Peace, out!
Summer 2021 • Sermon • Submitted
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Transcript
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Introduction
Introduction
A story appeared this week from the Olympics. Kenyan runner Abel Mutai was only a few meters from the finish line but got confused with the signs and stopped, thinking he had finished the race. A Spanish runner, Ivan Fernandez, was right behind him and, realizing what was going on, started shouting to the Kenyan to keep running. Mutai did not know Spanish and did not understand.
Realizing what was going on, Fernandez pushed Mutai to victory.
A reporter asked Ivan, “Why did you do this?” Ivan replied, “My dream is that one day we can have some sort of community life where we push ourselves and others to win.” The reporter insisted, “But why did you let the Kenyan win?” Ivan replied, “I didn’t let him win, he was going to win. The race was his.”
The reporter insisted and asked again, “But you could have won!” Ivan looked at him and replied, “But what would be the merit of my victory? What would be the honor of this medal? What would my mother think of it?”....
One of the most important parts of Christian life is Unity. Being one with Christ, and being one with one another., bearing each others burdens and thus fulfilling the law of Christ. Pushing each other across that finish line of the Crown of Life.
The devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh are always lone-rangers. They seek us to win at the expense of others. They seek to divide and conquer. They seek to squelch the Body of Christ through division, hatred, and dissension among her members. And separating from each other separates us from Christ Jesus, which if left unaddressed and unconfessed, can become an eternal separation from Him. Our text is Paul’s plea to each of us as to what it means to have been Baptized into the Body of Christ.
In our text today, the Apostle Paul urges us to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. We pray the blessing of the Holy Spirit today as we consider the theme, “Peace, Out.”
Unity
Unity
What exactly is this “Unity in the bond of (the) peace? of which Paul speaks?
To understand it, we must understand the person and work of Jesus Christ. Two chapters earlier, Paul tells us:
For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility
If I were to ask you to define peace, chances are you would define it negatively. Like, “Peace is the absence of war” Or “Peace means no strife.” Both are true, but they are not a true definition of peace. They are comparisons, at best, that illustrate peace. But they don’t define it.
Peace in Hebrew, “Shalom” and Greek, thV EirhnhV mean wholeness. Oneness with God.
It’s not possible to have peace. Not on our terms. Even if there were no wars on earth, sinners can never have peace. This is why maintaining the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace is something foreign to our thinking and behavior. We are sinners. Sin is the opposite of peace. No matter how hard we try we cannot attain it. That’s the bad news.
Ultimately peace is wholeness before God. While we could never attain it or deserve it, Jesus is our peace. As the bumper sticker says, “no Jesus, no peace, Know Jesus, know peace.” He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.
What does that mean? The wall of hostility is sin. And like a wall separates one side from the other, we were separated from the Father because of this hostility we bore for God. This hostility is not just what you do against God, but it is who you are before God.
Sin was caused by a man; it could only be taken away by a man. and that Man is Christ Jesus, who came in the flesh, and in his flesh— by living a perfect life, credited to you as righteousness, and by His sacrificial death that paid sin’s price, Jesus was put on the other side of the wall. Separated from God. Suffering hell. Paying the price you rang up with your life.
Jesus “breaks down all the walls of death’s fortress, brings forth the prisoners triumphant, unharmed.” His love, mercy, and forgiveness make us one with the Father, and that is our peace. He Himself is our peace. You want the real definition of peace? It’s Jesus.
But it does not stop there.
Pass it On
Pass it On
Since we have been united with Jesus in peace, that peace is to permeate our lives. It means we no longer live in the fear of death or hell. It means that we know that God works all things together for Good. Jesus gives us the victory by pushing us over the finish line that we could never cross.
But this peace is not solitary peace. True peace in Christ is lived out in His Body, the Church. You need to think differently about the other members of the Body of Christ. They are the sister, the brother, for whom Christ died, and with whom you will be united eternally in Heaven. The Church is the living body of Jesus where this peace is lived out.
There are so many passages about this. Jesus Himself speaks about this unity:
In His High Priestly prayer, He prays : “Make them one, as we are one, (dear Father).”
For those who sin, he says,
“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.
Paul speaks of it frequently in his Epistles. “Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.
I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Oneness and unity is one of the marks of Jesus’ Church on earth. And that unity is given to us by the Holy Spirit. Destroying the unity because of individual desires that go contrary to the Body, by causing dissension, by teaching or holding to beliefs contrary to God’s Word and God’s Will, all destroy the unity and put us on the path to destruction.
This is a challenge for us. It is contrary to who we are, and shows us our need for a Savior.
Hear the words that the Holy Spirit speaks to us today again: Walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility, and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Celebrating the Unity.
Celebrating the Unity.
This past week, Sue and I watched the Hallmark movie, “There’s something about Leah.” The characters are Jewish. There is a scene that takes place in the synagog where the people greet the Sabbath by breaking bread and drinking wine. Much like communion the Rabbi breaks the bread and gives it to each worshiper and says the words, “Shabat Shalom.” It means “The Peace of the Sabbath.”
Watching this movie— even though it was a sappy love story, enlightened me. I never realized that they did this when they gathered.
For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
The Sabbath— that rest of God’s people is Jesus. Jesus is our Sabbath and its very Lord.
So they’re saying the same thing that we say without realizing it. So close and yet so far.
What is it that we say as our bread is broken? “The peace of the Lord.” Shabbat Shalom.
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
It is in this meal, this breaking of the bread that we celebrate the unity of Jesus around this altar.
We celebrate the unity of our Confession of faith. We all believe the same things about the Lord.
We celebrate the unity of Confession of sins, knowing that “if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanses us from all righteousness.
We celebrate the unity of Absolution where God declares us forgiven for Christ’s sake.
We celebrate the unity of the Body that can only come from the Holy Spirit, and the oneness that Confession and Absolution bring to each of us with each other.
We celebrate the unity that Jesus blesses with His broken Body, where He comes into each of us with His forgiveness, life and salvation.
We celebrate the unity now that is a foreshadowing of the perfect unity we will experience in heaven.
All of this because Jesus pushed you over the finish line, when He alone was the only true winner.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.