Ephesians 2:14-18 Christ our Peace

Christ our Peace

Ephesians 2:14 - 18

Today we are asked to remember people who have fought in the great European wars of the last century. I have difficulty making heros of people who have lived a life of violence and are now seen as people to be honoured. Our church has always stood for promoting peace, not encouraging violence. Unfortunately because we have not been able to share the message of peace to the hearts of violent leaders, today we are reaping the cost and consequences of destructive forces in the world. Although I do not believe that violent people should be allowed to destroy and demean people I believe that we have powerful weapons of peace in the gospel, not in the military. This passage this morning tells us how we can bring peace to the world and that Jesus is the only one who can change the hearts of people. The purpose Jesus came to earth was to bring people together. We cannot speak of peace in the world until people have peace in their hearts.

The temple in Jesus time had five main areas. There was the inner temple, the holy of holies where only the high priest went in to atone for the sins of the people once a year. There was the temple area where only the priests were allowed where the altar of incense and table for the daily bread and the altar of sacrifice. Outside of this area is the men's court, then the women's court area. Beyond this area is the area set aside for the Gentiles. This was where the merchants had set up a market area for people to purchase sacrifices and money to be given at the temple. This place was noisy, dirty and crowded. Because of this Jesus upset the money changers, chased out the animals and sought to cleanse the area that was set aside for the Gentiles to be able to worship the great and true God. (John 2:13 - 16; Matthew 21:12, 13; Mark 11:15 - 17) Jesus said that the temple was to be a house of prayer for all nations. Jesus did not destroy the physical barrier that was in the temple, but when He died, he died for all men so that He was removing the barrier of all people becoming part of the family of God. At the time of Jesus, there was a wall separating the Gentile Court and the Temple worship area with warning plaques posted saying, "NO MAN OF ANOTHER NATION TO ENTER WITHIN THE FENCED ENCLOSURE AROUND THE TEMPLE, AND WHOEVER IS CAUGHT WILL HAVE HIMSELF TO BLAME THAT HIS DEATH ENSUES." The Jews thought more of the purity of the temple than the salvation of the nations. This indicates that there was still very little desire to have the Gentiles come to faith. In fact this sentiment was so strong among the Jews that the book of Acts records some of the events which occurred in the early church to finally break down the barriers between Jews and all other peoples. We read of the stories of where Philip, Peter, Paul and others went to Samaria and other Gentile areas to share the word of God with them and they were saved. These new believers became a part of the new church extending the Old Testament teachings to gentiles as well as traditional Jews. It would be like this group going to other ethnic people in our community, the Lebanese, Italians, Koreans, Cambodians, or Chinese and inviting them to become a part of this church. We need to keep our focus not on maintaining our own ethnic culture but to be open to share God's goodness to all people. We will have to make changes just like the early church did when the church began to expand to include people from many different nations of that time.

God wants all people to come to Him so today we should not focus on the church building as the centre of our faith but rather get a biblical perspective of the New Testament temple. God would want 6 Billion temples walking around this planet glorifying Him. I am sure that He is not happy to see his creation, groaning under the negative oppression of the evil one.

Paul writes that believers are the temple of Holy Spirit. 1 Cor 6:19 says, "Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, whom you have received from God. You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your body." A couple chapters earlier Paul had said, " Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple." I Cor 3:16,17. What are you doing to build up the temple of God inside of you. Are you building a glorious holy sanctuary that God is proud to live in, or are you neglecting to care for the flowers of love, the songs of joy, the peace and harmony of intimate relationships with God. As we become united with God and have an exciting and close relationship with God, we will be drawn closer to other believers who will have a positive impact on our lives. God wants to build a family, a body of believers who demonstrate harmony and peace to the world. Jesus' purpose for coming to this world was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both the Gentiles and the Jews to God through the Cross. Paul wrote about the church as a body of believers who complement their gifts to lovingly help each other, encourage and bless each other and build each other up. Peter said in I Peter 1:9,10 "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are a people of God; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy."

How does the Cross bring all people together? The cross is the place of forgiveness. It is the place where everyone comes to start their relationship with God. It is the place where we become new creatures in Christ Jesus. Have you come to the cross? Jesus died on the cross so that he could become the sacrificial lamb which was slain for our sins. He was the substitute who died in our stead so that the penalty for sin would be taken care of. The cross brings us together and because of the universal nature of the forgiveness God offers, we as Gentiles are able now to have a dynamic relationship with God. We are the wild vine that has be engrafted into the true vine. As the vine grows there is no difference between the vine that is grafted into the stem and the original vine. The farmer trims them back the same way. If a Jew needs to be trimmed back or a Gentile need a trim, the farmer (husbandman) trims the vine the same way. God does not treat us any different than any other part of his vineyard.

Jesus came to preach peace to those who were far off - a term used for those lost in their sin, and to those who were near - those religious folks who thought they were near to God. Jesus brought the message of peace to all people, the religious and the sinners alike. Paul is probably referring to the Old Testament prophetic word in Isaiah 57:19 " Peace, peace to him that is far off and to him that is near." It does not matter how sinful we are, or how religious we are, we all need forgiveness and the peace of God which comes from knowing that we do not need to fear death because we know that we will spend eternity with God in the new Jerusalem. Will you be there?

Don Richardson went to bring the gospel to the Sawi tribe in Dutch New Guinea. It took years to understand the language and try to translate the New Testament into their language. It was very difficult and the people were not responsive to the message of hope and peace. They continually fought with the neighbouring tribes bringing peril and bloodshed to the village where the Richardson were working. These people made a hero out of Judas Iscariot because he was able to deceive the other disciples and by making a pact with the enemy the Pharisees and Sadducees, he turned Jesus over to be killed. They thought he was a mastermind to be able to plot and pull off such a deceptive plan. The Richardson were not able to see anyone put their faith in Jesus Christ until they were able to see how God had put into their own culture a symbol of Christ and his sacrifice. In their culture they did have a way to bring two warring tribes together to bring peace. That was by the chief offering his child to be adopted by the other tribe. If the other tribe accepted it would mean that these two tribes would not kill others from that tribe. One day a neighbouring tribe came to kill everyone in the village where the Richardsons were working. The leader of the village took his only son, a infant, from the arms of his wailing wife and presented it to the leader of the warring tribe. The child was accepted and this brought peace to the two tribes.
Don Richardson was able to show these people how God sent Jesus to the world to bring peace.
The people had to "adopt" Jesus into their hearts before peace could be made with God. When they understood about God's sacrificing his only son, the people turned to God and became Christians.

Because of what Jesus did on the Cross everyone in the whole planet can now be ushered into the very presence of the awesome God who created this magnificent universe. Have you taken advantage of this wonderful privilege? How often to you enter God's presence? I hope that it is more than just on a Sunday morning. I hope that you do it continually throughout every day of your life. Do not allow barriers of sin to come into your life and destroy the beautiful and intimate relationship with God. Let us take advantage of this opportunity to come into his presence right now.

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Leamington Lao Fellowship
Nov 11, 2001