Pastor Joe Sugrue - Grace and Truth Podcast

Tuesday June 25, 2019

Eph 2:14-18 - The Double Reconciliation.

Our study of the early church returns to Antioch, the rich, beautiful, and populous city which was the Roman seat of the province of Syria. The Christian persecutions in Jerusalem drove many Jewish Christians north to settle there, and through them, a large, and mostly Gentile, church was established there.

Eph 2:14 For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall,

Eph 2:15 by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace,

We find the Jews still employing an "us and them"...

for full notes: http://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2060

Sunday June 23, 2019

Eph 2:14-18 - The Double Reconciliation.

The church is a house built for an occupant.

Eph 3:14 For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father,

Eph 3:15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,

Eph 3:16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man;

Eph 3:17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

Eph 3:18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,...

for full notes: http://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2059

Thursday June 20, 2019

Eph 2:14-18 - The Double Reconciliation.

The church is a house built for an occupant.

Jesus said that a house divided against itself will not stand.

In the part of the world that it without Christ, they are pretending. This pretending, over time afflicts them and they become wrapped in their own internal gloom. When you pretend that you can make virtue out of benevolence, happiness out of well-being, peace out of accommodation, and freedom out of emancipation, the realization of the fact that you are no farther along and have wasted so much energy and time, weighs you down in anguish.

The world looking for peace without Christ, the God/Man who has come into the dark...

for full notes: http://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2058

Wednesday June 19, 2019

Eph 2:14-18 - The Double Reconciliation.

Paul sees the reconstruction of the human race to perfect peace begin in the church, in the body of Christ where Jew and Gentile, the greatest division between men ever known, would become one new man.

Paul sees the Sabbath of a harmonious people (Isa 56:1-8) fulfilled in the age that began with him as its apostle to the Gentiles. He, a Jew filled with hatred towards Gentiles for half of his life, would preach peace to them.

The peace that Christ brought and established would be enjoyed by believers who were in the know. So not everyone in the world, but only a segment of the world, and they would be a foretaste of this same peace being...

for full notes: http://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2057

Tuesday June 18, 2019

1:1-2 salutation.

1:3-14 the spiritual blessings from the heavenlies.

1:15-19 Paul's prayer that the blessings would be known, loved, and executed.

1:20-23 The resurrection of Jesus brought about the gifts.

for full notes: http://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2056

Sunday June 16, 2019

Some closing remarks about 2:11-13.

Eph 2:11 Therefore remember, that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "Uncircumcision" by the so-called "Circumcision," which is performed in the flesh by human hands -

Eph 2:12 remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

Eph 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

The Son of God reconciled the world unto Himself, not just a nation.

2Co 5:19 God was in Christ reconciling the...

for full notes: http://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2055

Thursday June 13, 2019

We must remember that our unity must be based upon Christ. There must not be unity for unity's sake or for any other reason.

Love your neighbor as yourself is the second commandment, following the first to love the Lord your God.

Eph 2:11 Therefore remember, that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "Uncircumcision" by the so-called "Circumcision," which is performed in the flesh by human hands -

Eph 2:12 remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

Eph 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off...

for full notes: http://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2054

Wednesday June 12, 2019

I read an article this morning from Psychology Today about "supernormal stimuli." The premise is that man has used technology to over stimulate that which was once difficult for him to achieve. For instance, food was once difficult to grow and hunt and preserve and maintain, but we invented the Big Mac. We have food that is more calorie dense than anything ever dreamed. The term "supernormal stimuli" was coined in the 1950's when this trend was recognized. Lately the same trend is recognized in other areas. Cosmetics is a technology that makes looking younger a more beautiful a short-term success. The article said that lip-gloss and vibrant hair are supernormal stimuli. Basically, it is a technology that makes what was once difficult easy, but the...

for full notes: http://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2053

Tuesday June 11, 2019

Eph 2:11-13: The near and the far - God brings peace to the world.

The concept of the church as the body of Christ, and individual Christians members of it, was bound up in the understanding of Paul as the Christian experience "in Christ" - an existence in which social, racial, and other barriers with in the human family were done away with. Amon those barriers none was so important in Paul's eyes as that between Jew and Gentile. If before his conversion he looked upon it as one that had to be maintained at all costs, after his conversion he devoted himself to demolishing it.

Eph 2:11 Therefore remember, that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "Uncircumcision" by the so-called "Circumcision," which is performed in the flesh by...

for full notes: http://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2052

Sunday June 9, 2019

In the previous section, Paul invites us to consider what we were, dead in trespasses and sins, and what we are, saved, raised, ascended, and seated with Christ.

Eph 2:1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,

Eph 2:2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

Eph 2:3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

Eph 2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,

Eph 2:5 even when we were dead in our...

for full notes: http://www.cgtruth.org/index.php?proc=msg&sf=vw&tid=2051