Ephesians 2:14-18

God’s word

“Our Scripture this morning is from (Ephesians 2:14-18), I encourage you to read along with its public proclamation.

Before we read, let us first approach God’s holy word by seeking the illumination of the Holy Spirit in the message and in us this morning.

Pray:

Hear the infallible, inerrant, preserved word of God….”

Read God’s word twice

The New King James Version Chapter 2

14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 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, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. 17 And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. 18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.

Scripture Introduction:

The book of Ephesians is one of those letters in the New Testament that every Christian needs to read. It is short, concise, and it outlines the Christian life. It has deep theological doctrines, and yet at the same time, it has simple applications for us today.

Paul in the first two chapters outlines the depths of our salvation. Chapter 1 can be seen as God’s work in our lives; the work of God consist of all three persons of the Trinity, working together for our adoption. This adoption is through God’s eternal purposes. By this purpose, we are predestine to walk in fullness of him. And through this process, we find our spiritual blessedness. That our blessedness is found in God’s eternal plan before the foundations of the world.

The first half of Chapter two outlines how far away we were from God and how rich God is in mercy. How far were we from God? So far that we were dead in our sins and trespasses (2:1), that we were sons of disobedience, and that we were, by nature, the children of wrath.

These themes leads us to our section this morning, which is unity. The unity between believers. Believers of two opposing backgrounds united through the blood of Christ. If we think about it, we are not one with Christians in the U.S. or one with the churches here in Ga; we are one with the universal church worldwide. This is precisely what we find in our section this morning: we see two groups of people, both greatly diverse; both groups of people greatly broken; but two groups of people redeemed, adopted, and united under Christ Jesus.

Looking deeper are the situation:

Let us look at verse 14: “For He Himself is our peace.” Who is our peace? Our peace is Christ Jesus. Beloved, we are identified in Christ, and in Christ we have the peace. This word “peace” is not peace that we find in the world, which is free of worry or anxiety. The biblical concept of peace is wholeness, completeness, and soundness. Peace or the Hebrew word Shalom is tranquility with God. It is reconciliation to God, who gives us our wholeness and tranquility. In the end, peace is a spiritual category that Christ gives us, and that the world cannot give us this peace.

As we look to the news, we see the world and our nation without peace. Many are struggling, many are fighting, and many are bitter today because they do not have peace. They look for other means for peace. Their other means of peace are:

acceptance from others.

Drugs, Alcohol, or other types of substance abuse.

toxic relationships.

money.

an ideological or political movements.

The world looks for other means for their [peace, wholeness, completeness, or tranquility.] And this is what we see today in the news. Our society does not have peace. It is torn and broken. And I think it is save to say that all of those protestors, and the chaos, and the strive is due to the lack of peace in our lives. And as a society we look to the external circumstances that do not give us peace. We recently saw a man murder by a cop, and from that short 8 minute video or so, our nation was at torn. Through these recent circumstances, we see people putting up walls. Creating their own camps. Sadly, even segregating themselves from others who are different. All of this is because we do not have peace in this world.

Notice the definition of peace in the biblical sense. Peace is wholeness, completeness, or tranquility with God. Peace consist of the freedom from sin. The world is looking at other means for their peace, that leads to the same result: More struggles, more chaos, and more dissension.

You may be asking yourself how can we have peace? The answer is simple. The answer is found in the previous verse: By the Blood of Christ. It is through the blood of the lamb, who loved us and washed us from our sins, that we have peace. This peace creates a new person. Or as Paul says, “In Him we Have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace (Eph. 1.7). True peace is without sin, and the only way to be forgiven from sin is found in Christ Jesus.

Concept: Because the peace of Christ, found in the blood of Christ, we are united with others in Him.

We are united together in Christ

Look with me at verses 14-17:

The New King James Version Chapter 2

who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 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, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. 17 And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near.

Beloved, the peace of Christ brings us not only freedom from our sins but unites us with others, the church. Looking at our verses here, we see that there once was a time hostile between Greek and Jew. That the wall of separation of the outer and inner courts was not a physical barrier found in the temple, but it was found in the social life of the Jews.

Paul, who was once a pharisee himself, is correcting the pharisaic mindset here. The Pharisees focused on outward cleanliness. Their main concern was being ritually clean before God. From Paul’s context here in Ephesus, it appears the Ephesians knew this; or at least, they were struggling with this concept. Which is Jew and Gentile do not commune together. If think about it, it is a picture of pre-civil rights America. Whites and people of color did not eat at the same section at a restaurant. Whites and people of color could not drink from the same fountain. Virtually, everything was segregated, and this was no different in the Jewish, pharisaic mindset.

Notice that there was enmity. This word, enmity, has a strong connotation from the Old Testament. We find the for instance of this word in Genesis 3:15, “ And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” There was this notion that Jews were the seed of the woman, and the seed of the serpent were the Gentiles — non-Jews. For those who are not of a Jewish background — which I am going to guess thats all of us — means that we would have been mistreated by the Jews in the 1st century.

Christ abolished this enmity, this hostile in His flesh. The requirements of the law not only exposed our failures before God but exposed our sin towards our neighbors. The Jews used the law to mistreat non-Jews; Gentiles likewise, through the natural moral law, which is binding on all people, hated those not of the same tribe or clan as themselves. History is marked with ill-treatment of others. If one wants proof of this, just turn on the nightly news; it is self-evident.

The Gospel does

Paul argues elsewhere, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus(Ga 3:28).” Why