Breaking Down Barriers

Human beings tend to form groups, drawing close to people who think like us, act like us, or look like us. It gives us a sense of safety and belonging. But this also means we tend to build barriers. We place ourselves into categories based on culture, language, race.

Throughout history, religion—our practiced efforts to please God—has included some and shut out others. The results have been awful, because…

This is not the way of Jesus.

Before Jesus walked the earth, God chose the people of Israel to uniquely demonstrate His goodness to the nations. Outsiders could and did follow God, yet there was still a clear line of distinction between Israel and the other nations.

The book of Ephesians is the apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus. They’re struggling with issues of division and exclusivity. Paul explains that the division between the Hebrew people and the rest of the nations changed when Jesus came.

Jesus broke down the barrier that separated humanity ...

“And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it. And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them. For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation. And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of ...