Morling Tuesday Chapel Ephesians: Eulogy and Emulation

5 April, 2016

Topic: Eulogy and Emulation

Speaker: Tim MacBride

Scripture: Ephesians 2:11-22

Eulogy: speech in praise of someone.

We usually do it in funerals.

We also do it as speech in praise of God.

Ephesians is eulogy, inspiring us to praise God.

V11: Once, we were excluded. Gentiles were treated as second class people. Labels and status, who’s in and who’s out. Before we heard the gospel and respond to it, we are the excluded ones, who miss out on grace. So remember what we were saved from.

V13: Now, we are included. Through the blood of Christ. So that we are at peace with God. It doesn’t just stop here…

V14-15a: We have peace with one another. In Jesus, we have a far superior revelation, of God in flesh.

V15b-16: Peace not by works or trying very hard, not world leaders gathering to think up the best solution or hippies singing songs of peace. Peace brought about by God’s actions, not our own. Brought about by the cross, the work of Christ.

V17-18: By the work of the Spirit.

V19-22: We are no longer foreigners or aliens, but members of God’s household. In Christ, we are being built together, to become a dwelling that God’s Spirit lives in. Bringing us back from estrangement from one another and from God.

Emulation:

For example, “go be like this hero!”

No racial barriers:

We don’t just tolerate. We rejoice in the diversity. Get different insights in God and the Bible in such a diverse group that we can’t get in a less diverse group. Intercultural Bible reading: a researcher did a study, the same parable told to different groups, the young white males turned the discussion into how one should do your wealth, the group of older women turned it into how to raise your children, etc.

No class barriers:

If we’re wanting to emulate God and end the dividing walls of hostility, we also have to cross these barriers. Don’t adopt the prejudices of our group. Don’t look at the poor and think they brought it on by themselves, “waste of tax payer’s money” etc. Imagine what would it be like if God looks as us this way? We are incapable of rescuing ourselves, why should we look at others the same way?

V15b-16: this is God’s purpose. Peace brought about by God’s actions, not our own.