The Dawn of Hope

Now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:13)

          In the tradition from which I came, the Protestant Episcopal Church, we celebrated a holiday on Jan. 6 named Epiphany. It’s actually a major feast day in the church; Epiphany season lasts several weeks and is devoted to meditating on the significance of Christ’s manifestation to the Magi.

          We Presbyterians, generally speaking, don’t observe Epiphany – much less do we contemplate this holiday for weeks. You might even find it curious that a denomination would spend time thinking about the manifestation of the Christ child to the Magi.

          Imagine, though, you were suffering from a severe infection and didn’t know antibiotics existed until someone told you of them. Imagine your thankfulness and elation when you heard of a cure for your ailment. It would spark continual celebration, would it not?

          And so we celebrate the Epiphany, or manifestation of the Savior to the Gentiles, this morning in Leakesville.

           There are a number of contrasts at work in our passage for this morning, Ephesians 2:11-22, but the most-important one for you and me this morning is the contrast between near and far. We specifically learn that you are born far from the Lord God Almighty; but Jesus, our Peacemaker, brings you near to the Father through his atoning work.

          It was a message you and I needed to hear – the message of hope in Christ. It was a message many people were not blessed to hear in olden times.

          If you have heard the Gospel, this great message of hope, then you must be concerned to propagate that message – near and far.

          Our passage first teaches that you and I, as all humans, are born far from the Lord God due to our sin and to our ignorance of His truth.

          Many people are far from God because of culpable ignorance of Gospel truth. In fact, St. Paul’s teaching in Romans 1 is that you and I and all people know just enough about God from our birth to render us guilty of not worshipping Him as we ought. Although everyone may observe the Himalayas and the deep oceans and the heavens and see the evidence of the Lord’s handiwork, because of sin you and I fail to worship Him as God. We suppress that knowledge in unrighteousness and instead worship all kinds of false gods. Not surprisingly, our lives reflect our foolish beliefs.

          Before Paul’s era, the Lord revealed Himself specially and savingly in His Word to His chosen people, the Jews. While certain Gentiles – such as Rahab and Ruth – apparently knew something of the one, true God (the God of the Jews), the Lord primarily revealed Himself personally to the Jews. The Jews of Old Testament times enjoyed a great privilege, Paul writes, because the “oracles of God” were committed to them. They possessed a special, and spiritually healing, knowledge that other nations did not.

          Paul says in Ephesians 2:12 that before the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles, and before his missionary activity among them, they were without God in the world, cut off from the covenant community of Israel and therefore without hope. They were dead in their sins and trespasses and didn’t even know their illness or their cure. Now they weren’t without gods, but they were without the one, true God – the only One who could forgive them of their sins and give them hope.

          Yet while the Gentiles of old, and many people in today’s world, are far from God because of ignorance of His truth, everyone born into the world is far from God because of sin. Everyone is born under the first covenant, the Covenant of Works that God made with Adam, and because of your sin you are unable to keep this covenant perfectly. As such, you stand in the way of curses from the Lord.

          Interestingly, you can be “near” God in terms of growing up in the church – yet far from God because of your guilt before Him.

          The Jews were blessed to know the Ten Commandments (the expressed will of Almighty God for men) and to know His appointed system for atonement of their sins. Yet many of them turned their backs on Him, confusing spiritual heritage with a living knowledge of the Lord as their Redeemer and King. They were far from God because, while they knew a great deal about God, they did not know God as their God.

          There are scores of people in our world today who don’t know the Word of truth: that’s why you and I need to support missionary endeavors worldwide.

          But there are many people near to you and me who have heard of Jesus, but who do not trust him as their Savior. That’s why you and I need to spread the message of hope with our words and with our actions.

          Although you are born far from God, whether through ignorance of His Word or through sinful rejection of Him, Christ our Peacemaker draws you near to the Father’s glorious presence.

          We celebrate Epiphany, because the Lord drew the previously darkened Gentiles to Himself through the preaching of the Gospel. The trickle during the times of Rahab and of Ruth burst into a river of conversions in the time of Paul. Jesus’ birth brought good tidings of great joy which came to all people: the one, true God had included Gentiles in His plan of salvation, and the Word was to go to them as well. It was in this spirit our Lord himself commissioned his apostles to go into all the earth to make disciples. Once without hope and without knowledge of their spiritual sickness and of their cure, the Gentiles now had the sure knowledge of Christ their Savior and of the Lord their God.

          Nearness to God comes in part through the saving knowledge of God. Ours is a faith built on truth, and while mere intellectual agreement to Gospel truth is not enough to save you – you must cast your hope on Jesus himself – saving faith is built on a right knowledge of Gospel truth.

          Yet St. Paul teaches that nearness to God comes ultimately through the blood of Christ, who is preached to you in the Gospel. From birth you, as a sinner, have no right to call the God who made all things your Father. Both Jews and Gentiles were exiled from God’s presence because of sin.

He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, as even the layout of Solomon’s temple revealed: Gentiles couldn’t come beyond a certain point, and only the chief priest could enter the Holy of Holies – once a year, and with sacrificial offerings for himself as well as for God’s people.

          Yet the Lord Jesus Christ lived the perfectly obedient and righteous life you and I could not, and he offered his own blood as the perfect sacrifice that you and I could not offer. His blood once and for all turns away the Father’s wrath from the faithful and gives anyone who trusts in him as Savior, whether Jew or Gentile, access to His holy presence.

          We celebrate Epiphany, for when the Gentile Magi beheld the little Lord Jesus, they saw the only hope for sinners to be reconciled to our holy God.

          So how do you and I celebrate Epiphany in the proper manner? Well, right observance begins with remembrance.

          Paul begins our text by exhorting you and me to “remember” that we, as Gentiles, once were without hope in this world because we were without God. We didn’t know Jesus, either in his Word or personally as our Savior. The more you recall God’s converting work in your life, shining His light on your sin and on His blessed Son, the more you will be moved to thanksgiving, to holy living by His Word and to humility.

          Your humble thanksgivings, though, must be parlayed into concrete actions of evangelism. My missionary friend Cynthia Ruble wrote recently of a Japanese woman who just a few years ago didn’t know Jesus and was suffering under the intolerable weight of her sin. Cynthia told her of Christ, and now the woman is helping run an anti-abortion counseling and evangelistic clinic in Japan. This means you need to consider if God is calling you to the mission field, and to consider how you may pray and give more effectively to the cause of spreading Christ’s message. Missionaries, evangelistic ministry and even a Bible-translation program are worthy of your time, money and prayers.

          On a local level, recognize that many people around you grew up “near” to God in terms of hearing about Jesus as they grew up in the Bible belt – but because of their own unbelief, they’re actually far, far from him. If you’re thankful for and humbled by God’s amazing grace to you in Christ, then spread His glories through non-worldly, Christ-centered thoughts, words and deeds. Invite a friend to church, even if that friend grew up in Greene County. Tell him about Jesus’ love. Show him Jesus’ love. Make it your own Epiphany.

          Remember. Remember that you once were hopeless, and you’d still be without hope were it not for God’s saving grace in Christ. You’d be without hope if you hadn’t heard the Word preached – and, by His operation in your heart, believed that Word.

          And remember to spread that message near and far, in all the earth – just as Jesus calls you to do.