Ephesians 2:19-22
What’s Not Worth $10M
What would you be willing to do for $10,000,000-00? In their book, The Day America Told the Truth, James Patterson and Peter Kim reveal some shocking statistics about how far people in this country are willing to go for ten million.
Would abandon their entire family (25%)
Would abandon their church (25%)
Would become prostitutes for a week or more (23%)
Would give up their American citizenship (16%)
Would leave their spouses (16%)
Would withhold testimony and let a murderer go free (10%)
Would kill a stranger (7%)
Would put their children up for adoption (3%)
It’s amazing to see that for $10M people would give up their families, their faith, their citizenship, and their integrity. Everything has its price, right?
Well I’ll tell you something, you have a price. And Christ paid it. First Corinthians 6 says “You are not your own, you were bought at a price.” And Christ didn’t give up His family for money. He gave up Himself to build you into His family.
Christ didn’t abandon the Church, Ephesians 5:25 says “He gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her with water through the word, so as to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”
Christ didn’t put God’s children up for adoption; He made it possible for them to be adopted.
Christ didn’t withhold testimony to let a murderer go free, He bore testimony against that murderer and then He died on the cross for the murderer’s sins so that the murderer could be free from his sins.
Today we are looking at Ephesians 2 verses 19-22. Paul uses 3 metaphors to describe the Church: 1) a Nation, 2) a Family, and 3) a Temple. Each of these metaphors stresses another perspective on what the Church is. It is a nation, it is also a family, and it is a temple.
Christ paid with His blood to bring the Church into being. And we see here that $10M is chump change compared to the value of His blood, and what we have in Him as the Church. Each of these blessings is not worth $10M. They are worth infinitely more. It is better said that $10M isn’t worth these blessings. Why? Because as Paul said to start this letter: we “have been blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” (1:3).
$10M is not worth A Nation (v19)
First of all, in v 19, Paul says we are citizens with God’s people. By talking about citizenship as opposed to foreigners and aliens, he is in a way referring to God’s people as making up a nation. We as believers together compose a nation where each of us has full citizenship.
Our citizenship is heavenly, not earthly. Paul says in Philippians 3:20 that “our citizenship is in heaven.” Jesus said to Pontius Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world. My kingdom is from another place.” (John 18:36). When someone becomes a Christian they don’t become a part of another nation here on earth. You don’t become an American citizen because you became a Christian. You become a citizen of a heavenly kingdom, a nation made in heaven. Peter says in 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen people, a holy nation…”
Because we are citizens, we are not foreigners or aliens. Aliens is a word that means different in quality or nature than something else. Sinners are aliens to God’s kingdom because in God’s kingdom the people are holy. What do I mean? Do I mean that some people sin and others do not? No. All sin and all fall short of God’s glory Romans 3:23 says. What we mean here by the term sinners is anyone who has not received the forgiveness of sins by faith in Jesus Christ. In other words, they are identified by their sins whereas God’s people are identified by Christ. Sinners are “in” their sins whereas God’s people are “in” Christ and have their sins forgiven. Listen to the way Paul says it in Colossians 1:13, “For Christ has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” We were in the dominion of darkness, under the rule of Satan, and we were in our sins and under the wrath of God. But, through faith in Christ we received the forgiveness of sins and as the verse says, we lose our citizenship in the dominion of darkness and gain new citizenship in the kingdom of Christ.
Now this is important when you notice in verse 19 the phrase, God’s people. The word is hagios and it means holy ones, or, set apart ones. The best word to translate it into is saint. Everywhere you see the word “saint” or, God’s people, it is the same Greek word in Ephesians. These are people who have been made holy, or have been set apart from their sins and from the masses who are still in their sins. The holy ones, the saints, God’s people are
The point here is that Paul is saying we have a holy citizenship with all the saints from all time. We are now part of the community of people throughout time who were made holy by God. We are now among those whose highest citizenship in heaven. We have joined a holy and heavenly nation.
You know this is what they call dual citizenship. You have citizenship in two places at one time. As Christians, we have a citizenship in heaven and on earth. But if you think about it, people who reject Christ have dual citizenship too. They have their earthly citizenship, and, they have citizenship in hell. They are among those from all time who do not belong to God, who will not be with Him for eternity, and who instead belong in Hell.
Where is your citizenship? Have you made sure of your eternal citizenship? You have to put your faith in Jesus Christ to receive citizenship in heaven.
$10M is not worth A Family(v19)
Secondly, Paul refers to the Church as a Family. Notice in verse 19 again when he says we are “members of God’s household”.
Now when he says household, the word has two meanings. On the one hand it refers to a family. On the other hand it refers to an actual house – a building - that a family might live in. This is important because in verse 19 Paul really is emphasizing the family. But the word is very well placed because starting in the next verse Paul is going to talk about Christians as being an actual “building”.
Well what is Paul getting at here by talking about us being members of God’s family, or household? He is talking about belonging.
Illustration: I remember growing up that some relatives of ours did foster parenting. And every so often a new foster kid would come and replace the old foster kid that was there at their house. Looking back, I can’t help but think how did those kids feel every couple of months or years when they had to move again to another house. No matter how long you stayed in one place you knew that you’d eventually move on. You were waking up every day expecting that today could be the day you get swapped out again. I can’t help but think that all the time they felt like they just didn’t belong. Yeah you’d get your own bedroom but it wasn’t yours. It was the previous foster kids room. It wasn’t their mom or their dad or their siblings. They didn’t really have a place where they weren’t a stranger.
We belong in God’s household. We aren’t guests, we aren’t visitors, we aren’t strangers or aliens. We’re at home in God’s family. It’s our family and it’s our home. Think of that fact of belonging when Christ says in John 14:1-3, “In my Father’s house are many rooms, if it were not so I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” His place is our place; we belong with Him. As a matter of fact, Jesus said in John 8:35 that we have a permanent place, “Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.”
Why? Why do we have a permanent place? Because God is now our Father. Which means that we are His sons and daughters. Paul started this letter out mentioning this in 1:5, “In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His will”. Simply put, we are now in the family; we have a place in the house of God.
Conclusion
I wanna conclude with this statement: There will be no illegal immigrants in heaven. No one who is not a citizen there will be there. Only citizens of heaven will be there. Are you a citizen? It’s a long process to become a citizen in the U.S. …….. Quoted from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services page:
Naturalization is the process by which U.S. citizenship is granted to a foreign citizen or national after he or she fulfills the requirements established by Congress in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
On the other hand, It’s an instant event to become a citizen of heaven. You are already a candidate. But, to qualify you have one thing to do. It requires putting your faith in Jesus Christ so that your sins will be forgiven.
What’s Not Worth $10M
What would you be willing to do for $10,000,000-00? In their book, The Day America Told the Truth, James Patterson and Peter Kim reveal some shocking statistics about how far people in this country are willing to go for ten million.
Would abandon their entire family (25%)
Would abandon their church (25%)
Would become prostitutes for a week or more (23%)
Would give up their American citizenship (16%)
Would leave their spouses (16%)
Would withhold testimony and let a murderer go free (10%)
Would kill a stranger (7%)
Would put their children up for adoption (3%)
It’s amazing to see that for $10M people would give up their families, their faith, their citizenship, and their integrity. Everything has its price, right?
Well I’ll tell you something, you have a price. And Christ paid it. First Corinthians 6 says “You are not your own, you were bought at a price.” And Christ didn’t give up His family for money. He gave up Himself to build you into His family.
Christ didn’t abandon the Church, Ephesians 5:25 says “He gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her with water through the word, so as to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”
Christ didn’t put God’s children up for adoption; He made it possible for them to be adopted.
Christ didn’t withhold testimony to let a murderer go free, He bore testimony against that murderer and then He died on the cross for the murderer’s sins so that the murderer could be free from his sins.
Today we are looking at Ephesians 2 verses 19-22. Paul uses 3 metaphors to describe the Church: 1) a Nation, 2) a Family, and 3) a Temple. Each of these metaphors stresses another perspective on what the Church is. It is a nation, it is also a family, and it is a temple.
Christ paid with His blood to bring the Church into being. And we see here that $10M is chump change compared to the value of His blood, and what we have in Him as the Church. Each of these blessings is not worth $10M. They are worth infinitely more. It is better said that $10M isn’t worth these blessings. Why? Because as Paul said to start this letter: we “have been blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” (1:3).
$10M is not worth A Nation (v19)
First of all, in v 19, Paul says we are citizens with God’s people. By talking about citizenship as opposed to foreigners and aliens, he is in a way referring to God’s people as making up a nation. We as believers together compose a nation where each of us has full citizenship.
Our citizenship is heavenly, not earthly. Paul says in Philippians 3:20 that “our citizenship is in heaven.” Jesus said to Pontius Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world. My kingdom is from another place.” (John 18:36). When someone becomes a Christian they don’t become a part of another nation here on earth. You don’t become an American citizen because you became a Christian. You become a citizen of a heavenly kingdom, a nation made in heaven. Peter says in 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen people, a holy nation…”
Because we are citizens, we are not foreigners or aliens. Aliens is a word that means different in quality or nature than something else. Sinners are aliens to God’s kingdom because in God’s kingdom the people are holy. What do I mean? Do I mean that some people sin and others do not? No. All sin and all fall short of God’s glory Romans 3:23 says. What we mean here by the term sinners is anyone who has not received the forgiveness of sins by faith in Jesus Christ. In other words, they are identified by their sins whereas God’s people are identified by Christ. Sinners are “in” their sins whereas God’s people are “in” Christ and have their sins forgiven. Listen to the way Paul says it in Colossians 1:13, “For Christ has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” We were in the dominion of darkness, under the rule of Satan, and we were in our sins and under the wrath of God. But, through faith in Christ we received the forgiveness of sins and as the verse says, we lose our citizenship in the dominion of darkness and gain new citizenship in the kingdom of Christ.
Now this is important when you notice in verse 19 the phrase, God’s people. The word is hagios and it means holy ones, or, set apart ones. The best word to translate it into is saint. Everywhere you see the word “saint” or, God’s people, it is the same Greek word in Ephesians. These are people who have been made holy, or have been set apart from their sins and from the masses who are still in their sins. The holy ones, the saints, God’s people are
The point here is that Paul is saying we have a holy citizenship with all the saints from all time. We are now part of the community of people throughout time who were made holy by God. We are now among those whose highest citizenship in heaven. We have joined a holy and heavenly nation.
You know this is what they call dual citizenship. You have citizenship in two places at one time. As Christians, we have a citizenship in heaven and on earth. But if you think about it, people who reject Christ have dual citizenship too. They have their earthly citizenship, and, they have citizenship in hell. They are among those from all time who do not belong to God, who will not be with Him for eternity, and who instead belong in Hell.
Where is your citizenship? Have you made sure of your eternal citizenship? You have to put your faith in Jesus Christ to receive citizenship in heaven.
$10M is not worth A Family(v19)
Secondly, Paul refers to the Church as a Family. Notice in verse 19 again when he says we are “members of God’s household”.
Now when he says household, the word has two meanings. On the one hand it refers to a family. On the other hand it refers to an actual house – a building - that a family might live in. This is important because in verse 19 Paul really is emphasizing the family. But the word is very well placed because starting in the next verse Paul is going to talk about Christians as being an actual “building”.
Well what is Paul getting at here by talking about us being members of God’s family, or household? He is talking about belonging.
Illustration: I remember growing up that some relatives of ours did foster parenting. And every so often a new foster kid would come and replace the old foster kid that was there at their house. Looking back, I can’t help but think how did those kids feel every couple of months or years when they had to move again to another house. No matter how long you stayed in one place you knew that you’d eventually move on. You were waking up every day expecting that today could be the day you get swapped out again. I can’t help but think that all the time they felt like they just didn’t belong. Yeah you’d get your own bedroom but it wasn’t yours. It was the previous foster kids room. It wasn’t their mom or their dad or their siblings. They didn’t really have a place where they weren’t a stranger.
We belong in God’s household. We aren’t guests, we aren’t visitors, we aren’t strangers or aliens. We’re at home in God’s family. It’s our family and it’s our home. Think of that fact of belonging when Christ says in John 14:1-3, “In my Father’s house are many rooms, if it were not so I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” His place is our place; we belong with Him. As a matter of fact, Jesus said in John 8:35 that we have a permanent place, “Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.”
Why? Why do we have a permanent place? Because God is now our Father. Which means that we are His sons and daughters. Paul started this letter out mentioning this in 1:5, “In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His will”. Simply put, we are now in the family; we have a place in the house of God.
Conclusion
I wanna conclude with this statement: There will be no illegal immigrants in heaven. No one who is not a citizen there will be there. Only citizens of heaven will be there. Are you a citizen? It’s a long process to become a citizen in the U.S. …….. Quoted from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services page:
Naturalization is the process by which U.S. citizenship is granted to a foreign citizen or national after he or she fulfills the requirements established by Congress in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
On the other hand, It’s an instant event to become a citizen of heaven. You are already a candidate. But, to qualify you have one thing to do. It requires putting your faith in Jesus Christ so that your sins will be forgiven.
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