Bridge Builders pt 5
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“Peace in our time! Peace with honor!”
“Peace in our time! Peace with honor!”
Some people still remember the words of British Prime Minister, Sir Neville Chamberlain, upon his return from Germany in 1938.
— He was sure that he had stopped Adolf Hitler and stayed off war… Yet 1 year later, Hitler invaded Poland and plunged Britain into the War.
— Chamberlain’s great peace mission had failed.
Have you ever noticed that most “peace missions” fail?
— (I read) - from 1500 B.C. to A.D. 850, there were 7500 “eternal covenants” agreed to among various nations with the hope of bringing peace, [yet] no covenant lasted longer than two years. (Weirsbe)
Why are we talking about “peace missions”?
— Because that is exactly what Christ’s mission was…
Jesus came to bring Peace to Division.
— Luke 2:14
14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”
— Christ’s mission is the ONE MISSION that did not fail!
Look at Eph 2:11-22.
God never intended for the world to be divided.
— That’s why He sent Jesus!
I. Christ brought peace to the division between us and Him.
— “One Word … describes the Gentiles… ‘Without’.” — Weirsbe
A. They were…
… without Christ.
… without citizenship.
… without covenants. — they were “aliens and strangers”… Many Jews and Pharisees would even pray: “O’ God, I give thanks that I am a Jew, not a Gentile.”
… all this left them…
… without Hope. — Historians tell us that a great cloud of hopelessness covered the ancient world. Philosophies were empty; traditions were disappearing; religions were powerless to help men face either life or death. — Weirsbe
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
… without God.
— They were separated… they were alone! There is no hope where God is not!
This is where we once were!
11 So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called “the uncircumcision” by those who are called “the circumcision”—a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands—
12 remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
We NEED this reminder!
We have a lot to be thankful for!
— We were once Lost… without hope… without Christ… without God!
— There was a wall between us and God… that we could not break down!
Christ tore down that wall down! He destroyed the wall that separated us from Him!
— Eph 2:13-14
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.
— Jesus did not just reconcile Jews to God… He brought Gentiles near to Himself as well!
— in One body… the Church!
— That is what the Jews needed to understand…
II. Christ brought peace to the division between the Church and the people.
— Eph 2:14
14 For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.
A. Hostility had existed between the Jews and the Gentiles for a very long time.
— The Jews believed that since they were God’s chosen people… because they had the circumcision… the proof of their Covenant with God… that they were better than the Gentiles...
— Yet, they failed to understand — circumcision was no proof that he was a man of faith!
— Rom 2:25
25 Circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law; but if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.
— Gal 6:15
15 For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything!
— Paul says that Jesus removed the “hostility” between them… What was it that caused the hostility?
1. The Law — the “other” problem.
— For centuries… The Law had created a wall between the Jews and the Gentiles…
— There was even a wall in the Temple, separating the Gentiles from the rest of the Temple grounds…
— Archeologists even found an inscription in Herod’s Temple:
“No foreigner may enter within the barricade which surrounds the sanctuary and enclosure. Anyone who is caught doing so will have himself to blame for his ensuing death.”
— The Jews allowed pride and prejudice to create a wall between them and the very “Nations” to which God had called them to reveal Him to…
B. That wall had to be destroyed.
— Eph 2:15-16
15 He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace,
16 and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.
— Christ did that on the Cross!
Wait a minute.... Does that mean the OT no longer applies?!?!
NO!
— Christ himself said “I have not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it.”
— So… What does Paul mean?
— “Law” (nomos) — “”a rule prescribing what a person must do.”
this is what the Law was… (how they lived… how they dealt with sin… how they dealt with each other… how they remained holy…)
The Law erected a wall between the Jews and the Gentiles simply because they followed it, and the Gentiles didn’t… Legalism does not bring salvation… only Grace does!
Ultimately, what Christ abolished was not the Law, but the sacrifice, by being the final sacrifice!
“The righteousness of the Law, revealing God’s holiness, is still God’s standard. But [it] is fulfilled in [people] by the Holy Spirit!” (Weirsbe) - - You see it was man’s legal requirements of the Law that separated the church and people…
Jesus abolished the very thing that was separating the Church from the people — through Grace!
— Grace is only found in Christ. Hence… “that He might create in Himself ONE NEW HUMANITY in place of two...”
III. Christ brought peace to the division between people.
17 So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near;
18 for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father.
19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God,
20 built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.
21 In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord;
22 in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.
— Christ has overcome all division… By preaching Peace!
— Not Worldly Peace… But Heavenly Peace… Peace that breaks down barriers… that destroys walls… that ends division… hate… and destruction…
— We are One nation… One family… One Temple… regardless of race, color, creed, abilities, … in Christ!
— We are no longer strangers… we are no longer separated… there is no division in Heaven… We are ONE Body…
4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling,
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
… Being built up into ONE CHURCH in Christ!!!
21 In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord;
Let me ask you — “What Temple did David build?”
— We are the Temple… We cannot allow it to be destroyed by division!
Christ knocked down the walls that divided us from Him, He knocked down the walls that divide us from other people, and He commands us to do the same for others!
10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
— We are called to a “New Way of Life”… One that tears down the walls of division and builds walls of Grace!
— We called to knock down the walls of division and build Bridges of Grace!
We are called to be Bridge Builders!
— The world does so much to divide us… we must be a people who breaks down those walls of division, and builds bridges of grace and unity!
— The Jews allowed pride and prejudice to create a wall between them and the “Nations” — the very people — to which God had called them to reveal His mercy and grace to…
— They allowed that wall to keep them from fulfilling the purpose God had given them… and in doing so, they began to look just like the world!
Is that us?!
— The Church does the most for the world, when the Church looks the least like the world!
Where is your focus — on the Kingdom, or on the World?
— We have been given the message of Hope.
— We have been entrusted with the Gospel.
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation;
What are we doing with it?!
Let me ask you:
— Are you walking in the “newness of life” in Christ?
— What are you doing to share the “Good News” with others?
— Are you knocking down every wall you see that prevents the Peace of God from entering their lives?
C. S. Lewis once wrote:
Hope is one of the theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not, as some modern people think, a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do.
It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.
The apostles who brought about, on foot, the conversion of the Roman Empire. The great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with heaven.
It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at heaven, and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you will get neither” (Mere Christianity, New York: Macmillan, 1952, 118).
— We need to focus on the Hope we have in Christ, and stop focusing on the issues of this world!
— We need to focus on the Hope we have in Christ and stop focussing on our fear!
— We are called to become Bridge Builders who are so focused on the Kingdom that we cannot help but knock down the walls that stand between lost and broken people and the Gospel!
There is nothing more beautiful than a Christian walking in holiness sharing Christ’s peace with the world around them!
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Five: The Great Peace Mission (Ephesians 2:11–22)
A missionary was preaching in the village market, and some of the people were laughing at him because he was not a very handsome man. He took it for a time, and then he said to the crowd, “It is true that I do not have beautiful hair, for I am almost bald. Nor do I have beautiful teeth, for they are really not mine; they were made by the dentist. I do not have a beautiful face, nor can I afford to wear beautiful clothes. But this I know: I have beautiful feet!”
— Isa 52:7
7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
Do you have beautiful feet?