I Wish All People Were Green

Posted on June 18, 2020 by howtobesaved@abiblecommentary.com

INTRODUCTION:

  1. Text: Ephesians 2:11-19
  2. [S1] [school bus] Kent Hughes told a story about John Reed, who drove a school bus in Australia. The bus carried both whites and aborigines.  The boys were constantly fussing and fighting.
    1. Finally, John had heard all the bickering he could stand between the boys. He stopped the bus on the side of the road and said to the white boys, “What color are you?”  “White.”  John said, “No, you are green.  All the boys who ride on this bus are green.  Now, what color are you?”  The white boys answered, “Green.”
    2. Then John spoke to the aborigines and said, “What color are you?” “Black,” they said.  “No, you are green.  All the boys who ride on this bus are green.  Now, what color are you?”  The aborigines answered, “Green.”
    3. That seemed to bring an end to the bickering and fussing — for a while. Several miles down the road, one of the boys said to the others, “All right, light green on this side of the bus, dark green on that side.”  Then the fussing started all over again (Kent Hughes in Peterman 1).
  3. [S2] I wish all people were green.
  1. [S2A] Maybe then, we would realize that we were all created by God.
    1. “What color of skin did Adam & Eve have?” some may ask.
      1. I am confident that I know the answer: it was some shade of brown – like the rest of us!
      2. We all have different shades of brown as the color of our skin.
    2. What made Adam and Eve God’s special creation was not the color of their skin; it was something far more significant.
      1. [S3] “26Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ 27So God created man in His ownimage; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” – Genesis 1:26-27
      2. What made humans His highest creation was the fact that they (and we!) were created in the image of God!
    3. May I remind you that God is a Spirit (John 4:24) and therefore doesn’t have a skin color.
      1. Yes, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
      2. What was important was not the color of Jesus’ skin (probably dark brown) but that Jesus became a man – to identify with us and to become our perfect representative in paying the price for our sins.
      3. [S4] “17Therefore, in all things He had to be made like Hisbrethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.” – Hebrews 2:17-18
    4. Maybe if all people were green, we would better recognize that we were created by the same God.
    5. I wish all people were green…
  2. [S5] Maybe then, we would realize that we are a lot more alike than we are different.
    1. The Apostle Paul was in the city of Athens. His concern was that the citizens were engulfed in idolatry.  He wanted them to know of the one True God.
    2. [S6] READ Paul’s Sermon on Mars Hill: Acts 17:22-31.
    3. Notice some of the truths in this great sermon:
      1. [S6A] “He gives to ALL life, breath, and all things” (v. 25). God takes care of ALL of His creation, no matter what they look like.
      2. [S7] “And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth” (v. 26)
        1. The word “blood” is not found in many of the ancient manuscripts of the Scriptures. Many versions leave it out: “He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth” (NASB; see also ESV, NIV).
        2. Paul is speaking of our common ancestor: Adam. We all come from Adam and Eve.
        3. [S8] [circulatory system] But think about this idea of “one blood.” Think about the inside of our bodies where the blood flows…
        4. Each of us has different systems at work in order to keep us alive (see “List of Systems of the Human Body” in Wikipedia for a list of the 11 major systems) including:
          • The digestive system to give us fuel
          • The nervous system to enable us to feel pain
          • The muscular system to enable us to move and act
          • The respiratory system so that we can breathe
          • The skeletal system to hold us up
          • The circulatory system that pumps life-enabling blood throughout our bodies.
            1. “One blood” makes me think of this system.
            2. It circulates bloodaround the body via the heart, arteries and veins, delivering oxygen and nutrients to organs and cells and carrying their waste products away.
            3. “For the life of the flesh isin the blood” (Leviticus 17:11).  We can’t live without it!
            4. God made us from one man, with one blood.
            5. We all bleed red.

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  1. “I will praise You, for I am fearfully andwonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.” – Psalm 139:14.
  2. We are ALL fearfully and wonderfully made.
  3. Maybe if we were all green, we would recognize that truth more readily.
  1. [S9] God “has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him” (v. 26-27).
    1. God wants EACH of us to seek Him and to find Him.
    2. He is not hiding from us. There is evidence of His existence and His love for us all around us.
    3. “In Him we live and move and have our being” (v. 28).
  2. [S10] “As also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring’” (v. 28).
    1. We have ALL been created by God in His image.
    2. I still love the statement: “God didn’t make any junk.”
    3. Maybe if we were ALL green, we would accept that truth.
  3. [S11] God “commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead” (vs. 30-31).
    1. One day, each of us will stand before God in judgment.
    2. “So then each of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12).
    3. That puts us ALL in the same place, on level ground. Each of us will face our Creator, God, in judgment.
  4. I wish all people were green.
  • [S12] Maybe then, we would realize that our problems are more than skin-deep.
    1. Some scribes and Pharisees came to Jesus complaining that His disciples didn’t wash their hands “according to the tradition of the elders” (Matthew 15:1ff).
      1. Jesus responded that they were transgressing God’s commands through many of their traditions.
      2. He also identified the true problem:
        1. [S13] “7Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: 8‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with theirlips, But their heart is far from Me.” – Matthew 15:7-8
        2. [S14] “18Butthose things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. 19For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.  20These are the things which defile a man.” – Matthew 15:18-20a
      3. [S15] “The heart of the problem is the problem of the heart.”
      4. I think if all people were green, we would recognize that most of our greatest problems are much deeper than “skin-deep.”
      5. I wish all people were green.
    2. [S16] Maybe then, we would realize that God loves each and every one of us, warts and all.
      1. I added the part about the “warts” as a reminded that no matter what the color of our skin, we ALL have “warts.”
      2. We ALL have problems. Our major problems, as we have admitted, go much deeper than our skin; they are “heart problems.”
      3. [S17] Here’s the one universal problem that affects ALL of us: “For ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
      4. [S17A] But here’s the greatest news of all: God loves us anyway.
      5. In fact, He wants EACH of us to be saved.
        1. [S18] He “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4).
        2. The truth is: none of us deserve His grace, but then it wouldn’t be grace if we did deserve it!
        3. The truth is: He loves us so much that He wants to save us anyway. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:8
        4. The truth is: Jesus died on the cross for each and every person. “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” – 1 John 2:2
        5. The truth is: He wants EACH of us to make the choice to accept His offer on His terms. [Present the Gospel plan of salvation.]
      6. CONCLUSION:
        1. [S19] I wish all people were green.
          1. [S19A] But we’re not.
          2. So what is God teaching us in light of that reality?
        2. [S20] The lessons are the same because they are the TRUTH:
          1. We were all created by God.
          2. We are a lot more alike than we are different.
          3. Our problems are more than skin-deep.
          4. God loves each and every one of us, warts and all.
        3. I think that bus driver was on to something…
          1. Although his solution did not last, the bus driver knew what was needed. The situation on that bus called for a new race, with no color distinctions being made — no blacks or whites, just greens (Kent Hughes in “The Third Race.”).
          2. “Paul’s letter to the Ephesians speaks about the creation of a new race…”
            1. “It proclaims that Jesus came into the world to create this new race.”
            2. [S21] “Years after Paul wrote the Book of Ephesians, Clement of Alexandria, a Christian from the second century, referred to this new race in one of his writings: ‘We who worship God in a new way, as the third race, are Christians’” (Peterman 1).
          3. [S22] Christ “abolished in His flesh the enmity, … so as to create in Himself one new man fromthe two, thus making peace.” – Ephesians 2:15
            1. “One new man” or perhaps it could be stated, “one new race.”
            2. Paul is talking about joining together many people – many different people, Jews and Gentiles – together into one body.
          4. [S23] “That He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.” – Ephesians 2:16. What enmity?
            1. Enmity with God, for one. Sin separates us from God (Isaiah 59:1-2).  But through Christ, we can be reconciled to God because Jesus paid for the debt of our sin – He suffered the punishment for our sin – on the cross (1 Peter 2:24).
            2. Also, Enmity with one another. In Christ, the barriers go away.  Skin tones don’t matter.  If we are “one with God,” then we are “one with each other.”
          5. “A new race” may not be the best way to describe it…
          6. [S24] Here’s something even better: “We are family.”
            1. [S24A] “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19).
            2. [S25] In Christ, we are brothers and sisters… even if we aren’t all green.
          7. [S26] (blank slide)

 

SOURCES CITED:

Hughes, Kent.  Ephesians: The Mystery of the Body of Christ.  Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1990.  92-93.  [As quoted in “The Third Race.”]

Peterman, Rusty.  “The Third Race.”  From BibleCourses.com — http://biblecourses.com/English/en_lessons/EN_199502_11.pdf.

David A. Sargent
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