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“Good fences make good neighbors,” the old saying goes. But in fear and insecurity humans have built walls that separate us from God and each other. God’s daring plan has always been the demolition of such barriers. He did it through the cross. Jesus’ humble death, with arms outstretched to a hostile world, is the only strategy that will bring about the dream of global peace and reconciliation.

The bible opens with a picture of a perfect life for the first inhabitants of earth. Peace was real in relation to God and in relation to each other. The bible closes with a picture of a perfect life for the final inhabitants of earth. Peace will be real in relation to God and in relation to each other. The story begins with peace. It ends with peace.

Three pages into the story and the peace is shattered. Three pages before the end of the story peace is complete once again. In my bible 1,145 pages of the story come between the shattering of peace and its complete restoration. How did the peace that existed in the beginning get shattered? The first people mutinied. That mutiny brought devastation that was both monumental and eternal. Their mutiny unleashed a process of ever-building death and destruction, a corruption under which we have all lived every since, a way of life referred to as “the curse.” Bible teacher Jim Martin writes,

The corruption is much like a computer file that has been fatally attacked by a virus. “Glitches” in key program lines destroy the program so that it can no longer fulfill the purpose for which it was designed. Even more so, that fatal infection spreads to infect the whole computer to irreversibly corrupt every file. Likewise, the corruption resulting from humanity’s mutiny against the Lord is not static; it is progressive, and it has resulted in our current human condition.

With spiritual death and the loss of Eden, peace was no more. Humankind was cursed with separation from God, disharmony with creation, interpersonal brokenness and discord between nations. The separation was universal in scope. Where there was once peace there was none. We have born the weight of the curse ever since.

But, the bible tells us that God went on a mission to rescue the mutineers. His rescue is one that brings us back to peace with God and with each other. He began the rescue by the actions of Noah as he built a big boat and God rescued humanity from itself through a flood. God went to the next stage of rescue via a relationship with a man named Abraham. This was God’s promise to Abraham:

• I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you;
• I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
• I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;
• And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

Glenn reminded us last week that Abraham often chose to live on his terms rather than God’s. The descendants are Israelites named after Abraham’s grandson. The name likely translates to “struggles with God.” What an apt name for all of his descendants! At times they did exactly what God told them and placed deep faith in the one true living God. But, over and over their faith hit the rocks. God called them to back into his peace. That calling was often mishandled, re-shaped and re-defined.

For instance, God called them to worship him. He wanted their praise and he provided the way for them to glorify him in worship. But God’s people turned open access into legislated restriction. God gave them his word. He spoke to them and expected them to obey. But God’s people pushed his word aside and went their own way. God called his people to be a witness to the world so that all people would hear about him and turn to him. But God’s people turned the world’s good news into their good news, an exclusive life rather than an inclusive welcome. Worship, word and world were the gifts of God that were to identify His people. They stifled those gifts.

God’s rescue of his creation was stymied left and right. He intended his people Israel to live in his peace. He intended that his peace would be clearly visible, fully accessible through Israel to the rest of the world. But God’s intentions did not get fulfilled. Israel in effect, built a wall around God and their relationship with him. They enjoyed something of God’s peace and kept it for themselves. Layer after layer, block by block they walled that peace in. Israel went into self-preservation survival mode and squeezed the life out of the peace that even they once knew. They settled for an inward-focused rather than an outward-focused life. God tried to get them to break through their self-imposed walls they built in relation to God and in relations to other people. The prophet Isaiah told about one who would come to be the Prince of Peace. God told his prophet Zechariah to announce that a king would come who would “proclaim peace to the nations.” Nothing God did or said made any difference. Walled out, God went silent.

I invite you to turn to chapter two of Ephesians in your bibles. Our text today starts at verse fourteen. We are close to a third of the way through our study of this book. We are invited to memorize the words of this letter in whole or in part so our minds can be saturated with this part of the word of God. Some of us might be ready to repeat these words from memory. Others will want to read them either from your bible or from the screen. Please stand with me as we prepare to give voice to Ephesians 2:14-18. Living Word, bring us peace through your words today. We pray this in the powerful name of Jesus. Amen. Before we start, I’m going to read starting at verse eleven so we can get the context for the text we will say out loud. So, let me read first and I’ll invite you to join me in a moment. Remember, this is God’s holy word. [Read Ephesians 2:11-13 and then invite everyone to say verses 14-18 aloud.]

Walls can be our friends. We lived in Knoxville, Tennessee in the late 80’s. A small part of our back yard was bounded on two sides by walls. Uphill was a two-foot tall concrete retaining wall that ran the length of the yard. Across a small patch of grass was the back wall of the garage. We used this space in-between the walls to run football plays. One evening, nine year old Caleb tried to avoid a tackle and bounced against the garage wall. His arm caught the protruding head of a sixteen penny nail and was gashed open. While I tended to him, his younger brother Andrew ran into the house calling, “Mom, Mom, Caleb’s hurt and we think he needs stitches!” We all got in the car and went to the emergency clinic where they stitched up his injury. The next day we were playing a much more controlled game when the father, that would be me, decided to avoid a tackle by going the other way up and over the retaining wall. It would have been a great move had my foot not slipped. My leg came down and crashed into the top edge of the wall. It was gashed open just below my knee cap. As soon as the boys looked at it they ran into the house calling, “Mom, Mom, Dad’s hurt and we think he needs stitches!” “Yeah, right!” she said. That’s hilarious.” When she saw it was for real, off we all went to the emergency clinic for more stitches. When we left the staff asked, “What time should we expect you tomorrow?” If we had lived in relation to those walls as intended, they would have proved so very helpful. Walls can be our friends.

Walls can be meaningful. There is a wall in our nation’s capital that evokes powerful emotions for those who stop and read and remember. Completed in 1982, its low profile and polished black surface is subtle. The names etched into its surface serve as a deeply moving testimony to those who died in the Vietnam War. Another wall of equal emotional impact is the Western Wall in Jerusalem. It is a wall of massive blocks, some of which have been in place for 3,000 years. It is a place of prayer, of tears and of hope. Walls can stir the heart.

Walls can be divisive. These walls separate the haves from the have nots. They are constructed to keep people out. The Romans constructed a wall across the central portion of England to give them added control over raiders and immigration. We know it as Hadrian’s Wall. The Chinese erected the longest wall in the world. When completed it stretched over 6,000 miles. It, too, was built to protect against marauding groups. Since it is no longer a deterrent against her foes, it now makes up the longest water park in the universe. Just kidding, of course. In 1961, West Berlin was isolated by the construction of this wall, which was torn down piece by piece starting in 1989 resulting in the reunification of Germany.

Dividing walls are not just remnants of history. Walls are in place or being constructed in over thirty places around the world. Among them are the barrier between the United States and Mexico, two different walls in Morocco, walls between India and Kashmir, Saudi Arabia and Yemen and China and North Korea. The wall that gets most of the international attention is the wall between Israel and the West Bank. It is referred to by Israelis as the separation, security or anti-terrorist fence. Palestinians often refer to it as the racial segregation wall or apartheid wall. When it is totally built out it will make the holy land look like a group of islands, a politically-isolated archipelago. All of these walls are highly significant to the people directly impacted by them.

They all pale in significance to an unimposing, four-and-a-half foot high wall that once stood in Jerusalem. It was made of beautifully carved marble. There were gaps in this short wall that allowed easy access to anyone who wanted to go further into the Temple of God. Well, not anyone. On pillars at each gate was a stone in which this message was chiseled in Latin and Greek (here translated into English):

NO MAN OF ANOTHER NATION TO ENTER WITHIN THE FENCE AND
ENCLOSURE ROUND THE TEMPLE, AND WHOEVER IS CAUGHT WILL HAVE HIMSELF TO BLAME THAT HIS DEATH ENSUES

It is this wall that Paul has in mind in verse fourteen of our text. He tells his readers that Jesus has destroyed this barrier, this “wall of hostility” that pushed people away from God in a way that God did not intend. Remember that all the nations were to be blessed through Abraham, not just the Jews. The partition wall, still in place at the Temple when Paul wrote this letter screamed out “Don’t come any closer!” But Paul declares it “. . . antiquated, obsolete, out of date, so far as its spiritual meaning went. The wall still stood: but the thing signified was broken down. In effect, what Paul affirms is that, in Jesus, a new message has replaced the old one. It was as if the words on the signs now read:

EVERY PERSON OF EVERY NATION MAY COME TO GOD AND WHOEVER COMES WILL HAVE GOD TO THANK FOR THE PEACE THAT IS FOUND HERE

It is peace that we long for and peace that we need. The word is used four times in our text. Peace here is not just the absence of conflict. It is not general public security and harmony. It is not an undisturbed state of mind. The word used here for peace, according to one commentator, “is a comprehensive term for salvation and life with God.” “It refers to the way life should be and is a gift of God that is received only in his presence.” We cannot experience this peace until we are in relationship with God. This is the peace that once was in Eden. It is the peace that will be in the New Eden. It is the peace that is offered to everyone as God has always intended, to Jew and Gentile alike.

The key to this peace is found in verse fourteen. “He himself is our peace.” Who is our peace? Look back at verse thirteen. “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Jesus is our peace. He doesn’t just bring peace. He doesn’t just teach peace. He doesn’t just announce peace. Anyone can do that. Jesus is peace.

To have this salvation life, we must come to Jesus. Look at the pronoun. Jesus is “our” peace. Paul, a Jew, writes this to a mostly gentile audience. He declares that peace is for Jew and Gentile alike. Peace is for all. He has taken the near God group, the Jews, and the far from God group, all the rest of us, and brought them into one group. Paul writes in verse 15, we have a new humanity where hostility once reigned.

God makes peace in Jesus through his death. The instrument of his death, the cross, becomes a symbol of the peace that is ours in Christ Jesus. His message, Paul reminds us in verse seventeen, was peace; peace for those who were far away and peace for those who were near.

I was introduced to Ed when his wife photographed a wedding I officiated. They and their children began attending the church I served. I soon found out Ed was Jewish. Some months later, he invited me to breakfast. He told me about his upbringing, his life and his very real interest in Jesus as the Messiah. As we shared, I said, “Ed, I am so jealous.” “Why in the world would you be jealous?” he asked. “It’s because you have the blood of Abraham running through your veins and I think you are soon going to accept that Jesus is the Messiah and surrender your life to him. That will be so cool!” “Yes,” he said. “That would be so cool.” And “cool” came to pass for my friend. One who was near to God came to God. And all heaven rejoiced.

I didn’t know I was separated from God when I was born. Neither did you. I happened to grow up going to church, doing all the normal kid things of Sunday school, kids choir and youth group. I joined the church at age thirteen. I was still one of the “far from God” people born gentile and not yet yielded to Jesus. Then, in my high school years God alerted me to the fact that I was a sinner in need of his life and peace and that it was in Jesus that my sin could be forgiven. God helped me see that life and peace were freely available. All I had to do was receive those gifts from God. And I did. I was able to do this because the dividing wall was already torn down. One, who was far from God came to God. And all heaven rejoiced.

The prophet Zechariah proclaimed, “Many nations will be joined with the Lord in that day and will become [God’s] people.” Micah announces “peoples will stream to [the mountain of the Lord’s temple]. Many nations will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways so that we may walk in his paths.’”

One of zpc’s Six Marks is “A Voice to Speak the Good News.” This is that good news: through the Jews came Jesus and the promise of God’s peace to all who live by faith. We all can step into that peace. We can all live so that others will come alongside us. The key is surrender. Admit your need, your desire, to step freely into the presence of God. Let God know you are ready to make your peace with Him. Yield all you know of yourself into all that you know of God. He loves you. He welcomes you. There is no longer any barrier that prevents you from stepping into the presence of God. Once we surrender to God through Jesus, we are to share the good news with others. Peace can be theirs as well. Jesus said, “I have come to bring peace to the earth. In Romans Paul writes, “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

You have complete access to God’s peace whether you are Jew or Gentile. Step across the rubble of all that once separated you from God. Step into his peace, into the life you’ve always wanted. Surrender to Jesus and help others do the same.