Don’t Forget Where You Came From

Don’t Forget Where You Came From
Ephesians 2:11-13

Read Ephesians 2:11-13

We know that Michael Angelo is one of the greatest artists to have ever lived. His tool was his paint brush. So important to Michael Angelo were his tools that he insisted on making his own brushes by hand.

And I see that kind of exacting attention to precision with musicians too. Whether it’s a drum, or a guitar or a piano, or simply the human voice- true musicians put a lot of energy into making sure that their instruments are working right and in tune. They will never take their instruments for granted or allow them to fall into disrepair. Tradesmen are the same way, try getting a carpenter to cut you some wood with a cheap tape-measure or a dull saw.

You know that each one of us is a tool in God’s hand. You’re like a paint brush in the hands of like Michael Angelo. And what is he making us into? I will answer that in a couple of minutes, but first, the text calls us to look back. It says, “Remember…”

I have a terrible memory. I forget things all the time. I forget my wallet, I lose my keys, I forget names, I forget birthdays. Fortunately God did not call me because I have a good memory, nor did He call me in order to have a good memory- He called me to preach the gospel.

The Israelites were amazing weren’t they? Before Moses led them out of slavery in Egypt, they were bitterly persecuted. They were slaves, many of them died constructing the great pyramids. Their newborn sons were routinely taken from them and murdered. Until they cried out to God

Everything changed for them when Moses led them out of Egypt. Can you imagine how their hearts must have soared from the bottom of the pit of despair when the Red Sea opened up for them and then closed in on Egyptian army?

But within a few short days, they began to grumble about conditions in the desert. In fact, they even tried to commit treason against God in order return to Egypt. Instead of looking forward to the Promised Land with the hope of the assurance that God is faithful and able to finish the good work that He starts in spite of the obstacles (which aren’t really obstacles because He has a way of turning them into opportunities), they chose to forget God’s deliverance and ached to return to their captivity with fondness. That is how subtle and menacing sin can be. It can make captivity seem sweet.

God tells us to remember. Do you remember what life was like before you met Jesus? Do you remember how lonely… how empty… how angry… how desperate… how selfish… how hopeless life was? Don’t forget.

It’s easy as the years pass by, to lose touch with how things got before we met Jesus. Before he led us out of captivity and into the Promised Land. We lose touch and, no matter how dramatic and radical a transformation we experienced when we came into the faith- it all becomes relative and unexceptional to the hazy memory.

“Remember,” he says, “that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh-- you were without the Messiah”

Oh how we must cringe at the thought of being without a messiah. To use job’s words, “let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said a man is conceived. Why did I not die at birth, come out from the womb and expire.” (Job 3:3, 11).

No Hope in Jesus
Oh, to have no Christ, no Savior!
No Rock, no Refuge nigh!
When the dark days ’round thee gather,
When the storms sweep o’er the sky!
Refrain
Oh, to have no hope in Jesus!
No Friend, no Light in Jesus!
Oh, to have no hope in Jesus!
How dark this world must be!
Oh, to have no Christ, no Savior!
How lonely life must be!
Like a sailor, lost and driven,
On a wide and shoreless sea.

That’s how bad life is without a Messiah. It is without hope.

“But I have hope!” says the unbeliever. “I hope for a raise.” “I hope for a career.” “I hope for a wife?” “I hope for a child.”

But those are barely even faltering kinds of hope in this uncertain world. They are a hope in things which, if they are ever realized, never satisfy the way we expected.

But, “This hope does not disappoint, because God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:5). It’s a hope that is certain. It’s a hope that is secure because it’s anchored in God the Rock and He is immoveable- he never turns and He does not lie. His promise is written in blood and poured out at the cross.

The Bible says 1 John 3:1-3:

Look at how great a love the Father has given us, that we should be called God's children. And we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn't know Him. Dear friends, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure.

You see, our hope is a purifying hope. It’s making us into the image of Christ. For when he appears, we will be like him it says. We will be made into perfect tools in the hand of the master.

Now, if you are a Christian you are no longer a, “foreigner to the covenants of the promise, with no hope and without God in the world. [Instead], in Christ Jesus you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”

What does that mean to brought near by the blood of Christ? Why was such violence demanded by God?

Because God is a just and upright God and the offense of man was such a pernicious and treacherous offense that it demanded a just God punish it justly. And the punishment for sin is death.

But… God is also a loving and a merciful God and at the cross the justice and the mercy of God are beautifully displayed without either attribute ever yielding to the other. As and act of cosmic mercy, Jesus took our Justice and gave us his innocence because, as the Bible says, “without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin.”

And so we say that we are brought near to God, the infinite gulf that existed between us has been bridged by the death and resurrection of Jesus, because the death of God is the only sacrifice that was ever able to truly satisfy God’s need for justice.

So, in closing, I say, “remember… remember who you were. But also, know, who you are. If you are in Christ Jesus. If you have repented of your sins and put your trust in Him and believed in him alone for your salvation, then you are a child of God.

He lives, my kind, wise, heavenly Friend,
He lives and loves me to the end;
He lives, and while He lives, I’ll sing;
He lives, my Prophet, Priest, and King.
He lives and grants me daily breath;
He lives, and I shall conquer death:
He lives my mansion to prepare;
He lives to bring me safely there.
He lives, all glory to His Name!
He lives, my Jesus, still the same.
Oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives,
I know that my Redeemer lives!