Peace
Let Earth Receive Her King • Sermon • Submitted
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Peace Child
Peace Child
Everyone loves a good story of enemies becoming friends right?
There is something in us that intrinsically just says “YES!”
This is the way it should be.
And I think that is the case because there is something in us that loves unity
It always seems to me that whenever we but up against a God shaped value in our lives…Our hearts kind of sing…Like..wow..we were made for this
Every time something like this happens, This verse from Ecclesiastes runs through my head
Ecclesiastes 3:11a
The New International Version Chapter 3
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart;
Whenever there are one of these moments in my life where I am like wow…That was a God thing that just happened...
Like when you see enemies become friends
God set eternity in our hearts
Its like God turned our whole heat to love those moments
One of my favorite stories that just tugs at my heart every time is this:
A number of years ago a missionary named Don Richardson took his wife and 7month old son to Papa New Guinea to work among the Sawi People
The Sawi were a people who were incredibly violent. They were stuck in cycles of violence. They were known to be headhunting cannibals...
Richardson talked about the Swai being stuck in a state of perpetual war.
There were 5 tribes that were always killing each other.
Don went and worked on translating the Bible in their language while his wife was a nurse.
She gave them medicine.
…She became so important to the tribe…She was kind of their healer...
Well Don ultimately got frustrated with the tribe because no matter how much they learned the language and taught about Jesus, the Sawi kept getting into wars with neighboring tribes.
One day Don was teaching the story of Jesus to the people and he noticed that they all wanted to know more about Judas …
In their culture, They resonated most with the story of Judas..>he was their hero
If your kids ever come back from church wanting to be more like Judas then we have problems...
So feeling like they had made no impact on this culture
Don had had enough of the bloodshed... he told the tribe that if they couldn't stop fighting then they would leave...
This made the tribes really motivated to make peace with each other…Don and his wife had done so much to help the tribe…The Sawi didn't want to loose him
And what happened next shocked the Richardson family…but it also gave them the metaphor they needed to share Jesus with the Sawi.
In a peace making covenant ceremony. The tribes went to make peace with each-other and each tribe brought a new born baby.
The tribes would exchange babies and they would raise that baby as their own. As long as the child was taken care of their peace reminded
This baby was known as the peace child.
This opened the door…They shared that Jesus was God’s peace Child for the world!
The Sawi came to accept Jesus in droves
To this day, if you go back to Indonesia where the Sawi live, you would see one of the largest circular structures in the world, were the 5 waring tribes come together in worship
Those 5 tribes now intermarry
They share leadership
They do evangelism together
All because of the power of Jesus, the peace child...
See stories like this tug at our hearts because..
He has set eternity into the hearts of men
God has literally wired us for redemption
The Bible opens up with a picture of the Unity of Humanity…Man and woman, the two become one flesh
Then Every sin tore at the fabric of the unity of all creation.
Every sin created more and more fractures in the unity of humanity!
The Bible can be read as the story of unity lost in the Garden and God restoring it through Jesus.
See this is why stories of enemies becoming friends are so powerful in our lives.
God has wired us for this
One of the most famous Apostles, Saul of Tarsis…better known to us as Paul…was an enemy of God…he was breathing out murderous threats against christians when Jesus showed up to him and made peace with Paul...
The scripture I want to look at today reflects on what the peace of Jesus does in humanity...
He writes about this in the book of Ephesians and there is something really impotrant to note in this book.
Paul is writing from prison.
It is impotrant to ask…well what did Paul do? Why is he in prison?
Well in Acts 21:28 Paul is falsely accused by the Jewish leaders of bringing Greek people into the temple...
Well who cares right? Bringing people to church is what your supposed to do...
But taking a non-Jew into the temple beyond a the dividing point was such a breech of Jewish law that it was one of the very few things that the Romans allowed the Jews to execute people over
So Paul is in Jail…
Falsely accused of taking a Greek person beyond the dividing wall in the temple..
And here is what he writes from prison
Ephesians 2:14-17
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.
I love this...
I mean you can read this story and see the story of the Sawi all over the place
Just as the Sawi exchanged babies as a peace offering, God sent his son as the prince of peace to be the Peace Child for humanity.
Lets break this down for a second
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility,
Jesus himself is our peace: Isn’t it true of you and me that we often times look for peace everywhere other than in the person of Jesus?
And what Paul is saying…and remember from prison falsely accused of bringing Greek people into the temple...
That Jesus breaks down all barriers to God...
There is no longer room for division! There shouldn’t be barriers to God any more...
Its not just for the Jews
There is no distinction any more between Jews and Gentiles...
It’s like if you go to Indonesia today to look for the Sawi people…You’d have a hard time finding out who is who because the 5 tribes have merged into one!
And how much do we as a church need to live out the fact that Jesus destroyed the barrier wall of hostility?
In Jesus dividing barriers of
Race
Class
Culture
Jew or Gentile
They are all shattered by the Cross.
The Prince of Peace is here to re-unite all of the tribes of humanity under the cross!
And one of the reasons why the church exists is to continue to re-unite the family of God under the cross…It is to break down these barriers that we as humans have created.
When people meet you…You are a representative for Jesus
When people come Here…We are the community of Jesus
We need to reveal to the world that we are one new humanity under the blood of Jesus.
It doesn't take the work of the Holy spirit to get a group of people together who think the same thing, vote the same way and believe the same thing. It doesn't take a work of the spirit to get people in community together who share the same demographics, Who share the same socio-economic background
It takes the work of the Spirit..>It takes the work of the prince of peace
To bring people from every tribe
From every nation and every tongue and put them together in one community to worship Jesus
Church:
Modeling unity here reveals Jesus to the world!
I know that this is the way that God wants it
In Acts 2…When the first church is birthed…There is this list of nations
The New International Version Chapter 2
9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, d 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”
And I know most people will look at this as just a bunch of names in the Bible but Holy Cow…I can’t get past the first word!
Parthians!!!
This was the threat that was always on the boarder…The Parthians were the threat from the east…Expert horsemen and bows-men
There was a trick the Parthinian army had that they just called the “Parthinian shot” This is where the horsemen would start riding away from the advancing army, and then flip around on their horse and shoot arrows with deadly accuracy
There were legends of like 100 Parthians taking down entire Roman legions...
Whenever Rome was going through a civil war or a revolt…The Parthinians would cross the boarder quietly and plunder...
This was the threat on the boarder that was always there...
Then did you read what I read..Egyptians were at the birth of the church?
Egypt! I mean whenever you read the name Egypt in the bible you should roll out the ominous StarWars music…Danger! Danger!
But if you were to study all of these places you’d find that these places are not necessary friends of Israel…These are countries who have conquered, exiled, enslaved or at least made a really hard time for Israel in the past...
And I think the point of Acts 2 is that the work of the Holy Spirit unifies
The prince of peace is active and alive through his spirit and through his church!
It takes the work of the spirit to get all of these enemies hearing the same message together that the prince of peace has come.
It takes the Prince of peace to tear down this dividing wall of hostility!
What dividing walls of hostility need to be torn down today?
When we follow the Peace! We are called to tear down these barriers
So Jesus Re-Unifies Humanity…He tears down the Dividing wall…he is our peace...
Ephesians 2:15-16
15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
Create a new humanity:
This is a MAJOR THEME of Paul
Galatians 3:28
The New International Version Chapter 3
28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
2 Corinthians 5:17
The New International Version Chapter 5
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here
Paul is making a HUGE claim
The unity that was lost in the garden...
The unity of God and humanity
The unity of humanity
In fact when we read the phrase “His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two” I think the phrase...”And the two became one flesh” should be ringing out in your head.
Is all brought back through the Peace Child…Jesus
In Jesus’ Crucified body…We have peace
When Jesus rose from the dead it was the first day of the new creation.
Paul Saw that clear as day…The old is gone, the new is here!
The last part of Ephesians 2 says this ...
Ephesians 2:17
17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.
I love how Paul Said that Jesus came for those who were near and far...
Paul was near God…He talked and prayed like he was for God…But by his life he was living in open rebellion to God.
He preached to those near…Jesus went to the Jews first…He wanted them to follow him
And he went to the outcasts of society…he went to the Syrophonecian Woman…he went to the Samaritan woman...
There is no distance Jesus wouldn't go for you
Do you get it?
Jesus is the key to reuniting the entire family of God under the banner of the cross.
The implications of Jesus being the prince of peace are so radical that I am afraid we will miss it..
Church…We are famous…or maybe I should say infamous for hearing a message like this and giving it all the Amen’s that we can
Only to sit on our well folded hands and do nothing about it
Church
Make these words mean something!
Jesus is the Peace Child for the world
If the Sawi People can put thousands of years of war, head hunting and canabilism behind them, then you can love a democrat…or a republican
If the Sawi can change their violent ways then you can learn to talk nicely to people you detest
Friends…If the Sawi can band former enemies together and reach their neighbors for Christ then you can be friends with an anti-vaxer or a pro vaxer
My Point is that Jesus I think is reminding us today that at times, we have set up our own dividing walls of hostility…and we treat these dividing walls like Golden calves…We love our dividing walls…we worship them.
Church...
Church…Jesus is relentless and passionately in love with you
Maybe your here today and you just needed to hear that. That Jesus is perusing you and wants to have a relationship with you.
He doesn’t care where you have been or what you have done…He knows everything about you…your deepest darkest stuff and he still wants you...He wants to make you new!
The staring point of Jesus making you new is a relationship with him....Jesus stands before the father and advocates for you…He loves you and died for you
I mean the Holy spirit formed the first church out of Egyptians and those crazy Parthinians…How much more does he want you?
The love of God travels!
He wants to make you into a new human.
He is perusing you and if you looked closely enough, you could see that He’s always been there
Church Jesus is the Prince of Peace…He is the Peace Child for the whole world!
What would it look like to model this to our kids ?
To treat a homeless person with the same dignity that you’d treat a millionaire
Church this is radical
You were made for this…You were made for peace with God and the world
Jesus tore down the dividing wall of hostility…He doesn't need us building the wall back up.
And Jesus did this with a great cost…He had to give his whole life for it.
Let Earth Receive her King
Communion