The Wonder of His Peace

Introduction

Alienation is a significant problem in today’s society for several reasons:

Social Media and Digital Isolation: While social media connects people globally, it can also contribute to feelings of loneliness and disconnection. Many individuals feel pressure to present curated versions of their lives on Facebook and other platforms, which can lead to alienation when reality does not match these images.

Economic Disparity: Those in lower socioeconomic classes may feel excluded from opportunities and resources, leading to feelings of resentment and hostility.

Cultural and Political Polarization: Increasing divisions in society based on political beliefs, race, and cultural backgrounds can lead to increased alienation. People may feel that their views are not represented or validated, and this can foster hostility between different groups.

Urbanization and Transience: In urban environments, people often live in close proximity yet remain emotionally and socially disconnected. Frequent moves and transient communities lead to weak social bonds, increasing feelings of alienation.

Mental Health Issues: Mental health struggles can contribute to feelings of alienation. Individuals dealing with anxiety, depression, or other mental health issues may feel separated from their peers and unable to engage fully in social interactions, further deepening their sense of isolation.

Global Crises: Threats of war, political instability, and health crises can foster feelings of hopelessness and disconnection as people grapple with uncertainty and fear.

Oddly enough, the more resources and tools we have to connect with others, many people in our culture are feeling more alienated and isolated than in past generations. Psychiatry and social sciences have conceived their own solutions to alienation and isolation, but they don’t seem to be working.

In our passage today, Paul was writing to a people living in a society who experienced alienation perhaps to a greater degree than we could imagine. Here’s how one historian describes the alienation in Paul’s day:

Ephesians—The Mystery of the Body of Christ Alienation to Reconciliation ( Ephesians 2:11-18 )

A study of the history of the ancient world tells us that none of today’s social distinctions — none of our racial barriers, our narrow nationalisms, our iron curtains — are more exclusive or unrelenting than the separation between Jews and Gentiles in Biblical times. The Jews believed the Gentiles were created to fuel the fires of Hell … It was unlawful for a Jew to aid a Gentile woman in giving birth, for that would bring another heathen into the world.

The Gentiles, in addition to their hatred for Jews, hatred for anyone not like them. Plato said that the barbarians (anyone non-Greek) were his enemies by nature. Another Roman, Livy, confirmed this in his day, saying, “The Greeks wage a truceless war against people of other races, against barbarians.” … The collision of Gentile/Jewish exclusiveness was monumental. The Gentiles were dogs in Jewish jargon, and the Jews were homicidal enemies of the human race in Gentile terms.

R. Kent Hughes,

Alienation is a major theme of the Scriptures. Adam’s eviction from Eden, Cain’s wandering as a fugitive, Israel’s servitude in Egypt and later exile in Babylon, all symbolize an alienation that is the lot of humankind. In Luke 15 Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son gives an anatomy of estrangement and alienation (G. V. Jones, The Art and Truth of the Parables, p. 176).

When approaching this subject, Paul made it abundantly clear that the problem of alienation was much deeper than national, cultural, or social differences. Alienation is a spiritual problem. Alienation in the world is a symptom of spiritual alienation, and no psychiatry or social science can remedy it completely.

The problem does have a remedy, though; and we are celebrating that remedy today on this Third Sunday in Advent: the peace that is offered to the world in the birth of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, and His redemptive work on the cross.

In the first two verses, Paul explained to Jews and Gentiles alike that …

The absence of peace means ALIENATION (11-12).

Not just hostility but alienation, separation, and exclusion; primarily from God but as a result between people. In other words, alienation among people is a consequence of alienation from God. Paul was speaking to the problem of alienation that existed between Jews and Gentiles, but the application is relevant for us today. He pointed out a five ways that Gentiles were alienated from Jews, but once again, the application in our day is relevant.

They were Christless, separated from the Messiah.

They were homeless, excluded from God’s people.

They were friendless, foreigners to God’s covenants.

They were hopeless, estranged from anything that can bring permanent hope and joy.

They were godless, and truthfully in a hostile relationship with God.

Paul pleaded with his readers to remember the alienation they felt apart from Christ that’s good advice for us today.

Religion is not enough. We need something more personal.

The pagan world was not without religion. Just the opposite was true. The pagan world of Paul’s day might have been more religious than any other world. Ephesus was a city of about 250,000 people and the home of more than 20 temples. The most notable was the Temple of Artemis (also known as the Temple of Diana). This temple was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and was a major center of worship for the goddess Artemis, who was associated with fertility and nature. This temple was the most significant and prominent religious site of that era, and contributed to Ephesus's reputation as a major religious center in the ancient world.

Within five miles of our church campus are 26 other churches.

That’s more than enough “religion” for the 12,000 people who live here. That’s 450 people for every church. However, most of the 27 churches don’t have even 100 people in attendance on Sunday. The reality is, that on the average Sunday, there are only about three thousand people in attendance in those 27 churches. That is an average of 127 people per church. Petal may look “religious” from the street view, but a closer look at the heart and soul of our town will reveal a lot of alienation and isolation. There are several thousand people in our town who are Christless, spiritually homeless, friendless, hopeless, and godless.

Our town is not unique. The world is and has always been full of people who are in the same condition: alienated and isolated from God. One of the wonders of this season is that it points to the scandalous love of God, who chose to love people who hate Him.

Paul reminded the Ephesian believers that God solved the problem of alienation. Today, we lit a candle to symbolize the reality of God’s solution for alienation in the world: the peace of Christ Jesus. How was Jesus a peacemaker?

2. The wall of alienation was DESTROYED in a pivotal moment in history (13-14).

There is only one solution to the alienation humankind has from God: Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross.

Ephesians 2:13–14 CSB

But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh,

What Paul is describing here is reconciliation. Alienation is resolved by reconciliation. How in the world can sinful, mortal people be reconciled to a holy, eternal God? Is there anything we, mere humans, could possible due to “make up” for our vast sin? No way! So how? There are five phrases in these two verses that strike me as central to the reconciliation we need.

“far away”. Those words describe a place that is remote and distant. Sin separates us from God. Sin drives us out into a wilderness, a long distance from God that is impossible to close on our own. It matters not whether we are Jew or Gentile, black, or brown, or white, rich or poor, educated or not; every person without Christ is far away from God.

“brought near”. There is real beauty in these words: by the side of; within reach. Fantastic. Me, a sinner, living in a remote wilderness of sin, far away from God, can experience a life that is side-by-side with God, within reach, close at hand. How?

“by the blood of Christ”. When we think of blood, we likely think of death, right? And in the case of the redemption that we have through Christ, there was a death. On the day of atonement, a perfect lamb was sacrificed for the sins of Israel. When Jesus approached John at the Jordan River, John declared, “Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Though a death was involved, when Jews thought of blood, they thought of life. Life was in the blood, which is why Jews cannot eat meat with the blood still in it. Blood is sacred because life is sacred. The Jews also thought of cleansing. Blood was used to clean the altar, as well as the sanctuary and the temple. Hebrews 9:22 “According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” The blood that Jesus shed on the cross provided a way for sinners, separated from God, to receive cleansing from sin and new life.

“He is our peace”. That is, he is the peacemaker between us and God. In the Greek “he” is powerfully emphatic, and the emphasis is meant to go to our hearts. This is a statement well worth memorizing — “For he himself is our peace.”

“tore down”. God’s grace is a wrecking ball. As our peace, he “has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.” This again is graphic, emotive language because in Herod’s Temple there was a wall which separated the Court of the Gentiles from the rest of the Temple, and on that wall were inscriptions in Latin and Greek forbidding Gentiles to enter. Josephus spoke of these inscriptions, and in excavations made in 1871 and 1934 two of these inscriptions were found. They read: “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.” These (death) inscriptions are now on display in the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul and the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem. Paul says that Christ has ripped this odious barrier down by his death, and thus Jews and Gentiles alike have access to God and have spiritual unity. The ultimate answer to vertical and horizontal alienation is not intellectual or political or social, but spiritual! The answer comes when we cross the broken barrier and thus come near to God and then near to each other (cf. 1 John 1:3, 4). Picture the wall leveled, the death inscriptions lying under the rubble, and the nations (us!) joyfully stepping across as brothers and sisters. How did Christ’s death bring down the wall? Verses 15 and 16 answer the question.

3. The peace of Christ created a new HUMANITY (15-16).

Ephesians 2:15–16 “he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death.”

“He made of no effect,” means that Jesus abolished the law. The idea is that Christ’s death released us from the ceremonial conditions of the law that were binding and restricting. This parallels with verse 14, where we were informed that Jesus “tore down the dividing wall.” Now we know that Paul had more in mind than a literal wall; he had in mind cultural and social walls, prejudices, spiritual walls. The memory came to me of the story in the gospels when Jesus found greedy merchants in the temple, selling and exchanging, and making God’s house a “den of robbers.” Do you remember what Jesus did? He overturned the merchants’ and moneychangers’ tables and drove them out of the temple with a whip. It just so happens that the place where those merchants were set up was the “Court of the Gentiles.” Those merchants were restricting Gentiles from coming to the temple to worship God. By His death, Jesus tore down walls of alienation and released people from the law. The moral law still exists. If we love Jesus, we will obey His commands. But no longer are we held hostage by ceremonies and rituals that divide us.

The result is that Jesus reconciled humanity to God. Now all those who believe in Jesus are created in Christ into a new humanity. No longer is our primary identity the color of our skin, the language we speak, or any other cultural or physical mark of distinction. We haven’t lost those distinctions, but they are not the core of who we are. Now, our identity is in Christ: “He is our peace!” Jesus invites us, “Follow me.” When we accept His invitation, we are identifying ourselves with Jesus. We are united in Him with God, and united together as fellow followers of Jesus. Don’t forget the picture presented in Revelation 7:9 “After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands.”

4. The good news of peace is for EVERYONE (17).

Ephesians 2:17 “He came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.” In the context of the passage, Paul was referring to Jews and Gentiles. Gentiles, who were far away, remote, isolated, and alienated from God and God’s people, received the good news of peace. Jews, who were God’s people also needed to receive the good news of peace, for they were bound of a strict law and failure to obey the law brought a curse upon them. The sacrificial system was never meant to be a permanent solution. But the peace of Christ is. Today, verse 17 reminds us of what the angels proclaimed to the shepherds. Luke 2:10 “But the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people:”

God loves the whole world. Jesus died for the whole world. His grace is for all who believe. This good news is for all people. We need to remember that God’s covenant with Abraham included a divine purpose: to be a blessing to the nations. That word nations is the same word Paul used in these verses that is translated “Gentiles.” Because of our faith in Jesus, we are sons of Abraham; this means that we have a responsibility to be a blessing to the nations, all people, by proclaiming the good news of peace.

5. Christ’s peace gives us ACCESS to God (18).

This is an amazing promise and gift. Hebrews 4:16 “Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.”

Literally: the right to speak

Spiritually: 

unity: we are united with God in life, purpose, and mission; and we are united together as God’s people.

intimacy: We are known by God and know God. And for our knowledge of God, it is a growing intimacy, as we experience Him in our lives, grow in His grace, participate in His mission, and enjoy His fellowship.

Experientially: prayer and worship. Psalm 24:3–6 “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not appealed to what is false, and who has not sworn deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Such is the generation of those who inquire of him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah” When we believe in Jesus, our faith is credited as righteousness, Christ’s righteousness. In Him and only in Him, do we have standing with God, and can we enter His presence in prayer and worship.

APPLICATION

Live with humble gratitude.

Embrace diversity. (81. 15. 4)

Be a peacemaker.

Share the gospel.