Sovereign Peace

Intro

If you have your bible, iPad, iPhone, Samsung device, or flip phone (if you have a flip phone, you may need to grab a Bible, which we have ready for you in the lobby), please turn to Ephesians Chapter 2 verses 14-18.

As we prepare our hearts for the message, I would like to take a moment to introduce the main character for today, the cornerstone for our life, "THE" Central person of God's Redemption Plan for a fallen World. He is Jesus Christ. Amen!

The wondrous introduction is found in Luke 2:10-14 reads,

10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

13 Suddenly, a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

14 "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."

On Earth, peace to those whom his favor rests. Last week Pastor Neal spoke about a hope that is everlasting and sustaining while we are in the “in-between” awaiting the return of our Savior. I would like to talk about a peace that is sustaining and everlasting. The title for today's message is "Sovereign Peace."

Let's Pray.

"Father, Thank you. Thank you for another day to Glorify your Holy Name.

We need you more than ever. Lord, please open our hearts to hear your word.

Please guide me, and remove any doubt or any fear. Search us God to remove any barriers.

We welcome your never-failing word to command, correct, and challenge us according to your will.

Please, Lord, use me as a vessel to share your precious word with your precious people.

Father, you are our refuge, our fortress, our God, whom we trust and depend on for your peace.

We love you, cherish you, and invite you to have your way.

In Jesus' mighty name, we pray. The people of God say. Amen. And Amen"

Glory to God in the Highest Heaven,

On earth, peace to those whom his favor rests.

Peace: εἰρήνη (eirēnē): shares similarity to the Hebrew definition of shalom “every kind of blessing and good from God. “

"Every kind of blessing" to those whom his favor rests. That hits a little different when we begin to unpack the peace that entered the world when Christ, our Savior, was born.

Eirēnē/Peace in Greek is also defined as peace, harmony, tranquility, safety, often emphasizing lack of strife or reconciliation in a relationship. As when one has peace with God. One commentator says the “Eirēnē encompasses a broad vision of human flourishing with the emphasis of God’s saving work through Jesus Christ. God’s redemption of Israel and the church rightly describes peace because the result is human flourishing in Christ.[1]”

{Personal Bridge}

Peace is a word that has many definitions and translations yet may be hard to find today. We are constantly surrounded by news, social media, social unrest, and decisions that create division more than unity. Just think about the last three days. Did you see more news or stories that showed unity or division?

Finding peace is so complicated that we can decide on something that we think will bring peace in our life but possibly bring strife.

Peace seems so far off that we often reinvent what it means, so we think we have it, which sadly is temporary at best.

If the peace you find is temporary, I ask, what is the foundation of your peace set on?

How do we find peace in an unpeaceful world; if our peace is not set on the proper foundation?

I want to focus on a particular type of peace mentioned in our text today in Ephesians. I want to talk about the peace that tears down barriers, a peace that brings unity, a peace that is only found In Christ.

{Theological Bridge}

Before we get there, let's briefly set the scene in Ephesians. In chapters 1 through 3, Paul talks about God's predestined redemption plan for everyone through and in Christ Jesus. Scholars call the first half of Ephesians the doctrinal section. While chapters 4 through 6 provide practical instructions on living a life worthy of the calling we received from Christ, our Savior.

We land in chapter 2, which places us in the doctrinal (Christian beliefs) section of the letter that explains God's redemption plan of Salvation in Christ before the world was even created. Don't miss this, "There was a plan for our salvation before the world was even created." That's important news with heavy implications because, before the promised seed of Christ, the children of Israel were the promised people of God.

Why would Paul need to talk about salvation in Christ which includes everyone? This answer impacts us today.

The gentiles got in! You and I, as followers of Christ, got in. We're part of the family!!

As great as that news was for the Gentiles. The news was not received with much enthusiasm by some Jews. Turbulent is a word that sums up the relationship between some Jews and Gentiles. It's plausible to think that with the praises of “we got in, there were murmurs of how did they get in?”

{CIT}

In Ephesians 2:14-18, Paul Explained to the Churches in Ephesus that true peace, true unity, is only found in Christ.

{ESS}

For us today, we can hold on to the truth that "True Peace is only found in Christ.”

Let’s dive into God’s word and find out the peace that is found in Christ.

Ephesians 2:14-18 reads {Read Scripture from Bible}

The first truth we discover is that we have peace with one another in Christ.

1. In Christ, we have peace with one another (v.14-15)

EXP: While in Prison, for supposedly bringing a gentile pass to the dividing wall in the temple gate, Paul proclaimed to the Church of Ephesus that Christ made peace between the Jews and Gentiles by removing all barriers between the two groups. Peace between the Jews and Gentiles was groundbreaking news. We have a group of people, the Jews, which were God’s chosen people with their laws and commandments that they follow. We have another group of people, the Gentiles (Greeks), who were looked at as heathens, ungodly, paganistic, and immoral by Jewish standards. There was a time that God-fearing Gentiles, Greeks, would have to convert to Judaism to follow Yahweh fully. The Greeks changed who they were to become Hellenistic Jews. From a sense, they just switched sides. Paul mentions in 11-13; the Gentiles were the uncircumcised group that excluded them from the covenant with God and without the hope of God in their life.

One commentator summarizes the state of the Gentiles as “being in a desperate place. They were aliens, strangers, having no hope and being without God. The Gentiles were not only spiritually dead, but they also did not have access to God as the Jews enjoyed.”

But God and his great love for us had the final say. In Christ, not only did he make peace between the two groups; he became the instrument of peace. Christ is peace himself, making Christ is the peacemaker.

Just as good as God was good yesterday, is good today, and will continue to be good tomorrow. Jesus Christ was our peace yesterday, is our peace today, and will continue to be our peace tomorrow. The peace we find in Christ does not and will not change because Christ does not change. Christ is our peace and the sovereign peacemaker.

ARG: in Verses, 14-15, Paul explains that Jesus tore down all racial, social, cultural, and spiritual barriers between the two to make them one new person resulting in peace. They were no longer the Gentiles converting to Judaism; in Christ, everyone was made into the body of Christ.

Everything in the world that physically and spiritually separated Jew and Gentile were removed by Christ.

How did he do it? In his flesh when died on the cross for everyone's sins. Ephesians Chapter 1 explains the predestined plan for the Gentiles to be included in God’s redemption plan when they believe in Christ. In Christ, there is redemption through his blood and forgiveness of sins because of God’s grace and not man’s work following the law and its commandments. The plan has always been in Christ to have everything made through him and held together because of him, thus making peace. Jesus is our peace and our Sovereign peacemaker.

Colossians 1:19-20 reads that

“For God was pleased to have

All his fullness dwell in him,

And through him reconcile

Everything to himself;

Whether things on earth or things

In heaven,

By making peace

Through his blood, shed on the cross.”

Jesus, the son of God, existed before all, and all things were created through him.

APP: Today, we live in a world more divided than ever. You turn to your left you see news that pulls at your strings to make an emotional decision to pick aside. You turn to your right, and you hear a divisive story pull your emotions to pick aside. You talk to your friends, and they have problems with people and want you to do what, pick aside. The world is constantly tugging at you to choose a side that means you are with this side or that side by the worldly standard. Take caution with what the world is asking you to do; we don’t follow the world. We follow Christ.

As followers of Christ, we must be careful with what we allow in our hearts and minds to determine what side we select because most times than not, picking a side means building a wall.

The most heartbreaking barriers that I see are the barriers that Christians put up between themselves and others. We have to be careful of falling into the habit of doing our Sunday thing and smile and tell everyone that we are doing ok and worship God during service. Still, we won’t think twice to stay a little longer to speak with our brothers and sisters after service to create deeper bonds with the body than “I’m good” or even ask how I can pray for you. I’m not saying you have to stop every time you see someone, but I am asking if we view people with barriers in our hearts built up to keep others away. Are we genuinely loving one another, as Christ loved us? {Pause- with eye contact}

We were designed to be in this together and live-in fellowship with one another.

How about the idolatrous nature that politics has taken in society and invaded the overall church? I’m not saying that one side is correct, or one side is wrong, but I am saying that there is a problem when the lens of life that we are looking through priorities people as either red or blue before looking at them as image-bearers of God.

Most walls we build intentionally keep people away from us because of our differences, but Christ died on the cross to break those walls down to bring peace and unity to all that believe in him.

Are we walking in the unity and love Christ commands his followers to display? In Christ, we are in this together.

We are all united in Christ for the glory of God and his divine purpose. In Christ, we are all a new creation and part of the body of believers in the church. All social, racial, political, and religious barriers were torn down when Christ died as an atonement for our sins. In his resurrection, those that believe in him are born again into a new body, The church.

Galatians 3:28-29

28 There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.

{T.S} Jesus Christ created one new body by removing all barriers between humanity, resulting in a Sovereign Peace through him. We are in Christ to praise the Glory of God and make his name known. Just as we have peace with one another in Christ, In Him, we have peace with God.

2. In Christ, we have peace with God (v16; 18)

EXP: In Verses 14-15, We learn about the peacemaker and his plan. Verse 16 transitions to declare his purpose.

{Read Verse 16}

Paul explained that the goal of being reconciled in one body in Christ was to have peace with God. Therefore, we stop being creatures of his wrath. Jesus restored our past harmonious relationship with God. A broken relationship since the Fall, as mentioned in Genesis 3.

APP: Our relationship with God was tainted, and we live with a sinful nature because of the first Adam.

A relationship once epitomized by the perfect covenant between God and man is now tarnished because of sin. You see, God is Holy, and we are not. God is righteous, and we are not. Sin's impact on humanity is tragic, leading to death, condemnation, guilt, and shame.

Satan has deceived us to a place of lostness where we do not serve the God of creation; we serve the God of our creation by following the ways of the world, for we have all sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.

Family, let us not forget how we were before Christ radically transformed our life.

We were: Dead (spiritually) in our transgressions; followers of the ways of the world; Enslaved to Sin, evil thoughts, and desires; God’s enemies and deserving of wrath.

The epitome of being without hope, without God.

{Let this sink in – Built-in pause}

We were without hope and God.

Two words changed this for Gentiles and brought salvation and sanctification to everyone. Two words change our conditions from sinners to saints in the family of God.

“In Christ” Not around, or near, or close. But in Christ, we are reconciled to God as part of the body of Christ. Church, we have the promised spirit of the living God, the sovereign creator, inside of us when we believe and follow Christ.

Paul states in Ephesians, Chapter Two verse five, “But God” and his great love for us made us alive in Christ when we were dead in our transgressions.

In Christ, we are transformed from followers of the world's ways to followers of Christ that remain steadfast in his truth.

In Christ, we are not enslaved to sin but Free in Christ.

In Christ, we are no longer God’s enemies and deserving of wrath; we are God’s children that are shown mercy and receive salvation because of the blood of Lamb that was shed for you and me.

Christian, in Christ, lies our transformation and redemption. The only way our previously perfect covenantal relationship with God could be restored was for God to do it himself.

He did it with Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Savior - who is truly human and truly divine. With his blood, he paid for our sins on the cross so we could be redeemed and the relationship fully restored.

Praise God for his never-ending love.

In Christ, we have peace with the one and only true God that is all-knowing, ever-present, and all-powerful, as declared in Psalms 139.

A relationship that we made wrong, but God, the author of life, restored and made right.

All that we deserved, which was sinners’ death with a one-way ticket to hell, was all made clean “On the cross on Calvary, where Jesus bled and died for you and me by his blood, we are set free, on the Cross to Calvary.[2]”

In Christ, we went from being worthy of wrath to at peace with God because of the Son of Man.

{Make Eye Contact} Christian, my brothers, my sisters, my family; please hear this. When you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are redeemed and reconciled to God. Your past life is precisely that, your past life. Your past life is not your identity. You are identity is rooted in Christ and not in this world.

Because of the cross and our faith in Christ, we are no longer enemies of God but are at peace with God.

Romans 5:1 states that

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

There is no better place to be than in Christ and at peace with God.

Verse 18 is the culmination of what a life in Christ provides Christians. In Christ, the provision we have is access to the Father in one spirit. Jesus declared to the disciples in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through the son. Jesus is the only way to the Father!

Brothers and Sisters, we have access to the God of Creation, The God of Providence, the God Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the promised Holy Spirit that remains inside all those that believe in Jesus. (Referenced in Ephesians 1; John 14:15-17).

ILL: I just finished an audiobook memoir. In one chapter, the main character decided to make a movie with his son to reconcile their relationship because life, success, and time created a barrier in their relationship.

Onset while filming, the main character’s son was on the opposite end of the studio filming scenes while he filmed scenes while keeping an eye on his son on the monitors. Everything came to a pivotal point when a producer tried to make the son do a stunt that made the son feel uncomfortable. The producer insisted and got to the point of demanding that the son attempt the stunt. Finally, the son got tired of the producer's attempts and said five words that changed the situation's complexity and the producer. He said, “Can someone get my dad.” You see, the son knew he had a father that loved him, cared for him, and was ready to protect him. The son knew that he had a lion that would protect him and was there to protect him.

And just like the son that knew he had a father that was like a lion ready to love, care, and protect him. We have the Lion of Judah, the incarnate word of God, the one and only true God that loves, cares, and protects us when we call on the name of King Jesus.

Peace with God is the confidence that we have to stand against the ways of the unpeaceful world because we have access to our rock, our refuge, and our redeemer.

Hear this family.

The hope and glory we have in Christ are all we need to experience the “Sovereign Peace” that is only found in our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Praise God for a Sovereign Peace - a peace that brings peace between humanity, a peace that brings peace with God, and a peace that transcends all.

Charge:

Verse 17 provides us with our call to action for today.

1. Live a life committed to following the Gospel of peace Jesus preached.

2. Live a life devoted to sharing the Gospel of peace Jesus preached.

How do we find peace in an unpeaceful world? We can find peace by making Christ the cornerstone of our life. Christ must be the centrality of our lives. You want more peace, walk more with the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.

What’s stopping you from having peace?

Let’s Pray:

Bibliography:

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/guzik_david/StudyGuide2017-Eph/Eph-2.cfm

On the Cross – Tore W. Aas

https://tifwe.org/are-shalom-and-eirene-the-same/

Markus Barth, Ephesians: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary on Chapters 1–3, vol. 34, Anchor Yale Bible (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2008), 256.

Francis Foulkes, Ephesians: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 10, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1989), 89.