Sermon Transcript
Whenever you have 2 or more groups of people, you have the potential for conflict and hostility between them. It doesn’t mean hostility is guaranteed every time you have 2 or more groups, just that there is the potential for hostility. You know, different sports allegiances, Different families. Bob and Sue get married, so does Bob’s family get along with Sue’s family? Or maybe different families in your life group.
Some of those may get along, others of them maybe not so much, right? You have different political groups. Now, I’ve heard, as unbelievable as it is, some people think that sometimes there can be a little hostility between different political groups. Maybe even different ideologies can cause hostility. You know, what kind of economy is best?
What kind of education system is best? Should we wear masks or not? Should we meet as a church even when our state or local government says that we can’t meet? Simple questions like that generate different groups of people. One group believes one way, another group believes another, and apparently, so it seems, there can be tension between different groups.
Whenever you have 2 or more different groups of people, you have the potential for hostility. Different racial groups, different ethnicities. There can be hostility there. Different beliefs about God, different theologies. That can get heated.
Today’s text that we are going to look at shows how to dissolve hostility between contentious groups and create peace among them. And Christians, this is what we must model for the world. Our nation, if you haven’t noticed, is tearing itself apart, but may it not be so in the church. We are family first, and then we are everything else second. Now, for those of you who are a bit skeptical that we could actually have peace in the church, especially in the few months that we are about to endure, You think, I don’t think that we actually could achieve peace in the church.
If that’s you, we don’t need to look any further than the guy who wrote the text that we are reading today. If the guy who wrote this could find peace with others in the church, then anyone can find peace within the church. Paul wrote this little letter in the first century. And Paul, as many of you know, hated Christians. He hated them so much that he would drag them into prison, pushing for and sometimes even achieving their execution.
He couldn’t have hated Christians anymore. He wanted them dead.
We’ve become familiar with that kind of hate among different groups today. Haven’t we? We have even viewed that kind of hate because people have recorded it, right? We have watched people belonging to one group who are so angry at another group that they take to violence and sometimes even kill people from the other group that they hate, and now we have watched it. That’s how Paul felt about Christians.
That’s what Paul did to Christians. And then Paul became a Christian, and then he wrote this letter. And in this letter, Paul says reconciliation is possible. So, if Paul, of all people, could be reconciled within the church, maybe reconciliation is actually possible for us today. So, let’s read this little portion of text and see what we can learn from it.
It’s Ephesians 2 starting in verse 14 going down to verse 18. Ephesians 2:14, for he himself is our peace. That’s Jesus. Jesus is the he the text is referring to. Jesus is our peace.
Jesus, who has made us both one. Okay, so there we’ve learned something. There were 2 groups, and the 2 groups were different, and now they are one group. Jesus made 2 groups one. And Jesus has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.
Okay, so now we’ve learned there is hostility between these groups, but that it went away somehow. How did it go away? Verse 15. By abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances. We’ll talk about that.
That He, Jesus, might create in Himself one new man in place of the 2, so making peace. Again, the 2 groups are now one. So, the peace he is talking about isn’t simply something like agreeing to disagree, you know, everyone go to their own home and we’ll just try to get along. It’s not that. They are one.
They are unified. That’s the kind of peace we’re talking about. Continuing, verse 16, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. Okay, we’re getting a little deeper. Killing the hostility between groups has something to do with reconciling both groups to God.
Verse 17, and he, still Jesus, he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. So, that means everyone can get in on this path toward peace. Why? How can everybody get in on it? Verse 18, for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
Again, peace with each other has something to do with both groups being reconciled to God through the same means. So, as we look at this passage today, we will see what led to the hostility, what Christ did about it, and how it practically leads us to peace today. What led to the hostility, what Christ did about it, how it practically leads to peace among us. So, first, what led to the hostility between these 2 groups? Did you see this, verse 14 and verse 15?
It was the law, the Jewish law, the Old Testament law. Verse 15, abolishing the law brought down the hostility mentioned in verse 14. So, we know the law must have had something to do with the hostility because abolishing the law got rid of the hostility. Now, Jewish folks in the first century, had laws about what to eat, what to wear, when to work, how to worship. And because of those laws, they looked different than everyone else around them.
Everyone else ate different things, wore different things, participated in different festivals. Everyone else worked more days of the year. Jewish folks got more vacation time. They got a whole day every week. So, if you had 2 people trying to be friends, one a Jewish person and one a non-Jewish Gentile person, it might be difficult for the two of those to become friends.
They can’t go out to eat at the same restaurant. They can’t shop for the same items. They can’t participate in all the same activities. And all of that was because of the law. It created division between Jewish people and Gentiles.
But that doesn’t necessarily answer why there would have been hostility. Now, I mean, you might not do all the same things your friend does, but you can still be friends, right? Like, your friend could be a vegetarian and you aren’t. That doesn’t mean that there must be hostility. Sure, of course, there is distinction between the two of you.
You are not the same as each other, but you don’t have to be hostile toward one another. Yet, with Jewish people and non-Jewish Gentiles, they were hostile, and it was somehow tied to the law. Now, why might the Old Testament law cause hostility? It didn’t have to, again, but it did. So, why did it?
Now, this text doesn’t explain it for us, but looking at other texts in Scripture and looking at history, we have a pretty good idea why there would have been hostility, and it is something that we can totally understand today. You can just think about how different states have different laws regarding if you need to wear a mask or if you are allowed inside, say, a restaurant or a movie theater. Different states have different laws, and those different laws don’t have to cause hostility, but they do, right? California could just tell Texas, hey Texas, you do you, that’s fine. Like, you want to go to the movies, Texas, that’s great.
We’re not going to go to the movies, but, but it’s cool if you do, that’s fine with us. And Texas could tell California, you want to make everybody wear masks? Great, make everybody wear masks, no sweat off our back. It could happen that way, but it doesn’t happen that way. California thinks Texas is an idiot, and Texas thinks California is an idiot, and therefore, we have hostility.
Hostility comes when one or both sides believe they are better, smarter, more worthy than the other side. When one side looks down their nose at the other side, now we have hostility. That is what happened in the first century. Jewish people like Paul believed they were better than other ethnicities because God had given the Israelites the law. God had chosen Israel.
God didn’t choose the Hittites or the Amorites or the Jebusites. God chose Israel and He gave them His law. God told Israelites how to live, what to do, what not to do. They were the ones who were supposed to stand out from other nations because they were the ones who had the law. And therefore, in Paul’s mind before his conversion, the law and knowledge of God’s standards made Israel superior to other ethnicities who didn’t have the law.
You can see that in what Paul wrote to the church in Rome. In Romans 2:17, Paul says Jewish people boast because God gave them the law. Now, in a positive sense, of course, Israel was given the law to be a light to the nations. They were supposed to show other people who God was. But as you have probably experienced with various teachers over the years, there are the types of teachers who are excited for you to learn and excited to share what they know, and then there are other teachers who just love knowing more than you.
It doesn’t matter how much you learn or grow, they will always consider themselves above you. They like teaching because it makes them feel superior. And every time you have one group who feels superior to another group, you have hostility, every time. Now, in the 1st century, it wasn’t just one side that felt superior. Gentiles felt superior too.
In their minds, like Steve said last week, Jewish people looked weird, right? Why don’t you eat that? Why don’t you wear that? And hey, Israel, you think you’re so special? Did you forget Rome defeated you?
You’re done, Israel. You’re an occupied state. You’re nobody.
Their superiority led to hostility, and it will do that every time. Now, here is a current cultural observation. We have a lot of groups who feel superior to other groups. One side of the political aisle believes people on the other side are idiots. They over there, they are what is wrong with our country.
If only they would see clearly through their big dumb eyes, then maybe we could get somewhere. Both sides believe they have the truth, the real truth. Both sides believe the other side is at best misinformed and at worst deliberately lying. Either for personal gain or maybe because they just hate America. Maybe that is why they are lying.
Now, whatever side you are on right now, you probably want to tell me, but I actually have the truth. They really are dumb over there. Like, they really are wrong, right? It is important that we don’t go their direction. And I would say, absolutely, truth is important, Absolutely, you want to figure out what’s really going on, but listen, as soon as you act superior, start calling names, saying they’re dumb, as soon as you act superior, you’ve created a hostile situation.
And as we will see shortly, as soon as you believe you are superior to someone else, you have abandoned Christian belief. All right, so the law led to hostility. What did Christ do about it? He abolished the law. Verse 15, this text says, Christ abolished the law, and by doing so, He brought down the hostility.
So, hey, easy peasy, right? I mean, Christ just took away the standards. There is no right and wrong anymore. Everybody just do whatever you want and we will celebrate whatever it is that you do, you know. That is how Christ made peace.
Basically, He just eliminated judgment. So, whatever you do is fine because there is no law anymore.
Is that what abolishing the law means?
Not at all, right? That is not what Christ did. That is not what abolishing the law means, and it wouldn’t even work. It wouldn’t even take away hostility if we said, everybody do whatever you want. Interestingly, that is kind of what we have tried to do as a society.
We say, everybody can make their own truth, you know, however you want to live your life is beautiful. We try to say that, except it is glaringly obvious we don’t actually believe it is okay for everyone to create their own truth. Because we have never been more at each other’s throats than we are right now, right? We are really mad right now because people don’t believe our truth. So, telling everyone they can choose their own path and everything they do is beautiful, that doesn’t really work.
We should be realizing that right now. And we need something else for peace. We need this.
So, what does it mean that Christ abolished the law? And how did doing so remove hostility? Well, our first clue is Jesus says, Matthew 5:17, He didn’t come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. Jesus says, I have come to fulfill the law, not destroy it. So then, some people conclude Paul and Jesus must have been preaching different messages because Jesus— I mean, Paul says that Jesus abolished the law and Jesus says, no, I didn’t destroy it.
I fulfilled it. But there is a way these 2 statements can go together. And you can see it for yourself if you just ask, why would Jesus need to fulfill the law? The law with all of its requirements, its standards, its regulations, its mandates for how to live, why would Jesus need to fulfill it?
Because we failed to fulfill it. We failed. God has standards for how to behave, how to treat one another, and we did not live up to them. The law is supposed to teach us that we have fallen short.
Therefore, the law is not a means to feel superior to anyone. That’s not what it should do to us. Instead of leading to hostility, like feeling superior and leading to hostility, the law should lead to humility. In Romans 2, when Paul is addressing the Jewish people who, you know, they’re boasting because they believe they are better because God gave them the law, Paul turns it back on them and he’s like, hey, you are boasting because you think that you’re better because you have the law. Have you Have you actually applied the law to yourself?
Because if you measured yourself by the law, you’d realize you’re a mess. You would never feel superior to anyone else if you actually looked at God’s law. It devastates all of us.
The first step to ending hostility is to admit you’re just as big of a mess as everyone that you look down on, right? Christ had to fulfill the law for you because you failed.
Down in verse 16 of our verses, Paul says, Christ reconciled you to God. Oh, why would you need to be reconciled to God? Isn’t everything already cool between us and God? Aren’t we good?
No, everything is not cool between us and God. Let’s just sit on why Christ would need to fulfill the law for us, because we are terrible. We are selfish, We are rude. We are probably a little narcissistic. I mean, we would like for those in need to have more, but not if it costs us too much.
We are a mess. The law is supposed to show you that you are a mess so that you will reach out to someone else to fulfill the law for you.
So, question, what if the next time that you are watching TV or you are scrolling through your social media feed and you see the person or group who really makes your blood boil, right, and you think they are what is wrong with this country, what if, what if in that moment you believed, really on a foundational level, what if you believed, I’m just as big of a mess as they are?
What if, like Paul, you could say, Christ died to save sinners of whom I am the worst, right? Not that guy on TV who I hate, he’s not the worst. I’m the worst.
What if you could say that with honesty, with emotional integrity? What if you really believed you were worse than the person or group that you hate?
It takes away the hostility, right?
Once you can see yourself in the person that you are vilifying, You stop vilifying them. Hey, once you believe you are both a mess, right? We have both failed tremendously.
We are epic failures. Once you think that you both are, you aren’t up on your high horse anymore. You are not looking down on anybody, and there is less hostility. But the second that you begin to think, you know, we both have issues, but his issues are a lot worse than my issues. I’m glad I don’t have to deal with what he’s dealing with because I’m superior.
Hostility comes back. Judgment comes back because superiority has come back.
Now, even if you admit that you are worse than the people that you disagree with, You can still debate policy with whoever. You can still discuss, you know, what is the best way forward for our country, and it won’t get heated as long as you don’t consider yourself superior. There won’t be any demonizing. There won’t be any name-calling. There won’t be any escalation.
Be less hostile.
And that would be okay.
But if God’s law is all we had and we just looked at ourselves as just as bad as everybody else around us, I mean, that would be true, it would lead to less hostility, but we might feel pretty dejected all the time, right? We wouldn’t feel superior to others, good, but we might be in despair bad, like we always get Fs, right? All of us always get Fs. That was my college experience, by the way, at Georgia Tech. Everyone always failed everything.
The average on a test would be an 18 out of 100. It was demoralizing, right? You would study like crazy, you would get an 18.
And everybody else would get an 18%. Like, you didn’t— so you didn’t feel superior to anyone, that’s for sure. That’s good. But we felt terrible all the time. It’s not good.
So, if God’s law is all we had, we may not really be motivated to do much of anything, right? We may not be motivated to be at peace with others. We may just be grumpy all the time. But as we have already said, God sent Jesus to this world to fulfill the requirements of the law in our place.
Jesus earned the A and gave us credit for it, and He took the blame for our F, by the way.
So, the weight of the law is lifted. From us. The need to measure up is gone because Christ measured up in our place. And in that sense, the law is abolished. Now, it doesn’t mean that the law disappeared.
It means it was completed. It finished its purpose. It showed us how terrible we are, which led us to Christ who fulfilled its requirements in our place. So, now it is over. We are free.
We have been given Christ’s righteousness. We are reconciled to God, verse 16, right? And again, we are reconciled to God not on the basis of our performance, which that could make us feel superior to others, right? If we earned our status with God, then we could feel superior to others who didn’t earn it, but that is not how we are reconciled. Right?
We are reconciled by sheer grace on the basis of Christ’s performance in our place. God made peace with me when I didn’t deserve it.
That is what Christ did.
That is what abolishing the law means.
So, now what? I mean, this text is really what Christ has done for us, but how might we work through these concepts so that our hostility really is gone and peace really rushes in? Someone like Paul, for instance, right? Remember, he hated Christians so much he had them arrested. And in some cases executed.
How might this have worked for him to create unity with others and the Christians who had been persecuted by Paul? I mean, just think, right? There had to have been families where mom or dad or both were thrown in jail and even executed because Paul came after them. How could those families find peace with Paul? How could those families and Paul be one new man in Christ, verse 15?
Well, if these concepts were up and running for them, they might have said something like, we both needed and received the same grace. So, we are one.
We were both hopeless. We were both deserving of condemnation, but God brought us to Himself through the cross, verses 16 and 18. So, we are the same.
How can I vilify you When I needed the same rescue as you, right? We had the same need. It was fulfilled through the same means. So, we are one, like we are brothers, we are sisters, we are family. We have all experienced the same grace.
Question for you, as we have talked today, about hostility? Has anyone come to mind for you?
Not, not like, oh, that person really needs to stop being so hostile. Do you have hostility inside of you? Do you feel at all hostile toward anyone or any group? Listen, verse 17, there’s peace available for everyone. Far and near, right?
And everybody in between far and near. Everyone can get in on this peace. Even if someone isn’t at peace with you, you can still be at peace with them. So, who makes you feel really heated?
As a Christian, you have the resources to respond to the other person, the other group, the other political side, you can respond with humility and respect always, no matter what they are doing, no matter how far they are flying off the handle, right? I mean, I know you look at them and you think, wow, that person is a hot mess, right? Like a total abject failure as a human being. And you know, you know what? I’m sure you’re right.
I’m not even going to argue with you. I’m sure the person you see on TV is a total abject failure as a human being. Right? All that nonsense about everybody can choose their own truth and whatever you do is beautiful, that nonsense is out the window, right? Because that person on TV really is Terrible.
Legitimately terrible.
Come here though, okay? Put your phone down. Stop looking at something else while you’re watching this. Listen.
We are 2.
We are 2.
Yet, Christ gave us grace.
Christ accepts us.
Christ welcomes us. Christ includes us.
So, we can respond with gentleness and forgiveness and peace every time.
Hostility is over. It’s done.
We are one.
Parenthetical comment here to close. I know some of you might be feeling this isn’t the time for peace, this is the time for action, right? This is the time to press our agenda. Some of you might even feel it’s insensitive to talk about pursuing peace when people are hurting, right? You might think peace means we should maintain the status quo, and the status quo is not acceptable because people are hurting.
You might be thinking, don’t tell me not to rock the boat because the boat needs rocking, right? Don’t tell me how I’m allowed to express my frustration or fight for what’s right. Don’t tell me that because we need to win this battle at all costs. Like, we can power up and overthrow the other side. That’s what we need to do.
Okay. That’s what we need to do to win. That’s what you’re thinking.
Listen, I’m telling you how to win.
I’m giving you the blueprint for how to get there.
If you want to win this current culture war, this is how you do it.
You will never— you keep trying, okay? You come back when you’re tired and burnt out, but you will never scream someone to your side.
You will never belittle someone to your side. You will never ostracize someone to your side. You will never think of the perfect zinger to get someone to your side. You know what actually changes people?
The same grace Jesus gave you. That’s what changes them. That’s what changes a nation. You want proof?
Think about how Christianity took over the Roman Empire.
Christians went from a group, from a very minority group that was literally fed to lions, that was literally impaled on poles and lifted up in the air and lit on fire like candles to illuminate the emperor’s garden at night. They were blamed for crimes they didn’t commit. And they went from the small persecuted minority group, they went from that to being such a large majority within the Roman Empire that Rome had no choice but to be transformed. How did that small persecuted minority group win the empire?
They served their enemies. They loved their enemies. They accepted their enemies. They were peacemakers in the face of terrible hostility, and it completely changed Rome.
You want to win? That’s how you do it.
Screaming and violence will only create more screaming and violence. If you are married, you should know that, right? You have never screamed your spouse into unity.
You have only loved your spouse into unity. Same thing.
So, let’s just go through this process one more time.
One, I’m not better than the person I disagree with. God’s law humbles me, right? Yet, 2, at the same time, I don’t feel inadequate or oppressed by my failures, my Fs. I don’t feel inadequate because Christ fulfilled the law for me. And 3, because I have been accepted apart from my performance, which was terrible, apart from my wisdom, I didn’t have any, apart from my political affiliation, even apart from my sanity, right?
Apart from all of that, that is not how I am accepted. I am accepted on the basis of sheer grace. Because I am accepted on the basis of sheer grace, I am free to accept others on that same grace.
May we model this to the world, Christians.
May we be a beacon of light in this terrible darkness and chaos.
Let’s pray together.
Father, thank You for loving us when we did not deserve it. Thank You for accepting us when we are a mess. Thank You for giving us the law that teaches us how short we have come.
Thank You for giving us Christ who fulfilled the law in our place.
Lord, we pray that as we reflect on how we were reconciled to You, not on the basis of what we have done, but on the basis of what You have done, we pray that that would change us and we could accept others on that same basis. Lord, as there is no hostility between us and You because of what You have done, we pray that there would be no hostility between us and others. As we understand we are all equally unworthy, but we are yet, Lord, all equally loved, and the offer to be ushered into Your kingdom is available to all of us. Lord, unite us. Make Christians a witness and a beacon in this dark world and time.
We pray those things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
