Jesus Is Our Peace Series

As we move into the Christmas season, “Peace on Earth” is a common theme that you hear often. The angels praised God at the birth of Jesus and said (not singing-nowhere in the Bible is there a record of the angels ever singing – chanting maybe, but not singing) “Glory to God in the highest. And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased” (Luke 2:14). The KJV and NKJV has “Goodwill toward men” which many people misinterpret saying God gives peace and goodwill toward all men. That is not what is said here. What is meant is that God gives peace and goodwill to those He favors (NIV).

And who does God favor? Those who come to Him, for salvation through His son Jesus Christ. Here is the cold hard facts according to scripture, we will not see peace on the whole earth until Jesus comes again and rules. Scripture says he will rule with rod or scepter of iron. His rule will be absolute. Isaiah tells us:

Isaiah 2:4 And He will judge between the nations, And will render decisions for many peoples; And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn war.

Only then will there be worldwide peace. So what about this peace the angels chanted about 2,000 years ago at the announcement of Jesus’ birth? This is our subject for this next month. Today we are looking at "Jesus is our Peace" from Ephesians 2:14. We will be looking in Ephesian 2 about peace. Jesus as our peace is not quite what you expect. Let’s look at this together.

Ephesians 2:13–22

Paul was writing to the church in Ephesus. He had spent considerable time there teaching and preaching. Ephesus was the capital of the Roman province of Asia. Ephesus had a lot of different people there from around the known world. Whether slave or free, Jews or Gentiles. In the Jewish mind there are only two groups of people in the world: Jews and Gentiles.

For us, we would be all be considered Gentiles unless there was one of Jewish descent and heritage among us. There was a divide between Jews and the rest of world. Paul was writing for them to overcome this division between the Jews and Gentiles within the church. You may say that we don’t have this problem today. Oh yes we do. We have churches divided over this issue of race and it should not be so. We have people of different color. Yet according to Scripture, there is but one race, the human race. The difference between people is quite literally skin deep. Paul when we was in Athens, speaking the the intellectuals gathered there said:

Acts 17:26 and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation

Some translation will say "one blood" vice from one man. We know we all came from one man, Adam. What is interesting, according to scientists who study DNA, everyone on earth can trace their DNA lineage back to one of 3 women some 4-5,000 years ago. Interesting! That little fact agrees with scripture because according to my Bible, sometime around 4,500 years ago there was a great flood that wiped out all people, save Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their three wives. Yes, we can all trace our ancestry back to these same people (Noah and his family) and DNA studies have shown this. We are only of one race, but what makes us different is our diverse backgrounds and heritages, not our skin color. Churches with racial tensions should not be so.

Ephesians 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

In the Jewish mind, those who are far off are Gentiles because God had not revealed Himself to them like He had with His chosen people, the Jews. To put this into context let’s back up a couple of verses:

Ephesians 2:11–12 Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

Gentile were separate. They were stepchildren at best, and only if they would convert to Judaism. But now Paul was saying they "have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Now Jews and Gentiles are together -why the tension, why are they not embracing one another?