The QC Christian (4)

Eph. 6:15

It all started in Gen. 3 when, by his one act of rebellion, Adam ruined us.  From that moment on, we were different.  It’s in Gen. 3 that we see some of the immediate results of sin and one of those was that man would now be divided from others, even from those whose relationship was the closest.  Adam separated himself from his wife with his cutting words, “The woman who You gave me gave me the fruit and I ate it.”  The blame game started in full swing with, It’s not my fault; it’s her fault!  Division from thereon runs rampant in the human race.

Cain later slits his brother’s throat.  Joseph finds himself first hated, then terrorized, later victimized, and sold into slavery by his brothers.  Jealousies and rivalries mar polygamous households.  Jacob’s sons massacre a village. The Egyptians make slaves out of the Jews. The Philistines, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Romans, come against Israel .  By the time you get to the end of the period of the judges, Israel is at its own throat in civil war.  Later, the kingdom will divide.  Man against man, family against other families, tribes against tribes, a nation against itself, nation against other nations and it’s been that way from then until now. 

Jeremiah said, “Men cry, ‘Peace, peace, but there is no peace.  Isaiah writes, “But the wicked are like the tossing sea, for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up refuse and mud.  “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.” (Is. 57:21-22)

We could also talk about class divisions: rich against poor, poor against rich.  The Haves against the Have Nots.  Karl Marx exploited this into a philosophy which swept nations into bloody regimes in Russia , China , Cuba , and Venezuela .

What do we hear from Iran ?  Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map"  Then, we get this proposal from former President Jimmy Carter’s national security advisor who suggested that President Obama should make it clear to Israel that if they attempt to attack Iran 's nuclear weapons sites the U.S. Air Force will stop them.  In other words, the U. S. will attack Israel !  In the words of the popular song by the Eagles,’ “[You] wonder how things ever got this crazy.”

When Paul picked up his quill to write Ephesians, his historical context was Rome , which wasn’t “ancient Rome ” to him, but was “today’ to him.  Their society had its divisions-- patricians, knights, plebeians, and slaves. 

Those slaves.  You couldn’t trust them.  The people in Paul’s day could remember seventy years or so earlier when Spartacus had led what turned into a massive 70,000+ slave revolt which Rome had to take seriously. 

Then there was the ages-long distrust and hatred Jews had for gentiles and gentiles had for Jews.  Each considered the other inferior. 

In view of all this, we could say, “And that’s the way it is, from then (Gen. 3) until now, 2009.  We can have all the U. N. meetings we want and they don’t change anything.   As far as impotent organizations go, they are the most powerless.  They talk about wanting to bring peace to the world, but, as we saw this week, they can’t even control how long Omar Kaddafi speaks.  He was given 15 min.; he took 90.  When they passed him a note to wrap it up, the tossed the note aside. 

But we don’t have to look on the international level.  There are some families that dread the holidays.  Why?  Because they know when they get together, it’s like a scene from “Planet of the Apes.”  They know there’s going to be at least one fight, one verbal battle, and along with the turkey and dressing will be hurt feelings that’ll last until Christmas when fresh wounds can be inflicted.  I kid you not.  I know one family who can never, not one time, get together for any reason but that there isn’t a fight and there aren’t hurt feelings. 

Tension.  Fear.  Dread. Restlessness.  We weren’t created for that and no one, I don’t care who you are, even the most mature of believer’s, no one can live in unresolved tension for an extended period of time.  At least after Thanksgiving, in the family I mentioned, could go home, nurse their wounds and come back for the annual Christmas blood-letting. 

But, get this, there’s something radical out there; it’s something so startling that it’s like what it would be like if the sun only rose once every 100 years: Eph. 6:15—“And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.”   

Paul could see the sandals of his Roman guards.  Sandals to us are fit for the beach, but that’s not the Roman sandal.  The soldier’s sandals had nails driven into the bottom of them for traction, for stability, standing there, holding their ground.  The traction of the spikes in the sandals enabled the soldier to also advance.  On what does the believer and the church stand and advance: “his feet fitted with the good news whose content is peace.” 

Peace.  That sounds good.  Peter talked about the good news of peace in Acts 10:36: “You know the message God sent to the people of Israel , telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.”

Peace.  Sounds good, but what kind of peace is he talking about?  A person who knows something about the Bible might think of Rom. 5:1: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  But that’s not the peace he’s writing about.

Sometimes we hear people say, “I’m going to do such and such; I have a feeling of peace about it.”  I’ve heard believers use that phrase to justify things which are outside God’s will, such as a young Christian lady saying, “I know you say that a believer isn’t supposed to marry an unbeliever, but I’ve prayed about it, and I have a feeling of peace about it.”  No. She’s talked herself into her own rebellion against God.  The Bible talks bout a false peace.  A feeling of peace isn’t our guide, the Bible is.  Paul isn’t talking about our feelings; feelings are subjective, depend on our moods, and can lead us astray.

You might think that he’s writing about the need to advance the gospel, the need to evangelize, by putting on our gospel sandals and getting out there to witness.  (Nothing wrong with that, but that’s not what he’s talking about.  What is his emphasis and how do we know what is?

But if you look at the context of the entire book of Ephesians, Paul hasn’t emphasized peace with God, but another kind of peace: “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, ¹⁵by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. ¹⁷He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.  Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, ²⁰built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. ²¹In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. ²²And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”

In every one of the eight instances, he uses “peace” to refer to the harmony among believers. 

Take all the hostilities, men vs. women, slaves vs. masters, rich vs. poor, and gentile vs. Jew, nation vs. nation, and family vs. family, the Hatfields and the McCoys, ruined Holiday Dinners.  Into that cauldron comes the “gospel of peace.” 

We can take them one by one and see how the good news changes relationships:

1.      Men vs. women—Paul calls certain women his “fellow laborers in the gospel.”  The first witnesses to the Resurrected Christ were women.  We follow the gospel records and note that women were there from the cradle (Mary) to the Cross.  Women met with the men in the Upper Room in Acts 2.  Jesus saves the woman at the Samaritan well; He forgives Mary Magdalene.  A woman carries the book of Romans to the church at Rome .  Paul tells husbands to love their wives like Christ loved the church.  We could go on.

2.      Gentiles vs. Jews—yet Ephesians emphasizes that that hostility has been eliminated by the good news and now Jewish and gentile believers sit in church together and hear about Jesus. 

3.      Rich families sit and eat with poorer families as they take the Lord’s Supper together and eat at church dinners together.

4.      Believers of different nationalities mix and mingle all over the world.

What does “peace” in the Hebrew and Greek mean?  It’s no fear of each other, no doubt about each other, no dread of each other, no restlessness with each other.  “Peace” means harmony with each other, a calmness with each other. 

Just think about it for a moment.  What were the first words Samuel Morse sent over the telegraph?  “What hath God wrought?”  We could ask the same question when we look at the church.  “What has God done?”  He has taken Jew and gentile, male and female, free and slave and united them into one body with a harmony of purpose as they all work together to “go into the entire world and make disciples.” 

One thing that unites a team is the goal of winning.  The goal has a uniting effect.  The church has a Christ-given goal which unites it.

The slaves in the church functioned with the freemen to make disciples.  The poor who weren’t as well-dressed as the richer moved forward together to make disciples.  Jews and gentile meshed together to make disciples. 

How does this peace reign?  It starts at the cross, so we always go back there.  No Jew, no gentile, no slave, no free, no man, no woman, no rich, no poor has ever done one single thing to be saved other than believe in Jesus.  All gentiles, all Jews, all men, all women, all slaves, all free, all rich, all poor in the church were equally lost.

The peace continues as the soldiers go to Phil. 4:4-9: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! ⁵Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

 ⁸Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. ⁹Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”

Did you hear about Terry Herbert, and amateur with a metal detector?  Out one day, probably looking for buried nickels, he found an Anglo-Saxon treasure of artifacts containing 11 lbs. of gold.  It dates back to 675 AD.  They say what he found will cause us to rethink the history of the entire period.  People are beside themselves at this discovery. 

People are looking for peace in the cauldron.  They are so tired of families that fight, husbands and wives that loathe each other, groups that war within.  A group at peace with itself, a group which isn’t angry and snarling, is a rare golden discovery.

Put all this into the context of the armor as we need each part to stand against Satan.  He roars to make us lose our peace personal and corporate.  When you’re anxious about your children, you’re distracted from helping to make disciples.  If you’re anxious about the economy, your finances, crime, politics, you’re distracted.

Truth to Take Home:

An undistracted church is a church which can fulfill its Christ-given purpose.