As I prayerfully considered what book of the Bible to preach for my last sermon series at King of Glory Lutheran before I take up my new call at Solid Rock Free Lutheran, I felt led to the book of Ephesians. It is an excellent book and I have enjoyed preaching the first few texts. There are only so many weeks left and unfortunately I am not able to cover every verse in the sermon series as I would like. Some texts got “squeezed out” of the sermon series. Instead of preaching them, I decided to write a blog post on the portions that I won’t preach. This is the first installment of this mini-series of blog posts.

So here’s the deal. I want you to stop reading this right now, open your Bible and read the “sermon text” of Ephesians 2:11-22. Go ahead, I’ll wait for you.

OK, you’re back! Thanks for taking the time to read the Bible. I hope one thing you remember about having me as your pastor is that I encouraged you to read and study the Bible in your daily life.

Did you find this section of verses in Ephesians 2 to be encouraging? I know I did. In fact, I’m regretting not preaching this text: it is so good! The theme that I want to highlight in this post is the nearness of God. If you were to read through this text again to find every reference to something involving nearness, you’d be surprised at how much you would find. Go ahead and scan through this text again.

This spatial proximity motif helps us understand the Gospel goodness from a different perspective. Verse 13 especially highlights this theme: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” The Apostle Paul is speaking to this group of Christians who once felt what it was like to be far from God, to be “separated,” “alienated” and “strangers.” The conclusion of the description of what the Gentile saints in Ephesus once were apart from Christ is striking: “having no hope and without God in the world.”

I have heard many Christians use distance to describe their relationship with God. “God feels far away,” one Christian told me. Another said, “During that song I felt that God was wrapping His arms around me.” As people we know what it is like to be close or to feel far away from someone in a relational sense. This human emotion is tapped into as a way of describing the work that God has done in our lives. In verse 17 Paul writes, “And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.”

The remainder of the passage describes us as being brought near to God. As He does this in the lives of other Christians, we find that we are brought near to God…together. The image that comes to my mind is a magnet. As the gravitational pull of a magnet sucks in and pulls close every piece of metal nearby, the metal pieces clump together on the magnet. When my parents were remodeling our house during my teenage years, I remember frequently taking a long stick with a hockey puck shaped magnet on the end and walking around the yard to pick up any nails that might have dropped in the grass. Every trip around the yard with that magnet stick accumulated a random collection of pieces of metal. Doesn’t that seem like a good description of church: we are a random collection of Christians pulled together by the Gospel and joining ourselves together not because we are all alike, but because we have the same Savior. God brings us together in the body of Christ. He pulls us near. We are now a “holy temple in the Lord” (verse 21) and a “dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” (verse 22).

Rejoice in these truths today, friends! Believe the Gospel. It’s good to be comforted by the nearness of God and the close-knit fellowship of the body of Christ, the church. You were once far off, but now you have been brought near. Hallelujah!

And so this Sunday (March 21, 2021), we will hear the next passage, Ephesians 3:1-13, in our sermon. That text will build on the theme of various types of people being brought together in the body of Christ. Please pray with me as we prepare to hear, listen, and receive God’s Word applied to us. See you Sunday!

In Christ,

Pr Brett