‘FOR HE HIMSELF IS OUR PEACE’
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on December 11, 2022 under 2022 |
Bethany Bible Church Sunday Sermon Message; December 11, 2022 from Ephesians 2:14-18
Theme: Jesus, through His cross, has established peace for all before God the Father.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
Click HERE for the live-stream archive of this sermon.
Click HERE for the audio version of this sermon.
Jesus said many things that—at the time—must have left people scratching their heads. I think one of those times would have been what we find in John 10.
In that chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus was presenting Himself to the Jewish people as ‘the Good Shepherd’ of the sheep. In the analogy He was presenting to them, the people of Israel who believed on Him were His sheep; and He was their true Shepherd. He said that all who had come to the sheep as mere ‘hirelings’ didn’t really care about the sheep. Those ‘shepherds’ fled whenever a wolf came by. But not Him. He cared for the sheep so much that He willingly laid down His life for them. He said;
I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep (John 10:14-15).
And as you read the whole chapter, you can plainly tell that this kind of talk was making the Jewish leaders angry. They, after all, considered themselves to be the true shepherds of the people of Israel. But Jesus was saying that those leaders were mere ‘hirelings’. And then, He said something that must have really confused them even more—and perhaps also confused everyone else who heard it. In verse 16, He said;
And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd (v. 16).
Other sheep? Another fold? All made into one flock with one shepherd? What exactly was He talking about? Those who heard this were probably more than just a little bit confused by it. I have to admit that, reading those words as a relatively young Christian, they used to confuse me quite a bit too.
But as I grew in my faith—and grew to better understand what it was that Jesus has done for us—those words made much more sense to me. And as much as they must have angered those hard-hearted Jewish leaders when they first heard them, I now find that I love them very much.
You see; I now understand that I am a sheep who was brought to Jesus from that ‘other’ fold. That other fold is composed of the people of the Gentile world—formerly closed off through birth from the blessings and promises from God that formerly belonged only to the Jewish people. The Bible teaches us that when Jesus died on the cross for the sins of His own people, He also died for the sins of the people of all the world—both Jew and Gentile. And when the message of His sacrifice went out into all the world, those who were His sheep from the other flocks of the Gentile world also heard and believed. I’m one of them. He is now my Shepherd—just as much as to His believing sheep from the Jewish people. And I am grateful beyond words!
But did you notice that Jesus said that “there will be one flock and one shepherd”? It was Jesus’ plan to gather the believing Gentiles to Himself as well as the believing Jews; but here wouldn’t end up being a “Jewish flock” of sheep and a “Gentile flock” of sheep—kept in separate and distinct sheepfolds. Instead, they would be brought together into one flock, with one Shepherd—all united together by the common bond of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on the cross.
The ‘uniting’ of all believing Jews and Gentiles together into one ‘flock’ in Christ is a very glorious theme in the New Testament. It shows us how wonderfully Jesus is able to do what no one else in this world can do—that is, unite divided people together into a state of peace—first with the heavenly Father, and then with one another. It only happens when He is at the center of it all.
For He Himself is our peace.
* * * * * * * * * *
And this also happens to be the theme we’ve been studying together in Ephesians 2.
In the Book of Ephesians, the apostle Paul wrote about the wonderful eternal blessings that are ours through a relationship by faith with Jesus Christ. He was writing to a group of Gentiles who had believed and who were saved by faith in Jesus’ cross. He wanted them to remember the greatness of what it was that God had done in saving them from their sins and drawing them near to Himself. And in Ephesians 2:11- 13, Paul had told them;
Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:11-13).
They had, at one time, been ‘far away’ from the covenant blessings of God. They were called ‘Uncircumcised’ by the circumcised Jewish people. But now, they have been brought near by the blood of Jesus. Now, there is no longer a distinction that keeps one group ‘near’ and another group ‘far’. All are brought equally near to God’s blessings through faith in Jesus Christ. That’s my story. I hope—my fellow believing Gentile—that it’s yours too.
But that’s when Paul shows us that God did more than simply save undeserving Gentiles by the blood of Jesus—making them His sheep from another fold. Paul goes on to show us that Jesus has taken His sheep from the Jewish fold, and His sheep from the Gentile fold, and has brought them together in Himself into one flock with one Shepherd. Paul went on to write;
For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father (vv. 14-18).
* * * * * * * * * *
Now; I believe we need to be very careful about how we understand this. I don’t believe that this is, in any way, saying that all Jewish people are to now cease being Jewish people. Nor do I believe that this is saying that all Gentile people must now become Jewish in their behavior. The Jewish people are God’s distinctively special chosen people. They always will be. When Jesus returns to this earth, He will come as the King of the Jews; and He will reign over this earth from Jerusalem, with His chosen people, as the promised Son of David. There’s a sense in which the distinction between Jewish and Gentile people isn’t set aside. It still remains.
But what this is saying to us is that, when it comes to being made right in the sight of God, and entering into the full blessings of God by faith, the distinction now no longer matters. The Gentile person enters into the fullness of those blessings in exactly the same way as the Jewish person does—both by faith in Jesus Christ—and in no other way. He is given by God as the means by which the two groups become one. As Paul says at the beginning of this passage, “For He Himself is our peace”. Both the Jewish believer and the Gentile believer find their union—their common bond of fellowship with God and love toward one another—in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And dear brothers and sisters in Christ; do you realize what this means? It means that the thing that politicians and rulers and kings have been trying to accomplish all through the centuries—that is, to bring about peace in this world between divided people groups—cannot be accomplished in any other way than by through Jesus Christ. It happens only in Him. If we try to become ‘united’ by tearing down all the cultural and social and ethnic and economic distinctions—as so many have aggressively and forcefully attempted to do over the centuries—we only end up hurting and dishonoring everyone. But if I am a sinner who is made 100% righteous in the sight of God by faith in the cross of Jesus Christ, and if you are a sinner who is also made 100% righteous in the sight of God by faith in Jesus Christ; and if together we are cleansed of our sins by the blood of Jesus, and made right with God by a shared faith in His cross—then we are instantly united at the most fundamental level that there could ever be. None of the other distinctions of ethnicity, culture, nationality, wealth, or background matter anymore.
God has demonstrated His power to do this by first bringing together the two most fundamentally distinct people groups in all of human history—Jewish and Gentile. He now makes them into ‘one flock’ through the Good Shepherd Jesus!
And so, here’s the good news that Ephesians 2:14-18 is declaring to us: Jesus, through His cross, has established peace for all before God the Father. He—and He alone—is our peace!
* * * * * * * * * *
So then; let’s look at the words of this passage in closer detail. Let’s consider what Jesus, who is our peace, has done for us.
First, we see that …
1. HE UNITED JEW AND GENTILE.
In verses 14-15, Paul wrote;
For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace … (vv. 14-15).
About 150 years ago, an archeologist was excavating near the mound where the temple in Jerusalem used to stand. He found a stone tablet with words engraved upon it. It still exists; and is kept in a middle-eastern museum. This tablet—apparently one of several—had been put on public display in the temple around the time of our Lord. It was written in Greek; and specialists see evidence that the letters had been—at one time—highlighted with red paint in order to make the words stand out clearly. It had been fixed to a barricade that separated the temple proper—where only Jewish men could go—from the court of the Gentiles. Archeologists refer to this stone tablet as ‘The Thanatos Inscription’ (thanatos being the Greek word for ‘death’); and when translated into English, it contained the following stern warning:
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.1
Immediate death to any Gentile who entered into the temple area proper! That may seem harsh and intolerant. But nevertheless, there was a clear biblical reason for it. God had set the Jewish people apart as His special people. And during the time before our Lord came, God had ordained that His special people keep themselves separate and distinct from all other people of the world. There was, for the Jewish people, to be no mixing and mingling with Gentiles. It was—after all—through the Jewish people exclusively that God would give His written revelation to the world, and would provide the Savior of mankind.
Some Bible teachers believe that this barricade—and the inscription on it—was what Paul was talking about when he wrote that there had been ‘a middle wall of separation’ between the Jewish and the Gentile people. But I think that it’s more likely that Paul was talking about all of the laws that God gave specifically to the Jewish people—with all the commandments, and ceremonies, and rituals, and feats, and dietary ordinances; and especially the sign of ‘circumcision’—that made the Jewish people a distinct people from all others. Paul said in verse 14 that Jesus “has broken down the middle wall of separation”; and then went on to describe this “wall” in verse 15 as “the law of commandments contained in ordinances …”
And dear brothers and sisters in Christ; that ‘dividing wall’ no longer stands as a barrier to keep the Gentile people out from drawing near to the God of Israel. Jesus has broken it down.
Now; how did our Lord do this? It’s important to understand that Jesus didn’t do this by simply ‘abolishing’ the law. The law of God is holy; and as the Son of God, He would never simply abolish it. Instead, He told us what He did in Matthew 5:17;
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17).
When Jesus came into this world, He was born into the human family as a member of the Jewish people. And on our behalf—as one of us—He lived in perfect obedience to the heavenly Father, and fulfilled every requirement of the law for us. That would include the ceremonial laws that distinguished the Jewish people through all of the ceremonies, and rituals, and feasts, and sacrifices, and even the distinguishing sign of ‘circumcision’. It wasn’t the law that Jesus abolished. It was the enmity created by that law that He abolished. And Jesus did this by satisfying all of the requirements of it for us; ”having abolished in His flesh the enmity”.
And so now; if any Jewish person places his or her faith in the perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ, they are “in Him” who has completely satisfied the requirements of the whole law of God on their behalf. And what’s more; if any Gentile person places their faith in that same obedience of Jesus Christ, they too are “in Him” who completely satisfied the requirements of that whole “middle wall of separation” law on their behalf.
There is now, no longer any barrier between the two. Jesus did this for all “so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace”. As Paul would go on later to affirm in Ephesians 3:6;
that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel (Ephesians 3:6).
For He Himself is our peace.
* * * * * * * * * *
But as wonderful as that is, there’s even more. The two most divided groups that human history has ever known—the Jewish people and the Gentile people—could never be made right with each other unless they had first been made completely right with God. And so; Paul went on to show another way that Jesus is our peace …
2. HE RECONCILED BOTH TO GOD.
To be ‘reconciled’ means that two parties have been brought together in a relationship of peace, because the cause of separation between them had been removed. The reason for separation from God—whether we be Jewish or Gentile—is sin. Paul went on to say this about Jesus in verse 16;
and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.
When Paul spoke of how Jesus united both believing Jew and believing Gentile together—taking ‘the middle wall of separation’ out of the way—He was highlighting Jesus’ ‘active obedience’ to the commandments of God for us all. That’s what took the division out of the way. But in order to be made right with a holy God, the guilt of our sins also had to be taken out of the way. And that’s what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross in His ‘passive obedience’. He took the full guilt of our sins upon Himself, and submitted Himself to His Father’s righteous wrath on the cross for our sins. He paid the death penalty for sin on our behalf as our ‘Substitute’. He gave Himself in order to fulfill all the requirements for the complete atonement for our sin—pictured for us in the Old Testament sacrifices and offerings. And He did it in His own Person—as a full member of the human race—on the cross.
When Paul wrote that Jesus did this for both Jewish people and Gentile people equally “in one body”, Paul wasn’t speaking of the physical body of Jesus. Jesus did, of course, die for us in His single human body on the cross. But that’s not what Paul is talking about. Rather, what Paul is saying is that Jesus reconciled the Jewish people and the Gentile people to God together—as one united group—into one new Body called the Church. In Ephesians 4, Paul described it this way:
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all (Ephesians 4:4-6).
I saw an amazing demonstration of this a few years ago in Israel. High atop Mount Carmel—near the city of Haifa—is a vibrant evangelical church. It is a very worshipful, Christ-honoring, Bible-teaching church with lots of people in it from lots of different backgrounds. On the particular day that I was able to attend, there was a ‘testimony time’ being given during the worship service. There, before the congregation, was a small group of Christians composed of Israelis, Palestinians, and Arabs. It would be hard to find a group of people who were of more divided backgrounds than that! And yet, they were all there—arm in arm—giving praise, with one unified voice, to Jesus their Savior. They even invited the congregation to come forward and dance with them. (They dance in that church. And with unity like that, I can’t blame them!)
Paul says that Jesus has taken Jewish people and Gentile people to Himself and has reconciled “both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity”. That’s what Jesus has done for us. Only He could do it; for only He Himself is our peace.
* * * * * * * * * *
And there’s one more thing to notice about what Jesus has done. After He had perfectly obeyed the Father for us and has taken away the middle wall of separation, and after He had paid the death penalty for our sins—taking away the enmity between ourselves and God, Paul goes on to tell us that …
3. HE PREACHED THE GOOD NEWS.
In verses 17-18, Paul goes on to tell us this about Jesus;
And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father (vv. 17-18).
When did Jesus ‘preach’ this? I suspect that it could be a reference to what it says in Isaiah 57:19, where we’re given this prophetic promise from the Lord Himself:
“I create the fruit of the lips:
Peace, peace to him who is far off and to him who is near,”
Says the Lord,
“And I will heal him” (Isaiah 57:19).
This would be a prophetic promise of how Jesus would proclaim the good news of ‘peace, peace’ to both Jewish and Gentile peoples. But I believe it would also be true that the Lord Jesus preached this message through His apostles. He sent them out into the world to proclaim what He had done. The Book of Acts tells the story of how, first, they preached to the Jewish people; and then, of how they took the message to the Gentile world. Paul goes on to say, in verses 19-20—a Jewish apostle of Jesus Christ writing to his Gentile readers;
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone … (Ephesians 2:19-20).
And it would be right to say that Jesus continues to preach this good news to the world even today—every time you and I, dear brothers and sisters, declare what the Bible tells about Him. We show, from the testimony of Scripture and from the transformation of our own lives, that—through Jesus—we now have access by one Holy Spirit to the Father through Jesus His Son.
* * * * * * * * * *
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ; the Lord Jesus has called together His sheep from both near and far. The distinctions that separated the Jewish people from the Gentile people are now no longer a barrier to being made righteous before God. Together, He Jesus has made all who believe in Him—whether Jew or Gentile—into one flock with one Shepherd.
And what should we do about it? We should now come to God together through Him with full confidence of faith. As the writer of Hebrews puts it in Hebrews 10;
Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water … (Hebrews 10:19-22).
We can do this freely through Jesus; “For He Himself is our peace”.
1See this translation in William Hendriksen, Exposition of Ephesians (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1967), p. 133.
AE
