Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - A New Humanity

Episode Date: September 13, 2024

Paul prays that we’d see the evidence of God’s mighty power at work in the world. And in Ephesians 2, we see one of the main ways we can be sure God’s power is at work. It’s the real heart of what Ephesians says about the church. And that is that inside the church, people who could never get along outside the church, are now living together in peace. Paul says God has addressed one of the main problems the human race has ever had: 1) what is the problem? 2) what is God’s solution for it? and 3) how did he bring it about? This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 6, 2011. Series: A Study of Ephesians: Who is the Church? Scripture: Ephesians 2:11–18. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. How hopeful are you about the future of the Christian Church? The book of Ephesians gives us an incredibly inspiring vision for the Church, showing how it has the capacity to be a new humanity and a community of astonishing beauty. Join us today as Tim Keller preaches from the book of Ephesians. Our scripture passage this morning is from Paul's letter to the Ephesians chapter 2. Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision, that done in the body by the hands of men, remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in

Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier the dividing wall of hostility by? Abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two one new man out of the two, thus making peace and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross by which he put to death their hostility.

He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near, for through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. This is God's word. You know, for 2,000 years you've always, you have the word and then after that the Lord's Supper. In the history of the church, across Orthodox Catholic Protestant churches, you always have of the church, across orthodox Catholic Protestant churches you always have

first the sermon, then the sacrament, the Lord's Supper, unless Tim Keller is caught in a car getting across the park on Marathon Sunday. And those are the only times in the history of the church where exceptions are allowed. Just wanted you to know. We've been looking at the book of Ephesians and we're going to continue to look at it. We said that the book of Ephesians is about the church. In particular, when we get into this chapter, right now, the second half of chapter two and three, we're now getting into what you might call the really heart, the guts

of what this particular book says about the church. And in particular, if you remember at the end of chapter one, Paul prayed that his readers would see the evidences of God's mighty power at work in the world. And now we see one of the main ways that we are sure that God's power is at large in the world and that is inside the church, people who outside the church could never get along are now living together in peace. That's Paul's point. Paul in these verses, we're going to look at the second half of chapter two and the beginning of chapter three over the next three weeks. It's so, some of the most remarkable and powerful stuff anywhere in the Bible about the church. Paul is saying here that God has

addressed one of the main problems that the human race has ever had. What is that problem? What is God's solution for it? And how did he bring it about? What's the problem, what's the solution, his solution, and how did he bring it about? First, what's the problem? It's here in verses 11 to 15, the case study of it, the case example of it is this. The circumcision and the uncircumcision, that's Jew and Gentile, verse 11, exist in a state of, and the word comes out twice, hostility. There's a dividing wall of hostility between them, verse 14. And that word hostility, which is brought up twice, is simply the word for hate.

In the old translations it says enmity, but it's a word that means hate. Now, what has caused the hate between Jew and Gentile, according to Paul? Ironically, he says what it is, because God has to deal with it. It's the law with its commandments and regulations. That's the thing that's created a wall, a

barrier. Now, what's that? That's the mosaic legislation, the Old Testament, with all the rules and regulations about how to live a holy life. And the Jews were given this legislation as a gift. And through it, they were supposed to be a holy, godly nation that was to show the other nations of the world what godliness looked like. It was supposed to be a blessing for everybody. You know how often it's said that Israel was supposed to be a light to the nations, they were supposed to live according

to this law, and then they were supposed to be able to show the nations what godliness looked like. It was supposed to be a blessing. But nations what godliness looked like. Supposed to be a blessing. But here we're told, the reality is, that it became the basis for hostility. That on the one hand the Jews came to despise the unclean Gentiles, because they didn't have a law. And on the other hand the Gentiles came in

to despise the Jews for despising them. There's nothing more despicable than someone despising you. And as a result there was this hostility and this good gift that God gave the Jews had become this occasion for hate between races. Now let's pull ourselves out of that right away. The Jew Gentile, as important as that could be, we could spend more time on it. We have to say that it's only, I told you,

a case example of a universal. And here's what that universal is. When God gives us good gifts, talents, strengths, there's something in the human heart that takes those good gifts, elevates them up to an absolute value, then looks at everyone who doesn't have what you have and causes you to look down on them, causes you to despise

them. The good gift becomes a basis for hostility. And this is particularly true not just between individuals but between groups of people, races, cultures, classes of people. The way we get an identity, the way we define ourselves, the way we get our self worth is by taking what's good about us, what's distinct about us, lifting it up, then taking a look at everyone else, judging everyone else, especially those who don't have it, then saying, oh, we're not like them. That's who we are. In other words, we get our identity by looking down on others by excluding others.

The perfect spot in the Bible that expresses this is the prayer of the Pharisee in Luke chapter 18 verse 11. And when the Pharisee lifts his eyes to heaven, begins to pray, his first sentence is this, oh Lord, I thank thee, I am not like other people. How do you like that? Oh Lord, I thank thee, I am not like other people. There it is.

Did you hear the story about the man who was shipwrecked on a desert island? He was the only person on the island and he was there for a year, only one there. And when they rescued him they found that because he was a, you know, a devout religious person, he had built two little churches on the island. Two little shacks. And he went and that because he was a religious person they said oh Okay, why did you build two churches? There's only one of you Why did you build two churches? He says well of course he says you always have to have one church to go to and one to stay away from I mean, that's how you know who you are

you are. The point, listen, do you get the principle here? The principle is there's something in the human heart that takes what's good about you, lifts it up so that we can feel superior to other people and we get our identity, we get our self worth, we get our definition that way. We take these things and we moralize them. They're equivalents to the law with the regulations and the commands that was given to the Jews. So for example, some years ago I did a wedding. And one of the spouses that I was joining in Holy Matrimony was an Anglo‑American and one was a non‑, non white person. And at 2 o'clock, which was when the invitation said the wedding was to start, at 2 o'clock all the white people were there. Everybody from that side of the family, you know, that side of the white guys, family were all there and there was nobody there on the other side.

And over the next 10 or 15 minutes they started to saunter in, about 40 minutes later the bride got there. And you know what happens when you start to complain and mock another race, you always do it very, very, very quietly and very privately off in a corner, but it was not too hard to hear. Because see, what happens is the white people were saying, those people, you know, inefficient, insensitive, no wonder they have trouble getting jobs. And of course the other side says those white people up tight, you know, and you know what the anthropologists would say, the white people up tight and cold and mechanical. What the anthropologists would do is they would start to give you a lecture

on how cultures can be either time oriented or event oriented. Some cultures define the event in terms of the time. Other cultures define the time in terms of the event. we won't go into it, I think you already got the picture of it. The point is each culture was lifting up its strength and using it to look down on the other. And that's what we do. And even in New York City, where in this secular culture you must never, ever disdain someone for their race or culture. And yet in New York City you disdain someone for their race or culture. And yet in New York City you disdain people who are unenlightened, especially in their politics. Those poor people, those idiots, those people who are ruining the world.

So even if you have people who go to the elite institutions and they come to New York City and they think they're absolutely absolutely free of this particular evil which is you know taking your strength, lifting it up, looking down on people of other races, classes, groups, but they do it through politics which is the same thing. This is the reason why the earth is red with human blood and has been for centuries. Now, what is God's solution? So there's the problem. What's the solution? The solution is, it's a fascinating solution because it says, and it's a very strong term, and in fact nobody quite knows exactly how to translate it, it says that God brought about peace by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations, his purpose was to create

in himself one new man out of the two. Now don't forget, Jew and Gentile is every race, right? You're either a Jew or you're a Gentile. That's every race in the world, got it? That's nice and comprehensive. And what Paul is saying is, God's purpose is inside the church to create one new human being, and actually it says one new man,

but probably the better translation would be to say a new humanity, a new humanity. That's a strong word, and it's right. You see, it's one thing to be in a club. And if you're in a club, that means that you share one or two common interests with the other people in the club. So let's say you're in a tennis club. And so you know tennis, you love tennis, you're willing to spend money to play tennis, and there's the tennis courts. You're in a tennis club or you're in a chess club or something like that. In a club, you connect with the other people in your club in one or two ways.

But when you are in, when you share the same race, the same culture, that is a much more profound thing than a shared avocation like tennis. And a shared race and culture is a much more profound thing and it affects almost every area of your life. And therefore people who are the same race and culture as you, you feel thousands of connections with them. Connections in every area of life. And so the connection feels a lot stronger. But you know what Paul is saying? Paul is saying that when you become a Christian, let's say you're Chinese, or you're French,

or you're Hispanic, and in spite of all the connections you have to other people who are also Chinese and French-Hispanic, when you become a Christian, that is the most profound thing of all, Paul is saying. And it creates even deeper and more extensive connections. So much so that you, when you become a Christian, though you are still Chinese, though you still feel a connection to other Chinese people, you now feel greater connection to the people who also believe, have been through the same experience, have been convicted of sin and received the grace of God,

you feel a closer connection and it's a stronger bond with them than you do with other people from your own race that don't share that faith. That's what Paul is saying. And therefore, the church becomes actually a new humanity, a new nation, a new people. It's easy to assume that if we understand the gospel and preach it faithfully, we will

be shaped by it. But this is not always true. How can we make sure that our lives, churches, and ministries are being shaped by, centered on, and empowered with the gospel? Tim Keller's book, Shaped by the Gospel, is meant to help congregants, lay leaders, and pastors understand how to make the gospel the center of all ministry. In Shaped by the Gospel, Dr. Keller shows how gospel-centered ministry is more theologically driven than program-driven.

As you read, you'll discover how reflecting on the essence, the truths, and the patterns of the gospel lead to renewal in your churches and ministries. This month when you give to Gospel in Life, we'll send you Dr. Keller's book, Shaped by the Gospel, as our thanks for your gift. Just visit gospelinlife.com slash give. That's gospelinlife.com slash give. And thank you for your generosity, which helps us reach more people with Christ's love. I remember a professor of mine who taught at my seminary, Addison Leach. He told this fascinating story. Addison Leach. He told us fascinating story.

Addison Leach was the president of the seminary. He was a PhD from Cambridge. He was a very cultured man. And he tells us a story. One day he was driving to a particular social party for educators, for professors basically, it was in California. And he was driving to it and he knew there would be Sherry there and they would be listening to classical music and they would have lectures and they would be talking about the books.

In other words, he was going off to see a group of people who were also educators, PhDs, professors, who were culturally just like him. And on the way he turned on the radio and there was brother Bob Preaching hellfire on the radio and Addison Leach was a born-again Christian believer And as he listened at first he was turned off He the band was very uneducated his grammar was wrong. His arguments were silly you know, he was culturally so different than dr. Leach and the man who was very uneducated, his grammar was wrong, his arguments were silly. He was culturally so different than Dr. Leach. And all of a sudden, Dr. Leach, as he knew he was driving off to spend time with all these people who were just like him,

they read the same books, they had the same degrees, they were culturally just like him, he suddenly realized as he was listening to Brother Bob, this is my brother. This is my brother. Look at me. This is my brother. This is my brother. Look at me. I am Christian first and I am white second. I am Christian first and I'm an American second.

I'm Christian first and I'm college educated second. And that means that when I meet and I have a poor single mother in Soweto, a black African township in South Africa, who's also a believer, there is a closer tie I have with her and there's a closer bond I sense with her and a more profound connection than I have with the people I grew up with. Same street, same school, same race, same generation. Do you understand that?

Paul says because of that, God can finally do something that has never been done before, and that is get over these horrible divisions in the human race that is keeping us from living at peace. Now how does he do that? We press a little further. The Bible tells you in general and particular here. Here's the general.

What the gospel does is it goes after the heart. In a place like New York City, our secular Western culture rightly believes racism is a terrible thing. And the Bible from beginning to end says it's a terrible thing. Image of God, all human beings, Genesis 1. The Bible says all human beings are in the image of God, therefore they're equal in status and value before God. God comes to Abraham and he says, I'm going to save the world,

but I want to make sure that that salvation goes to all the families and nations of the earth. Genesis 12. Moses, a Jewish man, marries a black woman in Numbers 12. God not only approves of it, he punishes the people who don't like it. He actually says to Peter in Acts chapter 10, he uses of course as a Greek word, he says that he does not do any prosopolympsia. And I don't want you to do it either.

Write that down, you know what that means? Let me just give you the, this is what he says. God does not show favoritism or discriminate on the basis of race or class, but accepts from every nation those who fear him and do what is right. I mean, the Bible also says racism's a terrible thing. But what the secular world does is it goes after the mind and says we're going to scold people and we're going to educate people until the racism is gone.

It hasn't worked and it won't work because the problem is in the heart. And the Bible tells you what that problem is. You have to go back to Genesis to see it. What is the problem? The book of Genesis says that all human beings were created to serve God, but we have turned in sin, we want to be our own proudly independent people. And Romans 1 says, whether you say with your mind you believe in God or not, all human

beings know deep down that they should be serving God. We might repress it, but you know it. And because we know we should be serving God and we're not, there is a deep insecurity in every one of us. Every one of us knows there's something wrong with us. It's fundamental. And therefore, instead of turning to God, we all are trying to do something to bolster that sense of identity, bolster that sense of being right and good, and we do it in many, many ways. But one of the main ways is this, that we take what's strong and we lift it up

and we make it an ultimate value and we moralize it and we look down at everybody who's different and we exclude people. We have one church we go to and one church we have nothing to do with and that's how we get our identity. And the Bible says no, we've got to change the heart and we've got to restructure the way human beings,

and this is what the gospel does, restructure the way human beings actually develop an identity. How's that? Two things that the gospel does that completely restructures the way you have an identity, which means when you become a Christian, you're not just a little different. You're not just not have a little more spiritual strength. The very way you think of yourself,

the very way you have an identity is restructured in two ways. First of all, the gospel destroys the comparison apparatus, the pecking order apparatus that every other human being has in how they develop their identity. When it says that the law and its commandments created a wall, a barrier between Jew and Gentile. Paul was speaking literally because if you went to the temple, there was a literal wall. And because of all the laws and the ceremonies and all the clean laws, the Jews, because they follow the clean laws, they worship closer to God and the Gentiles are on the other side of the wall and they refer their way in the court of the gentiles. But the gospel destroys that and says no longer are you going to get

your identity the way everybody else has always gotten it and that is by looking down at somebody else, pecking order. And here's what happens. Do you see? One of the most radical things is verse 17 where it says he came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to you who were near, reconciling both of you to God through the cross and to one another. Who's far, class, and who's near? What is Paul talking about?

Who are the far ones? Who are the near ones? The Gentiles were far from God. They didn't have the law. They didn't have the Bible. They were really immoral. They were really a mess. They were, they were, they lived lives of sensuality and licentiousness. Yes, Romans 1, you know, and lasciviousness. Oh yes, very immoral. They were far. And the Jews were near. The Jews had the Bible. The Jews had the law of God. The Jews had the tabernacle. The Jews had the Bible, the Jews had the law of God, the Jews had the tabernacle,

the Jews had prayer. They were near. And do you see how radical this is? Verse 17 says, both of them needed to hear the gospel of peace. Both of them needed to be reconciled to God. Both of them were estranged from God and needed to be saved. And that is one of the most radical things the gospel can tell a human being all Until you hear the gospel you do divide the world you do it you walk down the street You see some people and you roll your eyes at them. Oh those people People of different politics people of different races people of different classes, you know, you do It's one of the ways you feel better about yourself. The gospel destroys that, why? It says look at those people over there.

They're far away from God. They're living their lives the way they want. They're rejecting God as savior and lord. But look at the people who are close. Look at the people who are living good lives. And even, they're living good lives and they're saying oh lord, now you have to bless me and take me to heaven and you people need to respect me

because I'm a really good person. So here's people who are disobeying God's law, and here's people who are obeying God's law, and they're both doing it self-centeredly. They're both being arrogant. They're both doing it in a way that actually takes the divisions of the human race and makes them worse. They're both self-righteous.

They're both really being their own savior and lord, and therefore they're both self-righteous, they're both really being their own savior and lord, and therefore they're both lost. And the gospel says there are no pecking orders out there. Everybody, everybody from a mafia hit man to a prostitute to a pillar of the church, you're all sinners. You're all avoiding God in different ways. You're all being your own God and your own savior in different ways.

And therefore you're all equal before God. You all stand equally sinful and you stand equally as recipients of grace if you ask for it. And so the first thing the gospel does is it humbles you out of that kind of pride. It destroys that comparison apparatus. It destroys that pecking order apparatus. And the second thing it does is it reshuffles the layers in your identity deck. Do you know what I'm

talking about? Everybody's got several things that you're proud of that make you feel who you are. Okay. Let's just say you do like your ethnic heritage. You're very happy being Chinese or French or Hispanic or Pennsylvanian. It's my ethnic group. The one place in the world where English is spoken without an accent, it's amazing. But only Eastern Pennsylvania. Western Pennsylvania, they talk a little funny.

So we're all proud of, okay, your ethnicity is part of what makes you feel who you are and proud. Okay, you also had a good education, you went to a good school, you got a career, so you're a professional person. These are good things. But then along comes the fact that if you give your life to Christ, you are now accepted in him, that the Lord of the universe not only pardons you but delights in you and sees you as perfect and righteous in Christ. And that affirmation is so powerful it goes to the foundation of your life and it relativizes

everything else. Oh yeah, it's nice to be Chinese or French or Hispanic. It's great to be a professional. But those things pale in comparison to this. And what that does is it just loosens you up so you no longer are so locked in your culture and locked in your profession or locked in your politics. You don't need that to feel good about yourself anymore.

And because of that, Paul can come to a guy like Peter, who was actually, he was a Jew and he'd always been told the Gentiles run clean and now that he was a Christian He was still refusing to eat with Gentile Christians Because they run clean and Paul says in Galatians 2 14 you are not living in line with the gospel Isn't that amazing? Paul says you would not do racial discrimination You would not judge a person by the color of their skin rather

than the content of their character. You would not be able to be a racist if you understood the implications of the gospel. Your identity has changed. It's restructured. The pecking order is gone. The layers have been reshuffled. And you can look not only at every other person in the world and no longer look down at them, but your Christian brother and sister, even people of different race, of class, of educational level and politics. There's a bond now because God is recreating the human race as it ought to be inside the church amongst those who are in Christ. How does he do that? Just one last quest point. How does he

affect that? There's an amazing statement there that goes by too fast. It says in verse 16, he reconciles both to them, to God through the cross by which he put to death their hate. On the cross, God slew, it literally says, he slew the hatred, the hostility. What? What? Nothing died on the cross but Jesus. Second Corinthians 521 says, God made him sin who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. What does that mean, God made him sin? Well, it doesn't

mean God made him sinful. Jesus wasn't sinful. It means God put him in the place of the sin, of the inhumanity of man, of all the things that should be we should be destroyed for our hostility we've ruined this world The world is the ground runs with blood because of us God should slay us for our hostility instead He slew the hostility. What does that mean on the cross? Jesus Christ took the punishment we deserve and That destroyed the penalty for our hostility that should fall on us. He took it. He got the hostility of the divine wrath.

You see, because we've been hostile to each other, God should be hostile to us. Because we have destroyed each other, God should destroy us. Instead, the destruction came down on him. And when Jesus Christ did it voluntarily, think about this, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, wouldn't you say they're a sort of superior race us. Instead the destruction came down on him. And when Jesus Christ did it voluntarily, think about this, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, wouldn't you say they're a sort

of superior race to you and me? You know, they have no beginning, no ending, they're perfect, they're holy. Yeah, I'd say that's a superior race. And yet Jesus Christ was not… Hebrews 2, 11 says, he is not ashamed to call us brothers. He was not afraid, he was not ashamed to identify with an inferior race. He didn't see us as inferior. He went to the cross and he was not ashamed to call us brothers. Remember Addison Leach, he realized he was not ashamed to call the man on the radio a brother, but Jesus Christ at the cost of his life. He said, I'm not afraid. I'm not ashamed to call you brothers. And when the cross comes in the middle of your life, there will be nobody around you that you'll

be ashamed of either. It doesn't matter how they smell. It doesn't matter the color of their skin. Are we a church like that? Do we take this seriously? Oh, listen, no church can be completely able, no church can be completely inclusive of all people. I'm preaching in English, right? You realize that leaves out more than half of New York City. There's a lot of people that know English, but that's not their heart language. So as soon as you do things like, I mean, there's no way any one church can comprise the whole thing. But every church, and I'm saying Redeemer Presbyterian Church, says, how do we stretch to be more racially and culturally inclusive?

How do we go to the mat? How do we sacrifice to make that happen? How do we work to make that happen? Why? Because that's how the world will see one of the main evidences that God's power is at large in this world and that the gospel changes everything. Let's stand. You know, I've got to close you out here. Let's stand. I'm going to pray and then I'm going to give you the benediction and we're going to have the faux slude. Sorry, it's a little abrupt, but that was my fault. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, we thank you for this passage. We thank you that you slew the hatred that is dividing the human race on the cross. That means you not only let the hostility that should fall on us for

our hostility to one another fall into the heart of Jesus so you can embrace us and you can reconcile to us, but you've also given us a grace that now restructures our identity and changes the way in which we look at other people and changes the way we look at ourselves. Oh Lord, we don't want to just be a typical church in which pretty much everybody's the same. We want to show the world the power of the gospel. And so we ask that you would help us, especially in a place like New York City, show the world that your son died not for my race or this race or that race, but for the human race and to win for himself, people from every tongue, tribe, people and nation.

Help us live in accord with this glorious gospel. Thank you for it. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel in Life podcast. If you found today's teaching helpful and something you'd like more people to hear, we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel in Life monthly partner. Your partnership helps more people discover the hope and joy of Christ's love.

Just visit gospelinlife.com slash partner to learn more. Today's sermon was recorded in 2011. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.