December 23
Depending on your background and life experiences, what you think of when you read the word "church" can vary. You may be thinking of Chestnut Ridge Church, or a small family church you grew up in. It may be the place you go to in nature and take in all of God’s wonderful creation; that is where you feel closest to God so that is your “church.” I know there are some of you that are tracking with me and know where I am going.
Church is a community of believers, a people who believe in God. This includes anyone and everyone who puts their trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. At one point, this is something none of us had done, and the Apostle Paul expresses that to the church in Ephesus in Ephesians 2:11-22. He tells them that even though they are now Christians, they used to not be. Paul is reminding them that they were once foreigners to God, and from all He promised, Paul says in Ephesians 2:12 that they were “without Christ…without hope and without God in the world.”
The Ephesians were at one point without all those things because they were Gentiles, meaning they were not Jewish. This holds significance because the Jewish nation, Israel, was God’s chosen people. They were God’s chosen people because He knew before the beginning of the world that He would bring forth a Savior from Israel in order to save us from our spiritually dead condition, to save us from our sin.
The Jewish people were chosen to be the lineage in which Jesus would be born, so throughout the Old Testament, God protected the Israelites and dwelled among them. He gave them the Law, in which they were to follow, and that's what truly separated the Jews from the Gentiles. That's why Jesus came to fulfill the Law (Matthew 5:17), so that there would no longer be any separation between the two groups. He came to tear down the “wall of hostility” that was between them, and bring peace so they could all join together as one family, as one church.
Church is a community of believers, a people who believe in God. This includes anyone and everyone who puts their trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. At one point, this is something none of us had done, and the Apostle Paul expresses that to the church in Ephesus in Ephesians 2:11-22. He tells them that even though they are now Christians, they used to not be. Paul is reminding them that they were once foreigners to God, and from all He promised, Paul says in Ephesians 2:12 that they were “without Christ…without hope and without God in the world.”
The Ephesians were at one point without all those things because they were Gentiles, meaning they were not Jewish. This holds significance because the Jewish nation, Israel, was God’s chosen people. They were God’s chosen people because He knew before the beginning of the world that He would bring forth a Savior from Israel in order to save us from our spiritually dead condition, to save us from our sin.
The Jewish people were chosen to be the lineage in which Jesus would be born, so throughout the Old Testament, God protected the Israelites and dwelled among them. He gave them the Law, in which they were to follow, and that's what truly separated the Jews from the Gentiles. That's why Jesus came to fulfill the Law (Matthew 5:17), so that there would no longer be any separation between the two groups. He came to tear down the “wall of hostility” that was between them, and bring peace so they could all join together as one family, as one church.
He came to tear down the "wall of hostility" and bring peace so they could join as one family, as one church
We read in Ephesians 2:14:
For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh.
At one point, everyone was an unbeliever, plagued with sin and separated from God, but through Jesus, we who place our trust in Him have peace knowing we are now saved, and as Ephesians 2:19 says, we are “no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, prophets, and members of God’s household.”
As this Advent season comes to a close, consider how you can use your gifts, talents and abilities to love and serve those within the church, to create an environment not of hostility, but of peace.
For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh.
At one point, everyone was an unbeliever, plagued with sin and separated from God, but through Jesus, we who place our trust in Him have peace knowing we are now saved, and as Ephesians 2:19 says, we are “no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, prophets, and members of God’s household.”
As this Advent season comes to a close, consider how you can use your gifts, talents and abilities to love and serve those within the church, to create an environment not of hostility, but of peace.
Peace // A Place of Peace | Ian Young
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