Speaker 1 00:00:20 Hello listeners. And welcome back tofa Christianity, where we are reconciling our human experiences with God in his words, so that we can love from a pure heart, good conscience and sincere faith. It's been a crazy month that I cannot believe that it's already, I'm recording this on the 23rd of March. So it's already been, um, on ago since some crazy things started happening in our family. Um, largely just a lot of sickness. I still have, uh, pretty bad cough that, that keeps me up at night and we'll probably have to edit out of this quite a bit. And then, yeah, we've had some vehicle issues. Had somebody, I forget if I mentioned this in a previous episode or not, but had somebody Ram hit our van head on when it was parked. And so then had to deal with that in February, beginning of March got a new vehicle, which turned out to be a bit of a blessing.
Speaker 1 00:01:17 And this guys cuz the insurance money allowed us in of, I knew that we were gonna need to be putting some mechanical work into our odysey. And instead of doing that, we were able to get, add, add a little more on and get, get another vehicle, but just kind of creates a rigor me, feel bad for the guy who fell asleep and rammed into our vehicle. Our church is also last weekend. We had a bunch of meetings, uh, regarding just church and we are, uh, in the process of establishing long term, a new long term leadership for our church. And so there's, there's a, a number of different things going on and it's just good to be back
Speaker 1 00:01:58 Recording episodes again. Uh, this episode is probably gonna come out a week after the last episode, but they're recorded about a month apart from each other. So the last episode was, was really long and fairly in depth, responding to questions, uh, in response to my series on critical race theory, how Christians should process critical race theory. In this episode, I'm gonna die dive into Ephesians. Um, I, I, I would just welcome you. If, if you have lingering questions from last episode, feel free to reach out to me. You can either comment on this episode or, or on the YouTube channel or wherever you're, you're listening to this, send me an email, but we're gonna set the discussion of critical race theory and just kind of racism in general. We're gonna just set that up on the shelf for this one. And, and I want to take a dive into Ephesians and particularly Ephesians two, Ephesians two with an ion chapter three.
Speaker 1 00:02:57 This is a, I'm gonna share a sermon that I preached at our church here a month and a half, couple months ago. And it's kind of the, the bedrock of the new Testament vision for how God wants to bring ethnicities, diverse backgrounds together to be a new humanity, a new creation, a new P in which he dwells through his holy spirit. So I'd love if you could grab your, grab your Bibles, uh, at the end of the last episode, I think I suggested you could read, uh, the book of Ephesians a while. We're not gonna walk through the whole book of Ephesians, but we are gonna get some background into it. Grab your Bible open up to Ephesians too. And let's begin by reading through the, the chapter Ephesians two. Um, obviously if you wanna let your eyes stray into chapter three, uh, I am gonna have my eye on chapter three, but I'm not gonna be going through chapter three specifically as always, if you would like in depth essays, uh, dressing Pacific issues like deconstruction or what's the big deal about the head covering and first Corinthians 11 and how to think through the black lives matter movements, should Christians masturbate any, any stuff like that?
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Speaker 1 00:05:07 Father. I just invite your, your spirit to guide us as we look at Ephesians here today, or just ask that we would set our opinions and our, our MI our, um, mindsets, our ideological mindsets that we kind of fall into in discussions on current events and issues for that. We can set those aside and, and just look at your word and hear your, your spirit, uh, speak to us that we would not think as conservatives or liberals, Democrats, Republicans, uh, even nights or a Cal, uh, Baptists or Presbyterians or Pentecostals, but father that we would just listen to you and try to think what is, how should we think through this as Christians, as Jesus followers, as people who seek to image you in creation, be faithful to your message guide me as I, as I walk through this and just give, uh, people listening, give them insight and, um, thoughts and questions to provoke. Good study and conversation around this chapter here in Ephesians. Thank you for your presence in Jesus name. Amen. Let's just begin here by reading through Ephesians two.
Speaker 1 00:06:30 I know maybe that's not, uh, most maybe not a typical, uh, thing to do on a podcast to, to just read a blah lack of scripture. But I think sometimes we can have conversations even about the Bible. And it has actually been a while since we've laid eyes on what the Bible, what the text says. And, and so I think it's helpful to begin by reading through, and then we'll look at some, uh, context and, and get some background for it all Ephesians two verse one, Paula is writing to believers in the region of Asia minor. And you were dead in your trespass and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and word by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind, but God being rich and mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace, you have been saved and, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1 00:07:45 So that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness, toward us in Christ Jesus, for by grace, you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God. Not a result of works so that no one may boast for. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by, by what is called the circumcision, which made in the flesh by hands. Remember that you were at that time, separated from Christ alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were wa who were far off, have been brought near by the blood of, for he himself is our peace who has made us both.
Speaker 1 00:08:46 One has broken down in his flesh, the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself. One new man in place of the two. So making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body, through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off in peace to those who are near for, through him. We both have access in one spirit to the father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets Christ, Jesus himself, being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord in him. You also are being built up together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit.
Speaker 1 00:09:47 When my wife and I lived in Thailand, we lived, we lived overseas for three years and I taught at a, a small school for mission eight children. Some of them, uh, came from America. Uh, some of them from Canada, the, the three years that I was there, we had some, uh, families about four students from Pakistan. We had some children from Mexico and everybody was in Thailand. Uh, even some from India, Korea, everyone was in Thailand because of either fleeing for security reasons, doing some kind of mission work, uh, ministry work in Thailand. And I, the, at the peak of my three years there, we had 15 students. So it was a very small school, but we had seven different ethnicities represented. So it was a very diverse school, very diverse background. And one, one of the things that was common among all students there is that, and among all of us there is that we were expats.
Speaker 1 00:10:40 We were living away from our home nation. And so even though there was a lot of difference among us, we all had that one thing in common and it created a bond that, that was special for that season. But within the first week of teaching, there just moved. I think we moved about a month, month and a half before school started. So we've been there less than two months and now school is just getting underway. And within the first week at recess time, we, we had the, the school was in a house, in a move on area. And just across the street was a park with a basketball and some, a little bit of yard to play, play around in. And there was a sign on the basketball court that said no kicking football. And so we would often go out for recess and we'd play basketball or four square or something, something without kicking the football.
Speaker 1 00:11:33 And on one particular day, we went out and the, the, some of the older guys wanted to play giant four square. So instead of using four small boxes, we were gonna use four big boxes, which were already outlined in the big basketball court area. And as they were playing, I didn't think there was any issue here. And as they were playing, they started using their foot to tap the ball from, from one box to the next. And again, I, I didn't think there was any issue. We're not playing soccer. We're not kicking the ball, everything's staying on the basketball court because, uh, one of the main concerns was that there would be youth that would come out in the evenings and play soccer in the small park there. And then soccer balls would get, go out and hit, uh, neighbors vehicles and so forth, knew that wasn't happening.
Speaker 1 00:12:16 So I thought, well, this is probably fine. And so I was out in the little grass area playing with some of the children and the older guys were playing giant Foursquare. And one of the neighbors who was doing some construction in his house came running over to the park and was looking at the sign. No, no kicking football, no kicking football. And so I was, wasn't entirely sure from the distance that I was, I wasn't entirely sure what, what all he was saying or what his concern was, but I decided, well, I better go talk to him and, and see if we can, uh, resolve this issue. And so I came from the far end of the park, came running up to him and he was holding a big, probably 10, maybe 12 foot piece of PVC pipe, just a small, you know, maybe three quarter inch round.
Speaker 1 00:13:00 Maybe, maybe it was bigger than that. I kind of forget, but it wasn't super big. And I, as I came running up to him, he suddenly took it, the PVC pipe and whipped it down over my shoulder, kind of grazed. The, this side of my head slapped me on the shoulder, left a good old wet on it, and immediately drew it back up again. He was gonna whip me again and I was just stunned. I was whoa, whoa, whoa, what's going on? I, what in the world? I, I didn't, I wasn't trying to do anything. Like, I'm just trying to, you're, you're upset. You're, you're talking to us. I wanted to come see what all this is about and you, he didn't really know English. I, I didn't really know much Thai. So every, everybody, my, all my students around me, everybody's just stunned. Like what in the world do we do?
Speaker 1 00:13:44 I'm got my hands up kind of in the, uh, fetal position, a little bit, trying to protect myself and not sure what in the world is going on. And we finally got some things calm down. And I just, I realized that, oh, he does not like the boys using the, the, their feet to tap the ball from the big box boxes on the basketball court. And so I, I committed, okay, we're not gonna do that. We won't do that again. But it really shook me up. And it made me, it made me, um, made me quite upset <laugh> because, because I was trying to come like talk to you and, and you whip me. And in America, like we could, you know, I, I wouldn't do it, but I could Sue you for an assault of some kind like you don't just go whipping somebody anyways, after, after this school day was ended.
Speaker 1 00:14:31 And we all the, the heat of the moment was over. I, I went over to some Thai friends and, and we were talking with different people as they were hearing what transpired that day, they were listening. And they, they said, you, so you went running up to him to talk to him. And, and I said, yeah. And I was explaining what happened. And I thought, you know, the more I lay out, the more I make it clear, like I should be in the, I should be okay. Right. Well, then they looked at me and they said, Asher, Asher, you are wrong. You do not run up to someone who is older than you. You do not. He thought that when you ran up that you were angry with him. And so he felt he was gonna be attacked and you do not run up to him.
Speaker 1 00:15:20 And I was stunned. I, you know, the feeling of like somebody being, taking all the air outta you, sitting on your air hose a little bit. I was like, what in the world? Like, how can this be? How, how am I the one in the wrong? Like I was, I was trying to mediate before he got more upset at the kids that were closest to him. I was trying to come get in between and calm the situation down. And I'm the one who has a wealth on his shoulder. It didn't make any sense to me. But that day I, I realized, and I knew, I knew before, or that, that there would be differences in culture, in Thai culture. I already knew some of those differences. Um, one of those differences being that you don't shake hands with people, you give them the why, and depending on how old they are compared to you, or depending on their position of, of status, whether they're, you know, if you're talking to the king of Thailand, you'd, you'd have the why high up.
Speaker 1 00:16:15 Or if you're talk, even if you're talking to a pastor, you'd have the why in a more honorable position. But if I'm, if I'm just talking to a child, then the, why would be just down around my chest. So folks who are watching on YouTube can see what I'm doing, but the why is just two hands kind of like, you're praying, just put it other and put it out in front of you. And you just hold it generally. If, um, if I would be talking to a peer, I would have my thumbs kind of around my chin. And I'd just say, sweaty cup with a little dip of my head. Uh, hopefully I'm getting it, getting it right. It's been a few years since I've been there. But the position of the wide deter, uh, is, is determined by the, the position of honor of the person you are greeting.
Speaker 1 00:16:57 So I knew stuff like that, but I hadn't realized that there's gonna be a lot more in which ways, in which my culture collides with his culture or with Thai culture in this particular instance, it was a, it was a man. And so running up in Tyler and anger is one of the most, I don't know how you'd say it. It's, it's, it's one of the gravest sins that you could commit to show anger to demonstrate anger is, is about the equivalent of somebody committing some gross act of sexual imorality here in the states. So for me to go running up to him was, was an expression of aggression and anger. And so it was perfectly app for him to act in self defense and to hit hit me. And so I swallowed my pride in knowing that I'm, you know, if I want to, not only am I in this other culture, so I'm outside of my culture, I should honor the area, but more specifically, if I want to connect with that neighbor, if I want to have a good relationship with that neighbor, I need to make things right and understand that it was on me, who committed the, the, uh, cultural insensitivity who facilitated and kind a hostility between the two of us in our cultures.
Speaker 1 00:18:12 And so a few days later, I think we took a plate of goodies, maybe some fruit and stuff over to him and apologized for, for the encounter, for running up and for kicking the football. And we never kicked the football again. That was one thing. It was, that was one experience. Um, with the, that neighbor, we generally, he, he was a, a bit of a picky neighbor, but we had a generally cordial relationship with him over the next three years that I was there. So I was grateful that, that, that, that did not end up being a lasting rift between us. Another experience I had was I had a mechanic who was about my age and just a very friendly guy. He spoke English. He was actually just kind of the, the office guy or the, the customer relations person. He was not the mechanic itself.
Speaker 1 00:19:01 He worked for a mechanic shop that had many workers, but I had a lot of conversation with him. I would practice my tie on him. He would practice his English on me. We, we even talked about faith a time or two, and I would learn more about Thai culture from him and got to know him and develop a, a good rapport and trust with him. And one time I needed to find a Dell store because our computer was having issues. And I needed specifically, not just any computer shop, it was some specifically Dell related issues. And so I asked him if he knew of where a Dell store would be, and he said, oh yeah, it would, you know, it'd be on the fifth floor of airport Plaza. And so airport Plaza, it's a big mall in the center of city, I thought. Okay, it's cool.
Speaker 1 00:19:46 Thank you. Thank you. I'll go look up on the fifth floor of airport Plaza. And I traveled in on my motorbike. Parked, walked in airport Plaza is a huge mall. You, you walk in there, there's a lot of people you go up to the fifth floor walk to end to end twice. And I remember on my second time back through, and I realizing I cannot find this store. It just dawned on me. He didn't know where a Dell store would be, but in the Thai culture, it is more honorable to give an answer than to just say, he doesn't know. It's more honorable to me. It's more honorable for as a representative of Thai people. It's more honorable as the representative of that mechanic shop. I didn't understand that all at the moment. I knew that this could happen. And I didn't think about it, that it might happen even with somebody who I had developed some trust with, but in that moment, it gone on me.
Speaker 1 00:20:43 Oh, he just gave me an answer that seemed reasonable, that felt honorable. And he didn't actually know where Dell store was. As it turned out, the Dell store was always was, it was on the complete north side of town, not in airport Plaza. And something like that was, is one thing to face an issue like that with someone who's, who's not even a Christian, but the challenge comes when you bump into cultures, honor, shame cultures versus guilt, innocent cultures, where someone's going to give a response because they felt dishonored in the moment. They're gonna try to give an honorable response, but the per but me from the guilt innocent culture feels like you just lied to me. Like you tell me the truth. And it creates a sense of hostility. It creates rifts between people, groups, and how to navigate that because, uh, scripture does call us to be truthful in our, in the, in the way that we relate to each other. It'll also calls us to be honorable give honor to whom honors do and not to dishonor people. And we even as Christians within the church, we face these rifts, these hostilities coming between cultures, as we try to live as one people in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 00:22:01 This is the context that Paul is writing. When he writes the book of Ephesians, he's writing to a people who are living in an extremely diverse setting. Ephesus was the largest city of the, uh, Eastern PO part of the Roman empire. It's right on the, the edge of Asia minor, uh, modern day Turkey. If you find a globe and you, you look on the, the, in Greece and you in Athens and you go straight across the sea, you'll see the CI the area that was known as ESUs. It was very large city full of different people. People from all different kinds of backgrounds, it was a, it was a port city. So it was known for being a place of trade. It was also a place that people went to have their best life. Now, it was kind of the last Vegas you could say, or the LA of America, and you went there and experienced.
Speaker 1 00:22:55 It was a place to kind of get away and you could experience all kinds of sexual frivolities and just kinda live the party life. So there was gross. I morality, there was a lot of black magic there. They, they worshiped roughly 50 gods in, in Ephesus. In the, the, one of the main gods was the goddess of Artemis who was known to be the goddess of fertility and life. And so it was because this is a place, the temple of Artemis, the goddess of fertility in life. That's why you would come here to have your sexual exploitations and all of that. So it is in this setting that Paul is, is, has come. And he's spent some time actually in ESUs discipling people and, and exhorting them in what it means to walk according to Jesus. And not according to our flesh, according to the ways of disobedience and rebellion, but let's step back a little further.
Speaker 1 00:23:49 And let's review God's story of blessing for all nations through his chosen family. Because if you look at ESUs one, go ahead and flip over to ESUs one. You see that Paul begins his message by saying blessed, be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless in him. So this is very much, uh, you jump down to, uh, verse six, uh, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved or in the anointed. Speaking of Jesus in him, we have redemption through his blood, uh, jumped down to verse am down to verse nine, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan verse 10 for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
Speaker 1 00:24:47 So Paul is, is pulling back in this message to the church at Ephesus. Paul is pulling back harking back to the, the story from the very beginning, from the very beginning of Genesis Genesis one and two, God makes a good creation, Genesis three mankind rebels again, God as God. And they do not honor him as God. And they choose to be gods themselves, or at least try to be and, and determine good and evil for themselves. Genesis three 15. We have the promise that someone, a child from the woman is gonna bring forth liberation, crush the circumstance. There's gonna be a blessing, a liberation from the, his corruption, Genesis four through 11 man left to himself, holds himself and his power over other men. You have Kane killing Abel layette, killing 77 people, and ultimately culminated in the people of Bab building this city and this nation where they're going to be in the heavens.
Speaker 1 00:25:44 Literally the, the epitome of deep clearing themselves gods is they're gonna reach the heavens. They're going to be gods. They're gonna have a name for themselves. And that's a picture of the, the full end of man left to himself. And this is not going in a good direction. So God calls Abram. He calls him to raise up a family who walks in Cub with yawe and who will bring forth his child of blessing. Genesis 12 Abraham's family is called to be a blessing to all nations, by caring for people of other nations as if they were their own. Some examples of this. There are cities of refuge made available to Israelites and foreigners in cases of accidental murder numbers, 35, 15, uh, Deuteronomy 16, 14 and 26, 11 foreigners were to be included in festivals and celebrations mandated in the law, Deuteronomy 20, uh, 14, 28 through 29.
Speaker 1 00:26:41 Some of the tithe collected by the priest was to be used not only to feed them and their families, but also to help provide food for foreigners, widows and orphans Leviticus, 23, 22 farmers were instructed to leave the gleanings of their fields for the poor and foreigner, and to treat the stranger as they would. The poor among the Israelites. Leviticus is 25 35, Isaiah 56, 3 through seven yawe will look after the foreigner who joins with him. So these, this, this is just a bird's eye view, demonstrating that it is a part of God's heart, that his people be a blessing to all nations, not just a blessing to themselves, but a blessing to all nations. God is trying to reach all nations in a world, in, in a world that is held to corruption. And that corruption is that they're going to serve themselves first instead of others.
Speaker 1 00:27:35 And so God calls this family, who's gonna serve others and be a blessing to all nations, but ultimately God's people failed to give justice to the four. They hold their place of privilege over others. Uh, Malachi three, five through six point this out points this out. This is a part of what leads them into exile. So Jesus, the promised child Messiah comes to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor for all Luke four 18 and pours out the whole holy spirit on all people's acts 10 28. So that all tribes and tongues and nations may be joined into ya's family and stand before his throne, shouting salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne into the lamb revelation seven, 10. So it is within this larger overarching story. The, that Paul is writing to the church at ESUs, who appears to be having not only are they perhaps young in the faith and need some reminder or, or just an understanding of what all God is doing, but they're also very clearly having some ethnic struggles.
Speaker 1 00:28:41 So just to, to have a little flyover of Ephesians as a whole here, quick, a good summary sentence for Ephesians, which is one that, that I developed after studying through this. So we could, it could be summarized many different ways, but one that I work with is that God is creating a new humanity in Jesus Christ who live in unity, shine his glory and push forward his purposes on earth through the power of the holy spirit God's plan set forth in Jesus is to one unite, all things to himself. We, we already looked at that Ephesians one 10, bring unity to a diverse community. We'll see that we reread that too in Ephesians two 14 through 15 display the UN to the nations and the spiritual realms through the perseverance of his people as one body, Ephesians three nine through 10, to make his Bo to make this body strong, to persevere through turbulent doctrines in schemes of various cultural moments, Ephesians four 14 to radically transform our relationships with one another, where we lay down power over each other.
Speaker 1 00:29:52 And instead walk as brothers and sisters linking arms as equal recipients of yahs familial blessing, Ephesians 5, 1 21, 6 through one through nine, and then defeating cosmic adversaries through communion with yawe in prayer. The word of God, salvation, faith, peace, righteousness, justice, and truth. A, uh, EUSs six, 10 through 20. So that's kind of the, the overall arching plan that God has set forth in Jesus. That Paul is expounding on expounding upon here in Ephesians. Let's look at this a little more closely specifically to Ephesians two 11 through 22. So if you remember how that begins, there's this switch. So it showed versus one through 10 showed what God was doing. We were dead and God made us alive and seated us with him in the heavenly place. Therefore remember that you were Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcised, but UN circumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands.
Speaker 1 00:30:59 Remember that you were at that. I am separated from Christ alienated from the Commonwealth of his role and strangers to the covenants of promise. So Paul is embedding this message within a covenant framework. And so we've got to understand from the very beginning creation, what happened, why God covenanted with Abraham and what is going forth from there. So Ephesians two, 11 through 12, while you are in fighting and holding yourselves as superior above others, remember you once were not considered a part of the family. This is not just a theological separation, Jew Gentile. It's a socioeconomic separation in the kingdom of God. There is theological and practical blessing to be received. No one experiences, a greater level of blessing than others. And we've already looked through J just a glimpse of that. There's more that we could unpack. Um, the, the caring for the foreigner, the caring, the cities of refuge, the, the caring for the widow and the poor to be a citizen of the Commonwealth off of Israel was much more, was it most certainly included a, a position of eternal blessing in as it concerns the afterlife, but it also included a position of blessing right now, right here.
Speaker 1 00:32:19 It was a place of being cared for. And it's reminiscent of how you read, uh, some books like, uh, the rise of Christianity by Rodney stark. And he talks about how one of the things that attracted people to the church, particularly women in the first century was how people were treated better. The, the Christian community took care of each other and people were treated better in the, within the Christian community. And so there is not just theological significance to the fact that we are no longer Jew versus Gentile, but we are now one, there is socioeconomic significance. There is sing in many regards that impacts society. It impacts our eternal position, our, our eternal destiny, as it were while you are busy, comparing yourselves with each other and holding yourselves over one another, remember that Jesus has brought you near. So there's, there's not only this, this ethnic tension between Jew and Gentile, but it also seems apparent that there must be some tension between the different ethnicities within the Gentile.
Speaker 1 00:33:26 Cause Gentile just means not Jew. So it doesn't, it's not a distinction between someone who's from Egypt or someone who's from Asia or someone who's from Spain. There there's many different ethnicities that exist within the, a Gentile, uh, category. And so Paul is appealing. He's saying, remember you, you used to be foreigners. So don't, don't hold it over each other. But not only that, it's, it's not anything you did that, that made yourself, made yourself a part of the recipient of this blessing. It was something that Jesus, Jesus brought you near. He has torn down the wall of separation and hostility. Jesus is creating you a diverse group of people into one new man and thereby making peace. This is the work of Jesus is not the work of you guys. The, the work of us is humans left to ourself is going to hostility is going to be continual dominance over one another.
Speaker 1 00:34:25 We saw that in Genesis four through 11, it is through the work of Jesus Christ and through submission to yawe and his what he calls good. What he calls evil and honoring him is God that we are built up into one new man, thanks to Jesus who killed the hostility, tore down the wall of hostility and is now creating one new man to walk in peace as a household, the family of God, you are built up as equal recipients of the, the odd theological socioeconomic blessing of yawe to be a dwell place for his spirit. So just so we're clear, I'm not saying this is just a socioeconomic blessing. There is tremendous theological impact. What I'm trying to show is that the theological reality impacts the socioeconomic reality as well. And that that's not just Asher projecting onto that. That is, that is extrapolated throughout scripture.
Speaker 1 00:35:25 The, the Torah, the law of God laid out instructions of how to take care of society. And Paul is harking back to that. When he specifically mentions the import or the, the fact that you were alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel, you were not citizens of that recipients of that blessing. Well, now you are. And so he's not just talking, cuz there's other places he talks about Jew and Gentile and being joined together. But there's specifically as it relates the way we govern one another and relate with each other. There's a specific blessing that is to be experienced in Jesus Christ, theologically and socioeconomically holding choice commands over another as being more but biblical hostility and Jesus has abolished or demolished such commands. So if I look at my brother, who's from an honor shame culture who tells me something that I think is a lie.
Speaker 1 00:36:30 And I really, really hark in on him and I get dogmatic with him and all the while he feels like I'm sitting against him, not showing honor. Well who's right. Which one is right? And if I'm, if any, one of us are going to hold our choice commands over the other as being more biblical, more important, that just kind's hostility between the peoples between the two cultures. Jesus is now our cornerstone not choice can S Jesus is our cornerstone. Paul is pretty radical now understand Paul is the same guy who warrants against false gospels, false teachers. Paul's not Paul doesn't pull any punches when it comes to com uh, teachings and doctrines that are leading people away. So Paul, we should not be reading this saying, Paul is saying, don't worry about doctrine. No, Paul cares about doctrine, but right. Doctrine rightly positions, Jesus as our cornerstone, not a particular command.
Speaker 1 00:37:33 Does that make sense? So Jesus is our cornerstone. Now, uh, some, some of us might think that makes things easier as, oh, we don't have to worry about all these different commands. We don't have to detail them out. We just focus on Jesus. It actually makes things a lot harder because Jesus, uh, lived radically and perfectly. And, and it, it confronts every selfish instinct within us to try to walk. As Jesus walked to, to look at Jesus and to try to grapple with the theological doctrinal message that he embodied. But the point is that we, if we center on commands, we're going to Kindle these hostilities, but it's Jesus, who is the cornerstone. Jesus tore down the wall. Jesus brings us together. And our faith in Jesus is what holds us together. Paul's gonna get into that later on in the book, there is one faith and we are tr we are supposed to pursue the unity of faith in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 00:38:34 But we do that by centering on Jesus, not on particular commands. Paul's pretty radical in Ephesians about he's. I mean, here, he says, God has abolished these commandments. That's crazy. That's a strong statement. Well, what is Paul doing? Because in acts 21, there's gonna be a group of Jews who became Christians, who come to him and say, Hey, we know that you don't actually believe that you're not supposed to follow the law anymore. That Jews aren't supposed to follow in the law. So would you come in, would you pay for the, these men to have follow through on their Nazare vow, their Nazare offering. And Paul, does you say, wait a minute, Paul, what are you, what are you saying? I thought you said that God abolished these commandments and that my friends is a conversation for a whole nother time. But I, I do believe that the point that I bring this up is to step back and say, Paul is making a strong point here in Ephesians, that we are the center on Jesus.
Speaker 1 00:39:32 And for him to then go to Jews who have become and recognize that, Hey, Jews, we are to still follow through on the law. That's not him necessarily contradicting that we are not centered on Jesus. It kind of baffles our understanding of what Jews should do now, but it's pretty clear throughout the new Testament that Gentiles are not bound by the law, not bound to continue follow the law. And there's a lot of debate that we could discuss over that. But Paul is rightly orienting our faith here in Ephesians. It's centered on Jesus, not particular commands. The spirit of God gives us access to the father, not particular behavior. We don't rightly behave our into access with the father, the spirit of God being sealed by the spirit of God, being built up as a dwelling place for the spirit of God. This gives us access to the father, the work of the father, the work of the father through Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 00:40:33 The kingdom of God is a family of many ethnic gender and socioeconomic backgrounds. And we can come together linking arms as brothers and sisters, because we are reconciled in Jesus to the father. Not because we figured out perfectly which cultural distinctives resemble the kingdom of God. You kind of hear that mindset. Like all cultures are broken and all cultures somewhat resembled. And so we, we kind of arbitrarily go through like, oh yes, I think this cultural distinctives res those, uh, the scriptures and resembles the teachings of God. And, and that's, that's just an exercise of futility because it it's all gonna be determined. And based on our own culture, like, we're gonna notice things in scripture that my Thai friends don't notice. And they're gonna notice things that I don't notice. And so how do we reconcile all of that together? We're, we're brought to there because of what Jesus has done.
Speaker 1 00:41:21 Not because we've figured out perfectly which cultural distinct, distinctive resemble the kingdom of God. That's gonna be a work that we're gonna have to persevere in patience. Paul, in chapter four gets into walking. Therefore, because of this calling, you have been called to be one people in Jesus Christ because he's torn down the wall of hostility, therefore, because of that calling and this calling, walking together in unity declares to the cosmic powers, that heavenly rulers, the wisdom and the goodness of God, that's all chapter three. We're not reading through that, but go ahead and read it on your own because of that call with all humility and gentleness patience, bear with one another in love, maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. So figuring out the, the level of godliness of cultural distinctives, that's, that's going to be something we have to bear with each other.
Speaker 1 00:42:09 We are reconciled to Jesus in Jesus to the father are not because we figured out which perfectly, which cultural distinctives resemble the kingdom of God. Not because we've assimilated comfortably to any one particular culture, but because in Jesus, hostility is torn down and brothers and sisters are brought together face to face, but like the Ephesians, we have the threat of still living in hostility toward one another. Now hostile situations rarely begin with people feeling hostile. We don't start out by saying, oh, I'm gonna go pick an argument with somebody. I didn't figure out like, oh, I'm gonna go get upset at my friend because he lies to me like those, those things, life is happening. And it happened so quickly and, and were blindsided by them. I didn't think I was angry at the neighbor who hit me with the pipe. I didn't think I was upset about being I to, but those things can Kindle inside of me, the sense of frustration that if I'm not careful, if I'm not attentive to what's going on, this conflict can arise within us.
Speaker 1 00:43:05 My posture had the ability to create hostility between brothers and sisters. So to flesh things out for our immediate context, what does it look like to walk as one new being in Christ Jesus as a dwelling place for the spirit, we are United through being reconciled to God in Jesus Christ. Our focus is on the REI. The reconciliatory work in Jesus, Ephesians two 14 through 60. So instead of trying to be holy and subsequently comparing each other's progress of holiness, we remember that our place in this family is a work of grace. One we did not earn. And one, we have no business holding over others. Sometimes we take a focus on the goal is to get holy and the goal is to be more holy. And then we, we kinda look at each other and begin comparing. We'd never talk about this, but we do kind of subconsciously begin comparing well, they're, you know, they're watching these movies or they're doing that activity that we would never do, or we nitpick about out particular doctrines.
Speaker 1 00:44:17 And, and we forget that our place in this family is not based on anything that we've done. That's, that's something that's an emphasis. Ephesians Paul is making to the people of emphasis in this letter. Our place in this family is based on the work of grace. One that we didn't earn. One that was done by Jesus. We boast not in our works of righteousness or justice, but in the gift of God, as being recipients, as recipients of his familial blessing, in response to Paul's example, we C in chapter three, verse eight, we recognize that we are given like him this ministry of reconciliation, even though we are the least of all the saints Paul recognizes in, in chapter three, verse eight. He says, even though I, to me though, I am the very least of all the saints. This grace was given to preach to the Gentiles and search of riches of Christ.
Speaker 1 00:45:12 We are given this privilege, this blessing, not because we've done anything, not because somehow we've attained a spiritual maturity that now we are, we can rightly represent. We are the least. And, and that's not, that's not saying that those who are the least, you know, those who are young and you're, you're immature in Christ. Like those are the ones who should be going out and making disciples. I think Paul's pointing to a posture of our hearts, a humility, recognizing that we are the least, we, we are least deserving of this gift of grace. When we think that we have something to give, like I finally attained something or, or I'm now able to disciple you here, let me show you how to reap, keep my life, that kind of mentality. We're just, we're just gonna make copycats of ourselves. And that's not the goal. The goal is to invite people into the family of God and to know Jesus.
Speaker 1 00:46:05 And so realizing that I'm, I'm adopted into this family, I didn't originate as a part of this family. And this gift is something that was given to me and I'm least deserving. That's a posture that all of our ministry and all of our discipleship, all of our work should be done out of as we view the world, as we look at people across the world, brothers and sisters, throughout the church, recognizing that I'm gifted my position in this family. And I am the least deserving. We each have access to Jesus through faith. EUSs three 12, and as ministers, we will suffer so that others might have faith in him. We see this example, Ephesians three, verse 13, don't lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory. The whole goal is to help other people be able to experience this blessing that is possible, that not just a theological blessing for the afterlife and for eternity, but a theological and socioeconomic blessing right now, that's a part of the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1 00:47:11 That's a part of the family of God. Since we have the and called as a diverse community to oneness in Christ, we walk with humility, gentleness, patience, love eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. We talked about this earlier, Ephesians four, one through three, therefore, instead of holding ourselves over others, we submit one to another submit to the giftings. Four, seven through 16, we submit to one another 5 21. We submit to spouses 5 22 through 33. We submit to parent children relationships six one through four and masters en slaves submit one to another six, five through nine. I was just looking at, uh, Ephesians six again this morning, and just realizing such a subversive vision for relationships, for bond servants and masters in chapter six versus five through nine. How many of us can can think whether we're a servant we're indebted to somebody, or maybe not even necessarily indebted, but we're enslaved or we're in a, a position of servitude to someone we don't enjoy it.
Speaker 1 00:48:23 They're maybe holding power over us, maybe abusing us perhaps in our work, perhaps in, you know, some other kind of, uh, neighbor relationship or whatever. Can I work for him? Can I serve him as I would? Jesus Christ. Not because of anything he's done, but as I would, Jesus Christ, because I am a son, I'm a son of yawe and I'm adopted through Jesus Christ. So the, the fixed reference point is Jesus. It's not anything that the master has earned, or if I'm the master, am I willing to honor them and give them their due pay instead of threatening them and holding the power over them to make them work, recognizing that I have a master over me, who's not partial. And so I should not be partial with people under me. That's that's P powerful. Is that the way we relate to people as we work, as we work for people, as we, as we have people work for us, the greatest threat to unity in the spirit is an unwilling unwillingness to yield my power in submission to another.
Speaker 1 00:49:27 We've looked at at Ephesians two specifically, but the whole book of Ephesians is a book about submitting one to another, a book about God bringing a diverse community together to be one new man to shout to the cosmic powers, the wisdom and goodness of God, we could look at other books. Romans is another great book that that shows the role of power and privilege and how followers of Jesus turned that on its head. And Jesus kind of dismantles the, the power structures, or at least the way of looking at power dynamics in ways that we, we begin to empower others and serve others instead of lording over one another. There's other books in the Bible that we could look at, but I'd like to close out this time by reading. Um, probably one of my favorite books right now is just a, a strong work of theology, a biblical theology of the people of God.
Speaker 1 00:50:23 It's, it's called redemptive kingdom diversity by Jarvis Williams. I highly recommend it. The first several chapters are, are just a walk through the Bible. Whenever you see a biblical theology of something, they're gonna be tracing it through the whole of scripture from Genesis the whole way through revelation. They're gonna look at the law, the old Testament law, the Torah. They're gonna look at the books of prophecy. They're gonna look at the writings in the old Testament, and they're gonna look at the new Testament, probably split it up into the gospels and then the letters. And then the last parts of any biblical work of biblical theology is gonna be fleshing it out in practical circumstances for us today. And so I'd like to read a portion of this to end out, end out our time. This is taken from, and from chapter seven, the people of God and Ory and the section is called the people of God in counting the cost.
Speaker 1 00:51:15 If the people of God pursue the biblical and theological vision in pursuit of a redemptive kingdom, diversity outlined in this book, it will cost them something. It might even cost them a lot. Currently there are Christians willing and able to live with absolute clarity, conviction and consistency on race and racism with a vision for redemptive kingdom, diversity, these Christians labor, and the power of the spirit under the authority of scripture to push against the evil of all forms of racism and their work is costly for however, there are others who profess Christ whose new found zero for redemptive kingdom. Diversity will simply cost them more than they are willing to pay. When the going gets tough, they may let fear cause them to shrink back from doing what the gospel and God's word require every Christian to do love God and love our neighbors as ourselves in the power of the spirit gala, Galatians five, 13 through six, 10 different people in many different groups have much to lose.
Speaker 1 00:52:17 If we follow the course of action, put forth in this book, the people of God need to understand that there are those who profess faith in Christ who will never accept a robust, biblical and theological vision. And for redemptive kingdom, diversity, there are still far too many people who profess Christ who strongly resist any form of Christian pursuit of redemptive kingdom. Diversity. Sadly, there are others who do not think that the Bible is sufficient to speak, to matters pertaining to eternal life and godliness. There are others who simply do not understand what the efficiency of scripture means while shouting about this efficiency of the Bible to shut down any conversation about race or racism. There are still too many who profess Christ who know the truth about race and racism, but simply will not do what it is, right, because of fear or opposition. As the people of God, we must realize that long term change in the areas of race and ethnic relations and the journey toward the promised land of redemptive kingdom, diversity in the church, and in society occur over the course of a long, painful, heartbreaking, joyful, and exhausting period of time.
Speaker 1 00:53:29 This must be done in the home at the dinner table, in living rooms, in churches and on the ground with real people in the real world. It, it occurs through proclamation of the gospel obedience to the gospel and robust application of the gospel in the context of trust and meaningful relationships. And in the context of folks educating themselves on these matters as they use common sense and common grace, even then transformation will not happen overnight. We must patiently preach, teach, obey, pray, and act. We must walk together and love being willing to listen, to learn from and disagree with one another in the power of this spirit with an eye toward the redemptive kingdom, diversity, for which Jesus died and rose again, as we do these things, we must count the cost. I address racism, not because I follow left between media. I address racism, not because I'm promoting critical race theory.
Speaker 1 00:54:32 I talk about power dynamics, not because I've been absorbed in Derek bell and, and Richard Delgado and all of them. I talk about that because the more I study scripture, the more I realize it's an inherent aspect of the gospel. That's what I, I started studying the Bible more in depth in when I started Bible college in 2018. And just walking through these texts in, in a more in depth manner. I've, I've been reading my Bible since I was, uh, 16 years old. It's so easy to miss some of these common themes, just kind of project onto them, what we might mean by them. What is meant by strangers, the Commonwealth of Israel. The number one reason that I care about this topic is because it is central to the church and the people of God. And so you're gonna see me right about issues of race.
Speaker 1 00:55:29 You're gonna see me writing about church about discipleship, and it's not because I'm embracing or pushing some C RT. And if, if you see me using terminology like white privilege, instead of saying, oh, you're just pushing C RT ask, Hey, why do you use that? And I invite you to be willing to gauge a conversation where we open up and we look at how we've somehow got to talk about the ways that we can hold power over one another without intentionally. It may not. We may not be intentionally doing it, although I, I gotta be honest after 2020 and a lot of the pushback among conservative Christians, even in conservative anti Baptist circles, as we look at issues of race, I'm not sure I can confidently say that all that we're doing is ignorant, that we don't realize how we're holding power over people. I think some of us feel insecure, feel threatened by acknowledging the ways that our, our historical narrative, our ethnic narrative has centered ourselves.
Speaker 1 00:56:41 And to, to somehow I look at history where we are not at the center, or somehow pave way forward, where we are not at the center, but there's, there's something better at the center. And that that's the debate, right? Like, depending on secular theories of how to move forward or depending on what is a gospel vision for moving forward. Well, even in a gospel vision of moving forward, white Europeans will not be at the center of the story. And to some of us that's really threatening. But I think that needs to be a moment where we, we check ourselves where we remind ourselves that we were once strangers to the co Commonwealth of Israel. We, we were once not a part of this family, not recipients of this blessing. And we were brought in not because of anything that we did, but because of the gift of grace by Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 00:57:35 And so my here in LA, I have more Latino brothers, family than I do. Black brothers around me have Armenian brothers and sisters. There's all kinds of ethnic groups around us. And as we disciple and as we were walking, there's gonna be issues that they're dealing with that are more concerning to them because of their ethnic background, because of the, the, the things that they're facing. And am I willing to lean in and care for them? Bear those burdens with them even use, leverage any that I have to help them to walk with them, to give them voice, to give them power. So I hope, I mean, this is just a pause. We're gonna finish out some of the series on, on how should Christians think about critical race theory? Um, there's, there's, there are holes in critical race theory. It doesn't give a very, uh, sufficient path forward, but I think it can be helpful to a degree in helping us analyze what's been in the past.
Speaker 1 00:58:38 And so let's not smear each other. Let's not slander each other by just say, oh, you're, you're trying to be woke. Let's not go down the route of the daily wire or Fox new who, who champion or CNN. But I mean, I don't think any of us are on the progressive left kinda smear campaigns threatening. Oh, just because you're conservative. And this means that you support all these negative things that far right. Have done. Like, no, we shouldn't do that. But my tendency is, most of y'all listening to me are, are more on the side of listening, you know, filling our minds with a lot of Ben Shapiro, a lot of Glen Beck or Tucker Carlson that just kind of cultivate a lot of rage and stereotype. And don't actually sit down with a Jesus centered vision and, and say, Hey, what are the issues?
Speaker 1 00:59:29 What if we shut those off? And we got up close and personal with the text of scripture and allowed the holy spirit to begin working in our lives. What if we went out and began having real relat relationships with people, not for the sake of like getting a story so that you can come back and fight with Asher or whatever, whoever you you're debating about racism out, but for the purpose of actually having relationships and actually knowing people and being one with them. What if, what if we were willing to ask, Hey, you have a friend, a Latino friend, or a black friend or Asian friend of any kind. Like what if you just started asking them, Hey, tell me your story and more and more stories because you're gonna discover the stories are nuanced. Not every ethnic groups are not all monoliths. They're not all the same, but we begin to realize, you know what, there's, there's a bigger picture that somehow needs to be accounted for that the way I've always thought about things aren't necessarily right or true.
Speaker 1 01:00:31 Like I've always said we don't need critical race theory. Like we, racism is still an issue. It's still a thing we need to address. It's still something the Bible, the gospel calls us to address. Neither do we need to be threatened by it? I think it gives some helpful language to a certain degree. I think, as we talked about in the last episode a little bit, I think there are some extreme ways of implementing it and fleshing it out that are dangerous. That are problematic. If, if somehow we're creating a culture where people feel like they're evil and a oppressors, just because they're a certain skin color that's wrong. But then I also think that we need to be careful that we're not projecting that on because Tucker Carlson says that's happening. Are we sure that's actually happening? Because a bunch of parents collude together and protest, are we sure that's actually happening?
Speaker 1 01:01:22 Do you realize how many, how few districts in America actually have any form of, of teaching critical race theory? So why is this such a rage filled issue? If it's not as predominant as people make it out to be, why is it such a rage filled issue? I think we just need to, yeah. Let's ask questions. Let's ask all the questions. Let's be humble. And as we learn and grow centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ, where Jesus has torn down the wall of hostility, he has killed the hostility and he's making the two non-Jews Jews, all tribes, tongues, and languages. He's creating into one new man to be a dwelling place for the spirit that work together in harmony, as they shout to the rulers in the heavenly places of the wisdom and goodness of God. Thanks for coming on this journey with me. If you have any thoughts or feedback, I'd love to hear them either drop them in the comment on YouTube or leave a review on iTunes, apple podcast, or send me an
[email protected] or you can hook me up on social media or something. I would love to hear from you. Thanks for listening until next time, grace and peace
Speaker 1 01:03:17 On Fain. Christianity is brought to you by our members at Paton as a part of the membership program. You receive two deep dead essays a month and expanded versions of all our podcast interviews. If you would like to become a member visit www.asherwhitner.com/member on faith. Christianity podcast is also a part of two networks. The restorative faith call collective, where we have conversations about race perspectives and relationships in an anti Baptist context to learn about more articles and podcasts visit www dot restorative faith, collective.org. The second network is the kingdom outpost, where we talk about what it looks like to live as Jesus' nation today's world for more podcasts and articles, visit kingdom outpost.org. Thanks for listening.
