God Has Reconciled All Circumstances

God Has Reconciled All Circumstances

Ephesians 2:14b

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

I believe in today’s verse God has something to say to us about our attitude to these sheep, and to the customers that we meet each day, and to the members of the staff in the factory. And it’s in Ephesians 2 and we’re at verse 14, you remember, “For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility.” And you remember, the verse is about the Gentiles and the Jews. And we said last Sunday that the phrase or the clause, “He is our peace,” means that when God created us in Jesus he foresaw Joe’s little bit of dickering with the heart and the breathing; he foresaw the difficulties that Myron would have two months ago with the machine in the factory; he foresaw every detail of each one of our lives. And he accepted it, and he accepted our own attitude of independence and indiscipline that often makes such a mess of a life that he had planned, and he bore that in himself before ever he made a thing.

Before he ever created a thing, he foresaw all those things. And he bore them all inside himself. And that’s why he made us in Jesus, so that he could bear them all himself. And so every screw thread that has broken, actually broke inside Jesus; and every tank that has run out of gas, ran out inside Jesus; and every difficulty we have had in our lives, happened inside Jesus. And God foresaw all that.

We need to see that plainly, because we 'dumb-dumbs' think we fix things. We don’t fix anything. And in our heart of hearts we know we don’t fix anything. We know really all we do is go through some motions and some remarkable things happen. And sometimes they happen again, and again, and again. And so we get used to the idea that we’re actually fixing them. We’re not. God foresaw all those things.

It reminds me of one comment by my dear friend Peggy, who did something wrong on the computer, and I said, “What are you doing?” And she said, “I was just dinging around in the computer.” And I said, “You’re not here to ding around.”

And I think sometimes we think God was just dinging around when he made us. He was just dinging around, and he created us and threw us out here to fend for ourselves, and to sort the thing out, and he would meanwhile pop in from time-to-time to give us a hand. God didn’t do it that way. God foresaw the whole thing. In a second he foresaw it all. And he made us in Jesus. And then you remember, he crucified us in Jesus, and he resolved all the problems in our lives in Jesus. And he put to death all the principalities and powers that he knew would stir up inside the world. And he did all that. And then, he put us into the world as it would have been, if he had not done that.

And so what we’re seeing here really is an 'old movie' of 'the world as it would have been', if God had not changed it all in Jesus. And that’s why of course, it’s perfectly reasonable to say -- I mean, it is silly because we turn things so much around. People say today, “How could there be a God when the world has to suffer the things it suffers?”

That’s why it’s suffering. It is. It is a world apart from God that is suffering. That’s what we’re looking at. And that’s what God has shown us. But the 'world itself' has been crucified in Christ. And there is perfectly redeemed life for each one of us that he simply asks us to accept. And it will be manifested here on earth in an appropriate way.

So we have said that that is why we say Jesus is our peace. He is our peace. In Jesus everything has been resolved. In Jesus every problem has been solved. Everything is 'in Jesus' 'at peace'. That’s why he himself has peace with God, because he has seen all the world put right. And that’s why he is at ease with his Father. And when he says, “My peace I give unto you not as the world giveth, give I unto you.” He means, “I give you the peace 'I have' with my Father. 'I' am at ease.”

And you know we’ve said at times, God is not sweating it out up there, and he isn’t! He is at ease! He has done the sweating already. He has borne the pain; he has borne the sins; he has borne the mess of the world; he has borne the earthquakes; he has borne all that. And now he is at peace, and he looks out upon a world that he knows he has already fixed. And Jesus is our peace in that the more we dwell in him, the more we dwell in that peace even in the midst of storms.

So that’s what we said last Sunday. And of course, I mentioned to you that God put a witness into the world that that work had been done. He chose a people called the Jews, and he gave them some sense that things had been fixed. And sometimes he did it through their prophets who said, “The rough places have been made smooth and the crooked places have been made straight. Sometimes he did it through giving people like Abraham promises that they would not be just few in number but his children would be as the sand upon the seashore. At other times he explained to them that the desert will become a rose. And he indicated in all kinds of ways, by special promises and special covenants with this small group of human beings called the Jews, he assured them the thing has been fixed. The thing has been changed. Even your own attitude and your own lives have been changed. Even though "your sins are as scarlet they shall be as white as snow. They shall be like wool." And so he, in many different ways, gave to the Jews, his chosen people, assurances and witnesses that this was so.

In a world that seemed to be living apart from him altogether, he gave them evidence of his presence in the temple worship, and instituted ways of getting through to him and worshipping him, so that they had some hope that this world was not as broken, or as destroyed, or as desolate as it appeared. And those signs were given to the Jews.

The rest of the people, the Gentiles, didn’t have those. And that’s why you remember, if you look back a couple of verses, we studied it there in Ephesians 2:12. He says to the Gentiles, “Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel,” you remember commonwealth is “politeia” in Greek and it’s the whole organization of Israel. “You were alienated from the whole organization,” not that you were hostile to it. You were just separated from it; you had no idea of the commandments; you had no idea of the temple worship; you had no idea of the covenants that God had made with the Jews; you had nothing to lift up your thoughts or lift up your hope. You were strangers to the covenants of promise; you didn’t experience the promises that Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob experienced, that gave them the feeling that there is a God who loves us, there is someone that has fixed things, there is someone who will prosper us despite the mess the world is in. You didn’t have that. You were, “Having no hope and without God in the world;" "Having no hope of the promises and without God in the world."

Now, those people had none of the assurances that the Jews had. And the Jews of course, said, “Those, they're ignoramuses; they’re far from God. They have no understanding of God. They have no idea of his faithfulness. They have no idea of his love. They’re just – they’re hardly human.” And so of course, you remember, in the temple there was the holy of holies and then around that there was a holy place, and then around that there was the court of the Gentiles. And the court of the Gentiles was separated from the holy place, because the Jews said, “The Gentiles know nothing about God.” And so they had this – well, what it’s called there in the verse we’re studying in 2:14, “For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility.” And there was a dividing wall there between the court of the Gentiles and the holy place where the Jews could come and where their priests could offer worship to God. And that dividing wall of hostility was there and kept the Gentiles out, and stated very clearly, “You people have no part in the God who is gracious and loving and who takes care of us.” And so that middle wall of hostility was there.

Those little people in the factory, they’re Buddhist. Or they’re Spiritists at best. They know nothing of God, and we ought to try to tell them about God. And these customers, they just – they don’t know anything about our hymns, or our Bible study. They don’t read the Bible. They don’t pray. We have to love them and pray for them, and we have to try to lead them into truth. And it’s not a dividing wall of hostility, but it’s certainly a wall. They’re not like us. They don’t understand the things we are concerned about. We don’t hate them. In fact, we try to love them. And we want to try to explain truth to them sometime if the opportunity arises. And we’re not exactly the Jews, and they’re the Gentiles, but they 'are' different from us. I mean, they 'are' different. They don’t think the way we think; they don’t sympathize with the things we sympathize with, and maybe sometime they will.

And this verse says, “Jesus is our peace.” There isn’t one of them that was not crucified with Christ. There is not one little one in the factory whom Jesus does not know intimately. There isn’t one whom he has not borne inside himself. There is not one of them whose sins and whose disobedience he has not -- not only endured but absorbed, and put his arms around them, and hugged them to himself. There is not one customer that we have that Jesus does not know in the depths of himself, and yet has drawn to his own heart in love and in graciousness. There is not one of either the factory workers or our customers that Christ has not already drawn to his Father’s heart, so that all heaven is available to them. All they have to do is accept that it is there; accept that they are there, and behave accordingly.

One of the things that we protestants, "would be" theologians, felt we differed strongly from the Catholic church on, was the Catholic church seemed to assume that everybody was already saved, seemed often to talk to people as if they were already in the flock of God. And we felt it was unreal. They were treating these people as if they were Christians, and in the doing of it they were lowering the whole level and standard of Christian living. We weren’t too enthusiastic about the 'inclusive attitude'. If you’d said, “You mean you liked the exclusive attitude?” We would have said, “No, we’re not exclusive.” But we probably would, we probably have said, “Yes, I think of them as different from me. I think of the non-Christian as kind of being out there. I don’t think of them as having been included in Jesus. I think they can become part of Jesus, but I don’t think they are part of Jesus at this moment.”

If you pressed us and said, “But Christ died for all, therefore all died.” We’d have said, “Oh well yes. Yes in some strange way that’s true, but it’s plain and obvious isn’t it that they haven’t died in Christ? Look at the way they’re living.” But in fact of course, "The love of Christ constrains us because we judge that if Christ died for all then all died." And indeed, the Bible is very strong about it. And actually Paul says, “You have died and your life is hid with Christ in God.”

And in fact, the little workers, and our customers were crucified with Christ. And all that’s needed is for them to believe that. That’s what we always say; we always say, “All they need is faith,” except that we often think of faith as something that will change the reality, that will somehow make reality real. It won’t. Reality is there. If they don’t accept it they certainly don’t live in the joy and the peace of it, that’s true but they’re not changing reality.

Does it make any difference? Oh, I think it does. I think it makes a difference to the way we talk to customers, and to the way we talk to our workers. And it makes a difference that the Dear Person who has borne me inside himself with all my wretchedness, has also borne right beside me, this person that I’m talking to in this store.

If you say to me, “Well now, it confuses things; I mean, if you’re going to treat them as if they are Christians,” well, it certainly confuses it if you say to them, “Hello brother, how much have you praised God today?” Certainly that confuses it. But if you behave in love, and in truth, and according to an honest relationship with them, and according to your ability to perceive what they’re thinking and what they’re understanding, if you talk to them that way, they sense a difference. They know there’s a difference. They know that you think of them as yourself. They do. Even, I think, the worst of them.

They know whether you think of them, not just as equals, but whether you think of them as being like yourself. They know that. And I think that’s part of what love is. I think that’s part of what love is. And I think God uses that, because it’s reality. And he is able to get over to them, that they’re accepted and loved.

If you say to me, “Oh well now, you might have to confuse them or deceive them.” Yes, if there’s no Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit is not present to convict of sin, yes. But I think God has warned us, "That’s the Holy Spirit’s task." Our task is to live in reality, to live in the reality that these dear hearts that we meet day-by-day in the stores, and these dear hearts that are labeled Buddhists or whatever we label them in the factory, are part of our Jesus and part of us, and our brothers and sisters.

Let us pray.

Jesus is our Peace

Ephesians 2:14a

Let's read where we are studying in Ephesians 2:14. It’s really just five words. “For he is our peace.” "For he is our peace." And I'd remind you of the words that we read in the New Testament lesson where Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.” And it’s useful to remember what the peace was that Jesus had, that he did really see that before the world was ever created in him, his Father had gone through the life of not only just every individual that has ever lived, but had gone through the life of every insect, and had made them all inside Jesus, and had allowed them all to do their thing, and then had put his miraculous loving and gracious heart into the middle of all of that, and had felt it all, and had borne it all, and then had one-by-one, step-by-step (but in him in just a millisecond) had corrected everything. And Jesus had that peace.

He looked out on the crowds that at times shouted insults at him, he looked out at the bodies that were dying of leprosy, and he knew peace inside, that all of that had been fixed. And that was some of his peace. And that is the peace that he has and we, in him, have that reality.

I think what’s really important, just at this point in our conversation -- it’s really important that you see that we’re not saying, “You’ve to make that peace real! You’ve somehow to make that peace real inside you! You’ve somehow to repeat that!" "‘Yes, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth.’ Yes, and I’m in Jesus and Jesus is in me. Yes, I must have a peace.” No, it’s not. It’s not all that self-effort, or that juggling of thoughts. It is simply a fact that the reality is that all the knots have been untangled. That’s the reality, that all the knots have been untangled. The reality is that peace is what actually reigns, and that what we see out here is a picture of what it was, before there was peace, but that it’s peace that reigns, and that as we go into this afternoon and into tomorrow the peace has been wrought.

Now, I’d ask you, would you have a look at the strains in your own heart or in your own life? We can think of them all, all of them: some of them for ourselves, some of them for others. Do I see all Trisha’s sales, because I love her? Do I see those all as Christ sees them, all already achieved? Or have I still some strain, “She has more to enter into.”? What does she think? What do you think of it? But I’m just taking her as an example. Joe, Irene, Joanne, Greg: all the little things inside our heads and our hearts that are not really at ease in spite of the fact that in reality they have been eased. In reality that have been solved by our Father in Christ.

And that’s what I think we’ve to receive today. It’s what each one of us has that we can enter into. Not by straining; not by striving; not by doing a job on ourselves; not by auto-suggestion; not by trying to imagine what it could be like; but to deal with this issue that actually he is our peace. He himself is filled with the peace of our lives that have been redeemed and resolved. And he is our peace, and that peace is ours. That is reality. That is reality.

And I don’t know if you see it, but it really means what I tried to pray I think early on in the service, that tomorrow you could, maybe – I hope you won’t -- but you could drive into something with your car. And if you did it the Father could have stopped you doing it. And if he allows you to do it, he has the whole thing sorted out already. And if you say to me, “Well, I mean, I could end up lying in bed with maybe my arm broken or with pain.” Yes, yes, if it was God’s – if it was "the will of the Lord to bruise him," it certainly well could be the will of the Lord to bruise us. But in the midst of that, you would be at peace. In the midst of it you would rest. In the midst of it the pain would be transformed. And you say, “What about the death?” The death would be wonderful, going to sleep and rising in the beauty of the morning.

But it seems to me that is the reality that is in Jesus. It is in that way that he is our peace. And therefore we are able to live in absolute peace and quiet. And that’s what it means, "He is our peace." He sees everything as it really is, resolved, completely solved, completely redeemed, in himself, through his Father’s work. And that is where we live. That is the reality for our lives.

If you say to me, “You mean we dumb-dumbs are living in deception?” You’ve got it. That’s exactly what we’re doing. We’re living in the midst of lies that we reinforce all the time by looking out at all the things that seem to be, instead of just keeping our eyes simply and continually on him and on reality. "He is our peace."

Let’s pray.