The Village Church
The Parasite Gospel - Audio
Great to you. I still can't hear you. Amen. Okay. All right. If you have your Bibles this morning, please turn them to Ephesians chapter two. And it's great to be back with you. We had an awesome time at the beach. So it was great to be back here in Huntsville as well. As I said last week, we had our first family trip with the kids. We went to the beach and we created some family memories. You know, we took a bunch of pictures, you know, snap shots of our time in the pool or in the beach, been the same castles. You know, it was really good family fun for us, good memories. And for me that those memories are now part of the slideshow of my life. The slideshow that I sometimes think about, of all the things that I've done, all the things that I've went through. And all of us have memories in our life, all of us. I don't care where you grew up. I don't care the color of your skin. I don't care where you live in this world. We all have memories, good memories, bad memories. Some of your memories you hold dear. You smile whenever you think about the good old days. When you used to do this, when I used to do that, good old days, good memories. Then you have others you wish God would just burn out of your mind because you don't like thinking about them because it was not good, it was bad. Life, for all of us, for all people, in the words of Charles Dickens, it's the best of times, it's the worst of times. That's life, that's the fact of life, for everybody. Times when life is good, there are times when life is not good. But through those best times and through those worst times, God is always at work. God is always great. God is always faithful. God is always a firm foundation. Through the good, through the worst times. And from God's point of view, from God's viewpoint, from the viewpoint of our creator, this slideshow that we call our life is filled with snapshots of him bringing his people to glory. Him bringing us home. Everything we go through is him leading us to home, our true home, heaven. Do you see that? Are you able to see your life through the eyes of Christ? Do you live that way? And here in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 11 through 13, Paul helps us. He does this by calling us to remember. He calls the Gentile Christians an Ephesus to remember as well, to remember what? He wants them to first remember that they were separated from Christ. Listen to it, here's God's word, Ephesians chapter 2, verse 11. Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in a flesh call the erm circumcision by what is called circumcision, which is made in the flesh by human hands. Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the common wealth of Israel, strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who will once fro off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Please pray with me. Father God, I pray that your spirit, Lord, will come and minister to us, that He would take your preached word and apply it to my heart and apply it to their hearts. For all of us need more of Jesus this morning. All of us need more of your word this morning. We all need for you to speak truth into our life, into our situations, into the places where we truly live. We need your light, your word, to come into that and to reveal things to us. So Father, please, Lord, minister to us this morning, don't question my prayer, amen. So Paul wants us to remember the time when we were separated from Christ. Time is an occasion, it's a season, a season. It's a snapshot of your life when you didn't know Jesus. At that time, it's referring to our past condition, our past spiritual condition. And this is what he is telling these Gentile Christians to remember. They were not naive of this. They knew what Paul was talking about. Because earlier in the chapter here, he tells them that they were dead and they were trespasses and sins, by nature, they were children or wrath. They were, in a real sense, spiritual zombies. Plan church, appearing to be alive spiritually, but were actually dead. Why? How could that be so? Because they were separated from Christ. They did not know Christ. What does that mean for us? That you can go through the motions of church. You can do the Bible studies. You can sing in the choir. You can do ministry and still be separated from Jesus. That's what that means for us. As a result, because they were separated from Christ, they were aliens to the kingdom of God. They didn't have any of the kingdom benefits. They didn't have the kingdom sponsored health care plan. You want to call it that? What does it say in verse 12? It says that they were excluded from the common wealth of Israel. They were not part of God's people. They were strangers to the covenant of promise. They had no relationship with God, having no hope and without God in the world. They had no real knowledge of the true God. Not only that, they were deemed second-rate by those who could sit themselves better. This is the Gentile Christians here in Ephesus that Paul is talking about here. The Jews, the circumcised group, looked down in the Gentiles because they were not circumcised. They were deemed second-rate. All of us here in this room, every American who is not a Jew is a Gentile. Don't care about your race, the culture, whatever. All of us here are Gentiles. And if you all believe it this morning, there was a time in your life when you were separated from Christ, right? When you didn't know Him, and you have snapshots of who you used to be, the things you used to do, the people you used to hang out with. They're all part of that slideshow. And this is what Paul wants us to remember. Not in the sense that we wallow in mud of self-pity and guilt, but he wants us to remember so that we can just take a quick look back. Look, a quick look back at where you used to be, or what God has saved you from, the person you used to be, the things you used to do. Just take a quick look back. And when you look back, you can have a greater appreciation for the grace of God in your life, which is like, man, God has saved me from a whole bunch of stuff. If it was not for His grace, His mercy, I wouldn't be here. Remembering God's faithfulness in your life. It creates a greater love for God, a greater heart, a gratitude toward God. It enlarges our heart toward God with more love. When you remember what He has done for you and what He has saved you from. What do you see when you look back in your life when you didn't know Christ? Well, you see, all of us used to be like the ugly duckling. You know the ugly duckling, children's story. That's who it used to be. And if you remember that story, did you know what His problem was? He didn't actually know what He was created to be. All He saw was an unlovable, ugly duck. It wasn't until He saw His reflection in the water that He saw that He was actually a beautiful swan. We're just like that. We need someone else to reflect our image. And this is what Jesus does. When you become the no Christ, He gives you a new image. You're no longer the ugly duckling. You are a beautiful swan because Christ's blood covers you. And so Jesus rescues us from our sin. This is what we need to see, that He actually rescues us from our sin. Picture that. Like all the movies He ever seen about at the hero, the one who goes in and rescues those who are enslaved. Jesus goes in behind enemy lines to rescue you. An enemy to make you a friend, to make you family. This is what He's done through His life and through His death. He rescues us. And this is the second thing Paul wants us to remember that you were at one time separated from Christ. But also remember, you have also been rescued in Christ through His death, through His blood. Verse 13 says, "But now in Christ Jesus, you who will formally fall off have been brought near." But now, you see the contrast that He sets up here? At this time, you were separated from Christ. But now in the present tense, you are in Christ. Passion that Paul has here. He is saying that one time you were dead, you were cut off, you were aliens. But now, present tense, now you are in Christ. You have been rescued from sin and death and have been brought near. Brought near to what? What is He saying? You have been brought from death to life, through Christ, fall off brought near. You are no longer aliens and no longer strangers. You, this is the way telling the Gentiles, these Gentiles, you are no longer beneath the Jews. But now, you are on equal ground with the Jews. These things are true of them and true for us as well. For anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come. I said earlier that the Slide Show God is building. And it is a collection of snapshots of Him bringing His people to glory, both individually and both as a body. And what does that mean? It means that no one race, no one culture of people, no one class of people, no one nation of people, and no one denomination of people is beneath or above another. No one denomination is beneath or above another. No one race is beneath or above another. We are all equally sinful and equally redeemable. I don't care who you are. I don't care where church you go to. I don't care where you live. And if the church in this country, in this state, truly understood this, how different would the churches be on Sunday morning? I definitely would Christianity be here in Alabama if the church really understood that we are all equally sinful and all equally redeemable through Christ. Sunday mornings would be different. Sunday mornings would look differently. What do you think? You see, just like these Gentiles believers in Ephesus, when we come to know Jesus, we come to enjoy all the kingdom benefits that come with knowing Jesus. Because they are now in Christ, they are no longer excluded from the commonwealth of Israel. They are not citizens. Fellow citizens with the saints, members of the house hold of God. No longer strangers to the covenants of promise, but now they are in covenant relationship with God. No longer do they have a false knowledge of God. They have a true knowledge of God through Jesus. This is union with Christ. This is what Christ gives to every believer, regardless of race, regardless of nation, regardless of your denomination that you're a part of. When you come to know Christ, you are a citizen in God's kingdom. You are in covenant relationship with God, and you now have true knowledge of him, every Christian in the world. This is what Christ gives us when he rescues us from our sin. The gospel, you see, it doesn't present us with only a view about sin, but it gives us a view of who we are in Christ as well. Do you meditate upon that? Do you know who you are? Do you live that way? Do you have images of who you are in Christ, or how he's shaping your life, what he's doing in your life? Do you even care? Is Jesus still rescuing you from sin? Is he? Or are you just have certain sins you don't want to give up? Certain things in your life you just want to hold on to? He's saying, "I want to rescue you from all the things that you have enslaved yourself to. I want to rescue you from those things. They're not your friend. They're your enemy. I'm your savior." How is that possible? How is it that something that was spiritually dead can now have life to be separated from Christ and to be now in Christ? This leads us to the final thing that Paul wants us to understand, and that is in the second part of verse 13, it says, "But now in Jesus Christ, you were formerly for all heaven brought near by the blood of Christ." That's how he did it. You see, brothers and sisters, he brought us, and these Gentile Christians, all of spiritual deadness into life by his own death. This is radical. That is liberation. That is supernatural. That's the gospel. That's the gospel. That is what makes salvation possible. Without the shedding of his blood, there is no forgiveness. Through his wounds, we are healed. We move from death to life because Christ died in our place. He rescued us through his self-sacrifice. It's the cross and resurrection part of your life. Do you know that? Do you know what it means? Do you ever think about it? Do you? We are saved by his blood. We live by that blood. I want to remember God more in my life. Do you? I want to see his hand working in my life. I know it's there. I want to be able to meditate upon it. I want to be able to see it. And when the gospel actually takes root in your heart and in your life, it keeps you humble. It helps you to praise God more. See, living by the gospel, it means that this is all my hope. This is all my peace. This is all my righteousness. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. That's the gospel of life. This is all my hope. This is all my peace. This is all my righteousness. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. I'm going to ask you, if the church really believe that, how different would the church be? Honestly, in this country, in this state, in this city. Paul says in verse 14, "For he himself is our peace. He himself." And whenever you see that little phrase there, "he himself," that's there for emphasis. He Paul wants to make it clear and definite without confusion, without any misunderstanding, Jesus himself is our peace. Do you get it? But do you believe it? And if I watch your life, will I see that you believe it? It this means Jesus minus everything else. That's what that means if he is our peace. But is that a reality? I think not most of the times. Because if we're honest, and if I'm honest, then we'll admit that when it comes to salvation, yes, Jesus is my peace there. But when it comes to day-to-day life and the places where we truly live, that's not always the case. What do you mean, Alex? I mean, this. When it comes to our day-to-day life, where it's in my job or whatever I'm doing, if it's my-- if I'm involved with politics or whatever, what we really want, we want Jesus to have a tag team partner when it comes to our day-to-day life, when it comes to our peace. And so what we have in our heart, we actually have a round table in our heart. And when we come to know Jesus, we just invite Jesus to the round table with all the other things. We have their sources for our peace. And when Jesus is no longer good enough, we want Him to tag in something else. Well, church isn't doing it for me. So Jesus, I want you to tag in money. I want you to tag in sex. I want you to tag in man's praise. I want you to tag in self-gory. I want you to tag in this. Tag in that. And where you have here, you have all these things that you run to. They try to make you feel good about yourself, try to make you feel like you're important, to make you feel self-sufficient. Where are they? We all have them. Don't set that like you don't have them. How can you know what those things are? How can you know the things you have actually partnered with Christ? Here is how you know. If I call you out on something and you get defensive about it, that person has a seat at the round table. If you can't even see some of the weaknesses in your own values, that thing has a seat at your round table. Does that make sense? If I criticize your heritage, will you get defensive? If you do, it's a seat at the round table. If I criticize your politics, will you get defensive? If you do, it's at the round table. If I criticize your traditions, you get defensive, that's at the round table. If I criticize your theology, and you get defensive, that has a seat at the round table. If I criticize your denomination, and you get defensive and don't think you have no weaknesses there, that thing has a seat at your round table. Your career, your ministry, your stuff. Because if Jesus is really our peace, then we'll be able to see that in all the things I value, all those things are staying with sin. Then when people call me out on them, I should not get defensive. I should say, yep, you're right. That is true of that. If Jesus really is your peace, really my peace, we shouldn't get defensive by anything. We should have a clear picture of what life is truly like, and that all life is staying with sin. I don't care what race you are. I don't care what church you go to. All of history is staying by sin. All of it. And basically, does that make sense? If it don't say it so, they say it don't make sense, Alex. I'm looking for some communication here. Does that make sense? Do you have things at a round table? OK, and this is why we have that, especially in Christianity and South, is that in many of our churches, and in many of the things that we preach about the gospel, the gospel is simply just a parasite. That's what we have turned the gospel into. It's just a parasite. You know what a parasite is, right? It's an organism that gets all of its nutrients from a host. And we have created and we have preached and lived out a parasite gospel that does not change lives and hearts. All it does is latch its own to our tradition, it latch its own to our denomination, it latch its own to our race, to our culture, to our country, to our politics, to our government, to our theology, and it has no impact on any of them. And so what you have here is a parasite gospel, no power. It doesn't change anything. And that's why you have different cultures and races, thinking they have all the answers to everything about Christianity, because Christianity is shaped more about who they are than by this. That is not the gospel. That is not Christianity. The gospel's identity is not in me. It's not in my blackness. It's not in my culture. It's not in my traditions. It's not in my heritage. The power of the gospel, the identity of the gospel, is in Jesus and Jesus alone. And if you can't ever see anything that's wrong with your tradition or your denomination, then there's a serious problem there. Because if you've been shaped by the gospel, you've been able to look at history and look at whatever you're going through and say, that is evil and that is good. That's good and that's bad. You'll be able to see truth without getting defensive about it. You'll be able to say, you're right, call me out on that. If Jesus is your peace, if he is, when the gospel comes into your life, it changes you. It has to change you. And a couple of weeks ago, when I came in and I saw a movie called Invictus, it's about Nelson Mandela, when he first became president of South Africa, how he took this, award, a rugby team, a sports team. He brought South Africa together for a moment. You know, they had just come out of apartheid. And because of a sports team, you had the Africanans, you had the Africans all excited together. And at the end of the movie, they showed different snapshots of all races hanging out having fun together. Because they have come together around this sports team. And what I have been thinking all week, why isn't that true when the gospel comes into our life? If a sports team, a rugby team can bring a nation together for just one moment, why can't the gospel do that? If we believe the gospel changes things. And the reason is because we don't really believe the gospel. We have a parasite gospel that changes nothing. And we go along thinking we have all the answers, thinking we're safe. Because if my identity is truly in Jesus, if Jesus is truly my peace, then I should be able to fellowship with Christians who aren't black. I don't know how to talk about race now. That's what that means. Because if you read further along in Ephesians, Paul talks about how Jesus had brought Jews and Gentiles together. That he is the source of peace of them both. He had brought both men together into one man. And what frustrates me is when I see people who claim to be Christians, but refuse to fellowship for other Christians from different races or different cultures. That frustrates me. And you see what Jesus does, he conquers things in order to reconcile and unite. That's what he does. He doesn't bow down to our stuff. He doesn't bow down to our government. He doesn't bow down to our country. He doesn't bow down to our culture. He doesn't bow down to our theology. He doesn't bow down to our hierarchies and our traditions. He conquers those things in order to reconcile and unite people who otherwise will have anything to do with each other. That's what he does. But do we live it out? Is it true? He reconciles a holy god to sinful people and sinful people to sinful people. That's what he does. That's the power to cross reconciliation. And when you grow in your relationship with Jesus, he enables you through the spirit to embrace those things. Examine your heart. Examine my heart. Do I really believe the gospel or is it just simply a parasite that has no power over my life? Think about your slide show, think about your snapshots. Is the gospel there? Is it there? Has it changed you? Has it changed your relationships? Are you being reformed by the gospel? Has the gospel reformed the way you see government? Has it reformed the way you see theology? Has it reformed the way you see other people? Has it reformed the way you see the poor? Has it reformed the way you see the church? It should possess the gospel. I'm sure most of you have seen a mosaic. Do you know what a mosaic is? It's a group of smaller pictures. You used to create a larger picture. And I want to encourage you with this. When you think about all the snapshots of your life, everything you went through, your strokes with sin, your victories, your successes, your failures, when the gospel comes into your life, it takes all those memories, all those things that you went through, all those things that you suffered, all those things that has happened to you. The gospel takes those things and it forms a mosaic. You know what the picture is at the end of your life? It's going to be the picture of the cross. Every snapshot, every memory, every success, every victory is the cross over your life. That God is at work through the good and through the bad in our lives. Romans 828 says that God works all things to the good of those who love them. And that is true of me. That is true of you. So take encouragement from that. That God is at work. Let us pray. Father God, I pray for the church, Lord, that there will be the church, that the gospel is powerful. And I pray that it will be powerful in our lives. And that will be shown in our relationships. Jesus said that if we love one another, then the world would know that we are your disciples. And so I pray for that that we will love one another in this church, that we will love the Christians from other denominations, Lord, that we have a true love, that they are the only the spirit can produce in us. So I praise you, Father, that we're able to see your hand working in through our life. And Christian will pray, amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]