Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Following World War I, there was a strong desire on behalf of the nations of the word for a lasting peace.  
And so, from 1921 to 1928, politicians met until they finally signed an agreement outlawing war.  
After ages of war, twentieth-century politicians had worked out the combination to peace on earth!  
And all of this was symbolized most strongly by the Prime-minister of England, Neville Chamberlain.  
In 1938, having returned from a conference with Adolf Hitler of Germany, he held up the agreement they had both signed, and said, “I believe it is peace for our time.  We thank you from the bottom of our hearts.  And now I recommend you to go home and sleep quietly in your beds.”  
Less than one year later, World War II began.

Well, despite the ongoing reality of war, most people have a strong desire for peace.  
Now, of course, peace can mean many different things.  
Children, if Mum says to you that she “just wants a little bit of peace!”, she is not asking for war to end.  No, she just wants a little quiet!  
Likewise, many self-help books and magazines promise to give us a sense of inner-peace.  
And what they refer to is a contentment and a lack of stress and strife and a measure of self-esteem that keeps you from being disturbed by outside influences.  
And so, peace can mean the absence of war, it can refer to the absence of noise, and it can suggest a calm and serene inner well-being.

Well, peace is very much at the centre of the section of scripture that is before us today.  
Four times, the word “peace,” itself, is mentioned.  
The focus of these verses is very much on a certain peace that has come into the world and that seems to bring enormous blessing and benefit to those who receive it.  

Last time we were together, those of you who were here will recall that we looked at verses 11-13.  
There, Paul called on the Gentile, that is non-Jewish, Christians who were part of the church in Ephesus to remember the state from which they had come.  
They had been an alienated humanity; people excluded from the blessings that used to belong only to the Jews.  
And Paul called on them to remember this and the fact that they had been brought into the blessing of salvation by the blood of Jesus Christ.  

Well, now, Paul wants to focus a little more on how and what Jesus has accomplished.  
He wants to place this peace under the microscope and detail his findings.

Here in verses 14-18 then, Paul outlines the peace at the heart of Christianity.  And what he outlines for us are the who of peace, the what of peace, the how of peace, and the why of peace.  

Firstly then, the who of peace.  The verse begins, “For He Himself is our peace.”  

1.	And it is very clear that the “He Himself” of this verse looks back to the two mentions of Jesus Christ in verse 13.  
a.	And it is also clear that Paul is emphasizing an important point here, because he doesn’t just say, “He is our peace,” he says, “He Himself is our peace.”  
i.	There is a type of doubled emphasis on Jesus Christ as our peace.  

2.	Once again, Paul wants these Gentile Christians, and us, to dwell on the centrality and the importance of Christ in the whole equation of Christianity.  
a.	All the way through the Book, he has and will continue to state that everything we have, as Christians, is IN CHRIST!  
i.	Jesus Christ is the key, the pivot, the fulcrum, the axis, the lynch pin, the very core of who we are as Christians.  
ii.	At the centre of true peace is the person and work of Jesus Christ.  

b.	And what this means, people of God, is that the peace we enjoy was not only made by Christ, it is so bound up with who He is that apart from Him it would cease to exist.  
i.	Without Jesus, there is no peace.  

c.	And this ought to come as no surprise.  The unbreakable link between Jesus and peace should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the Bible.  
i.	The Prophet Isaiah said, “To us a child is born, to us a son is given … and He will be called ?????  Prince of Peace!”  
ii.	The puritan Thomas Watson said, “God the Son is called the Prince of Peace.  He came into the world with a song of peace: “On earth peace.…”  He went out of the world with a legacy of peace, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you.”  Christ’s earnest prayer was for peace; He prayed that His people might be one.  Christ not only prayed for peace, but bled for peace: “Having made peace through the blood of His cross.”  He died not only to make peace between God and man, but between man and man.  Christ suffered on the cross, that He might cement Christians together with His blood; as He prayed for peace, so He paid for peace.”  

d.	Are you on a quest for true peace?
i.	If you are, you need to know that you will not find it outside of Jesus Christ.  
ii.	You will not find it in drugs.  You will not find it in money.  You will not find it in relationships between people.  You will not find it in religions other than Christianity.  
iii.	True peace is found only in and through Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.  

e.	And to those of you who do know that Jesus is your peace, let me ask you this: Do others know this about you?  Do they know what Jesus Christ means to you?  
i.	Oh, they might know your views on abortion, or creation, or the breakdown of the family, or keeping the Sabbath, but do they know what Jesus Christ means to you?  
ii.	Do you speak often of Him?

You see, the who of peace is Jesus Christ.  Secondly though, Paul outlines the what of peace.  

Verse 14 goes on to say, He “has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.”
1.	Well, “the two” that Paul refers to are Jews and Gentiles.  
a.	Last week, I gave you an indication of the hatred that existed between these two groups of people.  
i.	For example, the Jews believed that God created the Gentiles to be fuel for the fires of hell.  
ii.	And of course, the hatred of Gentiles for Jews is equally well documented.  
1.	We think of Hamaan in the story of Esther who wanted to destroy them all.  
2.	According to Gentile authors, the Jews were “enemies of the human race,” a people “filled with a hostile disposition toward everybody.”  

2.	And it is this mutual hatred that Paul refers to as “the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.”  
a.	Now, it’s possible that Paul had in mind the wall in Herod’s Temple that kept the Gentiles out of the inner part of the Temple.  
i.	On that wall was a continuous warning that read, “No foreigner may enter within this barricade which surrounds the sanctuary and enclosure.  Anyone who is caught doing so will have himself to blame for his ensuing death.”  
ii.	Paul might be picturing the destruction of this temple wall that divided Jews from Gentiles.  
1.	It is indeed a powerful image, not unlike the image many of you will remember of the Berlin Wall that divided East and West Berlin coming down.  
iii.	But even if he did have the temple wall in mind, he only uses it as an example or an image of the wall of mutual hatred that exists between Jews and Gentiles.  

b.	And so, what Paul says here is that Jesus Christ has torn down the wall between the Jews and the Gentiles.  
i.	Now, they are one.  
1.	As v15 says, “His purpose was to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace.”
(a)	No longer are they Jews or Gentiles.  Now, they are Christians.  
(b)	As he says elsewhere in Galatians, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”  
ii.	For thousands of years, since right after the division of people groups at Babel, the world had been divided into Jews and Gentiles.  
1.	But now, in Christ, that division was now over.  

c.	And we see that the same WHAT of peace continues today.  
i.	Yes, we may be New Zealanders, or Philippinos, or Australians, or South Africans, or Dutch, or whatever other nationality may be present, but what defines us is the name Christian.  
ii.	The peace we enjoy together, despite our different ethnic allegiances or origins, is a unity in Christ.

The who of peace is Jesus Christ.  The what of peace is unity in Jesus Christ.  Thirdly then, Paul continues by outlining the how of peace.

Just how did Jesus accomplish what for thousands of years had seemed impossible?  Well, says Peter, Jesus accomplished this through two things.  

1.	Firstly, He did it “by abolishing in His flesh the law with its commandments and regulations.”  
a.	Now, perhaps some of you who know your Bibles are wondering what Paul means by saying that Jesus abolished the law?  
i.	After all, didn’t Jesus Himself say, in Matthew 5:17, “I did not come to abolish the law but to fulfil it”?  

b.	Well, what we need to remember here is that the law has three parts to it.  
i.	The moral law, the civil law, and the ceremonial law.  
1.	The moral law refers to laws like “You shall not murder” and “you shall not commit adultery.”  
2.	The civil law refers to those laws that governed life in the nation of Israel; laws about who you could marry and about appropriate punishments for crime, etc.  
3.	The ceremonial law refers to those ceremonies and sacrifices that were peculiar to the people of Israel; laws about the way to prepare a lamb for sacrifice or about Sabbath and new-moon festivals, etc.  
ii.	All of these are found in the first 5 books of the Bible; Genesis through Deuteronomy – the Law of God.
1.	Well, the moral law is law that is written into the very fabric of creation.  
(a)	Murder was always wrong and always will be wrong.  
2.	The civil law, because it still speaks by way of principle to civilizations today, also continues to have weight, even though in some of its specifics it no longer applies.  
(a)	The law that demands a parapet around a flat roof to keep people from falling off is the same civil law principle that is behind the laws for fences around pools, for instance.
3.	But the ceremonial law is what Paul is referring to here.  
(a)	All of the ceremonial law, because it existed only for Israel and as a pointer to Christ, has now been fulfilled and abolished in Christ.  
(b)	No longer must we sacrifice and observe Israel’s OT feasts.  

c.	And we can see that this is what Paul means by turning over to Colossians 2.  
i.	Paul uses the Greek word entolay for “commandments” and the Greek word dogma for “regulations.”  
1.	And he always uses the word dogma when he is referring to the ceremonial law.  
ii.	In 2:14 he says, “Having cancelled the written code, with its regulations (or dogma) that was against us and that stood opposed to us; He took it away, nailing it to the cross.”  
iii.	Previously, in v11, and then down in verse 16ff, he cites examples of what he means: circumcision, food regulations, festival regulations.  
1.	All these were part of the ceremonial law that Christ has fulfilled and abolished.  
2.	No more did these things need to be observed in order to define which ethnic group were part of the people of God and which ethnic group was not, for Christ has now fulfilled all of those laws.  

d.	And exactly how and when did Christ do this?  
i.	Well, Paul answers that at the end of v16.  Jesus did this by reconciling “both of them to God through the cross.”  
1.	On the cross He became the Passover Lamb. 
2.	On the cross He became a fellowship offering, a sin offering, and a guilt offering.  
3.	On the cross His sacrificial blood flowed.  
4.	On the cross, feasts and festivals were fulfilled like the Day of Atonement.
5.	And, as He hung on the cross, the veil that separated the Holy of Holies from the assembled worshippers was torn in two from top to bottom.  
ii.	All mankind, both Jews and Gentiles, were reconciled to God because Jesus took their sins upon Himself on the cross.

2.	Well, Christ had accomplished the means of peace between men.  However, the good news of what He had done still needed to be broadcast.  And so, secondly, Paul continues on in verse 17, to outline the how of peace by explaining that “He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.”  
a.	In our OT Scripture reading we read from Isaiah 57.  
i.	There, in regards to sinful mankind, God says, “Peace, peace, to those far and near, says the Lord.” 
ii.	In Isaiah 52, the prophet also says, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace.”
1.	Now, Paul doesn’t quote either of these verses exactly.  
2.	But there can be little doubt that the relationship between peace, preaching the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ, and its effect on those far and near is very much in view.

b.	The “He” of v17 is obviously Jesus Christ.
i.	And yet, Jesus, Himself, said to a Gentile woman, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”
ii.	And He also said to His disciples, “Do not go among the Gentiles … Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.”
iii.	After His resurrection, however, Jesus said to the disciples, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
iv.	He called Paul, specifically, as the Apostle to the Gentiles.
v.	And of the Apostles, Paul said, in 2 Corinthians 5, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us.”

c.	Congregation, the Gentiles, who were far off, were joined with those who were near, through the apostolic preaching of the gospel.
i.	True peace does not come about through self-esteem seminars.
ii.	True peace does not come about through political legislation.
iii.	True peace does not come about through religious activity like poverty relief or crisis counselling.
iv.	Whilst some of these things are important and necessary, true peace comes through the preaching of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen for the forgiveness of sins.

d.	Our chief calling, as a church, is to preach this peace to a broken world.
i.	This needs some who are officially ordained and set aside to this work, like me.
1.	Men.  Young and not so young.  “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.”
(a)	Each of you needs to be asking yourself, “Is God calling me to the ministry?”
2.	And as a congregation, we need to be sure that we are doing all that we can to encourage and support the training of those who study for the ministry.  We need to know our seminaries, invest in them, and pray for them.
ii.	In addition, we are all called to proclaim Christ through the way that we live and with our words.
1.	It has been said that your life is the fifth Gospel.  And most people will not get to read the first four!  
2.	Are you living for Jesus?  Is your life a living Gospel that cries out, “I belong to the Prince of Peace?”  
3.	Do your fellow students, and workers, and neighbours know why you live the way that you live?

The who of peace is Jesus Christ.  The what of peace is unity in Christ.  The how of peace is Christ’s work on the cross and the preaching of the gospel.  Well, lastly then, Paul outlines the why of peace.

Verse 18 says, “For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.”

1.	I expect that you boys and girls will know that Jesus described Himself as the Good Shepherd.  
a.	In John 10, He pictured Himself as a shepherd who would do anything to keep His flock of sheep safe from wolves.  
i.	He even describes His willingness to lay down His life for the sheep.  

b.	Well, did you know that in that same passage Jesus calls Himself a gate?  
i.	We like the idea of Jesus as a Shepherd, but Jesus as a gate does not have the same ring to it does it.  
ii.	And yet, in John 10:7, Jesus said, “I am the gate for the sheep.  
1.	Well Jesus did this because in those times a shepherd would move his sheep from place to place.  
2.	And the sheep pens, whether permanent or temporary, did not have a gate.  
3.	And so, the shepherd would guide all his sheep into the pen and then lie across the entrance Himself.  He would become the gate.  
(a)	The only way into the pen was through Him.  He guarded access.

c.	Well the only access into the presence of God is through Jesus.  
i.	And we are only able to come to God through Jesus by the work and power of one Spirit.  
ii.	And for all Christians there is only one Father. 
iii.	Because God is three and one, His people, though many, are one as they come to Him. 

2.	Sadly today, there is still much hatred and disunity between different groups on earth.  
a.	Ethnic, tribal, and class conflicts fill much of each news broadcast.  
i.	Some of it takes place in far off lands, and some of it takes place in our own community.  
b.	True Peace is needed.  
i.	And the only peace that was ever able to unite Jew and Gentile was the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ.   

Well, we are part of the one church of Jesus Christ.  
We have been richly blessed with the gift of this peace.  
Regardless of our backgrounds, through Jesus, we each have access to the Father by one Spirit.  
Let us be busy then with the work of preaching peace to those who are far away and peace to those who are near.  Amen.