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Our New Testament reading is from the letter of Paul to the Ephesians beginning in verse 11 through 22. And this is God's Word. Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh were called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision which is made in the flesh by hands. Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ for he himself is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in the place of two, so making peace and might reconcile us both to God and one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. Therefore through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and the members of the household of God. Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. Here is the reading of God's holy word. Let's pray. Father as we come to consider your word we pray that everything we do here would bring glory to Jesus in his name we pray. Tracy, I need the rest of the sermon over there. Oh I came up here with one page. Thank you. Our family had six kids and it could be busy and hectic and hurried in a noisy world, phone calls, emails, meals eaten on the run, 24 hour everything, kids chauffeured to and from, who knows where, 17 zillion TV channels, meetings, meetings, more meetings, not enough sleep. That was just our house. So many of the conveniences that were designed to give us more freedom, more free time have resulted in simply making us more busy, more hurried, more worried and experiencing much less of something we say we all want, which is peace. We hear about it all the time. We think of the wars that are ongoing, the one in Ukraine, the one in Israel and Iran and Lord we know that we are people who are war like. I heard recently that in the over 3000 years of human history, there's been less than 300 years where there were no wars. 3000 years of plus of human recorded history. Of course not all wars got recorded throughout the 3000 years. So the likelihood is there's never been a time when war was not ongoing somewhere on our planet. We hear things about peace of cords, peace treaties, peace talks, peace of mind. Can I get a little peace and quiet around here? This kind of peace can be defined as the absence of hostilities, but there's another aspect of peace that comes from the Hebrew word Shalom and that peace or Shalom means the wellbeing prosperity and salvation of the whole person. So when we hear in the Bible, somebody say peace be with you or if you enter somebody's home and they give you their peace, extend your peace to them as well. God himself is called the God of peace in several places. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy and peace. Romans eight six says the mind controlled by the spirit is life and peace, but the mind, sinful mind is hostile to God. So when we see in the Beatitudes, as we study the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God. What does that mean? What kind of peace are we to make in order to be sons of God? There are at least three possible meanings. We've discussed a little bit about peace between nations, but it's impossible to conclude that this has been a success in any way. Despite some obvious flaws in human nature, wherever the gospel has taken hold, the culture has become more humane. For instance, slavery was abolished because of Christians like William Wilberforce. Hospitals and orphanages were first established by Christians. The great universities in the world were built to the glory of God, many with the express purpose of training theologians and ministers. It would be shocking to go to Ivy League schools, for example, in the United States and see to the glory of God on some of their buildings when they are so often anything but any longer. There are those who will argue that Christianity has caused more conflict than it's prevented. It will point to things like the Crusades or conflicts that existed in Northern Ireland or Afghanistan. But no matter which side of the debate, if there is a debate, it's obvious to anyone that not now nor has there been in the last 3,000 years peace on earth, if it means peace between nations. Therefore, if Christ came to bring peace on earth in this way, he's thus far failed. And if we must make peace of this kind in order to be called the sons of God, then we are doomed. But Christ states himself that this is not at all the kind of peace that he came to bring. Luke 12, 51 and 52 says this, do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you no, but rather division. From now on, five members in one household be divided, three against two and two against three. Jesus knew about the horrors that were taking place even during his lifetime. Arceus slaughtered 3,000 Jews at one Passover celebration. That had Jews beaten for protest against his theft of the temple treasury. Some he killed and mixed their blood with temple sacrifices. Jesus was aware of these atrocities. They couldn't escape anyone's notice and yet we have no record of Jesus mentioning them. Why? He came to bring a different kind of peace. Some argue it's not peace between nations, but rather peace in our soul, peace in our psyche. Psychological peace is what Jesus is talking about. It is the peace he came to bring. It's the peace that we are to make if we're to be called the sons of God. This is an attractive concept because everybody wants peace of mind. As a matter of fact, at least one insurance company or is it an investment company or is it both precisely advertises that way that if you go with them, you'll have peace of mind. Peace of mind that if you, for instance, if you're the husband or the wife and you die that your insurance policy will take care of the needs of your family financially or your money is safe with your investment. So you have peace of mind that you won't have it stolen. Monasteries, for example, were in part built so that the people who went to the monasteries or to the nunneries or any place like that went there so they could have peace of mind. In one of his books, Dr. James Boyce points out that many famous and successful people after they've attained success or wealth confess that high on their list of priorities is peace. It might be peace with family members. Peace of conscience. Whatever form it takes, it's peace that's desired. A few years ago I went into a bookstore looking for books on peace. This is a partial list. Doing less and having more. Seven Laws of Spiritual Success. Don't sweat the small stuff, it's all small stuff. The Aladdin Factor. Feel Good Handbook. Wisdom of the Ages. Pull Your Own Strings. The Joy of Stress. Freeing the Soul from Fear. Why is everyone so cranky? Then trends that make us angry and how we can find peace of mind instead. Chicken Soup for the Soul. The kind of peace they're talking about is circumstantial and temporary. It's a beautiful picture but ultimately it's a false peace. It seems pleasant enough at the time but it doesn't deliver, it's implied promise. I don't know if you're familiar with the history of World War II and how it started but the Prime Minister of England before Winston Churchill is named Neville Chamberlain. And Hitler was rattling his sword and the European powers didn't have a stomach for another war. They just come off of World War I, perhaps the stupidest war that's ever been. And Neville Chamberlain went to meet with Hitler and he came back with a piece of paper proclaiming peace in our time. What followed was one of the most horrific wars in the history of the earth. But you know what the problem is with some of these books? They work. There are lots and lots of people, non-Christian people who have tremendous peace of mind. You don't have to be a Christian to have psychological peace. It can be found but too often it's false peace. The Bible's full of examples of people who found false peace and one such example is Jonah. Remember Jonah? He was ordered by the Lord to go to Nineveh and proclaim to the people of Nineveh that they didn't repent that they would be destroyed. Jonah didn't want to go. Why didn't he want to go? It wasn't because he was afraid. He hated the people from Nineveh. He didn't want them to have the opportunity to repent. He wanted God to destroy them. So you know what he did? He got in a boat and headed in the opposite direction. And while he was in that boat, a big storm came upon the ship. The sailors were concerned and they wondered what was the cause that brought this on them. Meanwhile, Jonah was asleep in the bottom of the boat, perfectly at peace with his disobedience to God. He had false peace. So we are vulnerable to the same sort of false peace. Finding psychological peace for people is not necessarily the mark of a child of God because there are too many non-Christians that have it. The point is this. God did not have to become an embryo and be born as a baby on this earth. Just think about that. We just baptized a beautiful little boy. The God of heaven and earth became someone like him. That small, that helpless, that vulnerable. It wasn't so that we could have psychological peace. There are just too many other ways to get it. What I'm saying is that peace on earth must be something that only Christ coming to earth the way he did could bring us. You're being called a child of God because you're a peacemaker. Must be something that only Christians can do. So what kind of peacemaking are we talking about? If it's not between nations, if it's not psychological? Might be surprising. We don't usually think of needing to have peace with God. The implication is that we're at war with God. Actually, that is the natural state of every human person to be at war with God. Christ came to reconcile the haters of God, us, to the lovers of people. God, to the lover of people. You might say, just wait a minute. You might. I've never hated God. The Bible tells another story. After Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, and yes, that was a real place and a real time and a real sin by real people. The Lord God said to the serpent, because you've done this, cursed are you above all livestock and all the wild animals. You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel. Romans chapter one, verse 29, describing people, Paul is, being filled with unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice. There are gossip, slanders, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents. Did you hear that? Kids, I guess all the kids are downstairs. Maybe we should bring them up and we can read it to them. But look at the list. It's a horrible list and there are a couple of things on there that you just wouldn't equate with that list of horrors. And one of them is gossip. There are gossips, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful. Two chapters later in Romans three, quoting the Old Testament, Paul writes, there's none righteous, not even one. There's none who understands. There's none who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become useless. There's none who does good, not even one. Romans eight. You might be thinking, what was Paul's problem? He says, for the mindset on the flesh is death, but the mindset on the spirit is life and peace because the mindset on flesh is hostile toward God. That's all of us are born that way, hostile toward God. For it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so. Did you hear that? The reason that those of us born in the flesh do not subject ourselves to the law of God is that we're not even able to do so. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you're not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. Now I will admit that people do not hate their own concept of God. Think of Nadab and Abahu, if you remember them. They were sons of Aaron and they worshiped God with what was called strange fire in a way that was not authorized and God consumed them with the fire. Uzzah, when David was bringing back the Ark, the Ark of the Covenant from the Philistines, and they were bringing it back on a cart which was not authorized. They were supposed to bring it back. They were supposed to have a pole on either side and then men were supposed to carry it in front and in back. But it was on a cart and the cart hit a rut or something and started to become unsteady and Uzzah put up his hand to steady the cart and God struck him dead. There was a man and the Gospel was blind for 40 years and the sole purpose was for glorifying God when he was healed by Christ. Now the question is, do you believe in that God? Do you believe in the God who will send people to their doom for all of eternity? Because to not believe in that God is to be an enemy of peace. Our natural state is to be estranged from God. Estrange is having become strangers. Let me give you an example. A lot of times too often in a marriage it will say, you'll read that somebody has been estranged from their husband, from their husband. Somebody has been estranged from their wife. Oftentimes it's because now they hate what they used to love. Somebody was originally thought to be joyful and carefree. Now they're viewed as silly and irresponsible. Somebody who's viewed as being hardworking and dependable, that becomes absent and unemotional. Bold and decisive becomes rooted and considerate. Well oriented becomes petty and nagging. We do the same thing with God. He's sovereign. So we see him as arbitrary and a bully. He's holy. We see him as a cosmic killjoy. He's just. We see him as harsh and unyielding. He's gracious and merciful and we see him as unfair. In our natural human condition we are fallen and estranged from God. But Jesus has come to reconcile us to God through his life, of perfect righteousness through his death in our place on the cross and through his resurrection to bring us new and eternal life. At Christmas time we read the story of the angels announcing peace on earth. It is this peace on earth that only Christ can bring. It does result in psychological peace and can bring peace between people. In the Ephesians passage that we read it says Christ who was former, I'm sorry, but now in Jesus Christ you who were formerly far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. Christ is our peace. Second Corinthians 5 says therefore if anyone is in Christ he's a new creature. The old things have passed away. Behold, new things have come. All these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Namely that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against him and he has committed to us, us, the word of reconciliation. Therefore we, our ambassadors, as though God were making appeal through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. How many of you in the last year, 10 years, in your entire life have begged people to be reconciled to God? I'm guessing, just guessing, not many, not often. But that's what we are called to do. We have all kinds of excuses for not doing it. All kinds. But he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. What does this mean for us? First, a peacemaker is someone who brings hostile, rebellious human beings to the God of peace. If you're a peacemaker then you introduce others to the Prince of Peace. If you're a child of God you tell others about your brother Jesus. To be a peacemaker means the hostilities have ended between you and God and you are encouraging others to end the hostility as well. A peacemaker is somebody who is at peace with others insofar as it depends on you. You say things like, please forgive me, or I forgive you. And forgive each other from the heart. Romans 12, 18, if possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Any family member, any coworker, any neighbor, in light of what Christ has done for you, forgive. Now, if you don't want to tell people about Christ, if you don't or won't reconcile with people with whom you are not at peace, there are two possible reasons. Either, you have forgotten the peace that Christ purchased for you like the servant forgiven much you're demanding your little. What's the answer? Repent and remember. The other possibility is that you've never really received the peace of Christ offered in the Gospel. What's the answer? Repent and receive. And God promises the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for the Gospel. Thank you that we have been called to be purveyors of peace, to be ministers of reconciliation. And I pray that if we have so far refused to do that, for whatever excuse we think we have, that we would repent and remember what you have done for us. In Christ's name, amen.