OUR PEACE

EPHESIANS 2:11-22

Adapted from a Jim Black sermonhttp://www.sermoncentral.com/print_friendly.asp?

ContributorID=&SermonID=54536

Ephesians 2:11 NET Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh — who are called "uncircumcision" by the so-called "circumcision" that is performed

on the body by human hands — 12 that you were at that time without the Messiah,

alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the

world.

13 But now in Christ Jesus you who used to be far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, the one who made both groups into one and

who destroyed the middle wall of partition, the hostility, 15 when he nullified in his flesh

the law of commandments in decrees.

He did this to create in himself one new man out of two, thus making peace, 16 and to reconcile them both in one body to God

through the cross, by which the hostility has been killed. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to

those who were near, 18 so that through him we both have access in one Spirit to

the Father.

19 So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens

with the saints and members of God's household, 20 because you have been built

on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building,

being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of

God in the Spirit.

Jesus has brought peace; destroying the walls between us and making his people

ONE in him.

Christians are encouraged with the message of reconciliation in Jesus,

vertically (with God) andhorizontally (with fellow mankind.)

“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” That’s the way Robert Frost began his famous poem, “Mending Wall.” It’s a

wonderful poem full of humor and a sense of sadness. It’s about two

neighbors who go through the same ritual each spring, meeting at the wall to

repair it– to refill the gaps that fallen stones have left and repair the damage done by hunters whose pursuit of their

game has left the wall in disrepair.

The neighbors have apparently done this for many years, yet it strikes the narrator

in the poem to question just why it is they

have the wall in the first place.

SOMETHING there isthat doesn't love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun;

And makes gaps even twocan pass abreast.

The work of hunters is another thing: I have come after them

and made repair

Where they have leftnot one stone on stone,

But they would have the rabbitout of hiding,

To please the yelping dogs.The gaps I mean,

No one has seen them madeor heard them made, 

But at spring mending-timewe find them there.

I let my neighbor knowbeyond the hill;

“And on a day we meet to walk the line

and set the wall between us once again

We keep the wall between usas we go.

To each the boulders that have fallen to each.

And some are loaves and some so nearly balls

we have to use a spell to make them balance:‘Stay where you are

until our backs are turned!’We wear our fingers tough

with handling them.

Oh, just another kind of outdoor game,One on a side.

It comes to little more:There where it is we do not

need the wall:He is all pine and I am apple orchard.My apple trees will never get acrossAnd eat the cones under his pines,

I tell him.He only says, “Good fences make good

neighbors.”

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder

If I could put a notion in his head:“Why do they make good neighbors?

Isn’t it where there are cows?Before I built a wall I’d ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence.

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall ,

That wants it down!“I could say "Elves" to himBut it's not elves exactly,

and I'd ratherHe said it for himself.

I see him there, Bringing a stone grasped

firmly by the topIn each hand,

like an old-stone savage armed.

He moves in darknessas it seems to me, Not of woods only

and the shade of trees. He will not go behindhis father's saying,

And he likes having thoughtof it so well

He says again,"Good fences make good neighbors."

They don’t have cows anymore that might stray onto the other’s property! Just trees. So why is the wall there? Hasn’t the time come that its purpose no longer exists?

Yet, it remains . . . why? Because it’s always been there?

The truth is, it’s human nature to construct walls, isn’t it? In our neighborhoods, we

build our houses and then hold up inside of them rarely venturing out to get to know our neighbors. I mean really get to know them. In society in general, we construct walls. There are the walls which still divide black

and white even 149 years after The Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery

in America.

There are walls which divide gender, men and women; there are walls of social status, the divide of affluent and the poor. Walls are all around us! And for many, perhaps they

help us feel comfortable, protected, unchallenged. Surely that’s how it was for

1st century Gentiles to whom Paul is writing his letter of Ephesians! We see in todays text this divide between Jew & Gentile!

Ephesians is about the church. Paul is writing it to the saints who make up the

church at Ephesus to be circulated among other area churches to show them how to be the church! He will concentrate later on some of the moral implications of being in

Christ.

He has emphasized the blessings that are found in Christ, the power that is found in

Christ; & he has reminded these Christians from whence they came, “you were dead…in your sins.” (Eph 2:1) But ALL of THIS has

been to show the church how to be the church! God is about building His church! But, as any good construction worker can tell you, before you can build, some things

have to go!

Remember the WALL!11 Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh — who are called

"uncircumcision" by the so-called "circumcision" that is performed on the body by human hands — 12 that you were at that

time without the Messiah, alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and

without God in the world.

Paul starts out this passage by saying, “Remember the WALL!”

Paul is talking to Gentiles, here, (like us) "uncircumcision" was a typical &

disrespectful term used by the Jews (“The Chosen”) "circumcision" to describe the

Gentiles. They were heathens, clearly NOT the people of God! It would be hard to

adequately describe in today’s terms the disdain that Jews had for Gentiles (& vice

versa- no doubt).

As wide as the divide has been between whites & blacks in America– I don’t think

that quite does it justice. As bitter the divide right now between some fundamentalist Moslems and Christians – that’s not the same thing either! The divide was racial-

but extended far beyond race. It was political- but extended far beyond politics. It

was religious- but extended far beyond religion.

Josephus the Jewish historian wrote about the warning signs that were on the barrier

that separated the court of the gentiles from the other courts in the Temple. Not until recent times did archaeologists actually

discover one. Its seven-line inscription read as follows:

Here’s a picture of an actual stone the warning was written on.

NO FOREIGNER IS TO GO BEYOND THE BALUSTRADE

AND THE PLAZA OF THE TEMPLE ZONE

WHOEVER IS CAUGHT DOING SO WILL HAVE HIMSELF TO BLAME

FOR HIS DEATH WHICH WILL FOLLOW

http://www.bible-history.com/jewishtemple/JEWISH_TEMPLEArchaeology.htm

This was a serious divide! Imagine how difficult it must have been for either group to

extend the other the right hand of fellowship!

But remember, Paul is talking to Gentile CHRISTIANS! They were Gentiles in the

flesh but they were now Christians and now a part of the church at Ephesus. Paul tells

them to remember when they were separated from God!

Remember when that wall had separated them from God! Separation from Christ/God is the very definition of spiritual death! They

were excluded from citizenship among God’s chosen people; ‘foreigners,’ strangers to the covenant, the promise of God. They

were without HOPE because they were without God!

Why does Paul want them to remember? Because a person needs to remember ‘how

bad it was before Christ’ before they can appreciate ‘how sweet it is in Christ.’ There was this bitter wall which had

separated them (not just from the Jews) but from God!

In 1949, following the defeat of Nazi Germany in WW II and the re-organization

of Europe, the nation of Germany was divided into East & West. In the East a

communist government was set up under the influence of the Soviet Union. In the

West a free, democratic government was set up and benefitted greatly from the Marshall Plan & the economics of free

enterprise.

Life became much better in the West for German citizens. The city of Berlin became a crucible where these divided philosophies

would literally divide the city. Fearful of losing many of its citizens, East Germany

closed the border between the two states in 1952.

But that didn’t keep an estimated 2.5 million East Germans from fleeing to West

Germany between 1949 -1961. So, in 1961 the East German government built the Berlin Wall and strictly enforcing such

defections. The wall stood for almost 30 years as a very real and symbolic divide

between the East & the West.

I’m sure you remember a speech given by President Reagan in 1987 at the Brandenburg Gate, a section of the

Berlin Wall in West Berlin. The President used the opportunity to encourage

freedom and a new peace. As he spoke about the wall behind him which

separated West Berlin from East Berlin for decades, he said these words, “Mr.

Gorbechev, tear down this wall!”

When you hear those words do you recall images just a few years later when the wall was quite literally torn down? In November of 1987, the East German government held

a press conference and lifted travel restrictions between the two Germanys. And Germans (both from the East & the

West) scaled the wall and danced in celebration! Today nothing of it remains in a

united Germany. The wall is just gone, a thing of the past.

13 But now in Christ Jesus you who used to be far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, the one who made both groups into one and

who destroyed the middle wall of partition, the hostility,

Paul’s emphasis: Christ, himself, is our Peace!

15 when he nullified in his flesh the law of commandments in decrees. He did this to create in himself one new man out of two, thus making peace, 16 and to reconcile

them both in one body to God through the cross, by which the hostility has been killed.

17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those

who were near, 18 so that through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

Christ has torn down the wall that had divided for so long! We typically think of

‘Peace’ as the absence of war; especially in our time when that peace is threatened and

the issue of war is a reality.

When I think of ‘peace’ my mind conjures up images of those who were protesting the war in the 60’s who created their own sub-

culture and came to be known as ‘peaceniks’. That’s NOT the kind of peace

that Paul is talking about here! Peace is not JUST the absence of hostility, it is much

more!

It has its roots in the Old Testament concept of “shalom”, a fundamental Jewish concept

even today. Shalom is a much more comprehensive term for salvation and life

with God. It means wholeness, completeness, well-being, prosperity. In other words: Shalom is the way things

SHOULD be; the ideal!

The webbing together of God, humans, and all creation in justice, fulfillment, and delight is what the Hebrew prophets call shalom.

We call it peace but it means far more than mere peace of mind or a cease-fire

between enemies. In the Bible, shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness and

delight –

a rich state of affairs in which natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts fruitfully

employed, a state of affairs that inspires joyful wonder as its Creator and Savior

opens doors and welcomes the creatures in whom he delights. Shalom, in other words,

is the way things ought to be. (Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin,

Cornelius Plantinga)

Christ has restored the ideal by destroying the wall and bringing Jew & Gentile

together! Notice, the two are made one in Him! “He did this to create in himself one new man out of two, thus making peace.” The Gentiles who had been so far away from God, separated by so much, have

been brought near!

Israel, too, who had been awaiting this coming Messiah, but had failed him

miserably in their keeping of the law.

Reconciliation happens thru the blood of Christ, what God has done in Christ. Paul

makes it known, all of this happens IN CHRIST! We were walled away from God

and Christ tore down that wall!

Notice the fullness of the Godhead in vs. 18– what happens as a result of this

reconciliation. throughhim [Christ] we both have access in one

Spirit to the Father. With the barriers gone, we ALL (Jew, Gentile, male, female, black, white, etc.) have full access to the Father, through him [Christ] because we share the

one Spirit.FATHER-SON-SPIRIT

19 So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens

with the saints and members of God's household, 20 because you have been built

on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building,

being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord,

“Welcome to the Great House of God!”

22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the

Spirit. As we said, in order to build, one must tear

down first. Now, with the wall torn down, God has built his church; the house of God.Notice who is in this house. “you are fellow

citizens with the saints and members of God's household.”

In other words, we’re FAMILY! An amazing thing happened when Christ removed that barrier between us and Himself! He also

tore down the barriers that we build between ourselves and other people!

His church is to be a place where all people can come and share together, equally!

Galatians 3:28 NET There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free,

there is neither male nor female — for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

The ground at the cross is level! This ‘peace’; the restored relationship; is both

Vertical & Horizontal! Between us and God; between you and me! Too many people

believe that religion is only what a person does when they are alone with God.

They forget that the vertical relationship with God expresses itself in the horizontal relationships with people. Christianity is to

be lived out in community with other Christians!

The text did NOT say, “He is my peace,” but rather “He is our peace.”

This house seems to be on pretty solid footing “..built on the foundation of the

apostles and prophets.” As the foundation sustains the building, so the word of God,

declared by the apostles and prophets, sustains the faith of all believers. God laid

the foundation by them; but Christ himself is the chief corner (Wesley)

2 Corinthians 5:17 NET So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away — look, what is new has come! 18 And all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ,

and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

19 In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not

counting people's trespasses against them, and he has given us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore we are

ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His plea through us. We plead with you on Christ's behalf, "Be reconciled

to God!"

The message: Reconciliation– “The Wall has come down!”

The messengers: the ambassadors like Paul to whom this message had been

committed.But the Cornerstone is Jesus Christ,

himself! He is the most important stone in THIS building! The Cornerstone in ancient buildings were the primary load-bearing

stones that determined how solid the building was going to be.

It set the plumb-line (so to speak) for the rest of the building.

God’s church would be built upon the ROCK: Jesus Christ, himself!

Matthew 16:13 NET When Jesus came to the area of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" 14 They answered, "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, and others

Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

15 He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" 16 Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 17 And Jesus answered him, "You are blessed,

Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my

Father in heaven! 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not

overpower it.

He sets the standard for the church, the world doesn’t.

He sets the agenda for the church, the world doesn’t. In fact, the Christian

community has no other reason to exist other than Christ himself.

What does this message have to say to us? The only thing Paul tells us to DO in this

text is REMEMBER. 11a Therefore remember that formerly you,

the Gentiles in the flesh If this is God’s Word to His church, what does this have to say to the walls that we erect? Among Christians, what walls exist

among us? Are there still walls which divide the affluent & the poor? The black & the

white?

What about less obvious walls like between the old & the young; or the long-timer members vs. the new comers? Are we

doing everything we can to be welcoming of EVERYBODY? Does everybody find a

comfortable place within our family? Who are we walling in or out . . . even unintentionally & unknowingly?

If this is God’s Word to His church, what does this have to say about our foundation? Who or What is this church founded upon? What is our cornerstone? Is it Jesus Christ or ourselves? Our own works or abilities? If

tomorrow the very foundations of this congregation were shaken to the very core

and everything changed...

If all of a sudden the government told us that it would be illegal to worship our God and our building was burned down in front of us...if our church leaders were arrested and hauled off to prison...what would be

left? Could this church survive being shaken to the very core? I know that it

would if it is built upon the chief cornerstone: Jesus Christ! But if it’s just

built upon men, -even elders & deacons, or preachers- or programs, or traditions– what

would happen?

This text is a call for the church to be the CHURCH!

TO BE:*family!

*A place of reconciliation! *A place where the walls are let down and

open & honest, real relationships are formed!

*A place where Jesus is central & at the heart & core of everything we do!

And it’s a call for US to be the type of Christians that can form a church such as

this!

The invitation of Jesus is offered to you today.

It’s an invitation that is ALWAYS open!

Have you had the dividing wall between you and God broken down? Have you

committed your life to Jesus Christ who SO wants to destroy that wall for you? Have

you turned from the sins of your past, named Him as the Lord of your life and

committed your life to Him by being baptized into Christ, having your sins

washed away? If not, let us encourage you to do so today!