Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

Good morning GracePointe.

I love the opportunity to dive into God’s word with you today as we look at how the church is reimagined here in Ephesians.

That is, that the church is God’s main vehicle for demonstrating God’s transformative power.

Do you want to see how God changes people?

Look at the church!

Do you want to see how God makes the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear, the prisoners set free....LOOK AT THE CHURCH.

In the chapters so far, Paul is helping shed light on our position in Christ and the life that thrives out of being in Christ.

We were once far away but now, we are in Christ.

God brought us near to Him through Christ.

God is powerful!

He overcame through His son Jesus that great chasm of sin and death....This section is all about the power of God and our identity of being in Christ.

In the first three chapters of Ephesians, Paul uses the terms “In Christ,” “In Him,” and “In Whom” (all referring to Jesus) 30 times.

You see in verses 11-13, Paul is reminding us....Do not forget who you used to be in relation to who you are now!

As humans, we love to focus on one or the other.

The past or the present state.

Stuck in the Past and Present

This happens occasionally as I talk to people.

It can be people that I am close to or people that I have just met.

They are stuck.

Sometimes they are stuck in the present and sometimes they are stuck as versions of themselves from 20 or 30 years ago.

We can sometimes be stuck in the present only.

You see this prevailing in our culture today.

Live for today.

Forget the past.

Live with no regrets.

Friends, remembering the lessons of the past…using regret to make positive changes in your life is how we grow.

If you don’t have regret for burning your finger on the stove, you could quite possibly keep burning your hand!

We need to remember who we were.

But we don’t let the past define who we are.

We can’t be stuck in the past either.

My family and I enjoy a weekly routine of watching America’s Funniest Home Videos.

There is always a video of a man or a woman who goes to do some physical activity…ride a skateboard....ride a horse....take a step on the stairs…and they do it with such confidence like they used to feel long ago....when steps were not hazards out to take you down.

Reality hits as they go to kickflip on the skateboard....or jump the horse....and 20-30 years of weight gain, lack of physical and mental activity....non use of the all the things that helped you do what you used to do.....that reality hits you and it hurts.

Can I get an amen!

We need to live in a reality.

We need both the past and the present.

Paul is pointing out that we were....in the past…strangers to God.

We did not know Him.

We lived our lives without Him.

It was not a reality that is good for anyone.

We were orphans without Him as our Father.

We remember that because it makes who we ARE IN CHRIST THAT MUCH MORE RICH.

Last week, Paul touched on this and reminded us that we as a people of God in Christ are a unified people of difference.

It is not our seeming oneness that makes us unified…that is our same likes, preferences but our belief in the ONE, the risen Lord.

We were separate from God and from one another....but now we are brought near God and united to one another.

He is our peace

Today we want to shed light on how Jesus is our peace.

Peace to our neighbor and Peace with God.

Ephesians 2:14

Paul says here that Jesus is our Peace.

When you hear the word peace, what immediately comes to mind?

What fills your mind?

Is it a day off from work?

Is it cancelled plans?

I know many of you might not admit it but you love cancelled plans.

When the people you were going to have over for dinner…call and say we are so sorry but we have to cancel.

You put on a good show on the phone but deep down…unplanned free time!

For others…you think of peace as moment when someone watches your kids.

We love our children but sometimes you want to have just a moment of peace.

Generation after generation people have been longing for peace.

We see cries for peace in the Old Testament.

We see cries for peace in the New Testament.

We see cries for peace through out history and on this very day we pray for peace in places like Ukraine, Myanmar in Portland, in homes, in relationships, in churches.

The problem is that we try and look for peace everyone else but in the one who is our peace…that is Jesus Christ.

We look for it in compliance in just finding agreement on all things.

We try and find peace in commiseration.

Misery loves company…and we all know or have been in times of misery where it felt seemingly peaceful to be with others who were miserable.

Peace is found in Christ.

He is our peace.

Jesus is not talking about the kind of peace we feel when a debt is finally paid.

It's not the kind of peace we experience when we can purchase that big house we've always wanted.

That's gratification.

When the kids are with grandma or grandpa or possibly someone you found on craigslist.

That's relief.

Paul is not talking about just relief.

He is not talking about relief.

It is so much more satisfying.

Pease is not found only in :

A feeling of being happy because we all know how fleeting that can be.

he absence of trouble or war....because someone somewhere wants power and will take it with force.

A treaty with the enemy....because treaties are violated and that enemy is still an enemy even if you have a treaty.

A truce that is waiting to be broken because power is up for grabs again.

Happiness, absence of conflict, treaties and truces…they all can be symptoms of peace but they are not in and of themselves…peace.

Why?

Because they don’t last.

If it doesn’t last, than it is not truly satisfying.

The peace Christ gives is fully satisfying.

The origins of this word, Shalom, are good for us to hold onto because it is a word that can be thrown around without actually knowing if it is truly what we want.

Early use of the Hebrew word for peace, Shalom is found in Genesis 43:27-28 when Joseph inquires to his brothers who do not recognize him as their brother.

He asks if their father, how is he? and they replied that he is still alive and well....the word there is shalom.

An overall sense of fullness and completeness in mind, body and spirit.

One of the names we see of God is used once in Judges 6 as Gideon sees an angel of the Lord.

He cries out and is in fear for his life.

But God answers Gideon and says “Peace to you.

Do not be afraid”.

God is saying here to Gideon.

Be fully well in all your mind, body, and spirit.

Gideon goes on to make an alter to the Jehova Shalom.

The God of Peace.