Let's hear God's word from Ephesians chapter 2 beginning with verse 14. 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 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. We'll end our reading there at the end of Ephesians chapter two. Let's once again ask for God's help with the preaching of his word. Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, we rejoice in the possession of the Lord Jesus Christ, himself our peace. We pray that as we come to your word this morning, It might be His voice that we hear in sovereign authority, irresistibly beckoning us to come and follow Him, to receive of His fullness and grace upon grace, to be encouraged and strengthened, to live in a way that is pleasing to Him. So, Lord, we pray that the truth and then the practical bearing of the truth would be irresistibly clear in our hearts, in our minds, and then would get carried out by our hands and feet. In Jesus' name, amen. The Apostle Paul spent a great deal of time and energy and attention dealing with the question of the true relation of Jew and Gentile within the Christian church. That's true not only in Ephesians, that's true in other books of the Bible. It's a very important theme in the book of Acts. It's quite prominent also in the book of Romans and you see allusions to it, references to it made in other parts of the Bible as well, the New Testament. That was a very challenging and a very important question for the early church. They clearly had been incubated within Judaism for many years. The Lord Jesus was a Jewish Messiah. He came in fulfillment of the Hebrew Scriptures and he even said to his disciples that he was only sent speaking with reference to his earthly life, to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. To the extent that Gentiles were included in the preaching of the gospel when the Lord Jesus was on earth, it was exceptional, just as it was exceptional when Ruth was included within the people of God, although she was originally from Moab. So this question was not automatic. It wasn't an easy answer for everybody to know. The Lord Jesus has come. He's fulfilled the prophecies of the scriptures. He's been crucified. He's risen again from the dead. In order to experience salvation in Christ, Do Gentiles need to become Jews? Do they need to become proselytes? That was something that had been going on, although not in enormous numbers, for quite a while. That's one reason that there were synagogues in many parts of the Roman Empire and even beyond. And there were people who came who embraced the whole yoke of the ceremonial law, who submitted to circumcision and so forth. And then there were others who maybe didn't go that far, but who were adherents, who hung around. They didn't fully take the plunge, but they were learning, they were listening, they were discovering. So now Jesus has come, and there's a big question. Will Gentiles have to become Jews in order to be Christians? And the answer to that was a resounding no. Well, then the question becomes, so what's their relative status? Can Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians fellowship together? Can they share a meal? Can they share the Lord's Supper? Can they meet in the same places? How is all of this going to work? Are Jewish Christians on a superior level to Gentile Christians? That was another question that arose. And you can imagine, with all of this swirling around in the background, that sometimes there were conflicts. Sometimes there would be people who would say, well, you know, I love them as my brothers in Christ, but I can't sit down and share a table with them. which for Paul was completely unacceptable. He talks about that one in Galatians. Are Jewish Christians, with their extra observances, their extra scruples, to be considered stronger Christians? You can understand how that comes up. Well, you know, you're a Christian, but I'm a strong Christian and you're a weak Christian. That doesn't always go over well. That doesn't always make for peace within the church. So Paul is addressing a number of concerns in this portion of verses that we've read this morning. And one of the wonderful things that he does is he doesn't address it directly. Instead, he puts it in context. And the main context he puts it in is the reality, the centrality, the transcending importance of Christ. And Paul doesn't just do that when he's talking about conflict between Jews and Gentiles. Paul also does that writing to the Corinthians, a predominantly Gentile congregation. They were having all kinds of disputes. They were having disputes that led them to bring lawsuits against one another. So you figure it must have been some kind of damages. One guy mowed the other person's lawn and messed up some of the shrubbery or something like that. I don't know exactly what the conflicts were in court. That's just an illustration. I'm assuming it wasn't that. But things like that, property damage, failed business deals, Stuff like that, where they figure, well, if I go to court and I bring a lawsuit against this person, I'll get my money back. I'll receive some kind of compensation or satisfaction. And Paul addresses not the specifics of the conflict. He doesn't get into who's right and who's wrong. He doesn't get into what the details are. He just says, you're Christians. You don't care more about the cause of the gospel than you care about whatever loss you suffered? He says, why don't you allow yourself to be defrauded? Why don't you suffer loss? Now, Paul could say that. He wasn't one of the parties, right? If one of the parties in the conflict says that, that doesn't go over well. That doesn't help. That's clearly just a manipulative attempt to not have to do what's right. But when a third party says it, maybe it carries some weight. When that third party is the Apostle Paul, maybe it carries a lot of weight. And when that third party is the Apostle Paul appealing to a much bigger truth, appealing to Christ, well then that really ought to carry tremendous weight. That ought to carry far more weight than my damaged lemon tree or whatever else it was. Well, that's what he's doing here, too. Jews and Gentiles can be at peace within the Christian church. Other people who have other conflicts can be at peace within the Christian church because Christ is our peace and because Christ is bigger than those other things. Now, I understand people might say, well, but I've got something that's really big. Okay. Fine, acknowledged. What you have is really big. Is it bigger than Christ? You might wanna think about that for a moment before you say yes. Is it bigger than Christ? Paul is recontextualizing so much of how people were approaching this problem by saying the true starting point is Christ. We can turn that into the theme for today's sermon, into the bottom line. The true starting point of peace is Christ. Christ himself is our peace. Christ has made peace. Christ has abolished enmity. He's reconciled Jews and Gentiles to God in one body through the cross. And that brings us to where we begin today in our text, verse 17. On the basis of his reconciling work, on the basis of the reality that Jesus has reconciled sinners to God, God has been angered, God has been alienated by our sin and we've been alienated from one another by our sin, well, Christ has accomplished peace between a holy, righteous God and utterly helpless, utterly despicable, totally depraved sinners. On the basis of that, Christ came and preached peace. there are at least two important things to say about that. One is that with the work of Christ in reconciling sinners to God, with what he did on the cross to be a propitiation, a sacrifice that takes away wrath, to be an expiation, a sacrifice that takes away guilt, to be a reconciling sacrifice, establishing a covenant bond between God and sinners so that now they are in friendly fellowship where before they were enemies, And by the way, reconciling alienated human beings also to one another in Christ. After Christ has done all of that, the work is not done. Why? because it's still necessary for people to be told about it. It's necessary for people to believe it. By believing, you embrace the terms of that covenant. You could think of it as, I sign my name to this treaty of peace between God and sinful human beings. And if you don't sign your name to the treaty, if you don't enter the covenant by faith, well then of course it doesn't apply to you. So what does God do? Well, remember, God is the offended party. We sinned and God suffered in the person of Christ. We made a breach and God reached out to heal it. And so what does Christ do? Having purged our sins, having appeased the wrath of God, he still adds this, he comes and he tells us about it. What amazing grace of our Lord. We were the ones who caused the problem, and he does everything to fix it, including telling us that he has fixed it, including inviting us to enter back into warm and friendly fellowship with God. This is grace. There's no way you deserve this. There's no way I deserve this. But this is God's grace extended again and again to us, extended in so many ways. So that tells us one thing. It tells us that the communication of the gospel of peace is important. Unless the gospel of peace is communicated, then what Christ did on the cross will not ultimately benefit the people who are here. It will not benefit the people who are outside this church. So this is a reminder, this is expressing in other language our need to carry on with the Great Commission, our need to appreciate that we must proclaim the gospel of peace far and wide, high and low to everyone. As Paul said to Timothy, Preach the word, be instant, be insistent, be ready, in season and out of season. Or as God said to Ezekiel, tell them the word, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear. We don't stop and fight. Is somebody willing to listen? Sometimes, depending on the situation, you might say, well, they're not willing to listen, I'm gonna move on. But you try first. You tell them even if they're not willing to listen. You give them the benefit of the doubt if there is some. So this little phrase that Christ came and preached peace reminds us that as a church, we need to be involved in continuing to hold out the good news to everybody. He preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. Now remember the context. In Ephesians chapter two, those who were near were the Jews. Those who were far off were the Gentiles. It's not so much about geography, although you could apply it to geography, as it is about what was your situation? What was your starting point? Did you already have the oracles of God or not? The Jews did, the Gentiles didn't, by and large. But then notice this too. Christ came and preached to those who were far off. So that raises the question, when or how? By what means did Christ preach the gospel in Ephesus? Not to put too fine a point on it. And the answer is through his representatives, through Paul himself, through others who came, Tychicus and other members of the Ephesian church. And you could substitute, right? The Philippian church, the Corinthian church, whatever church you wanna put in there, the Laodicean church. That's how Christ preached. And so that then challenges us, what is the preaching of the gospel? What's happening here right now? The Reformed doctrine concerning preaching has always been that it is the voice of Christ preaching peace to those who are afar off, the voice of Christ shepherding his people. I don't necessarily like to say that because I'm always worried that people will think I'm just trying to puff myself up. I'm trying to add to my importance. I don't think that's my motivation. Christ preached peace in Ephesus. Well, he never went to Ephesus in the flesh, so how did he do that? He did that through the ministry of the church. And that means then that when we come to hear preaching, we should take that pretty seriously. There would be no point in everybody coming to sit here and hear my opinions. Why in the world would you do that? Why would you get out of bed on a Sunday morning to come hear my opinions? I wouldn't get out of bed on a Sunday morning to hear my opinions. But if somehow the Lord Jesus speaks through instruments who are desperately unworthy, but the Lord Jesus speaks, I would get out of bed for that. Absolutely. That's worth doing. And it also explains then How come sometimes, at any rate, preaching does actually accomplish tremendous things? I was remembering this morning, hearing of people who went to, when John Wesley was gonna preach, or George Whitefield was gonna preach, or even more recently, when Billy Graham was doing his London crusade, a group of six guys went there with the intention of killing him. They didn't kill him, they were converted. That's not John Wesley, George Whitfield, Billy Graham. That's the Lord Jesus. That's the power of the Holy Spirit coming through the preaching. We insist on this. We double down on this. We don't stop preaching. We don't let it go. Not because the preachers are so enamored of the sound of their own voices. Not because it makes us feel special. At least that shouldn't be the reason. but because it is how Christ preaches peace. I don't pretend that I'm worthy of that. I don't pretend that I have some power or influence to change people's hearts or transform their lives, but it's Christ speaking from his word. He's chosen to use sinful human beings. If you have a problem with that, talk to him about it, but that's what he's chosen to do. So what value should we put on preaching? How serious should we be about listening to preaching? How much should we be willing to support the preaching of the gospel, whether in our own midst or in other places? Because it's not, oh, you're supporting ministry X, you're supporting favorite pastor Y. No, you're helping there to be instruments for Christ to preach peace. And isn't it wonderful that peace is what he preaches? You could understand if he were preaching judgment, right? You could understand if he were preaching vengeance and wrath. That would make sense given who we are and how we act. But he preaches peace to those who are afar off and to those who are near. What a wonderful thing. the preaching of the Lord Jesus, Sunday by Sunday, and sometimes on other opportunities as well. Well, in preaching peace, what's the result? Well, you have a similar flow of thought to verse 18 in Romans chapter five. Verse 18 says, for through him we both have access by one spirit unto the Father. And in Romans chapter five, maybe you've even memorized these verses, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. You see the order in Romans chapter five, Paul adds the idea of justification by faith. He hasn't really been talking about that one in Ephesians, but you have the same motion, the same movement from peace to access. In other words, because Conflict has come to an end. Because God is reconciled to us and we are reconciled to God, it kind of sounds silly to say we're reconciled to God, like what did we have against him? But you remember the catechism, we're prone by nature to hate God and our neighbor. So we needed the work of the Holy Spirit to take away that hatred towards God that we have according to our descent from Adam. So having reconciled us to God, having made peace, well now we do have access. We can come before the Lord. And Paul emphasizes that we come before the Lord, before the Father, together. We come by one spirit. Now you can't help noticing in verse 18 the doctrine of the Trinity. Through Christ, there's the Son, we both have access by one Spirit, there's the Spirit, to the Father, there's God the Father. So God is one nature, eternally existing, in three distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It's always in the background of Paul's thought. He never forgets that God is triune. And we're given access now to God's presence. We can come before the Father. We can come before the Father in worship. We can come before the Father in prayer. and we come before the Father together. There's one way, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. There's one Spirit who enables us, and that Spirit is the same for Jew and Gentile, just as the Savior is the same, the Mediator is the same for Jew and Gentile, and the destination, the throne room into which we come in worship and prayer is the same. So when we're gathered here, we meet in the presence of God, our Heavenly Father, We're not alone. We're with all the saints. We're with the church triumphant already in heaven. We're gathering with an innumerable company of angels, with the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, with the spirits of just men made perfect. You can read all of that in Hebrews chapter 12, if you have any doubts about what I'm saying. It's very clear there. And we come together. Well, if we have one mediator, if we're animated by one spirit, if we're all coming into the presence of one Father, then how much are our other divisions worth? If we've been reconciled at the highest level, what are we worried about smaller levels for? What are we so upset about? Are Jews and Gentiles really not gonna be able to get along together in this life when they're reconciled in heaven? That doesn't make any sense. And that's what Paul is doing, right? He's showing you this wonderful, majestic truth so that this ongoing concern of this tense relationship can be settled. Before we move on from this, Just want to make sure everybody understands that access is not a little thing. Think about it in terms of powerful, important people in this world. If you had, say, a Supreme Court justice on your speed dial, you knew you could push that button and call that person and get through to them. at any time, day or night, and they would listen to your opinion, you would feel pretty special. You would feel like you were an important person in the functioning of the country because you have influence on somebody who sometimes rules on some of the big issues that come up. Okay, here's something way better than that. At any time, day or night, you can just come into the presence of God. You have unrestricted access to the Father. And He's not some minor figure like a Supreme Court justice. He's the creator of heaven and earth. He's the ruler over all, and he will listen to you. He will take your concerns seriously. You have a tremendous privilege. You have a friend in heaven, one who welcomes you when you come. What a waste, then, if we don't pray. We've been given this magnificent privilege Why in the world would we not use it? What are we thinking? It's like, oh, I can't be bothered to present my petition to the Lord of the universe. I've got better things to do. Do you really? I'd like to know what they are because I can't think of anything better, anything more important, anything more significant to do than to access the Father's presence. And then Paul adds, Now, this is answering some of the things that have been brought up before in this passage. He'd previously said that the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that works in the children of disobedience by whom we understand the devil was working in us, well, now we have the Holy Spirit working in us. He'd previously said that we were strangers from the covenants of promise, that we were without hope, without God in the world. Well, now we've been given access, we've been reconciled. We're no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints. In other words, he's comparing the people of God to a city. And Jews and Gentiles are both citizens of that city. So when we read the call to worship and we had, let the children of Zion be joyful in their king, that doesn't exclude us, that includes us now. We're citizens with the saints. we can legitimately appropriate the whole Old Testament and what it says for ourselves. Why? Because we're not strangers and foreigners anymore. We're fellow citizens with the saints. But it doesn't just stop there. The people of God can be compared to a city, to a political structure, and there we belong. We are citizens. But Paul even pushes it a step further. He says, you're members of the household of God. In other words, we belong to God's family. God is more to us than the chief magistrate, the judge, or the king of a little city. God is that, although it's a big city. but God is also our father. God is the head of the family. We're welcomed, we're included in his house. If you have heard the voice of Christ preaching peace, if you have responded to Christ's preaching of peace, with an enthusiastic yes, with an embrace of that offer of reconciliation held out to you, then who are you today? Well, you're a saint, you're a fellow citizen with other saints, you are part of God's family, and Christ himself is your peace. And if you've heard but you haven't responded, well, let today be the day. Why wait? Why put it off? This morning Christ is preaching peace, is saying an angry, a legitimately, a righteously angry God has been reconciled because of what I did. Embrace this offer. Believe the gospel and you will enter the city of God. You will belong to the family of God together with other believers. you are brought into the presence of the Heavenly Father. If that doesn't sound good, I don't know what to tell you. That's amazing. Only the God of all grace would be so gracious as to do all the work to reconcile us to himself, to do all the work to take away the claims, the righteous, just, holy claims of his law, to send his son to accomplish that, and then to tell us about it, to raise up the church so that there would be a permanent witness ongoing to how easy it is to be reconciled to God. What more could God do than to grant us access by Christ, by one Spirit, unto the Father? Amen.