| Introduction Peace! Such an elusive thing. I have never met someone who did not want peace. Perhaps his or her actions betrayed that desire for peace, but the desire was there. I think it is fair to say that a desire for peace is universal even if attempts to accomplish peace are misguided. We would say that someone who does not want peace is deranged or insane. We tend to be attracted to peaceful people and repulsed by people who are always embroiled in conflict. Often, however, the peace we are seeking is not big enough or thorough enough. We are often looking for a peace that we define as the absence of conflict. Perhaps we our lives are so filled with conflicts and fights that all we want is a day without fights. We are looking for a moment in which we can let our guard down and rest. We just want some peace. And that is a good desire. It is just not a big enough desire. The biblical concept of peace includes absence of conflict and turmoil, but it is much closer to our concept of wholeness and completeness. Therefore, the concept of peace is a positive concept – not just the absence of something, but the presence of someone: Jesus Christ, the Prince of peace. "For He Himself is our peace," the Apostle says. "He Himself" refers to no other than Christ Jesus in v. 13. A. Throughout chapter 2, the apostle has been contrasting who we are apart from the saving work of Christ and who God has made us to be through Jesus Christ. 1. All humanity is spiritually dead as far as any inclination toward Jesus Christ, 1. 2. This deadness is not a neutral deadness, but a rebellious deadness, 2. 3. All humanity, because of its rebellion, is the object of God's wrath, 3b. 4. We are foreign to Israel and alienated from God, 12. B. Now he describes humanity as separated from God and from each other, 16. 1. There is an infinitely great chasm between humanity and God. 2. This divide is so great that cannot be jumped over, cannot be filled with good works and intentions, it cannot be hiked. C. He also describes God and humanity as enemies, 16b. 1. Evangelicalism in recent decades has been describing God as this benevolent being who loves everyone and is frustratedly ringing his hands, waiting for people to believe and love him. 2. That is not the picture that the Apostle and the Bible paints of God. 3. There is enmity not only between humanity and God, but also between God and humanity. 4. The relationship is broken on both sides – the different is that God is justified in his enmity while humanity is not. D.Therefore, we need peace and Jesus is the only one that brings peace. A. Notice that Jesus accomplished peace between God and his people through the cross. 1. He became the object of God's wrath and had it all poured on him till the justice of God was fully satisfied – "It is finished!" Rom. 5:10– For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 2 Cor. 5:21– For He made Him who knew no sin to besin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2. That great chasm and divide we mentioned earlier is in the shape of a cross. a. You can't jump over, walk around, etc. b. But the cross brings both sides together and eliminates the distance between the two sides. c. As we believe in Jesus Christ, God becomes at peace with us. Rom. 5:1-2– Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. B. It is peace in himself – in Christ. 1. This is symbolized by the tearing of the thick curtain that separated the holy place from the most holy place, indicating that reconciliation with God took place C. Notice that the instrument that God uses to bring peace between man and God is preaching, 17. 1. "He" refers back to Christ. a. Now, Jesus never preached to the Ephesians. b. As far as we know he was never out of Palestine except for a brief sojourn in Egypt when he was a baby (probably no preaching at that time). c. How did he preach to the Ephesians? 1) Through his messengers. 2) As a preacher proclaims the Word of God, Christ is speaking at that very moment. 3) Through the regular preaching of the pastor on the Lord's Day, Christ speaks. 2. "Preached peace" that is "preached the message that brings peace" – the gospel of salvation. Rom. 10:14-15– How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those whopreach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!" D.The results of peace with God. 1. Reconciliation, 16 – a relationship that had been broken by the fall, which brokenness was perpetuated by our own sin, has been mended and we are brought near to God. 2. Access to the Father, 17. a. God was unavailable to us apart from Christ, but through Christ he is near us and with us (Immanuel principle). b. We are free to come before God because in Christ Jesus there is no more condemnation for us before God. c. We can pray to him knowing that he will answer our prayers. d. And the access goes beyond prayer – we can live in his presence and feel his presence with us. 3. Peace with one another (more on this in a moment), 14-15. III. Peace with Each Other A. Notice that the word "for" in the beginning of v. 14 connects our passage to the cross in v. 13. 1. The cross of Christ reconciles us to God and brings peace between us and God. 2. As a direct consequence of our being reconciled to God, we are reconciled to one another. B. The immediate context tells us how the cross brings Jews and Gentiles together into the same body. 1. The Gentiles who were far away from the people of God are brought near and become part of the same body as the believing Jews. 2. For centuries, there had been great animosity between the Jews and all other nations – both in Hebrew and Greek, the words translated Gentiles are the words for nations. a. God had set aside the Jews (and any Gentiles that would conform to the ceremonial law) to be a light to the world (Isaiah 60). b. God gave Israel the ceremonial law to set them apart and to bring the nations to them. c. But Israel turned what God had given to them to make them shine to build a wall between them and the nations. d. The ceremonial law became a matter of pride, which is the opposite result it should have. 1) The ceremonial law should have communicated to them that they needed cleansing, that they needed forgiveness. 2) The Day of Atonement ceremonies alone should have been enough to humble them. 3) Instead, they used the ceremonial law to drive a big wedge between them and the nations. 4) By the first century, the Jews weren't very well liked at all by the other peoples. Acts 16:20-21– And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, "These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city; 21 and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe." 3. Jesus Christ fulfilled all the ceremonial law in his death on the cross, 15. a. By doing that, Jesus removed the wall that divided Jews and Gentiles. b. By taking the curse of the law upon himself, Jesus joined Jew and Gentile as heirs of Abraham. Gal. 3:26-29– For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you areChrist's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Gal. 6:15– For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. C. The immediate context has a much broader application: in himself, Christ creates a new humanity where all ethnicities exist in harmony with one another, 15. 1. There should be no racial tension in the church. a. The Christian, more than anyone else, should be able to appreciate and enjoy ethnic diversity in the Body of Christ. b. The Christian should long to see the church as a diverse body because heaven is diverse. c. But diversity in the church is not a goal in and of itself, but a byproduct of evangelism. 2. Christians should be invested in racial reconciliation because racial reconciliation only happens through Jesus and through the gospel. a. The church has done or endorsed horrendous things as far as racism goes. 1) The German church and the Nazi party. 2) The American church and slavery. 3) The Southern church and Jim Crow laws. b. That cannot be the case. c. The Christian cannot be racist or prejudice toward people who look different than they. d. And the Christian must be working for racial reconciliation. D.Paul is teaching us that God through Christ has united us to one another, 18. 1. Paul is really concerned about the unity of the church and how the ministry of the Spirit is to bring the church together. 1 Cor. 12:13– For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 2. Christ, when lifted up from the earth, draw all men to himself, regardless of race. "Take away the gospel, and war and enmity continue to subsist between God and men…." John Calvin "… you must realize that regardless of your differences of opinion, the unity that you have with them is greater than the unity you will ever have with anyone else in the world, even if the unbeliever is of the same class, race, nationality, sex (or whatever) as you are." James Boice 3. There is no other possibility of union with God and with one another – through Christ and that's it. Jn. 10:9– I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
Peace, wholeness, satisfaction can be elusive. But only when we are running from the God of peace instead into the God of peace. May the God of peace who raised out of the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip us with everything good that we may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.
http://olympiabp.blogspot.com/2019/05/jesus-is-our-peace-ephesians-214-18.html
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