Battle Ready: "Demolition Brings Peace": Ephesians 2:14-18 Pastor Daniel Reese

We'll be in Ephesians 2 this morning.

Let's do four verses today.

Actually, let's do five. How about that? Five verses today.

It is human nature to build walls, right?

The Chinese built what is known today as the Great Wall of China

over 2,000 years ago to try to keep invaders out of their country.

Our country has a wall somewhat on the border between us and Mexico.

Even when we build our own houses, we build them with walls,

and then we build another wall around those walls for additional privacy and protection.

In our last home, we had a fence around our backyard.

The problem was that fence was about four feet tall.

Our neighbors were nice people, so that really wasn't the problem at all.

It was their dog.

If we were outside and he could see us, the dog was barking.

If we were outside playing baseball or basketball or doing yard work,

he would bark the entire time.

Any time he saw us, he would bark.

If we were outside for two minutes, he would bark for two minutes.

If we were outside for an hour, he would bark nonstop for an entire hour.

He liked to jump the fence, and we had a dog door.

I don't know how he got through it, but we had a dog door, came home one time.

That dog was in our bed.

We did all sorts of things to try to get him to stop.

We would yell at him.

We would try to be nice to him.

We would shoot him with airsoft guns.

I even started to scheme on how we could kidnap this dog

and drive him out into the country accidentally and let him fend for himself.

Now, while we build walls for all kinds of reasons,

one thing that all walls have in common is it causes separation.

Sometimes that separation is good and useful.

I wish I had a taller fence, but other times that separation is actually harmful.

In those cases, in order to overcome that harm, those walls have to be torn down.

As we continue our study of Ephesians this morning,

Paul writes about tearing down some walls.

Let's read that passage together.

We'll start in verse 14.

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one

and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.

By abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances,

that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two,

so that making peace and might reconcile us both to God and one body through the cross,

thereby killing the hostility.

And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.

For through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father. Amen.

As we read this passage, it becomes, by the way, good luck memorizing that one.

That one I struggled with this one this week.

But as we read this passage, it becomes apparent quickly that the main theme in these verses is peace.

Paul writes that Jesus is our peace. He made peace. He came and preached peace.

Unfortunately, the way most of us view peace today is quite different from the word

that Paul uses here in this passage.

The most common definition of peace I found in our culture is the absence of war or conflict.

Researchers have found that since 3600 BC there have been about 200 and there's only been 292 years of peace.

14,351 wars have been fought with an estimated 3.64 billion people being killed.

Now many of those wars were fought for the sake of peace.

But the word peace in both the Old and New Testament has a much deeper meaning.

The word denotes a sense of well-being or wholeness and often referred to the salvation offered by God to man.

The word is used to both refer to the vertical relationship between us and God as well as the horizontal relationship amongst men.

And as Paul very clearly points out in this passage, there were walls that separated men from God and walls that separated men from each other.

But Jesus is the peace who tears down those walls and makes it possible for us to have real peace in our lives.

It is very likely that as Paul wrote this letter to the Ephesian church, he wrote it from a prison cell in Rome.

In Acts chapter 21 we learned that just a short time before that Paul had gone into Jerusalem to deliver the offerings from the Gentile churches to the Jewish Christians there.

Acts 21 · chapter mention

While in the temple one day he was dragged out by an angry mob of Jews who accused him of taking a Gentile into the part of the temple that was off-limit to non-Jews.

Now the temple of that day was known as Herod's Temple and it had two courts.

One intended for the Israelites only and the other was a larger outer court called the Court of the Gentiles.

And it was intended for the use of people of all nations.

Now the Jewish historian Josephus records that these two courts were separated by a low wall about four and a half feet high and it had 13 different openings in it.

Along the top of this dividing wall that separated the Court of the Gentiles from the inner court were two pillars with this Greek inscription to affect it.

No strangers were allowed past this wall. No Gentile could go into the court of the Jews.

In fact several of these inscriptions have been discovered over the last 150 years.

An entire inscription was on earth in 1871 and it's now in a museum in Istanbul.

It bears the following inscription in Greek capital letters.

No stranger is to enter within the value straight which is the dividing wall and embankment around the sanctuary.

Whoever is caught will have himself to blame for his death which follows.

That dividing wall which Paul mentions to the church in Ephesians in the temple was a physical symbol of the great hostility that existed between Jews and Gentiles in Paul's day.

Now although the wall could be torn down physically and it would be torn down physically several years after Paul wrote this letter to the church in Ephesus, Jesus had already come to tear down what that wall represented.

But as we'll see this morning that's not the only wall Jesus came to tear down.

Now although the hostility between the Jews and the Gentiles especially the Arabs is still quite evident in the world today,

I think that we have a tendency on our part to think that this passage doesn't apply to a whole lot of us.

But the kind of enmity that existed between the Jews and the Gentiles in Paul's day still touches every one of our lives today.

Now if we're honest we have to admit that we all have walls in our lives that separate us from God and we all have walls in our lives that separate us from others.

There are some of you here this morning who have walls in your marriage.

Now sure you still live together and maybe you even put up with one another,

but you don't have the kind of peace and you don't have the kind of wholeness in that relationship that God wants you to have.

There are some of you here this morning that have erected walls between parents and children.

You live under the same roof but you no longer respect each other and you don't even have a meaningful relationship.

Some of you put up walls at work.

Those of you who are supervisors don't treat your employees with respect and those of you who are employees constantly badmouth your bosses and don't honor them.

And all of those walls are just as harmful to your peace as the walls that existed between the Jews and the Gentiles in Paul's day.

And if you're going to have the kind of peace in your life that God wants you to have, then you're going to have to let God tear down some walls this morning.

So let's look at some demolition in our lives that we can have, we can do to bring peace into our lives.

The first thing is we need to let God tear down the wall that separates me from him.

Let's look at the beginning of the passage and then let's look at the end of the passage.

The beginning starts off for he himself is our peace.

The end of this passage in 18, for through him we both have access to the Father by one spirit.

Now when we look at those phrases together, it becomes obvious that the primary reason that people don't have real peace in their lives is because the relationship with God, their vertical relationship isn't right.

Now we've seen in Ephesians so far what our lives are like without Jesus.

We were dead in our sins.

We were dominated by the world, by Satan, by our flesh, and we were doomed to face the wrath of God.

Without Jesus in our lives, our sin erects a dividing wall, a barrier between us and God.

God is a holy God, and so when we sin, we separate ourselves from his holiness.

And as we've seen, there's nothing that we can do on our own to tear down that wall.

But fortunately for us, Jesus is our peace.

He himself has torn down that wall so that we can experience the peace, the wholeness of a personal intimate relationship with Jesus.

Now at the very moment that Jesus breathed his last breath on the cross, God gave us a visual symbol of the fact that Jesus had just torn down the wall that separated us from God.

In Mark 15, 38 it says the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

The curtain, most of you know this, that is referred to here is the curtain that separated the holy of holies from the rest of the temple.

The holy of holies is where the Ark of the Covenant resided, and it was recognized as part of the temple where the presence of God was made manifest.

No one except the high priest could enter into the holy of holies, and he could only do that one day a year on the day of atonement.

Now when we hear that the veil was torn in two, I don't know what you picture.

I don't know what you have in your mind, but it's probably missing some significant facts.

The curtain in the temple was over 60 feet tall, equivalent to six stories in a building.

It was as thick as the palm of your hand, about four inches thick.

It took 300 priests to carry it.

This is not your average curtain.

This type of curtain that was in the temple would not get sucked into you as you're standing in the shower in your hotel room.

This is a massive curtain.

But when Jesus died on the cross, that curtain was ripped in two.

And notice how that happened.

It was torn from top to bottom, which is an indication that it was God, not any other man.

And that was a picture of exactly what Paul writes about here in Ephesians.

Through Jesus, those who have committed their lives to Him all have access to the Father.

And Paul makes it really clear here that the kind of peace is available to everyone.

It doesn't matter if you're a Jew or a Gentile.

It doesn't matter if you're white or black, rich or poor, male or female, Catholic or Baptist.

That peace is God's gift to everyone who will choose to accept it through faith in Jesus Christ.

And as we'll see later in greater detail, it is impossible to tear down other walls in our lives until we first address this one.

I think that's the point that Paul is trying to make in several of his other letters.

In Set Corinthians chapter 6, make sure you cross out chapter 2, because I don't know what I did there.

It's chapter 6, verses 14 through 15. It says,

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.

For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness.

Or what fellowship has light with darkness.

What accord has Christ with belayal.

Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever.

The fact that we will never have true peace with others who have not addressed their own relationship with God.

That's a fact.

And however, that does not give us an excuse to erect walls that separate us from others.

Listen to another one of Paul's letters in Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Notice the key phrase there.

As far as it depends on you.

You can't do anything about another person's relationship with God.

And you can't do anything about whatever walls that they might put up.

But you can make sure that you're not erecting unnecessary barriers.

There is no doubt that sometimes we have to put up walls around us, right?

We have to put up walls between us and unbelievers.

Because they're not followers of Christ.

They aren't going to act like his followers should.

And so there will be times where we cannot take part in some things that they might choose to do.

How they might choose to live their life.

But let's make sure that we don't put up unnecessary dividing walls that might keep those people from being introduced to Jesus Christ.

And having the opportunity to allow him to tear down the walls that separate them from God.

We have to ask God to tear down the walls.

The second thing we know is we have to let God tear down the wall that separates me from others.

Now, Paul leaves absolutely no doubt whatsoever that I am incapable of on my own of breaking down the wall to separate me from others.

Only God can do that.

All the action that is taking place in these verses is done by God.

And God is only able to do that in our lives after we have taken care of the wall that separates us from him.

But it does seem to me that there are some things that we can do in our lives that will make it more likely that God will be able to tear down the walls between us and others.

While we can't tear down the walls on our own, we can certainly impact how God works in our lives by our actions.

The first thing we need to do is we need to find our identity in Christ.

You need to find your identity in Christ.

It's interesting that when Jesus tore down the walls between the Jews and the Gentiles, he didn't do that by trying to transform one group into the other.

To me, it seems logical that since Israel was God's chosen people, Jesus would just transform the lives of the Gentiles so that they would be like the Jews.

That makes sense to me.

But Jesus did something radically different. Paul tells us that he actually created a new man.

Now, the word create that Paul uses here is the same word he used earlier in this letter.

It is a word that means to create something new that has never existed before.

Paul wrote about that new creation in some of his other letters as well.

Second Corinthians chapter 5,

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come. It's not transformation. It's a whole new creation.

In Galatians chapter 6, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. What counts is a new creation.

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

That verse seems particularly relevant to our passage here in Ephesians.

Paul makes it clear that God doesn't really care about what group someone belonged to before their faith in Christ.

All that really matters is that Jesus has made them into a new creation.

Now, throughout this passage, Paul makes it clear that Jesus has made the two into one.

God no longer looks upon them as Jews and Gentiles.

He sees them all as followers of Jesus Christ.

And if we're going to allow God to break down the walls that separate us from others, we need to have the same perspective.

It's not us versus them.

We live in a world today where most people identify themselves based on some characteristic or some distinguishing feature.

We have people who find their identity in the race.

We have African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics, whites.

We have people who find their identity in their political beliefs, Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals.

Even in the church, we have people who find their identity in their denomination or their theology.

I'm Catholic. I'm Methodist. I'm Presbyterian or Baptist.

I'm a Calvinist or I'm an Arminian.

I mean, no wonder we are so divided. But Jesus came down to tear down those walls.

His desire is that we find our identity not in those groups, but in him.

Let me ask you a question this morning to help you determine where you find your identity.

It's the kind of question that someone might ask you during a job interview.

Tell me about yourself.

Now, be honest. What are the first things that come to your mind?

Because how you answer that question says a lot about where you find your identity.

I'm an athlete. I'm a pastor. I'm a husband. I'm a father.

And if the answer to that question is anything other than I'm a follower of Jesus Christ,

then you can be pretty sure that there are some dividing walls in your life

that you need to let God deal with.

The second thing we need to be aware is we need to be aware of self-righteousness.

If we're going to allow God to tear down the walls between us and others,

we need to be aware of self-righteousness.

Now, although there is so much to be divided, the Jews and the Gentiles,

Paul points to one particular barrier that seemed to be the hardest to overcome.

The law with all of its commandments, with all of its regulations.

Probably the greatest cause of hostility between the Jews and the Gentiles

was the way the Jews used the law.

The law itself was not a bad thing.

After it had been given to the Jews directly by God, that's not a bad thing.

But when the Jewish religious leaders began to add to the law with their own regulations,

their own interpretations, and their own definitions of the law,

it became nothing more than a self-righteous, holier-than-thou demand upon others.

Without any admission of guilt on their part.

They weren't wrong. Everybody else was wrong.

What God created for the benefit of His people, His people had turned it into a dividing wall.

The Jews, especially their leaders, had become so self-righteous

that it alienated them from the Gentiles.

They demanded that others change their own behavior without recognizing their own need to change as well.

They needed for Jesus to remove that dividing wall between them and God just as much as the Gentiles did.

They just didn't realize it. And the Gentiles despised the Jews because they knew they lived in self-righteous hypocrisy.

Jesus' solution was to take the self-righteous application of the law out of the equation

and to show both the Jews and the Gentiles that they needed forgiveness and grace.

In effect, Jesus leveled the playing field and removed the greatest source of their hostility towards one another.

I'm convinced that self-righteousness is one of the greatest sources of hostility and conflict in our own relationships.

As long as one person insists that the other is wrong

and there's nothing at all that he or she needs to change, then of course hostility and resentment remain.

That's true in our marriages. It's true in our relationship between parents and children with our friends at work

and even in our relationships with others inside the body of Christ.

I have sat with too many couples who are struggling in their marriage because of this issue.

They're right and their spouse is wrong. Too many issues.

The problem is amplified when both parties have that problem.

I'm right, they're wrong. No, I'm right, they're wrong.

If you are unwilling to admit that there's a slight possibility that you are wrong,

there is no chance whatsoever for a healthy relationship.

Now, for some of us, it takes us a little longer to come to that conclusion.

But we always need to evaluate where we could be wrong, where we could be misunderstanding something.

If you don't, you are just building walls.

When God reveals our error of being self-righteous and we humble ourselves and say that we are sorry and we ask for forgiveness,

it allows God to tear down those walls.

I want to encourage you to think about how your own self-righteous attitudes may be erecting walls in your relationship with others

and consider what you can do to help tear down those walls.

Beware of self-righteousness.

The other thing is we need to obey the words of Jesus.

Paul writes that Jesus had come and preached peace to both those who were far away, the Gentiles, and those who were near, the Jews.

But what exactly is Paul referring to?

It's interesting how many different ideas that different commentators have about what Paul meant by the preaching of Jesus.

But it seems to me that if we should just take it at its simplest sense, it would refer to everything that Jesus has said while he ministered on earth.

Certainly the entire Bible is profitable for us.

It's good. It's all God's word.

But there's also a great benefit to focusing on the specific words of Jesus.

And when it comes to allowing God to break down the walls that separate us from others, that seems particularly true.

I'm sure you can find many applicable passages, but here's just a couple that seem to be particularly relevant.

In Luke chapter 6, Jesus says,

Luke 6 · chapter mention

But I tell you who hear me, notice that, who hear me, he's telling everybody, but he's telling those who hear him, love your enemies.

Do good to those who hate you.

Bless those who curse you.

Pray for those who mistreat you.

Now, we all heard the words, but do we hear the words?

In Matthew chapter 5,

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you,

leave your gift there in front of the altar.

First go and be reconciled to your brother.

Then come and offer your gift.

Now, Jesus has a lot to say about my relationships with others.

And as I obey those teachings, God can use them in my life to break down the walls that separate me from others.

Now, this is one of those messages where I can't imagine that all of us don't need to respond to God in some way this morning.

For some of you, there is still a wall between you and God.

You're separated from Him because you've never committed your life to Jesus Christ.

This morning, you need to pull out your inner Ronald Reagan.

Instead of telling Mr. Gorbachev to tear down this wall, you need to say, Jesus, tear down this wall.

You need to accept God's gift of an intimate, personal relationship with Him through faith in Jesus Christ.

Some of you surrender to a religion.

Some of you surrender to a particular denomination.

You come to church weekend and weekend, but you have failed to surrender your life to Jesus.

There's still a wall there.

You continue to gain knowledge and you continue to consume information, but it hasn't changed your life.

Jesus, tear down that wall.

For the rest of us who have already let God tear down that dividing wall, we need to think of our relationship with others.

Reflect on any other relationships in your life where there is a dividing wall that separates you from others.

Is it your spouse, your children, your parents, coworkers, friends, neighbors?

This morning, you need to say, Jesus, tear down that wall.

Now, I have a feeling because the Lord works this way that when I mention those things, somebody came to your mind.

Somebody came to your mind.

I'm going to read Luke chapter 6 again, but I tell you who hear me.

Luke 6 · chapter mention

Love your enemies.

Do good to those who hate you.

Bless those who curse you.

Pray for those who mistreat you.

Are you obeying the words of Jesus?

And then consider what you can do to allow God to do His work.

Maybe you need to make sure that your identity is in Christ and not something else.

Is your identity in your family?

Is it in your job?

Is it in your bank account?

Is your identity in Christ?

When I ask you to tell yourself about me, tell me about yourself.

Where's your identity?

Maybe you need to quit being so self-righteous and admit that maybe you are a little guilty.

Maybe you need to be the bigger person.

Maybe you need to be the one to ask for forgiveness.

Maybe you need to be a part of helping tear down that wall.

And maybe again, you need to listen to the words of Jesus and put them into practice in your life.

See, the issue is with consuming information is we know the information, but we don't let it affect us.

We don't let it change us.

And so my prayer this morning has been that you would recognize these walls that are in your life.

Whether it's between the vertical relationship between you and God.

Maybe there's some sin in your life that you haven't confessed.

Maybe you need to confess that this morning.

Maybe you need to get into life recovery to help overcome those things, to do that in community.

Maybe you need to come confess those things here at the altar and ask God to remove that wall.

Maybe there's somebody sitting on the opposite side of the sanctuary today.

Maybe there's somebody going to be sitting in your ABF class that you just cannot stand.

Maybe you need to be the bigger person and ask for forgiveness.

See, I have a feeling every one of us is affected by this passage.

If you're not affected by this passage, then I would love to talk to you because I would like to be better.

And so we'll have time to respond.

We'll have time to sing.

Maybe you need to ask God to speak to you.

Would you ask God to lead you?

Would you be obedient to what he is telling you this morning?

I don't know what that looks like.

Maybe it means sending a quick text saying, I'm sorry for such and such.

Maybe it means just grabbing your wife's hand.

I don't know.

But my prayer is that Jesus would tear down every single barrier that's between us and him and us and others.

Amen. Let's pray.

Father, I pray.

I pray and I ask you to move.

I pray that your Holy Spirit will expose the walls that we have erected.

The walls that are separating us from you, the walls that are separating us from others.

I pray for reconciliation.

I pray for forgiveness.

I pray for humility.

I pray for obedience.

Help us not just consume.

Help us not just be hearers of the word, but doers also.

Help us bless those who curse us.

Help us love those that hate us.

Help us put that into practice.

So Father, I pray that you send your spirit in this room.

It's an undeniable experience that you are here with us speaking to us.

Anything that we can manufacture.

So I've got to pray you move.

That's your name.

Amen.

I ask the prayer team to be available to pray with you, to lead you, guide you, however that needs.

If you need to come to the altar, then I encourage you to do that.

If you need to grab somebody and take them to the back room so you can have a conversation, do that.

But let the Lord minister to your heart this morning.

Amen.