How Can We Have Peace in this Life?
Sermon Notes
Before we get into today’s message I want to share with you two quick things. The 1st thing is we confirmed our final numbers for Christmas Fest, and we were able to raise over $3700 to help Samaritan Village fight against human trafficking in Orlando, so let’s praise God for that!... Samaritan Village is a gospel centered organization that provides survivors of human trafficking with physical, phycological, and spiritual recovery in a safe housing environment. I’m thankful our church has a heart for this much needed ministry in our city, and special thanks to everyone who helped use their time, talents, and treasures to raise this money through Christmas Fest...The 2nd thing I want to share is my wife and I will be leading an 11 wk Real Marriages small group study starting January 15th. It’s a study that had a major impact on our marriage several years ago, and it’s a study we’ve done with over 25 couples whose lives were impacted by this study too. It’s a very real, raw, practical study for people considering getting married, people recently married, and people who’ve been married for years. Again it’s starting January 15th, but we’re asking for signups now so we can order enough materials for each couple. So if you want to sign up or if you want more info, come see me at the guest services tent after the service, or you can email me at Louis@cityawakening.org. That’s L-o-u-i-s @cityawakening.org.
Now as for today we’re continuing our teaching series called The Prince of Peace. It’s a 4 wk series where we’re exploring the question “How can Jesus give us the gift of peace?” The Christmas season is all about the incarnate birth of Jesus, and how he’s the Prince of Peace who came to give us the gift of eternal peace in heaven with him. Isaiah 9:6 states, “A child will be born for us, a son will be given to us...He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” The prophet Isaiah was pointing to the incarnate birth of Jesus several hundred years before Jesus was even born, and he calls Jesus the Prince of Peace. He’s the Prince of Peace who came to give us the gift of peace, and both skeptics and believers want peace for their lives. But we face things every day threatening to rob our peace. The reality is one day your marriage is at peace, the next day it’s at war...One day your family is at peace, the next day it’s in a cage fight...One day your job is secure and you’re at peace, the next day something happens, you want to quit, or you get laid off...One day you’re on vacation, life is good, and you’re at peace, the next day vacation ends, life isn’t so good, and the same problems are there to greet you when you get back...Everybody wants peace, but the reality is we face things every day threatening to rob our peace. So the question we’re exploring this Christmas, is how can Jesus give us the gift of peace? Let’s turn to Ephesians 2 and get into it. You’ll find Ephesians in the last quarter of the bible, and we’ll be in Ephesians 2:11-22. Title of the message is How can we have peace in life, and the big idea is the more aligned you are with Christ, the more at peace you’ll be in life...The more aligned you are with Christ, the more at peace you’ll be in life...
Here’s your context. Ephesians was written by the Apostle Paul who at one point hated Christians. But after meeting Jesus his entire life changes, he becomes a Christian, and he eventually dies for his faith as a Christian. He writes this letter to strengthen the faith of believers who are living in Ephesus. In ch 2 he teaches we’re saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, but he also teaches there’s peace that comes with having that faith. So let’s check it out.
Ephesians 2:11-22 states, “11 So then, remember at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh called ‘the uncircumcised’ by those called ‘the circumcised,’ which is done in the flesh by human hands. 12 At that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, who made both groups one, and tore down the dividing wall of hostility.” Notice Paul says he is our peace, meaning Jesus is our peace. In this chapter Paul will teach us there’s 4 kinds of peace that comes with having faith in Jesus, and he teaches us 2 of those 4 in these first several verses. He teaches us the kind of peace that comes with having faith in Jesus is 1st peace in our relationship with God and 2nd peace in our relationship with others. Having faith in Jesus gives us peace in our relationship with God, which leads to giving us peace in our relationship with others. When Paul mentions the dividing wall of hostility, he’s talking about the dividing wall that exists in our relationship with God because of our sinful actions against God, and the dividing wall that exists in our relationship with others because of our sinful actions against others. There’s no greater dividing wall that exists than the dividing wall between God and sinful humanity. But Jesus came and tore down that dividing wall when he died for our sins on the cross, so we can have 1st peace in our relationship with God through faith in him, which leads to having 2nd peace in our relationship with others we wouldn’t even culturally affiliate with.
Now in the time period that Paul’s writing this, the Jews and Gentiles were two people groups that didn’t culturally affiliate with each other. In fact they had a massive dividing wall of hostility toward each other. Back then the Jews divided the world into two people groups which consisted of Jews, and everybody else in the world was considered a Gentile. Before Jesus came and started transforming some of their lives, they hated each other so much, that the Jews put up a literal, physical, dividing wall of hostility. It was a literal, physical, 10 ft high wall surrounding the Jewish temple with a sign saying, “Any Gentile entering beyond this wall, will have only himself to blame for his death.” For the Jews that wall separated the good from the bad, the holy from the unholy, the clean from the unclean, the Jews from the Gentiles. But Paul’s saying Jesus came and tore down that dividing wall of hostility when he came to die for the sins of both Jews and Gentiles. He came to die for the sins of both Jews and Gentiles, so both people groups can have 1st peace with God, and 2nd peace with each other, through faith in him. Listen to vs 15-16.
Vs. 15-16 states, “Jesus did this so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. 16 He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross, by which he put the hostility to death.” Paul’s saying Jesus brought Jews and Gentiles, these two hostile people groups together to create one new man, one new humanity, one new family. It’s a new family consisting of mixed people groups, they’re called Christians, and they can be seen in the global church. A recent study reported there’s roughly 2.3 billion Christians in the global church today, and in that 2.3 billion there’s over 9000 people groups represented. The Christian family is the most beautifully diverse family in history! It’s because Jesus tore down the dividing wall of hostility that separated us, giving us peacewith others we don’t culturally affiliate with. We sometimes argue and disagree like other families. But we can’t cancel each other like our cancel culture, because our unity in Jesus is greater than our disagreements.
In fact one of our codes, our core values at City Awakening is the gospel’s our common ground. We believe in cultural diversity, but gospel unity. We believe Jesus is our common ground despite age, ethnic, economic, political, or any other differences. Jesus restored peace and beauty to diversity, but our cancel culture keeps using diversity to rip us apart. Jesus tore down the dividing wall of hostility, but our cancel culture keeps rebuilding the dividing wall of hostility. The atoning work Jesus did on the cross opened the door for us to have peace with God and each other. When Jesus died on the cross he opened the door for Jews, Gentiles, whites, blacks, Latinos, Republicans, Democrats, all people groups to have salvation and unification into God’s eternal family. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but shall have eternal life!” The atoning work Jesus did on the cross opened the door for whoever believes, to have peace with God and peace with each other, into one eternal family.
Again vs. 16, “He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross, by which he put the hostility to death. 17 He came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access, in one Spirit, to the Father.” This is the 3rd kind of peace that comes with having faith in Jesus. We have 1st peace with God, 2nd peace with others, and 3rd peace in our access to God. Paul says we have access to God the Father, through faith in Jesus. This can bring peace to so many areas in our lives, because having access to God means we can always go to God no matter what’s happening in our lives. What Paul will mention later is those who put their faith in Jesus become citizens of heaven, which means we’re given access to the King of heaven. When Paul uses this type of citizenship language he’s speaking as somebody who had Roman citizenship, and at one point he was thrown into prison in Philippi for sharing his faith in Jesus. But as soon as he told the jailers he was a Roman citizen, he was given access to share his trial with Caesar. Only a Roman citizen had access to Caesar like that, and that’s what Paul’s thinking about here. He’s saying those who put their faith in Jesus are now a part of God’s family, we’re now citizens of heaven, which means we have direct access to the King of heaven, and he’s always willing to listen to our trials. He’s always willing to listen to our concerns, even when we’ve stumbled in sin. Some people feel like they can’t express their concerns to God when they sin, they feel like they’ve lost access to God. But Jesus has given us eternal access to God, which means he’s always willing to listen to our concerns, even on the days we’ve stumbled in sin.
Now this doesn’t mean he’ll always give us what we want. He’s always willing to listen to what we want, but this doesn’t mean he’ll always give us what we want. One of the issues we have is we think God should always give us what we want, and when he doesn’t we get upset with God and stop relying on our access to God. We start relying more on ourselves, instead of relying on God. We start relying on our access to other things, instead of relying on our access to God. We start relying on our own will power, instead of relying on God’s eternal power to help us through our trials and concerns in life. This won’t bring peace into your life, because your will power will eventually fail your life. We can’t have peace in our daily lives, if we aren’t walking with God in our daily lives. Jesus has given us the peace of having access to God every day, but we need to be willing to access that peace by walking with God every day. We need to be willing to walk as citizens of heaven, who have access to the King of heaven, through faith in Jesus.
Again vs. 18, “For through him we both have access, in one Spirit, to the Father. 19 So then you’re no longerforeigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building, being put together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you are also being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.” Notice Paul says we’re no longer foreigners and strangers. What he’s saying is we don’t have to walk through daily life like we’re foreigners and strangers anymore, instead we can walk through daily life as fellow citizens of the King. When you’re a foreigner in another country, you walk around confused and fearfully cautious because you don’t know the country. But when you’re a citizen of the country, you walk around more relaxed and at peace because you know the country. Paul’s saying as citizens of heaven we’ll walk in this world more relaxed and at peace, when we walk with our King who knows this world better than we do. This is the 4th peace that comes with having faith in Jesus. We have 1stpeace with God, 2nd peace with others, 3rd peace in our access to God, and #4 peace in our daily life with God. We have peace when we’re walking through daily life with God. The reason we don’t always have peace, is because sometimes we’re walking through life like foreigners and strangers, instead of like fellow citizens. We’re relying on our own will power like citizens of this world, instead of like citizens of heaven who have access to the King. We need to live as citizens of heaven by aligning our daily lives with the King. We need to align our daily lives with the Prince of Peace, if we want to enjoy a life of peace.
Several years ago Tim Keller gave a great example of this. He said imagine a man living in slavery his entire life in the south during the Civil War. But then Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation, and he becomes a citizen. That means when he goes into town he doesn’t have to walk as a slave anymore, he can now walk as a citizen. But could you imagine how difficult that’d be to shift from walking as a slave your entire life, to now walking as a citizen? That isn’t an easy shift to make, especially knowing how evil and torturous American slavery was. The trauma of slavery would’ve affected the man so much, that his instincts would occasionally cause him to slip back into a slavery mindset. So every time he wakes up, he has to remind himself he isn’t a slave anymore. He has to remind himself to walk as a citizen, instead of as a slave. For those who are Christians, for those of us who have faith in Jesus, every time we wake up we need to remind ourselves we aren’t slaves anymore. We need to remind ourselves to walk as citizens of heaven, instead of as slaves in this world. We need to remind ourselves we’re no longer slaves to fear, slaves to sin, slaves to the trials and concerns that are consuming our lives, because we’re citizens of heaven who have access to the King...We have access to God every day, so we can walk in peace with God every day...We have access to the Prince of Peace, who can give us the gift peace...The question is will you rely on that access or not?...Will you rely on the King’s power, or your own will power?...Will you walk as a citizen, or as a slave?...
Let’s have the worship team come up and get to the big idea. The big idea of the message is the more aligned you are with Christ, the more at peace you’ll be in life...The more aligned you are with Christ, the more at peace you’ll be in life...Jesus is the Prince of Peace, who can give us the gift of peace, and he can give others in our city the gift of peace. If you believe that, then take the invite cards on your seats and invite some people to come to our Christmas Eve service. A lot of people in our city don’t have peace in their life, but you can give them the gift of peace by inviting them to our Christmas Eve service. Another one of our codes is invitations leads to transformations, and those invite cards are invitations for people to meet our Savior. They’re invitations for people to meet the Prince of Peace, who can give them the gift of peace. Your invitation could lead to their transformation, and to them becoming citizens of heaven.
But some of you need to become citizens of heaven today...Some of you aren’t citizens of heaven and you need to ask Jesus for citizenship today...Some of you are skeptics or nominals who expect God to bless you, take care of you, listen to you, give you peace in whatever you’re struggling with in life. But you’ve never asked Jesus for citizenship, so you don’t have access to the King. You need to ask Jesus for citizenship, and trust he’s the prince of peace who came to give you the gift of peace when died for your sins on the cross. If you trust he died for your sins on the cross, then you’ll have instant citizenship and eternal access to God...If you’re already a citizen of heaven, then what area in your life are you not walking like a citizen of heaven?...What area in your life are you not at peace right now?...What area in your life are you walking like a slave, instead of like a citizen?...Remind yourself that you have access to the King, and rely on that access daily to help you navigate whatever’s robing you of peace. Remind yourself you’re no longer a slave to fear! You’re no longer a slave to sin! You’re no longer a slave to whatever trials and concerns are robbing your peace! Remind yourself that you’re no longer a slave to any of those things, because you’re a citizen who has access to King!..City Awakening stop walking around like you’re a slave, when you’re a citizen who has access to the King!...Let’s pray...