The Root of Peace

Text: Ephesians 2:11-18
Focus: Peace from Christ
Function: To set the stage for how the Kingdom of God rules the world
Form: Story Telling

Intro:

5 week series out of Ephesians on the Kingdom of God and the nature of Spiritual warfare.

The Bible says that John the Baptist came preaching these words: Change yourselves, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand! That is how he told people to prepare for Jesus’ coming by calling people to repent and focus on God’s Kingdom, not mankinds.

It is interesting that Jesus preached peace, reconciliation between mankind and God and then reconciliation between men and men.

We can never forget that the whole thing begins with reconciliation between people and God.

So, when John the Baptist preached about Jesus coming, He preached to people to prepare for the coming reign of God’s Kingdom.

Then Jesus made it clear that God’s kingdom is never political, but personal as He reigns the hearts of people.

I think a sad thing has happened; it started with what is called the liberal branch of Christianity as they sought to bring peace through protest and legislation.

And it was picked up by the conservative branch of Christianity as they sought to use politics to solve their problems.

Listen, Jesus made it clear, the kingdom does not grow by the conquest of armies, but it grows like yeast in a loaf of bread as it is rising, each individual touching and changing the one next to it. The problems of the world will be changed when the hearts of men and women change through the work of the Holy Spirit after Jesus comes into their hearts.

Peace is an important concept to us. Jesus promised us peace when we are filled with the Spirit.

It is one of the great promises we look forward to.

I love this phrase, in (SHOW) Romans 8:22: For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.

It echoes the angst in the heart of humanity. Lord, bring us peace, Lord, bring us rest.

(SHOW) Jesus gave His life to bring us peace.
And Paul, the author of this passage brings it out.

He brings out how it isn’t obtained through political or military processes.

Let me set the stage for the passage.

Paul was a Jew, a Pharisee among the Jews. The Pharisees were charged with the keeping of the law.

They were guilty of interpreting it in a very narrow sense and making the law say more than it intended.

The law was intended to teach people to love God and each other.

But they kept rules, and didn’t love, forgive or show mercy and compassion to others.

Part of the tradition that he maintained kept them from having any contact with Gentiles, the non-Jews.

Let me give you a little history of that –a sort of justification from the OT law.

Abraham was called by God to leave Ur, the land that is now Iraq and travel to Canaan land, the land that is now Israel.

Where he lived, in the land of Ur, the people were Godly.

When he was called to Cana, he wasn’t sure what kind of people they were.

As it turned out, for the most part they weren’t that bad. But they were beginning to turn to evil. When God sent Abraham there, God was sending a prophet to them to show them the way.

While he was there, God promised the childless Abraham He would give the land to the huge family he would eventually have.

However, God said, “not now but in 400 years,” because God knew that in 400 years, after sending prophet after prophet to them to get them to turn from being so evil, He would have to give up and make an example out of them.

People have discounted the meaning of the OT by saying that this was merely one empire fighting dominating another empire and using religion to justify it.

But it didn’t happen that way.

It is clear because God wouldn’t let Abraham conquer them because to do so at that time would not have been just and fair.

God was waiting 400 years because God knew that by that time they would be very wicked people.

To understand this terrible punishment by God, you have to appreciate how evil they became. Their practices were violent, wicked and perverse. Their source of pleasure came from making victims of the weak and powerless.

So God tells the Jewish people to make sure that they have nothing to do with the sinful practices of these people.

God choose to make an example out of them, but instead, the Jewish people intermarried with them.

And sometimes, the bad person drags us down instead of us bringing others up.

It only took one and a half generations for the Jewish people start doing the same disgusting things for which God condemned their predecessors.

And so, God punished them. They lost their land in a terrible war. So, when God brought them back home, they were being very careful to obey.

They realized God was serious about His Word.

(SHOW) God is serious about His Word.

So now, the Pharisees, the keepers of the law, are very strict about relationships with non-Jews because it was the relationship with those sinners that brought them down.

We, however, have the Holy Spirit inside of us.

And the non-Jews, at the time of the writing of this letter knew that Jews weren’t to mix with them.

Now, all of a sudden, Paul, the Jewish man, is writing to non-Jewish believers.

And in the process, he describes some doctrine.

He is explaining to them that in God’s mind, it is no longer about race, who is a Jew and who isn’t.

It isn’t about the law that the Jewish people were proud of. Just as the law didn’t work for the Jews, idolatry didn’t work for the gentiles. Both Jews and Gentiles need Jesus to change their hearts.

All races are in the same predicament.

There is a verse in this text that nails it: (SHOW) “they lived without God, they lived without hope.”

Without God, without Hope.

More than anything, people hope to have peace and it starts in our relationship with God.

This passage is about the walls that people build between themselves.

It is about the walls between races.
It is about the walls between neighborhoods, expressed in gang symbols.

It is about the wall we saw dividing Mexico and the United States of America.

It’s about the wall between people who live together in the same house and can’t even talk civilly to each other.

It’s about the unforgiveness that drives people apart.

Jesus wants to heal all of that.

This passage speaks clearly to the source of that reconciliation.

It starts with restoration to God.

And that is who and what Jesus was all about.

He showed people the best way to live.

And He showed people God’s ability to forgive by the way that He died.

He died to purchase a place for you and me in heaven.

We have been redeemed, bought with the price of the blood of Jesus.

It’s about the hope of God who tears down those walls between people.

Paul mentions that we were without hope. And God, God placed His hope in Jesus.

Now remember, the reason Jews would have nothing to do with the non-Jews was because of the Law.

But Jesus abolished the law. Instead of salvation by a code of behavior, rules and regulations, a code of behavior that even the Jews never lived up to Jesus gives us salvation by His sacrifice.

So, whenever Paul went into a town, he didn’t argue the law with people, he preached the cross of Christ and how Jesus paved the way for us to be restored to God.

(SHOW) Jesus paved the way to restore you to God.

Now this passage is about how this reconciliation should affect the way we live with others.
It reminds me of one of Jesus’ parables: Jesus told the a parable about a man who owed 10,000 talents of gold to the king. He went to the king and told him he couldn’t repay the debt, and the king forgave him.

Jesus uses an incredible exaggeration to the people. He names a number that is more than twice the gold that even King Solomon, with all of his wealth received. The gross exaggeration is there to point out that it is impossible for anyone to pay the price for their own soul.
A talent was 76 pounds, so as of Friday a week ago, a talent of gold was worth $1,110,000. Now multiply that time 10,000 and you get the number 1.1 and the little 15 up in the corner telling you what the exponent is because it is to big to fit on my calculator.

It would take someone like Kathy Hepner to tell you how much that actually is, but I think in today’s numbers, it works out to 11 billion dollars.

(SHOW) You can’t pay this debt yourself.

God has forgiven you what all of humanity can never come close to paying.

And the man, after being forgiven, throws someone who owes him 100 denarii into prison. 100 denarii was not a small amount, it would equal 3 months wages, 10,000 to 25,000 dollars.

That is a debt that none of us really wants to just write off. I doubt if anyone here can write it off.

But that is what God is asking us to do when it comes to being reconciled to others.

The simple fact is, God wrote off an unimaginable debt for us. He just wiped it out, He just called it even. He just winked at it and let it go.

I don’t know why everyone just doesn’t run to Him with their hands raised in the air crying out, Thank You! Thank You!

Maybe they don’t because they want to deny the fact that there is such a thing as a debt owed.

After all, the modern man says, to accept the fact that there is anything that we owe God means that we have to admit that we may be wrong. We have to admit our sinfulness and our brokenness.
But the post-modern man or woman knows in his heart that something is broken between him and God.

(SHOW) There is a gulf, a gap that God is dying to bridge.

But I will tell you the biggest reason I experience that people never really know the joy and peace that Jesus offers.

To get to that salvation, they have to forgive some pretty big debts owed to them.

That is why you meet Christians who are bitter and mean.

That is why you meet people who want nothing to do with God or the Church.

Besides the fact that some just think the destructive practices of sin are fun, many people just cannot forgive.

Look, the racism that was prevalent back then was as evil, if not more so than today.

But in so doing, they refuse to acknowledge that God has done so much more for them.

It all stems from forgiveness.

Now I want to segue into an understanding of how this is spiritual warfare.

(SHOW) Satan does not want us forgiving, he will strive to remind you of how you were hurt, how much you deserve, how special you are.

And all of that is and may be very true.

But I kept hearing this message given to the kids in my group last week from one of the other counselors. She said: “Remember kids, Jesus looked down from the cross at the people who were murdering Him and asked God to forgive them.”

Jesus began a change in this world and He wants us to continue it.

The root of that change, the root of that peace is forgiveness.

It starts by accepting the fact that we are sinners and need forgiveness from God.

And then we accept it as a gift from God, given completely by God’s own work for us on the cross.

Then we forgive others.

And then, we use their faith to make a difference in the world around them.

God wants to reconcile you to Him and to each other.

(SHOW) God wants to change the world, through us.

It first starts with our relationship with Him.