I want to share the powerful message given last week at our church (Fellowship Monrovia). Pastor Michael Field breaks it down plainly how God through Christ has broken down dividing walls, walls that divide us individually to God and also to one another. The work on the cross (made of two beams) was not just vertical (to God), but also horizontal (that we can be perfected in unity with others). Christ has reconciled us to Him and to one another, but we live in the “already and not yet” reality of God’s Kingdom on earth. So our act of worship is leaning into the already of a torn down wall, and actively seek to continually deconstruct those walls.
Christ has broken down dividing walls
Michael uses some truly helpful visuals in this message so if you are able, please spend 41 minutes to watch the video:
Ephesians 2:11-22
Jew and Gentile Reconciled Through Christ
11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— 12 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. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
May we continue to break down dividing walls that separate us.
Peace,
Rob