The “mystery” of God’s work in Christ (3:6) is that Jews and Gentiles both partake together of God’s grace and are built into “one new humanity” (2:15) through the reconciling work of Jesus at the Cross. Hostility is replaced by peace, as God builds this community of Jew and Gentile into a new “dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (2:22).
Ephesians 2:11-22
SERMON OUTLINE
Everyone wants to belong.
What happened? (vss. 11-12)
Humanity’s Attempted Solution
God’s Solution (vss. 13-16)
Open Access (vss. 17-18)
The Gift of Belonging (vss. 19-22)
Living from Assured Belonging
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- How would you define “belonging”?
- Describe a situation or a story in which you felt like you didn’t belong.
- What are some of the symptoms you experience of our sin separating us from God and others?
- Why do you think it’s so tempting to try to create your own community around yourself?
- Why do our strategies to build community so often leave us empty?
- How did Jesus make peace between people and one another and between people and God?
- To whom is the gift of belonging being offered by God?
- How does a person receive the gift of belonging from the Lord?
- Is unity in Christ a gift or a project? Why?
- Is this gift worth sharing with others? Why or why not? If so, how will you go about doing so?
- What did Luke mention as the “Kingdom Salute”? How can you put that into practice this summer?
DIG DEEPER
- Memorize Ephesians 2:19-22 this week.
- Read Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
- Read through the book of Acts doing a topic study, making observations about what unity looked like in the first-century Church, and what we can learn from that today.