Knocking Down the Wall
Leadership in Context with Keith Tucci
Episode 092
In light of all of the events taking place in our world today, I’d like to share a powerful gospel message with you.
Sequence and Purpose of Salvation
Ephesians 2:13-14 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall.
Verse 13—It’s the blood of Jesus that gives us access to God. Not our works or our heritage. Not our resume.
Verse 14—”Both groups” in this verse refers to Jew and Gentile. A Jew, in this reference, is someone who was born into a culture, a family, and who understood who Jehovah was. A Gentile was anyone outside of that, regardless of their ethnicity or faith. It’s the classic have and have-nots, so to speak. This passage says that the blood of Jesus broke down every dividing wall between those two groups.
When you read the New Testament, how Jews and Gentiles get along is constantly being addressed. In the book of Acts, the clashes that happen in the early Church were between the Jews and Gentiles. Not because of theology, but because of culture.
In light of everything that is happening in our world today, there has to be a GPS, a True North. That True North is God’s Word. As a believer, or even as a non-believer, the Word of God is True. Scripture teaches that there is one race, the human race. There are different ethnicities that are part of that race. The Bible doesn’t attempt to make all ethnicities one, but those who are believers in Jesus Christ are made to be one. We should have a Kingdom culture in the Church. A culture is where you walk out your values and live out your principles.
Jesus broke down the dividing wall. This tells us that mankind, in all their efforts, great humanity, high ideals and thinking, could not knock down a wall to make these two groups come together. One of the greatest accomplishments, historically, was that in Jesus this wall got blown up. That had never happened before in world history.
When you look at countries that are not invested in the gospel, there is a greater ethnic division. The thing that brings some of the tension that we are experiencing today into greater contrast, is that we have experienced what it is like, on many factors, to have equality. That doesn’t mean it is always equal, all the time, applied by everyone. Yet, we have prominent people of every ethnicity who operate within our borders, so we know that that is feasible.
One of the greatest lies, one of the most outrageous ideas that is being thrown out is that man, somehow, can overcome this division in his own ability. It’s interesting that some of the very people who are telling us that we can’t legislate morality by stopping abortion or preventing same-sex marriage (because that would be legislating morality) are saying that the answer is legislative. Yes, there are some things that can be addressed legislatively, like police accountability. Yet, not all of the answers can be found without God.
Anyone who is putting a brick on the wall that Jesus is tearing down is resisting God and the spirit of grace. We should be dismantling walls, not building walls. The enemy wants to build a wall. We need to pivot this thing, bring in the gospel, and blow this wall down.
The ethnic tension, or the wall, between Jew and Gentile at that time, for the most part, was greater than the cultural differences between most blacks and whites today. The two groups did not even speak. The Samaritan woman was confused as to why Jesus, a Jew, was even talking to her.
Jesus is the one who knocked that wall down. Black lives do matter because they matter to Jesus. Because they matter to Jesus, they should matter to everyone who Jesus matters to. We should care about the things that He cares about. We should be passionate about them. We should be intolerant of the things that He is intolerant of. He is intolerant of people building a wall.
Jesus is also intolerant of a false gospel that says that man, somehow, is able to arrive at this high plane of brotherhood on his own. That is just never going to be true. It has never been true. Read the Bible. Look at history. Look at what is happening now.
Without Christ, we cannot have a common understanding of what makes a person valuable. From a materialistic view, it’s status, education, ability to contribute to society, how much money they make, knowledge, expertise, etc., that determines value. But the gospel tells us that a person is valuable because of what was paid for them. In retail, if one person is willing to pay a high price for something, that substantiates its value. Jesus substantiated our value when He traded His life for ours.
Jesus broke down the wall….
Ephesians 2:15 …by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace.
Enmity means “a schism.” The picture here is having a rock or a thorn agitating you. You’d like to forget about it, but every time you move, it rubs you and bothers you. Jesus got rid of that enmity.
How is peace established? By two becoming one in Christ. Our message has to be the Spirit first and then reconcile the differences in culture.
This time in history is a golden opportunity to see how the real Church will shine. It’s an opportunity for the Church to preach the gospel and God’s ultimate reconciliation. Preaching that God wants one Church, one bride, and He wants that bride to be people from every race, kindred, and tongue.
Jesus is knocking down walls. Don’t pick up a brick.
Join us next week as Keith Tucci continues to put leadership truth in the context of the local church. And as always, please like, share, rate/review, and invite others to listen. See you next week!
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