May I turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2 for meditation this evening, Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians 2, I'll begin reading in verse 1. Our focus this evening will be on verses 11 to 22, but I do want to set it in its larger context. So beginning in verse 1, and you he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus four good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Therefore, remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in his flesh the enmity that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances,
One New Man: Ceremonial Law Abolished
so as to create in himself one new man from the two thus making peace, and that he might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And he came and preached peace to you, who were afar off, and to those who were near. For through him we both have access by one spirit to the Father. Now therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Amen. Well, let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for your word and we pray for the ministry of your Spirit now We pray that you would encourage our hearts and establish us in the faith and cause us again to marvel at the glorious redemption that Christ has accomplished on behalf of both Jew and Gentile. We give all praise and all glory to you that Christ fulfilled what the prophet spoke, and we pray in his most blessed name.
Amen.
Introduction
Well, this morning, if you remember our exposition of Isaiah the prophet in chapter 55, God looks forward to the time when the nations shall run to the Lord Jesus Christ. And when Christ comes and the preaching of the gospel goes forth, churches are established and planted, and the missionary enterprise is launched, God does that work. Gentiles come to Israel's Messiah. Gentiles come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we see that fulfillment of what was spoken in the prophets. Now initially when this occurs, you see traces as you read through the book of Acts, there was a bit of puzzlement on the part of the Jews. There was a bit of questioning going on with reference to Gentile inclusion in these covenant promises. Well, Paul is treating that particular subject now And he is highlighting the gloriousness of this corporate entity, the Church of Christ, that he has purchased with his own blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
That's the essence of verses 11 to 22. He reminds the Gentiles of what they were, and then he reminds them of what they had become, and he tells them the reason why, or the purpose rather, behind that particular transaction. Now there is a larger context in the flow of the epistle. If you go back for just a moment to chapter 1, go back to chapter 1 and you'll notice that you see the Apostle Paul at prayer.
We get something about what Paul prays or how Paul prays in some of his letters. He lets us into his closet and he tells us what it is that he entreats or that he sets before the Lord on behalf of people. Notice in chapter 1 verse 15, Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. Isn't that a wonderful statement of pastoral concern or apostolic concern for the people of God that Paul had come to know and value and prize?
And then notice in verse 17, he begins to specify or highlight the things that he prays on their behalf. Verse 17, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. the eyes of your understanding, having been enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints." Now notice verse 19. This is something Paul wants for his Ephesian readers. and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe. Paul wants believers to understand something about God's great power.
And then Paul illustrates or demonstrates how that power has been manifest. It is manifest, first of all, in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. verses 19 and following, according to the working of His mighty power, verse 20, which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places. So when you consider the fact that God raised His Son up from the dead and stationed Him at His right hand, that is a display of almighty power. But Paul doesn't stop there.
In Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 to 10, God's power is also magnified and displayed and manifested in the salvation of individual sinners. When God saves a man, when He saves a woman, when He saves a boy or a girl, He demonstrates His exceedingly great power. That's the flow in the context. And then when we get to chapter 2, 11 to 22, God's power is manifested in that He has taken Jew, and He has taken Gentile, and He has brought them together, and He has made one new man in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Israel's Messiah is the worldwide or global Messiah. It is in Christ that the Abrahamic promise is brought to fruition, that in Jesus all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. And so in Ephesians 2, 11 to 22, the apostle wants to remind the Gentiles what they were before the cross. He wants to remind them of their current status or condition, and then he highlights the accomplishment of this particular task. is a structure or outline for our study this evening.
Gentiles Before the Cross
Now notice first the Gentiles before the cross in verses 11 to 12. He says, therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands. their previous status. Now it's just not dealing with ethnicity here. Gentiles were despised.
Gentiles were looked down upon by the covenant community. Pious Jews were known to pray, thank you God that I'm not a woman, thank you God that I'm not a slave, and thank you God that I'm not a Gentile. So now when Paul is writing to a predominantly Gentile church, he is encouraging them, he is reminding them to consider their former status and what they have become by virtue of Christ's reconciling work at the cross of Calvary. Now notice, he describes what that looked like being Gentiles.
Verse 12, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Now, to be sure, there were proselytites, there were people that came in among the covenant community, but it was not an evangelistic missionary enterprise as it was purposed to be. So you had a smattering here and there of Gentiles that came to Israel's God and confessed to Shema and took on the signs of circumcision and participated in worship and all those particular things. But in terms of corporate entity, Gentiles were without hope.
Gentiles were outside the pale. Gentiles were in a desperate state. And that's what Paul indicates here. They were without Christ.
That's the worst place one can be. This is a continuous state that they found themselves in. And then he fleshes out what it means to be without Christ. They were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel.
While God was speaking oracles to that covenant community, the Gentiles were outside. They were strangers to the covenants of promise, those things that God had given to Israel as a body, holotech, to instruct them and inform them and to hedge them in and keep them together. They had no hope as a result. I mean, if you went back a few centuries or a couple of millennia prior to the cross, and you were a Gentile, you were in desperate condition.
You were in a bad state. And then notice he says that we're without God in the world. As far as I know, this is the only place in the New Testament where the word atheist appears. Atheoi, that means without God.
Notice here it's not stated as a philosophical position. It's not stated as a blessing. It's not stated as a mark of independent thought or the free thinker. No, to be without God, to be an atheist, is the worst possible thing that a man or woman, a boy or girl, could ever endure.
In sum, they being Christless were churchless, hopeless, godless, and homeless. That's how they found themselves in this place that we call Earth. Now, we are far removed from the letter to the Ephesians, but this is about us. This is about you and I.
We are Gentiles. We were those who were aliens. We were those outside the commonwealth of Israel. We were strangers to the covenants of promise.
We were those without hope. We were those without God. We were those in a desperate condition. You see what the Apostle is doing.
He does it in the individual sphere in chapter 2, verses 1 to 10. He does it with the Colossians in chapter 1, verses 21 to 23. There is something remedial, something helpful, something good to ponder from whence we came. To consider where it was that we found ourselves before Jesus came on the scene.
It is a good exercise to remember that we were described here. that we were these people, that we were undone, that we were desperate, that we were without hope. Because when we consider what we were and when we consider what we are now, hopefully there's a hallelujah brewing in your hearts. Hopefully there's some joy and thanksgiving. As we move through the narrative, the Apostle Paul goes from this place of darkness, despair, and depravity, and he brings the Gentiles to a place where they, along with Jews, are the very dwelling place of God Almighty.
There is great movement in the passage from the depths to the heights, and now we look at their present status.
Gentiles: Present Status in Christ
Notice in verse 13, he says, Where does he use that statement or that convention? He's used it in the individual realm in chapter 2, verses 1 to 4. Here is what you were as individuals, but now in chapter 2, verse 4. What happens on the individual level, he is applying to the corporate level.
But now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Isn't that a beautiful statement? We weren't just off, we were far off. We weren't just hopeless, we were hopeless.
We weren't just desperate, we were beyond desperation. But now the Apostle says, in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. You see, when Jesus goes to the cross. It is with the view and with the purpose of saving individual sinners.
And in this we greatly rejoice. But there is corporate solidarity. There is a worldwide church being assembled. When we get to the book of Revelation, who do we see before the throne?
We see great multitudes that no man can number. On the one hand, brethren, we don't want to insist upon the corporate to the neglect of the individual, but on the other hand, we don't want to insist upon the individual to the neglect of the corporate. And this is what happens, unfortunately, and the Church is not valued and prized and given its importance as it ought to be. We are the body of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
There's a statement in the Psalms. God loves the gates of Zion more than the dwelling places of Jacob. Now, that's a comparative statement. He's not saying he despises the dwelling places of Jacob.
He doesn't look down upon Israel or Judah and see those individual homes and say, my, how I hate them. No, he loves his people. He loves them when they're in their individual homes. But according to the psalmist, he loves the gates of Zion more.
He loves it when they leave their homes on Sabbath day and they march to the house of God. He loves it when they gather with one another and express that corporate solidarity, and they lift up their voices in praise to God in Zion. There is something fundamental about the place of corporate worship that God smiles upon, that He delights in, and according to this passage, it is where He is found among His new covenant community in a very special and in a very particular way. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
This is the redeeming power of His blood. This is the efficacy of His cross work. Notice there is no contingency here. There is no maybe here.
There is no perhaps here. When Christ dies on the cross, He saves to the uttermost. He saves sinners. His work cannot be thwarted.
His work cannot be frustrated. His work cannot be devalued. But rather, what He is doing is conquering the nations by His gospel. It's beautiful.
The Accomplishment of Peace
Now notice the accomplishment of this task. Verses 14 to 17. It shouldn't surprise us that the focus is on Jesus. How did this happen?
How is it that a Jew and a Gentile are sitting in the same church singing the same praises unto God? Again, we're a bit removed, but if you were in the first century, And you were a Gentile wandering in the midst of a bunch of Jews singing praises to the God of Israel. Somebody might scratch their melon and say, what's going on here? What's happened?
This just didn't used to occur this way. It's a major transition. There's a shift going on in the book of Acts that Paul speaks to here. And he says that the accomplishment of this task is rooted in, founded in, grounded in Christ.
He says that Christ himself is our peace. He says that Christ makes peace. And he says that Christ preaches peace. Isn't that a beautiful testimony of peace?
People want peace, don't they? Most people don't like chaos. Most people don't like turmoil. Most people don't like stress.
Most people don't like clocks and time yelling at them to perform better and stronger and faster and more diligently. We all like peace. The problem is sometimes we search for peace in all the wrong places. Heard that statement?
Looking for love in all the wrong places. Well, people today, Jew and Gentile, are looking for peace in all the wrong places. There is one source of peace, and it is Jesus Christ. Notice he says Christ, or he himself, is our peace.
The implication is he alone and no other. The prophet Isaiah refers to him as the Prince of Peace. Jesus speaks to His disciples and He says, My peace I give you. My peace I leave with you.
Not as the world gives do I give. Not that fleeting, flying away, specious peace. But what Christ gives is lasting. Christ Himself is our peace.
The personification of peace. Just as Jesus is salvation. Remember when Simeon saw the babe Christ walk into the temple. Actually, the babe Christ didn't walk into the temple.
He was carried into the temple by Mary. Simeon goes over and takes the babe out of Mary's arms. This had to be the Spirit of God at work. Which one of you mothers is going to let your little baby get taken out of your arms by someone, well, hopefully Mary had seen Simeon before.
He was an old man who stayed at the temple. All he was doing was waiting for the hope of Israel. He sees the babe in the arms of Mary and he takes the babe out and he cradles the babe in his arms and he starts rejoicing. He starts singing.
He starts praising God. He says, my eyes have seen your salvation. The way that Christ is salvation. The way that Christ is the consolation of Israel.
The way that Christ is the way and the truth and the life according to John 14, 6. In the same manner, in the same vein, Christ is our peace. If you have the absence of peace in your life, you need Christ. If you have the absence of peace and comfort and joy, you need Jesus Christ.
You can't fetch peace out of a bottle. You can't fetch peace out of a relationship. Save the relationship with God through our Lord Jesus. The way to peace is through this blessed one whom Paul says is our peace.
Notice he says that Christ makes peace. He highlights several things that Jesus does.
Christ Is Our Peace
For he himself is our peace who has made both one. That's a beautiful statement. Again, corporate solidarity. This is why in New Covenant language, he is not a Jew who is circumcised outwardly, but he is a Jew who is circumcised inwardly.
Do you realize that as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are Israel? That's what Paul says to a Gentile church in Galatians 6.16, and the peace of God be upon the Israel of God. Paul in Philippians chapter 3 says we are the circumcision, the ones who worship God in the truth. The Apostle says that what Christ has done is that he's made these both into one.
He has broken down the middle wall of separation. Probably a reference to the enmity that existed between the Jew and Gentiles represented in the temple. The temple had a wall where the Gentiles could not pass. That signified separation.
That preached separation. But you see in Christ Jesus that wall is gone, and Gentiles have full and free access to the very Holy of Holies. Don't you love that statement, or love the process, or rather the trajectory in the book of Acts? Acts chapter 8.
Isn't it unique that Philip comes upon an Ethiopian eunuch? got to remember from the Old Testament that eunuchs were not allowed full privileges to the house of God. When we get to Acts chapter 8, What Luke is describing for us is the fulfillment of prophecy. Eunuchs are brought nigh through the blood of Christ. When we get to the book of Acts, chapter 10, and Peter and Cornelius are brought together such that Peter preaches the gospel and the Spirit falls upon Cornelius and his household, they believe on the Lord Jesus, and Peter commands them to be baptized, we are supposed to think fulfillment of the prophets.
He has made both one. He has broken down the enmity. He has brought Jew and Gentile together in this blessed state. He says, having abolished in his flesh the enmity that is the law of commandments contained in ordinances.
This is not the moral law of God. Jesus does not dispense with the Decalogue at Calvary. Jesus does not get rid of those ten words. Romans 3, 31, Paul says, What shall we say then?
Do we nullify the law of God? Certainly not! We establish it! What is in view here are the ceremonies, the ceremonial law.
The very idea were tipped to that in verse 11 in the sense that they are called uncircumcision. Circumcision was a ceremonial right. And because these Gentiles didn't have it, they were kept at arm's length. They were distant.
They were spectators. They were outsiders. But now by virtue of Christ's redeeming work at Calvary, They have that law abolished, the ceremonies fulfilled in the Lord Jesus. It is no longer the case where people must be circumcised according to the law of Moses in order to be part of the covenant community.
It truly is glorious. Notice, He created one new man. So as to create in himself one new man from the two, thus making peace. He is our peace, and he makes peace, and the primary way that he makes peace is right here in verse 15.
I'm sorry, verse 16. And that he might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross. You see, at the cross, We have individual salvation. At the cross, we have the church.
At the cross, we have the gates of Zion. At the cross, we have what is going to enter in and into the new heavens and the new earth. Because of what Jesus does at the cross, we have those passages in the book of Revelation where great throngs bow down before God and the Lamb who sits upon the throne. truly His glorious corporate solidarity. He has reconciled them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.
Christ Preaches Peace
He is our peace, He makes peace, and notice He preaches peace. Isn't that beautiful? Jesus preaches peace. You say, but Jesus never went to Ephesus.
Jesus' word did. When Paul and his companions entered Ephesus in Acts chapter 19, Jesus came and preached peace there. The preaching of the Word of God according to the Second Helvetic Confession of Faith is the Word of God. That's why it's so important.
You see, in verse 17, He came. He preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near the backdrop. In fact, this should be set up as an Old Testament quotation. For whatever reason, the New King James doesn't have it.
It's Isaiah the prophet, chapter 57, verse 19. The Lord Christ is the Messiah promised to do this task. The promise was given first to Abraham. In you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.
That is fleshed out through the Old Testament. The prophets shine lights upon it and tell us that it's one. The deliverer will come to Zion to save his people from their sins and assemble this worldwide church. He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and those who were near." And then Paul doesn't stop there.
He indicates the privileges that we have, and we'll end here.
Privileges of the New Covenant Community
He indicates the privileges that we have by virtue of Christ, our peace, who makes peace and who preaches peace. Notice verse 18, for through him, we both, Jew and Gentile, have access by one Spirit to the Father. Mentioned that this morning. Mentioned it several times.
Consummation of covenant blessing is God. Why are we here? For God. What is it that we want when we die?
God. God made us for this. God made us for communion. God made us for intimacy.
God made us so that He could dwell with us and we with Him. Sin brought breach. Sin raptured and ruptured that relationship. Sin cast that intimacy into the dust.
But because God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. What is the sum and substance in the very essence of everlasting life? It is access to the Father. It is the presence of God Himself.
That was what was lost in the garden. When Adam and Eve sin, they make claws, and they take leaves, and they cover themselves, and they hide among the trees. What are they doing? They're running from the presence of God.
When we go to Revelation 21 and 22, they're not running from the presence of God. They're basking in the presence of God. There have been deaths lately. There have been hardships lately.
There have been heartaches lately. But we have that great confidence that those whom we love, those united and knit together with Christ, have access that we know nothing of in terms of sight. They stand before God Most High and the Lamb who sits upon the throne. And they rejoice because that is what God made them for.
God didn't make us to degrade ourselves with idols. God didn't make us to degrade ourselves with sex, with drugs, with rock and roll. He didn't make us to degrade ourselves with white collar crime. He didn't make us to degrade ourselves with all of the polished refinements of this world.
He made us to commune with Him. And in Jesus Christ, according to the great apostle, both Jew and Gentile now have access by the Holy Spirit to the Father. Now we're going to fully realize that in the eschaton. We're going to fully enjoy that when we get to heaven.
But you know where we experience that now? Certainly in our prayer closets, certainly at the family altar, certainly when the Bible's opened up in your lap. Remember, God loves the gates of Zion more than the dwelling places of Jacob. It is the Church of Christ, dear brothers and sisters.
I hope to promote in all of us, not me, but the scripture, the Bible, the Reformed, the Puritans, or the Reformers and Puritans, they had a high view of the church. It wasn't just a preaching stop. It wasn't just a place we wander into occasionally. The church is where God is.
It is a place especially where he dwells with his people. Again, I am not suggesting you won't find God in your closet or on a mountaintop or at your family altar. You most certainly will because he's good, he's kind, he's gracious, but he does love those gates of Zion. Notice, we have the privilege of citizenship.
Citizenship with the Saints
Verse 19, now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. You see, within the context, Jews could possibly say, well, you know, they're not full members. This is what happens in Galatians. You see, it's good that you believed on Jesus, it's good you believed on Israel's Messiah, but you should be circumcised, too, to get the full benefit.
I imagine they sounded much like a car salesman. You sign here for the full benefit. You get everything when you just take this step and get circumcised according to the law of Moses. Paul says that's not the case.
Jew and Gentile are one new man in Christ Jesus. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members. You are fellow. You're on equal footing.
You are part of this commonwealth. You've been brought nigh through the blood of Christ. You've been enrolled in this new covenant community. You have access.
You have privilege. You have everything. And notice what he says thirdly.
Membership in God's Household
You have residence in the household of God. Isn't that beautiful? Look at what he says. You're members of the household of God.
Packer in his book called Knowing God. has a chapter on adoption. And he says, if there's one doctrine we don't talk a lot about, it's adoption. There's one truth we don't celebrate a lot. Now I know statements like that can be misapplied.
Well, I talked about it 15 years ago on a Thursday. I remember it very uniquely. So he can't say we never. It's a generalization.
It's a generalization. I saw something recently on the internet. Somebody said essentially the same thing. The reform don't really talk about what they have now.
Always what we were, wretches, wretches, wretches, monsters, monsters, monsters, every one of us. I like to think we talk about what we have now. Isn't Ephesians in some sense a letter that celebrates adoption? Remember in Ephesians 1 verse 5, well, let's just pick up at verse 3.
We can never get enough of Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1 3 blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that We should be holy and without blame before him in love having predestined us to adoption as sons of by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. He says to these Gentiles, your fellow citizens with the saints, and you are members of the household of God. Enjoy your adoption.
Enjoy your privilege. Enjoy your benefit. In Galatians, the Apostle says he has given us the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. This term of intimacy, this term of communion, this term of love and affection and joy is on the lips of the Gentile believer as well.
And then finally, he says, we are being made, we are being built, we are being brought into this temple.
Built as a Holy Temple
Verse 20, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. This is, in a real sense, the movement of the entire Bible. Genesis 1 to 3, Eden was a temple. Revelation 21, 22, the New Jerusalem is a temple.
What's temple mean? God dwelling with his people. What are we being fit for? What are we being knitted together for?
We are the dwelling place of God. As we move forward, our trajectory is in the new heavens and the new earth, the people of God will be the temple of God because he will dwell in our midst, in whom you are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the spirit. It truly is mind-blowing. It truly is amazing.
So much of the prophets are behind Paul's statements here. So much of the Bible is behind Paul's statements. So much of Revelation 21 and 22 is behind Paul's statement. You say, well, maybe it wasn't written then.
The theology was certainly extant. That's what we have in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Application: Peace in Christ
Brethren, bringing it back from the corporate level to the individual level, for each and every one of us, we ought to consider what we have in our Lord Jesus Christ. We have peace. Whenever I think about this whole idea, not whenever, but lots of times, when I'm working in Ephesians or in Colossians. Colossians 1.20 is an interesting statement as well.
Beautiful statement. And by him, God by Christ, to reconcile all things to himself, by him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross. It's an interesting statement, isn't it? You wouldn't think the blood cross would affect peace.
In fact, if you lived in the days when they did Roman crucifixion, the last lesson you probably thought when you witnessed crucifixion was peace. But we know that was God's plan. We know that without the shedding of blood there is no remission. We know that the blood of bulls and goats can never take away sin.
It had to be the Lamb of God. It had to be the perfect Son of God. It had to be one like unto us. And it had to be Christ that went to the cross.
And it was through the blood of his cross that he affects peace with God and man. Gordon Clark says, now when we pause to consider, speaking of Colossians 1.20, just jumping over there for a moment, this is staggering. The context in Colossians 1, beginning in verse 15, he tells us that Jesus created all things. He tells us that in Jesus all things consist.
That means he's creator, he's governor, he's also redeemer. It's in that context that Paul speaks of the blood of his cross. Clark says, when we pause to consider this is staggering, the preceding verses have described Christ in transcendent terms. That means removed, that means other, that means out there, transcendent.
He was the creator in whom all the fullness dwells, the heir of the universe for whom it was created. Now when the creator of heaven and earth, the creator himself, voluntarily suffered on the cross for our sins, we can only stand in awe and worship. I think the brother was absolutely right there. We have peace in our Lord Jesus Christ.
We have peace with God, having been justified by faith. We have peace with God. We have peace with one another. We have peace, Jews and Gentiles, believers in Christ.
We have peace, white people and black people. We have peace, ethnicity here, ethnicity there. We have solidarity, we have unity, we have commonality in and through our Lord Jesus Christ. He is our peace.
He makes peace. He preaches peace. He has conferred upon us all of these privileges, and it is our great delight and our great desire tonight to honor Him, to glorify Him, and in a special way, to remember His cross work on our behalf. If you have not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, look at what this text says.
Christ is peace. So you might have peace horizontally. You might get along well at work. Not everybody does, but some do.
You might get along well at home. You might have peace with your family, peace with your parents, peace with your friends. But if you don't have peace with God, you have no peace. The most important thing is peace with heaven.
And the only way it's affected is through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. We come back to Isaiah's invitation this morning. Come. All who are thirsty, come to the waters.
Drink and be at peace.
Closing Prayer
Well, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word and we thank you for what the Apostle celebrates in this passage. We thank you, Father, that you have placed us together with one another in this local church. We thank you that we're part of a much larger whole. that there is a massive church being assembled from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, that one day all of your people will be together in the New Jerusalem, where they will praise and honor and glorify you, and where they will indeed reflect your victory, your power, your grace, and your mercy.
And we praise you through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Well, we can turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 11 as we transition into taking the bread and the cup,