Have you ever felt like an outsider?  Maybe you were at a place or around a group of people where you didn’t speak the language or understand the culture.  Yesterday I felt like an outsider as I was at the doctor’s office.  I had a procedure done and after I was stitched up the nurse was bandaging me when another nurse walked in she looked at the bandage and had a shocked expression and then they began speaking animatedly to each other in creole.  The combination of the facial expression and the tone of their conversation made me feel like an outsider particularly since they were arguing about something on my body.  Eventually I asked what are you two talking about?  They explained that the one nurse had never seen a “pressure bandage” done the way the other nurse was doing on me.  I was happy to be an experiment and went on my way feeling at least more included.  Paul talks about us being included in the people of God because of the work of Jesus.  Let’s look at that together today.

13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. 19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

We were outsiders because of our sin.  Jesus has brought us together with God because of His work on the cross.  We are not foreigners or strangers or outsiders.  Jesus has made us sons and daughters of the King.  We have gone from being an outsider to having the very spirit of God dwell within us.  Thanks be to Jesus for this incredible truth.  The next time you are feeling like an outsider, remember that you are an insider with Jesus and rejoice in that truth.

In His Grip,
Pastor Dave