This past Sunday in our KNOW series, we looked at Ephesians 2:11-22 and the background story behind Paul's ministry in Ephesus to the Gentiles and Paul's eventual arrest in Jerusalem because of his ministry to Gentiles. God's ultimate purpose in sending Jesus was both vertical and horizontal. Jesus made peace between us and God vertically, and Jesus has made peace possible between us and others horizontally. In the church, Jesus' purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of those formerly divided and separated from one another, whether because of race, language, socioeconomic status, favorite college football team, etc. Because of Jesus, we both have "access" to God. Because of Jesus, we are no longer estranged from God or one another. In the church we are now fellow citizens together of God's kingdom, fellow brothers and sisters in God's family, and fellow stones in God's new Temple. Jesus has destroyed the dividing wall of hostility between us. The church is the one place in society where all of those dividing walls should no longer exist. We are first and foremost fellow citizens, brothers & sisters, stones in God's Temple, and everything else a distant second!

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