have to work on creating oneness, making unity happen. We're going to see like a lot of chapter four and five really delving into these skills that any like team, athletic team, business team, military team in America or anywhere, if you have these skills and these attributes and these values, you're going to, you're going to be able to do better at finding unity, but the, we have something that, that a typical business team doesn't have. And that's Jesus Christ and his spirit and the life that he gives us and the help that he gives us. And so we should be able to maintain the unity of the spirit, but we just have to go to those people like Jesus says, drop what you're doing, drop the sacrifice and go reconcile, make peace. Matthew chapter 18. That's a really good way to sum that up. I think so let's close this discussion here in this episode with a closing prayer and in the study guide for this session we have a suggested prayer there and that comes from Ephesians chapter 2 verses 17 to 19 and it says bless you for opening the door that was once closed and offering us peace with you through Jesus and so we're gonna use that as a basis for our prayer together so let's pray our Holy God our Father above your name is matchless above all the earth while we were still your enemies while we were dead in our sins as we talked about recently, you have made us alive once again. And not only alive, but you've extended to us such closeness and love that we never ever deserved. But we are continually, every single day grateful for. We ask that you would open our hearts to accept our position as a dwelling place for your spirit. We thank you for considering us, for while we were weak and broken people, that we were worthy of such an honor that you would send your son to die for us. We bless you for opening that door, a door that was once closed by our sins. When we decided to go our own way and forge our own path in sin, that you opened that door extending to us peace. That peace that as we've said today surpasses our thoughts and our imagination. What an amazing love and mercy that you've showed to us when you sent Jesus to that cross. We ask for strength today that we can live lives of holiness and godliness because of his sacrifice for us. Please watch over us in this study of Ephesians and lead us to love you and serve you more in that great intimacy and relationship that we have as a result. All this we ask in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Well, we'll be getting into our sixth study in talking through Ephesians next week, which is all about the eternal purpose of God. So we're almost halfway, I guess, through this. Close. That will come from Ephesians chapter three, verses one to 13. So we'd encourage you to read that if you get a chance and look forward to getting into the mystery and the eternal purpose of God that Paul talks about there. I love the mystery language. It's going to be great on the next episode. So thanks so much, everyone, for tuning into the Bible Geeks podcast. You can find us on our website, as always at biblegeeks.fm. You can find show notes for this episode in your podcast player of choice or at biblegeeks.fm/186. If you want to check out the rest of the sessions in this guided study, you can go to biblegeeks.fm/ephesians. You'll find all the conversation starters there, all the study guides that we're putting together. And at the end of this 13 session guided study, we will have one big giant PDF that you can print out and use for your own studies, whether on your own or with a friend or a small group at church, however you want to do it. Thanks so much again. And until next episode, may the Lord bless you and keep you. Shalom. [MUSIC PLAYING]