Well, I was reminded a few minutes ago that the last time I was with you guys was right before I was about to head out to Cambodia, and I want to thank you for your prayers and your support and encouragement. It was a great trip to a very needy part of the world. It was about eight, nine days total, which I have figured out to travel that far is too short of a time to be there. There, so next time, if God willing, takes me to that part of the world, it’ll probably be a little bit longer time, because my travel back total, I think I was about 36 hours between four flights and layovers and driving and all that, so a little tiring once I finally put my feet on the ground here and my head on a pillow, but it was a good trip to a very needy part of the world. My buddy and I that I work with, in doing that, we already started scheming a little bit. And so I may let you guys know about some upcoming opportunities, and maybe I’ll even rope Chad into going with me at some point, either over to Cambodia, or he’s also working in different parts of Africa, parts where the Word of God is being proclaimed, but there’s not a lot of training for leaders, and so being able to go and to encourage and to put tools in leaders’ hands that they can train other people is a very important thing to do, and so excited about being able to do that. Well, let me pray for us, and then we’re going to get to work mainly in the book of Ephesians tonight, kind of thinking about Jesus as our peace. So let’s pray.

God, I thank you that you are a God who has come from heaven to earth. Lord, you didn’t wait for us to reach out to you. You came. You came to us. And Lord, I pray that tonight as we open up your Word, you would come to us again, that you would open up our hearts and our minds to hear and to receive what you would have. Lord, I thank you that your Word, as it says, is powerful and active and living, and it will do its work. And I thank you that your Spirit is able and powerful to work in us. And so, God, I ask that your Word and your Spirit would do work. And I thank you that your Word and your Spirit would do work in us tonight, to change us and transform us, to convict us of sin and to reveal Christ to us. Lord, that we would not walk out just with a greater amount of information that we’ve gleaned, but being transformed because we have been with and communed with you. Lord, that only happens through you. And so, Lord, use this time that you would work in us tonight. In Jesus’ name. Amen. The year was 1914, and it was Christmas Eve on the Western Front of what was called the Great War at that time. Well, later it would become to be called World War I. The war had begun about six months earlier, but this was unlike any other war that had been fought up to this point. The Industrial Revolution had enabled the mass production of tools of destruction. Guns that fired hundreds of rounds a minute, and planes that hurled bombs from the sky meant that death was common, victory was uncertain, and morale was non-existent. The men lived only feet away from the enemy in muddy trenches, and they survived with very little sleep and minor rations. But on this night, a momentary miracle would take place. Bruce Barnsworth, a British soldier, recorded in his book, The War of the World, said, in his memoirs, what happened. Here’s what he wrote. He says, Here I was in this horrible clay cavity, miles and miles from home, cold and wet through and covered with mud. There didn’t seem the slightest chance of leaving except in an ambulance. At about 10 p.m., Barns’ father noticed a noise. He writes, I listened, and away across the field, among the dark shadows beyond, I could hear the murmur of voices. He turned to a fellow soldier in his trench, and he said, Do you hear the Germans kicking up that racket over there? Yes, came the reply. It’s been, they’ve been at it for some time. In fact, the Germans were singing Christmas carols. In the darkness, some of the British soldiers began to sing back. And suddenly, Barnsworth recalled, We heard a confused shouting from the other side. We all stopped to listen, and the shout came again. The voice from an enemy soldier, speaking in English with a strong German accent, and he was saying, Come over here. One of the British sergeants answered, You come halfway, and I come halfway. What happened next would stun the world and come to be known as the Christmas truce. Soldiers would sheepishly begin to come out of their trunks, and they would be able to They would exchange handshakes and kindnesses. Eventually, they would trade songs and tobacco and wine. And this wouldn’t be in just one isolated battlefield. In fact, it happened across the line, and these gatherings included many pleasantries that included meals, and even at one point, a soccer game broke out. This truce would happen only for one day. And it would not return. It would not return for the remaining years of the war. But this Christmas miracle would remain as a small display of the peace that we hear about at Christmas. We’re not that far removed from the Christmas season. In fact, if we actually look at it historically, we’re kind of even still in the celebration of Christmas. And I think this idea of Christmas peace continues to resonate with us, right? I mean, you’ve probably read and seen or looked at the very famous prophecy of the Messiah in Isaiah 9, verses 6 and 7. It says, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder. And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And of the increase of his government, and of the peace, there will be no end. We’ve probably seen on cards and in letters in the last few weeks, even the idea that the angels mirror that statement, right? As they come and they announce Jesus’ birth, they say, Glory to God on the highest and on earth. Peace among those whom… He is pleased. With all this talk of Jesus as the Prince of Peace, and his appearance bringing with him peace, it might beg a little bit of a question. What happened? I mean, if we’re truly honest with ourselves, the world feels more like the Great War than it feels like a moment of peace. A moment of peace, doesn’t it? I mean, we look around at our situation, both nationally and internationally, and we are a world in conflict. One of the biggest stories of 2022 was the war in Ukraine. Highlighting the fact that people are not at peace. We look at our own nation, and we see from the elections just a few months ago, people are not at peace with one another. What is this peace? Did it fail? Has it come? Can it be found? Tonight, I want to explore this concept with you a little bit. And I’m not a Baptist preacher, but I’m going to play one because I’m going to make all my points start with P tonight. But I want to explore this idea of peace a little bit. Because if it’s so central to who we say Jesus is and what he came to bring, we really have to ask the question, what happened? I want to take you to the book of Ephesians. If you have a Bible, you can open it up to Ephesians chapter 2. If you don’t have one, you can grab one of those black Old and New Testaments in front of you and flip it open to page two. Page 976. And we’re going to hang out there for most of our time tonight. But I want to bring you a discussion of this peace in three parts. I first want to talk about the person of peace. And then I want you to understand the parties involved in this peace. And then finally, I want you to know and experience the presence of this peace. We start here in Ephesians chapter 2. And I’m going to pick it up in verse 11 a little bit before where we’re going to get to. But it’ll set the context for us a little bit. Look at Ephesians chapter 2, starting in verse 11. Paul writes this, Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands. Remember that you, you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 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 command, the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two. So making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and he preached peace to those who were far off and preached peace to those who were near. For through him, we both have access in one spirit to the father. The first thing that I want to help you see tonight is that peace is not primarily described in scripture as a concept. We often think of peace, right? As the ceasing of hostility. We are at peace when nobody is at war with us or with our nation. And that’s not true. That’s true in one sense, but scripture here describes peace very differently. It describes peace not as a process or not even as a state. It defines it here as a person. Look at the way that Paul says it in verse 14. He says, for he, talking about Jesus, for he himself is, is our peace. In one sense, it’s almost ringing like that prediction in Isaiah 9, right? That Jesus himself is the embodiment of our peace. And it says he came here bringing this peace and preaching this peace to those that were both near, and those that were far off. I mean, in one way, what you could say is this peace is not about a process, but it’s about the incarnation.

I think it’s important that we think about this rightly when we think about Jesus. I like to talk about the fact that when we read and we look through scripture, we look for certain characters throughout scripture. And I’d encourage you to kind of use this as a way, as a lens to look at scripture. Throughout scripture, we look for kind of three people, right? The prophet, the priest, and the king. And each of those people have different roles that they play throughout scripture. The king is God’s monarch. He is there to stand in place of God and rule in his place. The prophet is there to be God’s megaphone. He’s the one who stands up and he speaks for God. When he speaks, you’re waiting to hear the very words of God spoken. But the priest, the priest is there to be God’s mediator. And we use that terminology a lot, and it’s a biblical terminology to talk about how we think of not only that person in the Old Testament, but how that shows us who God is. That the mediator is that person, that person who stands between two warring parties and he brings them together, right? That’s how we think of a mediator. If you have a difficulty with a neighbor or with a boss, you bring in a mediator so that person comes into the room and you’re on this side and the other person’s on this side and they listen to both sides of the argument and they come to some kind of resolution. The problem, though, is that if we think of Jesus that way, we’ve misunderstood his role. And we’ve misunderstood this peace. Because Jesus doesn’t walk into the room with God on one side and us on the other side and look at God and say, well, God, we see your laws and we see your rules and you seem kind of strict about those things. Do you think you could lighten up a little bit? I mean, that’s kind of what we would expect a mediator to do, right? You have east side, give a little bit. Or he doesn’t look at us on the other side and go, well, you’ve broken all these rules. Do you think you guys could do a little bit better? Do you think you could just come a little bit away and we’ll meet somewhere in the middle? If we think about Jesus as a mediator that way, we will misunderstand who he is. You see, Jesus is the mediator that comes in not as the mediator, but as the mediator. He’s the mediator that comes in as a neutral party, not as the one who comes to get both sides to move, but he’s the mediator who comes incarnating in human flesh, perfectly living out God’s law so that we now can have his righteousness to have peace with God. And so he does stand in the middle of us. He does stand between a righteous, wrathful God and our sinful self, but he doesn’t tell God to be lighter and us to be better. He says, I will accomplish God’s perfect, complete righteousness.

That’s what Paul says, and that’s what Paul means in verse 15. He says, he came and he broke down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. How? By abolishing the law. By abolishing the law of the commandments expressed in ordinances. He’s not saying there that Jesus comes in and he just says, oh, we’ll just do away with these commandments. Really kind of the better idea, the better translation there is he comes fulfilling these commands, doing these commands, accomplishing all these things.

So he comes as the person of the Lord. Peace. Bringing peace because he completely comes incarnating, fulfilling, and accomplishing a righteous life. And therefore achieving peace with God because he has completely done what God has required.

So this peace is not just a concept, it’s a person. But if you have any kind of difficulty, if you have a misunderstanding, if you have a war, you have to have those parties that are involved in that war, right? So not only do we have this person of peace, but we have the parties that are involved in the conflict. And Paul lines those out here in this chapter. He says, verse 16, and he might reconcile us both to God. So the parties in this conflict and the parties that have to be brought to peace is first us with God. We talk about this as a vertical peace. That you would have peace with your creator. You say, well, why is there a problem between me and my creator? Well, Paul’s laying that out here because he’s saying, listen, there are rules and there are ordinances. There’s a way that God called us to live in relationship to him in a perfect obedience that we violate every day. And God righteously and wrathfully judges our sin and rightly judges our sin. He’s not a God standing over us like he’s going to whack us every second, but he is saying, this is what is holy and good and right. And this has to be done all the way down. Not just in what we do and not just in what we say, not just in our externals, but even in our internals. If we even boil that down all the way back to Exodus chapter 20 in the 10 commandments, we find out that many of those things are external, but really they all begin, as James says, begins in our hearts. And so our problem goes all the way down. And so what we need first and foremost is a peace with God. And what Paul says, Jesus, the person of peace comes to provide is the end of that hostility with God, as he says in 16. I love the way he phrases it here. He says, he came to reconcile us to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. It’s almost like this picture you can’t look at without looking at the cross. When Christ died, he ended the hostility between God and man because he accomplished perfectly what God had designed. And that his hostility was killed in that moment.

And so Jesus, the person of peace, comes first and foremost to give us vertical peace with God. You can have peace with God. You can look at your creator and say, between you and I, God, we are at peace. Not because of what I am, I have accomplished, but because of what Christ has done.

But this peace and these parties that were at war is even bigger than that in this passage. Because if Jesus is the person of peace, then this vertical peace is one part of it, but he says here in this passage, there’s also this horizontal peace going on. Because he says, go back up to verse 14, for he himself is our peace who has made us both one and who has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. He’s going to go on throughout this chapter and we read it in the beginning, but he’s saying, listen, there is a breach between the people here on this earth. I mean, we understand that instinctively, right? We understand that there is difficulty and there are ways of war because there are different groups of people that see life differently.

But Paul is saying here, listen, I want you to understand when Christ came to be the person of peace, he achieved peace with God, but now he’s achieving peace with one another.

There is now not just a vertical peace, but now there is to be a horizontal peace.

The way he puts it here in 14, is he says he’s broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. It’s most likely when he’s using that phrase, he’s actually alluding to a physical sign. In ancient times, if you were to go to Jerusalem, you were to go and worship God, you would go to the temple, right? And in Paul’s time, you would go to the temple there in Jerusalem, and the temple was divided. At the very inside of the temple, you might know that there itself was divided into the holy place and the most holy place, the place where the high priest could only go once a year before God. And that’s where the priest could go, and the high priest could go once a year, and then you step out one more ring, and there was basically the court of the Jews, which is kind of even in itself, divided where men could go a certain distance closer to God, and women had to stay a little bit further away. And then there was a whole other set of courts, kind of in all these concentric circles, with the court of what was called the court of the Gentiles. And between the court of the Gentiles and the court of the Jews, there was physically a wall. And on this wall was an inscription in multiple places. It would say in this inscription, basically, do not cross this point if you are not a Jew. And if you do, you come across this by penalty of death.

It was like this big red warning sign, do not cross this line. You are a Gentile, we are a Jew, we can come closer to God than you can come. If you know, and you’ve read a little bit of Acts, you know at the end of the book of Acts, Paul is arrested, and he’s arrested, why? Because he’s accused of bringing a Gentile into the court of the Jews. It’s that very same thing that I think he’s alluding to here, actually, as he sits in prison writing this letter back to the Ephesians. So it’s probably very clear on his mind. There was very much a separation that, you know, you were a Jew or you were a Gentile, and if you were a Gentile, you came a certain distance to God, and you were separated from Jews. In some senses, it was even written into the Old Testament.

And what is said here is, listen, you now can have peace with God, this vertical peace, but guess what? This peace is now also a horizontal peace. This wall that had divided you, this wall that had kept a separation between Jews and Gentiles has been busted through.

I grew up in the 70s and 80s, and we didn’t have cool stuff like Gatorade when I grew up. Right? If you were thirsty, you were a kid, right? You came inside, and hopefully your mom was pulling out the packet, right? Throwing some sugar in the pitcher, and she was stirring up some Kool-Aid, right? You know, I grew up with, you know, red mustaches all the time. But if you remember the marketing campaign for Kool-Aid, I look back at it now and go, that was really weird, right? They had this big human-sized pitcher that had arms and legs and a face drawn on it, and he was all known for doing what? Oh, yeah. He busts through the wall, right? He would come busting through the wall. That’s the picture that I get here when I read these. Because what is this saying? He’s saying here in verse 14, and he has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. It wasn’t as if Jesus came to bring this peace between man and God, and then he kind of walks in and he’s like, hey, you guys should get along. It’s not as if he walks across that threshold with that sign across him and go, you know, maybe we should get rid of this sign. It says he comes through like the Kool-Aid man busting through this wall and eliminating it. He’s abolishing it.

See, I think we would all shake our heads when we talk about the fact that Jesus is the one who comes to bring peace with God, and we should as the basis of our faith. But we should also deal with the fact that Jesus came to bring peace between individuals.

He says here that to make one body, basically what he’s saying is as you come to Christ, as you have joined and you are in union with Christ, now that peace that you have is not just one that permeates your relationship with God, but it should be one that permeates your relationship with each other. And it shouldn’t be one that looks at and goes, well, you’re a Jew, you’re a Gentile, now we don’t have those kind of delineations, right? But we have a lot of other delineations that we put in front of Christian, don’t we?

We have a lot of other delineations that we say, well, I’m this kind of Christian.

And yet, if this is the case, then those walls have been abolished. And while we may think about or we may come from different backgrounds, we may have different things that are important to us, what unites us, what pulls us together, what should cause us to live in peace is the reality that we all have the same Father.

So, when we talk about this peace, we must first understand that it comes from the person of peace and we secondly must understand the parties of this peace. First, our relationship with God and then secondly, our relationship with others. But the final thing I want you to see tonight is kind of the presence of this peace. See, I think a lot of us would acknowledge these truths, but we would also say we don’t really feel the presence of this peace.

Flip over for a second to John chapter 14.

Where does this peace come from and what does the presence of this peace look like? In John 14, Jesus is moments away from the most unpeaceful moment of his life. He’s literally hours away from the cross. He’s walking with his disciples from the, basically from the upper room to the garden where he’s going to be arrested, beaten, crucified, and he’s giving them these words. And in verse 26, he talks about this peace. He’s been talking about the fact that he’s about to leave and he says, listen, I want you to know I’m going, but there’s actually someone who’s going to be with you.

Verse 26, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you, all of these things, and he will bring you into remembrance of all that I have said. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give you. Let not your heart be troubled. Neither let them be afraid.

I don’t know that they at this moment got this.

A few hours later, they would not be at peace.

But I think what Jesus is saying here, what he’s letting us understand is the presence of this peace has to do with our understanding of our peace with God, but secondly, it has to do with our experience or our acceptance of the fact that the Spirit is with us.

Applying the truths of the gospel, applying the understanding that we now are at peace with God, giving us reassurance that that thing is true.

In one sense, what I think he’s talking about here when he talks about the fact that I’m giving you this peace. You see, normally we think of peace just as a moment of calm or a moment without a war, but really the biblical definition of peace is much more holistic than that. You might have heard the Old Testament word shalom, right? It’s the Old Testament word for peace. It’s not just about an absence of conflict, but it’s actually about a quality of life. And I think he’s alluding to that here and he’s saying, listen, that quality of life, that presence of peace is because you know of your peace with God and you’re reassured of it by the Spirit.

I love the way that the Puritans used to put this. They used to say, if you do not understand justice, justification by faith, or if you want to put this another way, peace with God, if you don’t understand that, every trial you will encounter will become a double trial because you’re not only enduring that trial, but you’re wondering if God hates you.

What Jesus is saying, listen, I want to reassure you. I want you to understand you have peace with God through me and what you will go through, the difficulties, the trials, that is rock solid. And all of that means that I am for you. I have accomplished everything that you need.

And all of the other things of life, all of the other difficulties, all of the other hardships, all of the other pains, all of the other conflicts that we experience, they’re minor because we know and we rest in the fact that we have peace with God.

So the presence of this peace is one that’s personal to us and one that’s real and one that’s applied by the Spirit. But I don’t want to cop out too much here because I think it would be very easy for us to think about this peace in a very personal way. We have this peace with God because we know what He has done. He is the person of peace. We realize that He has accomplished all of His righteousness and He gives that to us by faith and so now God is for us.

And we could easily just kind of put this all in this personal category and I could send you out tonight and say, okay, I hope you all have personal peace. And that would be a good thing. That would be a wonderful thing. But that’s not all that this peace is. Because as believers, as those that look towards the whole arc of history, we also understand that this peace will ultimately be a peace that is not just personal but it’s global.

You see, we don’t just look at our Bibles and go, well, this is a good thing for us to have peace with God and I want you to know that. We look at it in anticipation and hope and say, God, we want you to come because we want you to set everything right.

It’s interesting to me when there’s a discussion of the end of all things. Paul in 1 Thessalonians is talking about how people will be declaring that moment. And what do they say there in 1 Thessalonians 5? He says, for you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord, that’s kind of the end of all things, that’s things, God coming back, setting things right, will come like a thief in the night. When will it come? Well, people are saying there is peace and security.

I mean, that’s kind of what we want our rulers to do, right? I mean, we want our rulers to come and declare peace and security. We like that. It’s nice. We like to live in that. I’m glad I don’t have to live in a war zone.

The problem is that that peace and security is false until the person of peace, the prince of peace, returns.

You see, this peace that we’re talking about, this presence of peace, is not just a personal peace. Ultimately, we look towards the hope that it will be a global peace. When all things will be set right, when all things will be as they should be,

we realize that that is God coming back in judgment. But we realize that the end of peace, the end of that judgment is an everlasting and a full peace.

You know, when I was younger, you feel like a lot of your life is in front of you. And so when you hear preachers talking about Jesus coming back, you’re like, well, hey, you think I could just like, we could put that off a little bit? Like, I got stuff to do. Right? But the older I get, the longer I live, the more I experience in this world. The cry of my heart is the cry of Scripture that says, even so, come Lord Jesus.

I’m grateful for the things that we have and the family that I experience and the presence of God’s peace in my own life and in the life of my family. But I look around at our world and go, this is not going to be fixed by any politician. This is not going to be fixed by any plan. This is not going to be fixed by any machinery of this world.

It will only be fixed when the person of peace returns and does exactly what we said at the beginning in Isaiah chapter 9. When he comes, establishing his government and establishing his government says there that the increase of his government and of peace will be no end. And so as we kind of begin 2023, I don’t know what’s coming. I’m not going to make some kind of prediction that things are going to get nicer or better or lives are going to be easier. I don’t know what’s going to enter my own life or the life of our church or our culture. But what I do know and what I’m assured of is that the Prince of Peace will set all things right. And maybe that will happen in 2023. I don’t know.

But the presence of that peace will be one that pervades not only my own heart and my own soul, but will be one that pervades the whole world.

Remember where we started? Tonight. That Christmas truce. There was another young man who wrote a letter home to his wife describing that holiday experience in 1914. He said in his letter, my company happened to be in the firing line on Christmas Eve and it was my turn to go into a ruined house and remain there until 6.30 on Christmas morning. During the early part of the morning the Germans started singing and shouting all in good English. They shouted out, are you the rifle brigade? Have you a spare bottle? And if so, will you come halfway and we will come the other half. Later on in the day they came towards us, he describes, and our chaps went out to meet them and I shook hands with some of them and they gave us cigarettes and cigars. We did not fire that day and everything was so quiet it seemed like a dream.

What I love about that is it’s exactly the opposite of the way Jesus comes, right? Jesus doesn’t say, I’m here, you come halfway, I’ll come halfway. Jesus says, I’m coming into this earth and I’m bringing with it my peace. I’m coming into this world and it will seem like a dream because you have not been living in reality. And when I do, the war will be over and the peace will be here. A peace with God and a peace with man. We come into this new year praying even so come Lord Jesus. Let’s pray. God, I thank you that you are our God. That you are a God of righteousness and truth. Lord, you are a God that punishes sin. Lord, you are the God who has come from heaven to earth to become our peace. Lord, I pray specifically for those tonight that as they have come through the holiday season, as they look at what is ahead, they may not feel that peace. I pray you would encourage them tonight, that you would point them towards Christ, that they would rest in the reality of who he is and what you have done for them. And that through your spirit tonight, they would experience that presence of peace. Lord, I pray that as we go into this new year, that we would be ambassadors of that peace. That we would speak of it in our homes. That we would speak of it in our workplaces. That we would speak of it as we go to places of business. Lord, that we would be your emissaries declaring the peace of the Lord. And Lord, we ask that you would come, that you would come again to set things right, to be the one who will declare peace among all peoples. Lord, we don’t desire your judgment, but we do desire that you would come and set this world right. That we would walk out of this dream into the reality of your peace. Lord, we ask that you would come so that we realize we cannot do that. But we know that you can and you will. And so we lay our hope and our trust and our faith in you, our creator, our savior, and ultimately our king. In Jesus’ name. Amen.