Ephesians - Peace Mission

Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone as well as the foundation. The cornerstone ties the two walls together. Jew and Gentile united in the Lord Jesus Christ. And now there is a temple, and God inhabits that temple.

And now as we open the Word of God, we pause to seek God's blessing. Our Father, our hearts rejoice when we open the Word. Whether the Word convicts us or encourages us, teaches us or reminds us, we are grateful for Your Word. And we always need to learn something new and always need to be reminded, and Father, we always need Your help in practicing what we learn. And so guide us as we study now today. This is our prayer through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Back in September 1938, Sir Neville Chamberlain returned from Germany to London waving a piece of paper and declaring, "Peace in our time, peace with honor." A year later, Adolf Hitler invaded Poland and World War II begins. Peace in our time, peace with honor. You know, the history of mankind is the history of war, the quest for peace, and then cleaning up after war. God wants us to have peace. Ephesians tells us that God is at work in this world putting things together. In chapter one of Ephesians, Paul has emphasized redemption. Ephesians 1:7, "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace." Redemption—that’s chapter one. Ephesians 2:1-10, the theme is resurrection. We are raised and seated on the throne. Ephesians 2:6, "He raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Now in Ephesians 2:11-22, the theme is not redemption or resurrection; it is reconciliation. In verses one through ten, he has told us what God does for every sinner. Every sinner is dead in trespasses. Every sinner is walking in bondage to the world, the flesh, and the devil. Every sinner needs the grace of God to save him or her. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:8-10. 

We are saved by the grace of God and the grace of God alone. But in verse eleven, he starts talking to the Gentiles. He was writing primarily to Gentiles in the city of Ephesus, and he wanted the Gentiles to see what God had done for them. Now this is where I come in. I was not born of Jewish stock; I was born of Gentile stock. And it’s only by the grace of God that Jews are saved or that Gentiles are saved. Paul gives to us in Ephesians 2:11-22 three very important instructions. First, he says: Remember what you were. Now that's verses eleven and twelve. Then he says: Remember what Jesus did for you, verses thirteen through eighteen. And then verses nineteen through twenty-two, he says: Remember what you are today. Paul is giving us some spiritual reminders, and we need them. Oh, I trust that your Christian life, your Christian walk, has not become something old, something stale. I trust that you have not left your first love. I trust you are more excited today about what it means to be a Christian than you were the day you were saved. Too often we cool off. Too often we don't maintain that spiritual zeal; we don't grow. Paul had a burden to reach a lost world with the gospel, and he was in prison because of it. Most of us won't go to church to promote missions. If there's a missionary conference, we decide to stay home. Paul was willing to go to prison to promote missions. God is reconciling sinners to Himself and making them saints. God is reconciling all races in the church—Jews and Gentiles, one in the church. And Paul says to us in Ephesians 2:11-22: Remember what you were, remember what Jesus did, and remember what you are today. 

Let's start with verses eleven and twelve: Remember what you were. "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." Now the sad plight of the Gentiles is wrapped up in one word: without. By the way, that’s the sad plight of everybody in the world today who does not know Jesus Christ. We have a world of over five billion people, and over most of them, you could write the word "without." They are without Christ; they do not have a Savior. They are without citizenship; aliens. They are without covenants; they don’t know the promises of God. They are without confidence; they have no hope for the future. They are without commitment; they have no God in this world. I wonder, when unsaved people want to be thankful, to whom do they express their thanks? So many times people say, "Well, I was lucky." I don’t believe in luck; I believe in providence. I believe we have a good God who showers good blessings down upon us day after day. You can take the word "without" and write it over most of the world today. That’s why we are so burdened that God will call out missionaries, call out laborers, send them into the harvest field. Perhaps He’s speaking to you about this. Remember, you are now in Christ if you're saved. You have a Savior; the world doesn't have one. 

Well, they are without Christ. That means the Gentiles had no Messiah, they had no Savior. That means they had no prophet—how could they hear from God? They had no priest—how could they get to God? They had no king—how could they have God rule in their lives? They were without Christ. And they were without citizenship, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. Strangers, aliens, strangers. Our citizenship is in heaven. We are waiting for Jesus to come back and take us to heaven. And yet here we have people who had no citizenship. God said of Israel, "You're going to be My holy nation." He has said that to the church. We are a holy nation, we are a peculiar people, we have been called out by God. But they have no citizenship. They have no covenants. God never made any covenants with Egypt. He made no covenants with modern nations. The only covenants we have were made with the people of Israel. They are the people of the covenant. And yet these covenants were not given to the Gentiles. And yet now, they can enter into a covenant relationship with God. They had no hope. No promises, no hope. That means no confidence in the future. No God. They had idols; they had all kinds of gods. It was said in Athens it was easier to find a god than find a man. Now how did they get that way? Well, number one, they turned against God. Romans 1:28 tells us that. In Romans 1:28, when they knew what was true, when they knew the truth about God, they gave it up. So God gave them up. "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over," and they began to live godless, wicked lives. There’s another reason why they were without. That’s because the Jewish nation did not minister to them. God had called Abraham that he might be a blessing to the whole world. Now this ultimately happened because Jesus came through the people of Israel, and Jesus is the Savior of the world. But alas, in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, the people of Israel were not a blessing to the Gentiles. They called them "Gentile dogs." The court of the Gentiles in the Jewish temple was turned over to a religious supermarket where you could exchange money and you could buy sacrifices. If a Gentile wanted to come in and talk to a Jew about the true God, there was no place to do it. 

Remember what you were. It does us good every once in a while just to look back and say, "Oh, what I used to be without Jesus Christ. What a terrible plight I was in." Of course, this is true not only of the Gentile, it was also true of the Jew. In fact, the Jews had all of these things and were lost. Why? Because they were depending upon the covenants and the priesthood and circumcision to save them. They kept saying to John the Baptist and to Jesus, "We are Abraham's children." Well, that's not what saves anybody. And alas, Jew and Gentile both lost apart from Christ.

Remember what you were, verses eleven and twelve. Now, remember what Christ did. And he talks here about two miracles. He reconciled Jews and Gentiles to each other, and then he reconciled both to God. Now there we have two marvelous miracles. But now—that’s a great statement. It sort of goes along with verse four of chapter two: "But God." Everything would have been hopeless and helpless, but now, in Christ Jesus—that’s one of Paul’s favorite phrases, isn't it? In Christ Jesus. "You who once were far off"—far off spiritually—"have been made near," how? "By the blood of Christ." Ah, we're talking about sacrifice now. They were far off, and now they have been made near. It's rather interesting the Lord Jesus performed three miracles far off. He healed the centurion's servant at a distance. He healed the Syrophoenician mother's daughter at a distance. And the nobleman's son at a distance. Matthew 8:1-34, Matthew 15:1-39, John 4:1-54. All three were Gentiles. He sent His word and healed them. These people were afar off; now they have been made near by the blood of Christ. How? "For He Himself is our peace." The emphasis in verse fourteen is on that word "Himself." He Himself is our peace. Now how did He do this? "Who has made both one." He took Jew and Gentile, believing Jew, believing Gentile, put them together in a new thing: the church. And He’s broken down the middle wall of division between us. Now there was a literal wall in the temple that separated the Gentiles from the rest of the temple. They found the inscription back in 1871. Here is the way that inscription read: "No foreigner may enter within the barricade which surrounds the sanctuary and enclosure. Anyone who is caught so doing will have himself to blame for his ensuing death." Isn't that interesting? If a Gentile dared to cross over that wall in the temple, he was killed. Now God tells us that Jesus Christ, when He died on the cross, broke down that wall of partition. Now what was that wall? "Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances." It was the law that separated the Jew from the Gentile. The Jews did not live like the Gentiles—at least they weren't supposed to. They ate different food, they had different practices, different customs. And the law was a wall between Jew and Gentile. On the cross, Jesus Christ broke down that wall because He bore the curse of the law on the tree. 

Now He didn't just do that. He didn't just break something down. It goes on to say in verse fifteen: "So as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace." So He took Jew and Gentile, believing Jews, believing Gentiles, and He’s put them together into one new man, the new creation: the church. "And that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross." You see, verse thirteen says we’ve been made near by the blood of Christ. And verse sixteen says we’ve been reconciled to God through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. Now it’s a beautiful picture, isn't it? When my Lord died on the cross, He not only brought Jew and Gentile together, verses thirteen through fifteen, but He brought both of them to God. Not only was the wall broken down, but the veil of the temple was rent in two, so that now anyone who trusts in the Lord Jesus is brought to God. He died that He might bring us to God. "And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off." Now that happened in the book of Acts. Peter went to the household of Cornelius, Gentiles. Paul went off to the Gentiles. But it was Jesus who was preaching peace. "And to those who were near." Jews and Gentiles. "For through Him," Jesus, "we both," Jews and Gentiles, "have access by one Spirit to the Father." The word "access" means entrance to see the King. I like that. Remember what you were. Now remember what Christ did. He reconciled Jews and Gentiles to each other, and He reconciled both to God. And in the church, there are no human distinctions. The Apostle Paul tells us that very clearly in Galatians 3:28: "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." That solves national problems, racial problems. It solves problems of people who have difficulties with male and female. We are all one in the Lord Jesus Christ in the church. Now this is the greatest peace mission that has ever been performed in the world. It involves all men. It costs the greatest price. My Lord had to go to the cross and die. He is our peace, He made peace, He preached peace, and there can be no peace without the Lord Jesus Christ. God today is putting things together through the Lord Jesus. 

Now in verses nineteen through twenty-two, Paul gives us a third reminder. Remember what you were, Ephesians 2:11-12. Remember what Jesus did, verses 13-18. And now, remember what you are today. "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, in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit." There is now one nation. There is now one family, household. There is now one temple. This temple was not in Ephesus—Diana had a beautiful temple in Ephesus, one of the seven wonders of the world. It wasn't the temple in Jerusalem. What is God doing today? He is calling out one nation. Through the new birth, He is creating one family. By the Holy Spirit's ministry, He is quarrying sinners out of the quarry of sin and putting them as living stones into the temple that He is building. One nation—that takes care of all nationalism. One family. One temple in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Now, this means that we are a part of the peace. We are built together on the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets. The apostles and prophets are not the foundation; they laid the foundation. There are in the church today no apostles and prophets in the New Testament sense. Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone as well as the foundation. The cornerstone ties the two walls together. Jew and Gentile united in the Lord Jesus Christ. And now there is a temple, and God inhabits that temple. This is a thrilling thought to me, that you and I are not only raised from the dead and seated on the throne, but we are reconciled to one another and reconciled to God and set in the temple God is building. The devil is destroying. Now I want to ask you: Are you a part of the peace mission or are you a part of the battle? Are you causing trouble and war, or are you bringing peace and harmony? The Lord Jesus Christ is our peace. He purchased our peace, and therefore we ought to be ambassadors of peace going out into a world that's falling apart and crying out to men and women and saying, "Be reconciled to God."