God’s Plan for Peace
Ephesians – Our Riches in Christ
Ephesians 2:11-3:1
Turn your bibles to Eph. chapter 2.
Eph 2:11-22 NLT
11 Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders by birth. You were called "the uncircumcised ones" by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. 12 In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from God’s people, Israel, and you did not know the promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. 13 But now you belong to Christ Jesus. Though you once were far away from God, now you have been brought near to him because of the blood of Christ. 14 For Christ himself has made peace between us Jews and you Gentiles by making us all one people. He has broken down the wall of hostility that used to separate us. 15 By his death he ended the whole system of Jewish law that excluded the Gentiles. His purpose was to make peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new person from the two groups. 16 Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death, and our hostility toward each other was put to death. 17 He has brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and to us Jews who were near. 18 Now all of us, both Jews and Gentiles, may come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.
19 So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. 20 We are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. 21 We who believe are carefully joined together, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. 22 Through him you Gentiles are also joined together as part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.
Great events have a way of cementing themselves in your mind.
I’ll bet everyone here can remember exactly where they were and what they were doing on the morning of Sept. 11th, last year, when you heard that terrorists had crashed airplanes into the World Trade Towers and the pentagon.
I was in my office and walked next door, and the staff there started telling me someone had crashed a plane into the Trade towers…..
Who can remember another disaster,
on January 28, 1986, what happened that day?
The space shuttle Challenger disaster. I still remember watching on TV as the camera showed Krista Mcaulliffes parents looking into the sky, and seeing the expressions on their faces as they realized something had gone terribly wrong.
If you’re in your early 30’s or older, maybe you can remember back to Feb. 12, 1973, this wasn’t a disaster, it was a good thing.
Anyone know what happened that day?
The first POW’s from Viet Nam returned home.
Or a Sunday evening, July 20, 1969, what happened that day?
The first man walked on the moon.
If you’re a little older, like me, maybe you can remember back to Nov. 22, 1963, That should be an easy one.
President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated. I was 6 years old, and heard about it when I got to my first grade class in the morning.
Some of you who are over 60 may remember Dec. 7, 1941 Another easy one.
Pearl Harbor was attacked. Even though that was 61 years ago, you probably remember where you were and what you were doing when you heard that news.
Oct. 29th 1929.
Black Tuesday, the stock market crash, setting off the great depression.
Now lets back up a little.
On November 9, 1989, a major event happened.
Who can tell me what it is?
The Berlin wall fell.
The so-called iron curtain came down.
If you look at lists of the most important events of the last century,
that’s included on every list.
It was incredibly significant.
A wall was removed, that represented all the hostility,
all the hatred,
and all the strife of the cold war.
The destruction of that wall was so significant,
that thousands of people around the world
have saved little chunks of concrete from that wall,
as treasured possessions.
In fact,
While I was writing this message,
I needed a break,
so as a lark I did a search on ebay and sure enough,
if you’d like to own your own piece of the Berlin Wall,
you can buy it on ebay.
(107 items listed)
Well I want to talk today about another wall that was torn down.
This significance of this wall makes the Berlin wall look like nothing.
This wall was actually torn down 2000 years ago.
If you and I lived in the first century,
we would have celebrated the tearing down of this wall.
It was a wall that no one ever expected to come down,
a wall that many people didn’t want to come down,
and a wall that no human being could ever tear down,
so God had to tear it down himself.
It was a wall of religious, and cultural, and racial hostility,
and its described in this second chapter of Ephesians.
Now most of us read this chapter,
and because we aren’t Jewish,
and because we didn’t live back in the first century,
we completely miss the impact of what’s going on here.
We say,
what’s all this stuff about Jews and Gentiles.
That doesn’t apply to me.
I’ll just skip over that part.
Its no big deal.
Let me tell you,
it is a big deal.
It’s a huge deal,
if you understand it.
You see, if you lived in Israel at the time this letter was written,
and you weren’t Jewish,
you would have been considered a dog.
That’s the literal meaning of the word Gentile. Dog.
Anybody who was not a Jew was a gentile,
so most of us in this room are gentiles.
And you would have been so despised by the Jews,
that your life would have been considered worthless,
a waste.
In fact, it was taught by some rabbi’s that when a baby was delivered to a gentile, it was of no value except that it was one more heathen to fuel the fires of hell.
When a Jew got married to a Jew,
there was a huge celebration.
When a Jew married a gentile, they had a funeral for the Jew.
As far as they were concerned, he or she was dead.
The Jews thought that,
as God’s chosen people,
they were the only people that had God’s blessing and protection,
and that God hated all others.
And if you were a Jew,
you wouldn’t go into a gentiles home,
any more than you would touch a corpse.
We all remember the story of Jonah,
who was swallowed by the great fish,
because he was running away from God.
God told him to go one place, and he went the opposite direction.
It was like going to Berlin,
by way of Honolulu.
Well, the reason he was running from God,
is because God sent him to preach to gentiles.
Jonah says,
No way, I’m not going to go preach to those filthy dogs.
You must be kidding God,
I’m not doing that.
Of course, God always wins those battles,
and Jonah did go to the gentiles,
though he did it with a bad attitude.
So 2000 years ago,
there was this huge wall of hostility,
and of division between Jews and gentiles.
And that hostility came from 3 areas.
First, there was hostility
for religious reasons, because the Jews thought that they,
and only they,
were God’s chosen people
(which by the way was true until Jesus came
and opened it up to everyone)
Second, there was hostility
for cultural or social reasons,
The Jews had a lot of practices like circumcision,
dietary regulations,
rules for cleanliness,
and so on,
and the gentiles didn’t follow these.
Third, there was hostility
for Racial reasons.
The Jews were descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
and that was a huge deal for them.
Anybody who wasn’t from the same bloodline,
was definitely second class.
They were considered dogs.
So the hostility and division here
was even greater than anything we face today
in our conflicts between black and white and Hispanic and asian and American Indian, etc.
The hostility was based not only on race, but also on culture, and religion.
But then
something happened.
Jesus came and did something about this.
In fact,
he did 3 things, listed in this passage.
He broke down the wall of hostility.
verse 14 For Christ himself has made peace between us Jews and you Gentiles by making us all one people. He has broken down the wall of hostility that used to separate us.
Did you know that there was literally a wall that kept gentiles from worshipping with the Jews?
In the Jewish temple in Jerusalem,
which was called Herod’s temple,
the Jews built a wall about 4 feet high,
that separated the court of the Gentiles,
from the rest of the temple areas.
And they told the gentiles,
you go past that wall, we’ll kill you.
In fact, archaeologists have discovered the inscription that was on that wall.
It reads:
No foreigner may enter within the barricade which surrounds the sanctuary and enclosure. Anyone who is caught doing so will have himself to blame for his ensuing death.
They were serious about this.
Remember the story in Acts, where the apostle Paul and some of his friends
return to Jerusalem,
after one of their missionary journeys?
And within a couple days of getting to Jerusalem
there’s a mob of Jews that attack him and try to kill him?
Why were they trying to kill him?
Because they thought Paul took some of his gentile friends past that wall in the temple.
Do you remember when Jesus went to the temple
and turned over the tables
and drove out the moneychangers?
Why was Jesus so upset?
One reason is because those tables were set up
outside of this wall
in the court of the gentiles.
The one place in the temple where the gentiles were allowed to go
and learn about God,
and the Jews had taken that space,
and turned it into a marketplace.
That got Jesus upset,
because he came to tear down that wall.
In order for the wall of hostility between Jews and gentiles to come down,
that wall in the temple had to come down.
And Jesus did that on the cross.
He tore down all the barriers in the temple.
If you remember, on the day of his death,
the curtain in the temple was torn in two.
That curtain was designed to keep people out of the holy place.
But when Christ died on the cross
God tore down the curtain.
God was symbolically saying,
No more barriers.
No more separation,
between God and people,
or between people and people.
The walls are gone.
And to show that,
God ripped the curtain in the temple.
And even though that wall of the gentiles wasn’t physically torn down that day,
in God’s eyes, symbolically that wall was destroyed,
by Christ on the cross.
Because verse 14 says,
He has broken down the wall of hostility that used to separate us.
What’s the point.
The point is,
If God has broken down the wall,
then we are in deep, deep trouble
if we try to put it back up.
God is telling us,
get rid of all prejudice.
There is to be no walls based on race,
There is to be no separation based on ethnic background,
because I’ve torn down the wall.
If you or I treat someone different
based on the color of their skin,
we are putting that curtain back up in the temple,
we are rebuilding that wall of the Gentiles,
and God says,
Don’t even think about doing that,
because it cost me too much to tear that wall down.
Unfortunately, we still see today
blacks and Hispanics or other races
held back or treated differently
because of their race.
What’s worse,
we still see it in some churches,
or certainly in some church people.
But God says,
I’ve torn down that wall of hostility,
so now you need to tear it down in your life.
There is absolutely no room
for any prejudice
in the life of a Christian.
God tore down the wall of hostility,
2. The second thing God did is,
God Made Us One.
15 By his death he ended the whole system of Jewish law that excluded the Gentiles. His purpose was to make peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new person from the two groups.
Notice it says,
His purpose was to make peace.
People today look a lot of different directions
to find peace.
What we wouldn’t give
to find peace in the middle east,
and peace from terrorists,
or peace in our own families,
peace in our marriages.
Everybody wants peace.
And so we sing songs about peace.
We give out Nobel peace prizes.
We build monuments to peace.
As one writer put it,
“Our nation has a large assortment of peace monuments. We build one after every war.”
Of course, peace isn’t found in a monument,
or in songs,
or anywhere else in the world.
Its only found in a person.
Jesus Christ, the prince of peace.
There’s a story from World War 2,
when the American army was advancing into Germany,
near the end of the war,
there was a skirmish being fought at a farm.
German soldiers had occupied one of the farm buildings
and were trading fire with American soldiers on the other side of the farmyard.
The German family who owned the farm
was hiding in the farmhouse,
trying to avoid the battle,
when all the sudden their little 3 year old girl
escaped while they weren’t paying attention,
and ran right out in the middle of the farmyard
where the bullets were flying back and forth.
When the soldiers saw the girl, all the firing came to a stop,
and there was silence,
there was peace for a couple minutes.
Finally the girls mother ran out into the yard
grabbed the girl,
and ran back into the farmhouse,
And then the war started back up,
and the bullets started flying again.
But for a few minutes,
a little child brought them peace.
Isa 9:6-7 NKJV
For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace, There will be no end,
Peace is found in only one place,
the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.
Verse 15 His purpose was to make peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new person from the two groups.
That’s how Jesus creates peace.
He makes the two into one.
Gal 3:27-29 NLT
There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. For you are all Christians--you are one in Christ Jesus.
There’s a true story about a bus driver in Australia.
The US isn’t the only place with race problems.
In Australia the main problems are between the whites,
and the aborigines, who are black.
This bus driver had both aborigines and whites on his bus every day,
and every day he had to listen to bickering and complaining and name-calling
and arguing about who was going to sit where, and who didn’t want to sit next to who, and it even generated a few fistfights along the way.
Finally one day he’d had enough.
He pulled the bus over to the side of the road,
He stood up and looked at the whites,
and asked them, what color are you?
They said, we’re white.
He said no you’re not. Not on my bus.
On my bus you’re green.
And we’re not moving from here till you admit it.
Now what color are you?
They looked at each other, they could tell he was serious,
so they finally said, sort of sheepishly,
we’re green.
The bus driver looked at the aborigines,
and asked,
what color are you?
They said, we’re black.
He said, no you aren’t.
On my bus, you’re green.
Now what color are you?
They said, we’re green.
The driver said,
OK, now we’ve settled that,
everybody on this bus is green.
Everybody got that?
Now what color are you all?
They all said, green.
Great.
And he went back up and started driving.
A couple miles down the road he heard a guy call out in the back of the bus,
Okay, light green sits on this side,
dark green on the other side.
You see its human nature,
that we’re always creating differences among ourselves,
so that we can somehow think we’re better,
because we’re different.
But God is the opposite.
He sent his son to die on the cross,
to erase the differences,
to tear down the wall of hostility,
and to bring peace where there was war,
by making the two into one and the same.
God doesn’t see black and white,
he doesn’t see Hispanic or asian,
We all look the same to him.
He just sees his children
the children that Jesus died for so that we could all be part of the same family in Christ.
God made us one.
And He tells us that about 80 gazillion times in this letter,
just to make sure we get it.
(some of us are pretty slow, we need things repeated)
v. 14 He says we’re One people
v. 15 it says he made One new person from the 2 groups
v. 16 we’re all part of One body
v. 18 All of us have the same Holy Spirit
v. 19 we’re all Citizens of One Nation v. 19 we’re all Members of One Family
v. 20 we’re all One Temple (house)
v. 21 we’re Joined together
v. 22 again we’re Joined together
Now can you tell that this is something
God really wanted us to be clear on?
So he says it over and over.
Do you get the feeling this is really important to God?
That it was a big, big deal to Him that
He tore down the wall of hostility,
and He made us one.
But not only that,
He did a 3rd thing for us.
3. The 3rd thing God did for us, is
God Reconciled Us.
verse 16 Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death, and our hostility toward each other was put to death. 17 He has brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and to us Jews who were near. 18 Now all of us, both Jews and Gentiles, may come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.
Reconcile just means, to make peace with.
Notice it says,
Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death,
And what was the result?
It says,
our hostility toward each other was put to death.
Now why did God do that for everyone?
He could have just reconciled the Jews,
or he could have just reconciled whites,
or blacks, or asians, or Indians.
What was his purpose behind all this?
Was this an accident,
or part of His plan.
We see the answer in Revelation 5:9
This verse is describing believers in heaven,
who are singing praises to Jesus
for what he did.
It says,
And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
This says
that the reason Jesus came and died on the cross
was because God wanted to bring into his family believers from every tribe and every tongue and every people and every nation.
God’s plan from before the beginning of the universe
was to have a family of believers
that looks like every possible color
or race
or nationality,
every language, and every ethnic background.
That’s what he wants his family to look like.
That’s his plan from the start.
Now there are 6,528 languages spoken in the world today.
But besides those, there are tribal and ethnic divisions within those languages.
God planned world history so that
first of all, there would be all those people groups,
And then God planned it so that people from every one of those groups would be a part of his family.
In fact he wanted that so desperately,
that he payed the ultimate price,
a price beyond value.
Those believers were purchased for God,
with the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross.
That is how much God wanted this to happen.
What does that mean for you and me,
sitting here in church today?
The implications for us are huge.
If God was willing to pay the ultimate price
to purchase racial diversity and harmony
in his own family,
in his own body, the church,
then how can this be a minor issue for our church,
or for us individually?
Very simply,
racial harmony and diversity
are very, very important to God.
To pay for it cost Jesus Christ his life.
Now if God was willing to pay the ultimate cost
to make that possible,
than should we expect it to cost us nothing?
Should we expect that it will be easy?
Should we expect that the devil,
who hates racial harmony,
will give up without a battle?
No.
It will cost us to join God in seeking racial harmony.
In fact,
Some of us may try for a while,
and decide its too hard,
and give up, and try easier things.
But I believe that others here will not give up,
and you’ll have a huge impact on God’s kingdom in this community.
Now let me ask a couple questions,
to make you think.
Do you really believe what you’ve heard this morning?
that the wall of hostility is torn down,
that the two groups are made one
that we’re reconciled, and we can have peace?
I’d be willing to bet that the vast majority of you would say,
yes, I believe that.
I accept that.
Question #2. Do you really live it?
Are you putting it into practice in your life?
The love of Jesus Christ cancels out
all prejudice and color.
Are you living that way?
Maybe you’re wondering,
well what can I do.
I can’t do anything significant by myself?
That’s not true.
I want to give you a few practical ideas,
But first let me tell another story.
At the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin, Germany, Jesse Owens seemed like a sure bet to win the long jump. Owens was one of the greatest black athletes in US history.
And just the year before, he’d set three world records in the long jump, in one day.
But this Olympics was in Berlin,
just before WW2
with the Nazi’s running the country,
and Hitler in the audience watching.
And of course, one of the Nazis’ goals for the Olympics
was to prove that the Aryan race was superior to any other,
and especially superior to blacks.
So as Jesse Owens arrived in Berlin,
He was very aware of the tension created by his presence.
He was nervous. The pressure was overwhelming.
On the first day of the qualifying heats, as Owens walked to the long jump pit, he saw a tall, blue-eyed, blond German named Luz Long.
Long was one of Hitler’s favorite athletes, and was expected to be Owens main competition in the long jump.
In warm-up, Long was routinely nailing 26 foot jumps, and as Owens watched this he became even more nervous. Still in his sweats, Jesse decided to test the runway, but stepped over the foul line on his jump.
To his horror the German officials counted the test run as the first of his three qualifying jumps.
Now Owens was really upset, and he fouled again on his next try, even though the qualifying distance was over 3 feet shorter than he’d jumped for his world record.
Owens said later, "We had only three (qualifying) attempts to make it to the final, and I fouled twice. I was scared stiff that I would blow it on my final attempt."
It was then that Luz Long, the blue-eyed, blond Aryan hero, strolled over to the black American, armed with some encouragement and advice.
Owens said later,
"Long came over to me and in broken English said, "Jesse, let me make a suggestion. I will place my towel a foot in front of the foul line and you can use this for your takeoff."
Since the qualifying distance was three feet shorter than Owens’ usual jumps, he qualified with ease.
In the finals, a back-and-forth battle took place between Owens and Long, but on his final jump Owens set a new Olympic record and won the gold, so Luz Long had to settle for the silver medal.
Owens said, "After my victory was secure, Luz was the first one to greet me, and we walked arm in arm in front of Hitler’s box. It took great courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler. “
Owens never saw Long again, because Long was killed in World War II.
But Jesse said,
“You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn’t be plating on the 24-karat friendship I felt for Luz Long at that moment."
Now I don’t know if Luz Long was a Christian or not,
but I do know,
that if you will open your eyes,
God will show you a way to break down walls,
a way to build peace with someone from another race.
Let me give you some ideas
to make this practical,
some things you can do. (on your outline)
Start by praying for God to forgive you for sins of the past and attitudes of the present. Then pray that He’ll show you what you can do next.
IDEAS
Make a friend of a different race, and enjoy hanging out together.
One of my best friends in Hamilton,
is Ron Davis,
the black pastor of Israel Baptist Church.
In fact, you’re going to get to meet him.
(Ron Davis coming to preach here August 25)
Make a friend.
Some other things you can do are,
Buy a book,
to improve your knowledge of race problems.
Welcome newcomers every week. Talk to someone you don’t know, especially if they appear to be from a different race or cultural background.
Invite people of different ethnic backgrounds to church with you.
Finally,
Pray toward more wisdom and sensitivity. Open your eyes and ask God to show you what else you can do.
He will.
One last story, Again this is a true story from WW2.
A squad of U.S. soldiers was assigned to protect a small town in France,
so they were miles from the rest of their troops.
One of the soldiers died,
and they wanted to bury him,
but they wanted to bury him properly,
in a graveyard.
They carried his body to the towns only graveyard
which was on the property of the Catholic church.
They asked the priest if they could bury him
in the graveyard there.
The priest asked, was he Catholic.
They weren’t sure,
but they looked at his dogtags and figured out that no,
he wasn’t Catholic, he was protestant.
The priest said,
I’m sorry, I cant let you bury him here.
This graveyard is only for Catholics.
The soldiers didn’t know what to do,
but finally they took him just outside the fence
that surrounded the graveyard
and buried him outside the fence.
The next day they came back
to visit the gravesite of their friend,
and they looked outside the fence,
and they couldn’t find the grave anywhere.
So they went to ask the priest about it.
The priest looked worn out, and haggard.
He said,
I didn’t get any sleep at all last night.
I spent the first half of the night agonizing over not letting you bury your friend in the graveyard,
and I spent the second half of the night moving the fence.
When Christ died,
he moved the fence,
so that you and I could be included in his family.
Aren’t you grateful for that.
Now its time for you and I to move our fence,
and include others in our lives,
regardless of their color,
their background,
their education,
where they live,
how much they make.
Move your fence.
Let me read for you once more starting at verse 11:
Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders …. you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from God’s people, …. you did not know the promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope.
Maybe that describes you.
This morning, some of you may still be an outsider.
living apart from Christ excluded from God’s people
without God and without hope.
If that’s true,
you can change that this morning.
You need to ask God for his peace,
for his reconciliation.
Where do you get that peace in your heart
By meeting the Prince of Peace. Jesus Christ. And inviting God to put His Spirit of Peace in your heart.
Peace comes when you say, "Jesus Christ come into my life and give me Your peace.
STAND FOR PRAYER
