Supporting Texts: Genesis 12:3; Psalm 118:22; Isaiah 9:6, 28:16, 55:19; Matthew 5:23-24; John 14:27, 17:11, 21-22; 2 Corinthians 5:18-10.
The current president of the United States has been considered by some as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. His efforts at diplomacy have caused the cessation of hostilities between nations in several occasions. Some in the news media have called him the “peace president.” In a moment I want to drill down to discover some reasons for such hostilities.
Before I do, I would like to look at a biblical prophecy about the last times and then offer a warning from God’s Word. God sent to Daniel the Old Testament prophet an important prophecy that would signal the beginning of the soon coming time of judgment known as the Tribulation. The prophecy is found in the ninth chapter of the book of Daniel and grants to us a sign about this world’s system’s final days. Verses twenty-six and twenty-seven declare, “Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.”
This “firm covenant” appears to be a peace treaty that will allow Israel to rebuild a temple that will enable Jewish sacrifices and offerings to be restored in Jerusalem for the first time since 70 A.D. Many Jewish people have long awaited this event for it will mean that their promised Messiah would soon arrive. In our world of conflict and trouble, all this current talk of peace could be a harbinger of the appearance of the “prince who is to come.”
The peace that this counterfeit messiah will bring will be a false peace, because, as the text said, after three and a half years, he will stop the Jewish people from worshiping God. This truth is found in another prophecy, this time through the Apostle Paul, who said, “For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.” (1 Thessalonians 5:2-3). As Christians, we must be warned that a time is coming when the world will rejoice in a time of false peace. But in the midst of their celebration, the peace will be removed and the world will be immersed in times of terrible judgment.
Our text today in Ephesians speaks about a terrible hostility, an enmity, that causes a wall of separation that keeps people from God. And it speaks about the Lord Jesus Christ, who, in a miraculous and supernatural event, brought real and eternal peace. Chapter two of Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians began with the reality that all are under sin’s domination and judgment, by stating that we are all dead in our sins and trespasses, and that we are all by nature children of God’s wrath. Yet despite our sinful nature, God offers us eternal pardon by grace through faith. Now in Christ, our sins and trespasses can be forever forgiven and, as His special gift, God will grant us everlasting life.
This explains how we can be reconciled with God. It tells us how the hostility between a righteous and holy God and sinful and lawless people can be transformed into love and forgiveness. But what about with each other? What about the hostility and conflict between people? What has God done about that? If divine reconciliation can be applied to fractured human relationships, how can we do that?
We begin once more with the sinful condition of the human race, that it is lost without hope and without God. Then we will see how the Lord Jesus Christ reconciled those who trust in Him to God. And we will see that in the process of that divinely powerful reconciliation: that believers, both Jews and Gentiles, become the new dwelling place of God.
LOST, NO HOPE, AND WITHOUT GOD. Ephesians 2:11-13
The Gentiles’ Former Problem. It is typical for sinful human nature to create barriers that shut out other people. We build obstacles between ourselves and people of different ethnic groups, different languages and for a number of other reasons. People do that today and they did it in the first century church. Imagine the difficulty faced by the church leaders of those days. Salvation in Christ was first proclaimed to the Jewish people. In their Old Testament Scriptures, they were promised a Messiah, and now their Messiah had come and some trusted in Jesus the Messiah as their Lord and Savior. Then that same gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ was proclaimed to the Gentiles, who had no history with the Old Testament and had no promise of a Messiah. How would those two groups ever be able to form any kind of unity?
For centuries, the Jewish people had been taught to avoid entering into relationships with the Gentiles, in fact, they were to remain separate. Because of the covenant sign of circumcision given to them by God through their patriarch, Abraham, they called Gentiles the “Uncircumcised” to emphasize the reality that Gentiles were outside of their covenant with God. While this sign was not in itself spiritual in nature, it still caused division and a barrier. Could Jews and Gentiles overcome this barrier and become one in Christ?
God had entered into covenants with the people: the Abrahamic, the Mosaic, the Palestinian, and the Davidic, and these were exclusive and only indirectly regarded those who were outside of Israel. But there were other problems. Slaves and their masters became believers in Christ and both had to learn to regard each other as spiritual equals. How was that possible? Women were looked down upon as inferior, but in Christ, they were seen as equals. The Greeks considered themselves the superior race and looked at all others as barbarians. Could they destroy that barrier and accept others as equals in the faith?
Strangers Without God. There were also spiritual barriers. The Gentiles were separate from Christ. Israel had been promised the Messiah, but not the Gentiles. They had no claim on Him through divine promises. They were excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, that is, they were not citizens of Israel. They were not part of Israel’s theocracy where God was King and Lord. It was only to Israel that God gave special protection, blessing, and love.
They were strangers to the covenants of promise. In those covenants God promised the people of Israel a land, a kingdom and a king. He promised them prosperity and peace. Those who believed were promised eternal life and heaven. These were not given to the Gentiles. Gentiles like Ruth the Moabite and Naaman the Syrian had to come through Israel to be included in those blessings. They had no hope, which means, they had no hope of heaven or of eternal life. The grave was dark, dismal, and foreboding. They had no relationship with God and had none of God’s promises which were the grounds of hope. Their future was bleak indeed. They were without God in the world. They did not know the one true God. They invented their own false gods and idols, but these were useless in knowing the true Sovereign Lord.
Brought Near by the Blood of Christ. Into this hopelessness God sent His one and only Son. The Bible says that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). He did not wait until we were good enough. Our sin nature makes it impossible for us to be holy and righteous enough to measure up to God’s standards of holiness. Yet even though we were all still in this hopeless condition, Christ brought His salvation.
Because of our wretched and sinful condition, we can find no way to cease the hostility. A story comes from World War II, when American soldiers firing from a Belgian farmhouse were in a fierce firefight with German soldiers. The terrible fight continued until the farmer’s little three-year-old daughter somehow walked into the deadly space between the enemies. Both sides ceased their fire until the child could be brought to safety. A little child was able to bring peace, if for only a short time. Jesus was able to cause all hostilities to cease between Jews and Gentiles by shedding His own blood. Through His sacrificial death on the cross, Jesus and only Jesus can bring freedom from sin to both Jew and Gentile, and in His great forgiveness bring them both near. Those who were far apart have been brought near to each other because both embraced Jesus Christ as Savior.
RECONCILED TO GOD. Ephesians 2:14-18
Jesus Broke Down the Barrier of the Dividing Wall. Jesus is our peace. He alone can bring peace to fractured and hostile relationships. How did He do it? First century Judaism had many barriers. A thick veil separated all the people except the High Priest from the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. They were not permitted in its presence. Another veil separated the worshipers from the Holy Place, where only the priests were allowed. In the temple court was a barrier that prevented Gentiles from going into the main temple area. Archaeologists discovered signs posted along that wall that told the Gentile that if he moved any closer, he would forfeit his life.
The greatest barrier between Jews and Gentiles was the “Law of commandments contained in the ordinances.” The feasts, sacrifices, offerings, laws of cleanliness and purification and all of the other distinctive outward commandments for the unique separation of Israel from the nations were abolished. The Lord Jesus fulfilled the moral law through His sinless life and by keeping all its requirements. He abolished the ceremonial law (the Sabbath restrictions) and they were gone.
It was Jesus who broke down that barrier of the dividing wall. It was Jesus who accomplished this through His sacrificial death on the cross. He abolished the enmity which is the Law of commandments. And it was Jesus who in Himself made the two, Jew and Gentile, into one new man, which is His body, the church. In bringing the two together, the Lord Jesus removed the hostility and replaced it with peace.
He Reconciled Both in One Body. According to verse sixteen, this divine process is called “reconciliation.” The word means turning from hostility to friendship. It is a bringing together again. It is a reconnection of one to another. In the original language, compound prepositions intensify and emphasize the completeness of this reconciliation. It is a total reconciliation.
The Apostle Paul clarified reconciliation in Second Corinthians 5:18-20, “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” The Lord Jesus did this by putting to death the enmity. By destroying the cause of the hostility, the two sides could come together in peace and harmony. In verse seventeen, an Old Testament quotation from Isaiah 57:19, Paul declared that this message of reconciliation is for the Gentiles, those far away, and for the Jewish people, those who were near.
Both Jew and Gentile Have Access to the Father. As a result, through Him, that is through the Lord Jesus Christ, both Jew and Gentile have access in one Spirit to the Father. This verse is yet one more reference to the divine Trinity. Note that all three are mentioned, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the Father. Reconciliation is a divine work in which the entire Triune God is involved.
Jesus is still reconciling divisions today. In Africa, the tribes of the Nguni, the Senga, and the Tum Buka had been at war with each other for years. They burned each other’s villages, stole each other’s food supplies, and even murdered each other. The hatred between these tribal people was intense. Nothing, it seemed, could stop the hostility. But when missionaries came and preached salvation in Jesus Christ, members of all three tribes embraced Christ as Savior. Through God’s amazing power, they all joined together in one church, and became a powerful witness of Christ and His perfect salvation. Once again, Jesus broke down the barrier and brought peace.
THE DWELLING OF GOD. Ephesians 2:19-22
The Fact of a New Relationship. Because of salvation in Christ, an amazing change has taken place. Paul declares something that is no longer true about us and some things that are true. We are no longer strangers and aliens. In Christ, believers are no longer excluded, no longer without hope and no longer without God. Each believer in Christ has been transformed and all things have become new.
There are things that are true. Believers are fellow citizens with the saints. We now belong to God, to His people, and to His kingdom. We are members of His household; His family, we belong to Him! He knows us and loves us and we are eternally secure in Him.
The Reason: A New Creation. To accomplish this new relationship, God created something new. He did not insist that the Gentiles receive Christ and then enter Judaism. Neither did He insist that the Jews remain under the fulfilled law. He created the church and placed both of them into this one new creation. The foundation of the church are the apostles and prophets of the first century. These were the witnesses of His resurrection appearances and they preached the good news of Christ. The church rests on Christ as the corner stone, and the apostles and prophets, filled and guided by the Holy Spirit and doing their work in obedience to Jesus, had an indispensable and unique part in the founding of the church.
We find this building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord. That is His church. In this dispensation, God’s temple is not a building, but it is His redeemed people. These are the ones who sought refuge in the cross of Jesus and received Him as Savior. And notice that God dwells in His temple. Formerly God’s earthly residence was considered to be Mount Zion in the Jerusalem temple. Now, in the Holy Spirit who indwells each believer, He makes His home in the church; in you and me as those who have been redeemed.
How are we to apply the principle of reconciliation in the church? We are blessed to discover that the Bible explains this clearly to us. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering” (Matthew 5:23-24). Here, in this place, as we prepare to celebrate the Lord’s Table and the unity it represents, if you look around this room and see a brother or a sister whom you have offended, God’s Word tells you that you must be reconciled to them. Nothing destroys the Christian witness of the local church any more than a conflict between two Christians, a conflict that the two refuse to reconcile. If you fail to be reconciled to your brother or sister in Christ, you are living in rebellion against your Savior. This can also be applied to conflicts in marriages and in families. God calls us to reconcile our conflicts and to do so quickly.
Where do we begin the process of reconciliation? We do so with a spirit of forgiveness. Listen to these words from the fourth chapter of Ephesians: “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32). Did you hear that? We must forgive each other in the same way God in Christ has forgiven us. How many sins has God forgiven you? All of them! Who do you need to forgive?
Anger, conflict, and hostility create barriers and sometimes even insurmountable walls. Only the forgiveness and reconciliation of the Lord Jesus can break those barriers and restore relationships. Through God’s grace, you can restore broken relationships. Why not start right now? Start with a forgiving heart.
Have you been reconciled to God? Have you received Christ as your personal Savior and Lord? As we pause for just a moment, and while we pray, will you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?
